Apple broke an essential presentation feature of iPads

So I could see the other argument here: I’m presenting from a presentation, I want to switch to a live demo environment, and to do so I need to turn off the presentation entirely?

Now, another operating system might see this tension and say: why not have a UI element come up, and ask the user whether they want to share their entire screen or stay on the existing shared window?

Here, I think this hits a fundamental weakness in Apple’s design culture: if you want to make things magical by removing options from users, occasionally you’re going to hit something that’s impossible to do without giving the user control. And if anything, Apple’s culture has been overtuned towards not providing that control, if at all possible.

Nobody wants complexity for complexity’s sake, but this is the type of thing that should have come up in a meeting, and someone didn’t feel empowered to bring it up.

The endless struggle of professional iPad users trying to get their hardware to act like something it insists it is not.

Ultimately the team behind it doesn't want to relinquish control to the user, so we're stuck in this world where it can never truly by a professional tool because every step of the way there is something like this where on a real computer its just an extra screen and you put on what you want on it and the situation where content of the other screen gets suddenly shown can't happen. But the iPad has to pretend screens don't exist and only apps do.

Apple needs to get their software design on track again and do proper QA and testing on their software before making these kinds of changes. 27 was supposed to be a quality improvement snd bugfix release, but it's mostly been a cascade of bugs and UI failures.

I had heard 27 was much better than 26, so I broke my usual embargo on new macOS versions until x.y.5 and upgraded. I also had a problem with the 26.6.7(?) update that came out the same day as 27.0, so I went for it. Big mistake. I regret it. I also regret updating my homepods and ATV to 27.0. I had lots of phantom clicks on the tv remote. Turns out it was the homepods. When it happens I have to restart them to fix it. Never again. I will be on 27.x.y until 28.6 is released.

I see comments on posts like this complaining that Apple has the money to make software as high-quality as their hardware so they must be dysfunctional.

I'm not sure it's so easy. I think you have to compromise on hardware or software and Apple makes a choice.

My whole career in embedded devices, software is always under schedule pressure from hardware. Not because hardware is sloppy or evil, but because doing new things is hard and hardware has deadlines that software doesn't.

Like, I think the lessons are that all the money in the world still can't buy you time and even Apple can't keep a lid on feature creep.

Apple Music has a dedicated button to add a song to favourites, which I use. When I plug my phone in my car I can then say “play my favourites” and it plays it. Until I’ve upgraded to iOS 27 and after saying “play my favourites” the phone responds now with “playing FAMILY favourites” (no idea what that means) and plays some random songs. Incredibly annoying, great example of trying to be too clever for its own good.

Window management on iPadOS is a mess. The old way (only one app, Split View or slide over) worked well, but is mostly gone since iOS 26. With iOS 27 the new window management became a bit better. But it's still pretty unusable without a mouse/pointing device. But even with a mouse it's not intuitive.

I use my iPad 99% without a keyboard and a mouse, and the window management only became worse over time. It got more features, sure, but it got very hard to use in a useful way.

So I'm back to the single app mode most of the time, which provides less functionality than 10 years ago.

Stage manager and liquid glass were 2nbig flops. Stage manager because it’s unusable and adds clutter to the screen and liquid glass because it makes an m1 ipad pro feel like a 2010 device

An important lesson for anyone who believes it makes sense to use an iPad instead of a computer. (for any task)

This feature uses an iPad with USB-C. The USB-C is connected to a docking station with a monitor Or just directly to a monitor. The iPad does not allow multiple desktops. It does allow a single monitor but only to show a limited number of apps, namely apps that have second monitor output requirements and feature support.

My biggest pet peeve with Apple using USB-C is this very incompatibility. It made super duper sense to allow docking station capabilities. It would have been well within the capability of the CPU and GPU. And it would have been a killer feature. Possibly even killing the need for macbooks, but definitely killing the idea of laptops.

That is unfortunate.

I gave up on using an iPad for computer things about two years ago. Too many weird iOS limitations; no support for virtualization (despite their chips being virt-capable); multitasking still being awkward, especially with Stage Manager. It's not for lack of trying either; I gave it three goes before throwing the towel in.

