I forget that I told my iPad to update itself last night, so this morning when I opened it up I was greeted with the latest and greatest iOS for iPad – 16.1 (or is it iPadOS? Who knows?).
I’ve been using it for at least 15 minutes, so I think that means that according to the unwritten rules of the web I must share my thoughts with a cruel and uncaring world:
- “Use Large App Icons” is great, though it is an iOS 15 feature that I just discovered, so no points to iOS 16 (If you want larger icons go to Settings > Home Screen & Multitasking > Use Large App Icons.
- Not being able to put widgets on my iPad Lock Screen is just odd. Seems like a big miss.
- Speaking of big misses – Stage Manager. This is the new windowing system that is supported on newer iPads. Folks in the know (I.e. people using the betas and reviewers) aren’t huge fans of it, and I can see why. It is one of those features that you can feel someone really believes in… but isn’t full baked. I see potential, but I turned it off very shortly after turning it on.
- I’m sure there are a ton of other new features… but I gotta be honest: for the last several years Apple hasn’t really added any new features that have become indispensable to me on either iOS or MacOS (Live Text is probably the most recent feature that really changed the way I use my devices). Now, I think that speaks to the maturity of both operating systems and the very large challenge the fine folks at Apple face trying to pump out new features year after year. 🤷
- I really need to re-evaluate the first page of my iPad Home Screen. I don’t use most of those apps.. so what the heck are they doing there? Truth be told, I mostly use the Dock for my app launching… and ignore most of the other apps I have installed (until I need to look up an address or something less lame).