It’s macOS now!
3 Likes
Gotta love the ‘underdog’ 
OS X is dead. Long live macOS.
4 Likes
I’ve been super happy with Firefox on iOS and would recommend it if you haven’t given it a try. It’s now my go to browser on all platforms.
Even though I have three Macs my main machine is my work laptop so Safari not syncing is a big issue for me too.
So I do really like Firefox (especially on desktop). Opera really got me with its ‘flow’ feature and big redesign a couple years ago, and when I first got it I loved the built in whatsapp and messenger straight from the side (I actually use the desktop apps more these days so this has become less important).
I think its spaces implementation on desktop is great too, and I think the FAB (fast action button - hate the name, love the button) on iOS is brilliant.
But iOS 15 Safari just looks too good to pass up. I’ve already had to settle for less than perfect blocking outside of Safari, and less integrated download management. Now with the better tab management and extensions to allow e.g. 1Password to work so much more seamlessly, I think that will probs bring me back to it.
Maybe I will give Firefox another try but this is of course the ‘problem’ with iOS - there are always gonna be certain things the third party apps can’t do and sometimes that doesn’t matter, and sometimes the native offering is still too good to pass up!
Apple Maps is really the only native app I currently use (edit: and Podcasts and Music (honestly didn’t even remember this was an option lol, I am very Apple Music ingrained…)!). Fantastical, Dark Sky/Carrot, Spark, Noto/Things, Memento, Opera (at the moment) have replaced all the other core features. So fair play if Safari manages to take its place back.
2 Likes
Slightly moving back on topic, I’ve been debating whether I should find a dev beta profile somewhere and install iOS 15 on my only iPhone.
Do I need it? No. Does it have anything groundbreaking or eye candy? No. Do I want it now? Yes. Will I do it? Probably.
What are people reporting online (if you’ve been following)? How stable is it?
1 Like
If you want to find a dev beta profile, I get mine from the same place every year. No hassle, p reputable as far as things go etc. Can DM if needed.
On my iPad it has been crazy stable - I had one respring just after install when placing some widgets. But literally nothing else, and I’ve been playing around all day long across all my usual apps etc. Not a single broken app yet, and no bugs encountered except that I can’t edit the settings of my Fantastical and Carrot widgets (e.g. changing which data points are displayed from the default).
I think I’m gonna install on my phone tbh, given how stable it’s been.
I always check Mac Rumours and reports seem to be pretty good across the board this year: iOS 15 Beta 1 ― Bug Fixes, Changes, and Improvements | MacRumors Forums
2 Likes
I caved and installed jury is out on stability but no significant issues as yet and Monzo works!
Weird quirk in the weather app though where it misaligns the detail in the list (so when you select the bottom place it shows detail for the one above it - breaks half way down the list)
So I caved and installed the beta on my iPad. Some very quick first impressions.
Homescreen
- the fisher price app grid is super annoying in terms of (lack of) icon density
- a single 2x2 widget only takes up the space of 1 app icon because it’s so spaced out
- so one the one hand this encourages widget use but its a supper annoying waste of screen estate
Multitasking
- i thinks it’s an improvement but i really need to get used to the new controls
- feels weird to have slide over apps show up as vertical screenshots in overview but then launch full screen
Maps
- @Alexxxxx was spot on
- absolutely love the default map view and the way you it differentiates streets versus green space
- they now have better colour coding like Google Maps to identify high streets
Safari
- not sure about the new tab bar
- in practice it just feels super cramped
- moving the close tab buttons to the left is such a muscle memory fail
- i’m finding I have to scroll way more now to find the tab I want
- feels like it may work way better on the bigger Pro
- tab groups are as nice to have as expected
Quick Note
- just super cool and useful
- but for some reason you can’t use the Apple Pencil as a pointer for the Note UI which takes you out of the flow
3 Likes
Could you share some screenshots of these? Don’t have the dev previews on any dev devices yet for testing and updating our apps yet. But when I do, I’ll be reporting this…
This will annoy me no end if it trickles into the release. Please report it too. More folks who report issues like that, more chance they’ll revert it. Apple like to ruin features that use muscle memory on iPad almost every year and you end up having to relearn so much.
I’d wait for the first public beta, and then only on a secondary phone, wouldn’t put it on your daily driver until Beta 6
Really agree with all of this. Just quite odd.
My guess is it has to be to make the rows even, so they didn’t have to deal with you putting a 2-row widget in various places on a 5 row grid.
But if that’s the case, would much rather have gone up to a 6 row grid instead of this.
Have been doing it on my daily driver since iOS 10 or 11, and only had to downgrade once
Don’t be so silly you. The TouchBar on my MacBook wins that one by a mile
2 Likes
Wouldn’t that make things a bit too cramped?
I think it’s clearly they’ve done it to keep things even. The five rows in landscape is already as cramped as the 6 columns in portrait. So not sure going to 6 rows is viable.
Thanks! The close buttons seem to be in the same place they are now! Is the close button still on the left in this view?
Loving the iPadOS native sidebar though.
1 Like
I mean, maybe.
But comparing to my phone, the iPad widgets of the same size are honestly nearly 1:1 in scale to on my iPhone XS - like millimetres bigger maybe. And yet the app icons are taking up 4x as much space.
I think there’s a lot of room to fit more stuff in without it feeling cramped. And certainly enough for two more rows.
It is not lol!
1 Like
I think it may feel that way as a result of the iPad icons being larger than the phone counterparts, whilst the widgets are a 1:1 replica.
Perhaps worth exploring reduced icon sizes on iPadOS.
Maps
My current view on iPhone shows main roads coloured differently? Is it just the iPad that is affected?
Agreed! Bring back bigger/more 
2 Likes