On a somewhat related note, I'm afraid of upgrading to macOS 27 for similar "something I depend on is horribly broken now" reasons. There's always been this fear just after a new macOS release, but with how hard Apple is pushing Siri AI, I'm quite scared of what limitations they've imposed in servicing this goal.

I also teach from an iPad, as do the majority of the teachers at my school. I don't think the issue is as simple as the article presents.

> Essentially, you had to swipe up as though going to the home screen, then tap on the app you wanted in the dock, and that app would take over the external display if it had a presentation mode. This was weird and hard to understand, but Apple’s solution is to just make it so that whatever is the most recently tapped app takes over, which is much, much worse.

Some apps, like PowerPoint and Google Slides, only enter "presenter mode" and take over the external AirPlay screen on explicit user action.

Other apps, like Notability, will automatically enter "presenter mode" and take over the external display if they detect a secondary display without explicit user action, even when it is not the only app on screen. You can then turn off this mode if you would like by going into the menus.

AirPlay calls itself "screen mirroring" in the Apple menus, and I can say with confidence from talking to the average teacher in the building that they expect it to mirror their screen. Well-behaved apps like PowerPoint that only take over the AirPlay session when prompted by the user will match the naïve user's expectations.

Apps like Notability that take over the entire AirPlay session without explicit interaction and without being the only app on screen break the naïve user's expectations of display mirroring. Multiple teachers have asked me why their calculator app (for example) does not show up on the Airplay display when they're using Notability.

> As for what the behavior should be, I’m not a developer, but here’s a proposal: if you’re using an app that is in presenter mode (e.g., PowerPoint playing a presentation, or a GoodNotes document open), it should always get precedence on the external display, until that presentation gets stopped, the document is closed, or the app is quit. Period.

I understand and even share the author's concerns, but I think the new compromise—only the active app can take over external displays—makes sense as a default because it matches the average user's expectations of AirPlay. The old method had major benefits and some annoyances, and in my opinion it should still be an option for a background app to control the external display if the user explicitly wants it or has enabled some toggle.

Apple did not handle the 26-27 transition well at all, and this really threw me the first time it came up. (I did not have the option to not update my employer's iPad, so I've been on 27 since release.) There should be a way to have a second app (secretly) open and focused while you present only from app #1, but I think the new default is better.

MacOS 26 Has lots of annoying and worse changes. At least there is a possibility to revert to 25 if the device ever supported it but phones and tablets are more trapped. My wife is having a miserable time with iMessages on ios26 they are not always hitting the phone and even after applecare fixes they revert to only hitting her laptop. I think Apple has peaked if they can't right their software ship. It will be a loss as they are more secure.

millions of settings to wade through, but no real control over anything.

I’ve been bitten by these changes before and it left me feeling hoodwinked.

I used to be able to connect using a lightning-to-VGA/HDMI dongle, draw in an app like Goodnotes, and share+record that view. Sometime in 2018 or 19, they disabled this. The workflow I ended up figuring out involves connecting the iPad to a Mac via a lightning-to-usbc cable, starting a new movie (not screen recording!) through QuickTime, and selecting the iPad as a source. Then, you can share the view of the screen to an external display with acceptable latency and the ability to record the session. Be sure to select a mic, too, when you do this, otherwise the recording won’t have any audio. For some reason, it doesn’t start recording out of the default mic by default when selecting the iPad for the screen…

That’s a “iPad+adapter+OS” stack changed to “iPad+Mac+cable+QuickTime w/ tricky options” stack. If you’re one of the unfortunate souls owning a Mac w/o an HDMI port, throw an extra display adapter in there for Chaos’s sake.

It’s mind blowing how such a common workflow has become so obscured by arbitrary restrictions to OS functionality with no clear purpose.

Am I the only one having ridiculous issues in MacOS 27? The window management is simply broken, whenever I click an app in the dock the OS switches to the completely wrong screen, and when I move a window to another screen I often have a black screen on the source screen.

It's almost unusable I can't believe it passed QA _and_ is still not fixed.

This reminds me of https://www.hyrumslaw.com/ ; users come to depend on any behavior of your program. I wonder if Apple had a sense of how much users depended on the old behavior; was it observable?

Filed feedback referencing your code. Agree the presentation should keep the external display until it's explicitly stopped. Focus and output are two different things and this update merged them.

I hate stuff like this. Apple changed how the new Apple Watch buttons work, breaking massive muscle memory on how to get the app switcher. "Thankfully" my Apple Watch "ultra" from 4 years ago is basically considered obsolete so it won't get the update.

MacOS 27 has made adding an AirPlay display a chore, it's gone from the setting panel and now in the quick settings on the top right. Took me forever to figure that one out.

My iPad with a faster chip than my MacBook Pro can't do the most basic computer things even though the form factor is what I want from a modern computer.

At some point people are going to realize how crippled iPad OS is and will start switching to other platforms. It doesn't matter how powerful the processor is, the OS has always been the limitation. My M4 iPad Pro has a desktop grade processor but fucking useless for any real task even remotely related programming. It's just a glorified $1000 YouTube machine at this point because the OS pretty much doesn't allow you to do anything with it other than media consumption or basic media editing. The "Pro" moniker is just a joke.

Apple hardware is underserved by software. iPad versions of the desktop applications are severely limited and I see no reason to upgrade my iPad Pro to the latest version, because I know all that computer power would be wasted.

Another stupid quirk is USB-C HDMI output sometimes outputs 4:3 mirroring of the iPad screen even when in a full screen video. If you reconnect and fiddle with pausing/playing the content while screen locked, you can “trick” it to use presentation mode at the screens native resolution.

Half the problem is flagship apps like HBO/Netflix don’t implement this correctly.

Oh and this is all different if you have a keyboard attachment because only then are you allowed to “extend” display which can use the screen’s native resolution.

Airplay from within an app used to be different than airplay the entire screen.

This was invaluable especially from the photo app, where sharing the entire screen shows everything.

Starting airplay from within the photo app puts it into a form of slideshow, where I can scroll all the photos and videos and select one, one at a time for it to appear on the screen instead.

It is a much better experience for viewers on the screen not seeing the entire device screen. If you switch to another app, what's on screen doesn't get affected.

This is what happens when you do not own and control hardware you buy.

Keyword: buy, own, control

Any "autoupdating", or otherwise controlled device by the manufacturer is more an indefinite rental with horrific terms that basically amount to "lol screw you".

The device supports installing software, but only THEIR approved (cr)app store? Thats just a rental.

Device doesnt provide you root or administrator, but retains it for the company? Thats just a rental.

Features are sold one day, but an update removes them without your permission? Thats just a rental.

Cant revert an update that damaged your usability, cause the company prevents downgrades? Thats just a rental.

Thankfully, we already have laws on the books to cover this. There's plenty enough proof that these devices may be physically in the hands of someone who paid money to a retailer, and have proof of first sale. But it's demonstrable that these are indefinite rentals *masquerading* as sales. In other words, they are lying about a "sale". This should trigger Federal Trade Commission, under mass fraudulent rentals.

(And no, im looking at the capability and ownership of the whole device. Its obvious that a dumb device that just does the features its claimed to do is not a rental. But devices that have underlying inaccessible parts to the purchaser, BUT retain company control is the scope of this complaint. Nobody's arguing for a dumb coffee maker to have a web browser.)

in AI era, marginal cost of getting your 'anything' compatible with open systems and solutions is so low, that soon I expect only really stubborn, sad people still fighting with MacOS/Windows/PadOS

Honestly you get what you deserve if you try to use an ipad as your main computer. There's no faith in Apple ever fixing iPadOS - it's why they are releasing a touch screen Mac (Which is what they should have done in 2010).

Ever since Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple has, deliberately or not, been introducing regressions into its software. Is it more secure? Yes. But things are getting uglier and uglier (I’m looking at you, Ive), and many things are broken or slower.

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Reason #1385275 why an iPad will never be a replacement for a real desktop OS no matter how much fancy hardware they shove in it.

iPads are something you give to a kid to keep them entertained. You should not make any production system wholly dependent on a platform you don't have root access to without some sort of backup or egress plan.

> devastating regression in iPadOS 27

We clearly have different types of problems in our lives, the author and I.

They are a hardware company. They want you to have to buy two devices. One for showing the presentation, another for notes and any kind of accompanying support material that is only for the presenter to see.