I consider myself very conscientious. At work, our IT team sends out fake phishing emails to keep us vigilant. So far, I have failed to “spot the looney” three of the last four “campaigns” and clicked the bait link opening the webpage of shame.
I failed despite my self-described vigilance because of all your reasons: I was busy, it looked legit and related to something I was doing or that was happening in our org, etc. etc. Personally, I have even posted my driver’s license to become a “verified seller” on a stupid classifieds app. WTF was I thinking?!? Answer: I was in a hurry, I really wanted to offload the thing, and clearly I was bat-**** stupid brain dead for longer than 30 seconds…
So yeah, security perfection..LOL
And, I’m still on iOS 17.7.1 on iPhone 11 Pro. Not planning to upgrade before getting a 17. No urgency to get a 17 however, but someday.
Jeff, I think you need a new case for your old phone. With a screen protector. I am pretty sure I had the same case (Defender?) and it did make the touch screen difficult. The seal also failed on me, which wicked sweat into the phone rendering it useless one hot summer day.
Admittedly, my husband is not a big user of his iPhone 13 mini. But he upgraded to ios 26.x a while back. Yesterday, I noticed at about 3pm he had 100% battery. I asked if he charged at work or if he turned it off. Nope, it just sat at his workplace. He did get and send texts. But geeze, 100% after having the phone off the charger from 6am to 3pm?
It’s an Otter Box and when I took the case off to experiment I was able to get the sensor to read the fingerprint most of the time, but it was too easy to touch something on the bare iPhone that would cause problems. Setting it to accept incoming calls automatically solved the immediate problem, so for now I’ll leave the box on. I don’t use it much anyway.
Same for 2020 13" Intel MBP. I just upgraded its macOS Ventura to Sequoia. I never get the latest major version when I can. I just wait until both Apple and Microsoft drop their supports on the old macOS version. For iPhones, that’s different. I wait until Apple doesn’t offer the previous stable version with security fixes like its iOS v26.2 (couldn’t get v18.7.3 without the beta trick that Apple closed).
No, I don’t worry about security holes in older OS versions. iOS 8.0 made my iPad Air 2 useless by preventing it from connecting to WiFi. It took Apple four (!!) releases before they deigned to fix it. I’d rather have a useful if slightly unsecure device rather than an expensive picture frame.
I’m not concerned about debilitating bugs in the versions of 26. However, I am concerned about the debilitating UI, especially about the Music app in Tahoe, an app that I use every day. And if I’m not going to upgrade my Mac, I don’t want to bother with my other devices, since I don’t see any new features important to me. (iPad windowing will be nice to have, but not urgent.)
I dunno know- do I need to? My phone runs fine on the version 18- I have the ability to do almost everything I need to do. Why complicate life?. Until some applications won’t work then I guess I’ll upgrade. But for now- well, “keep it simple”. I don’t need some transparency garbage.
The only stuff I want are security fixes and not new features, but we can’t get those anymore like in v18 after Apple closed the beta trick to get v18.7.3 update. This is assuming iPhones can run v26. iPhones that can’t get them will get newer v18 like v18.7.3. Apple forces its latest iOS version too soon IMO even at v26.2. I’d rather wait until the year later to get it before Apple releases the newer major version like v27.
In macOS, I can tell it not to give me Tahoe version even though it nags me about it (leave me alone, Apple!). Apple still supports the previous two major version before it like Sonoma. I had to upgrade to Sequoia because Apple and Microsoft dropped support for Ventura a few months ago. I am OK with this! At least, I can still get the previous supported stable versions and not force me to the newest buggy version (Tahoe). I usually upgrade macOS every two years.
Ditto on everything you wrote. I’m sticking with Sequoia and iOS 18 for now. Thanks for your reply. And actually Sequoia isn’t that bad. I have had no problems with it and it’s stable.
I have not installled 26 on any device. I have the Mac version installed in a parallels vm and I find the bad ui a major hindrance to my information dense high-window-count workflow so I am hoping there is some hack to keep the efficiency of sequoia when and if I am ever forced to upgrade. Will delay any new apple decide purchases because of the ui.
I’m still using iOS 18 on my iPhone. I do worry about the lack of security updates, but Apple’s refusal to allow some phones to update to 18.7.3 - just because they could be updated to iOS 26 - really upset me. It’s one thing to stop support for older versions after some reasonable timeframe, but 18.7.3 is clearly finished and working fine on these phones; it would be working fine on mine too if I had jumped through the “beta” loophole.
Apple claims that security of its users is paramount, but for me this behavior clearly demonstrates their true priorities. I am not sure when I’ll upgrade, but I sure don’t trust Apple to provide honest guidance any longer.
Apple started doiing this major iOS version upgrades a couple years ago. I remember seeing it with iOS v17.x over v16.x on iPhone 13. So, this is not new. It’s just annoying. Apple is really pushing its users to get the newer iOS versions if iPhones can run them after a few minor version releases before they close it.
I’ve been watching these forums for years now, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you all need to relax. The time when you had to wait a year or more for all of the bugs to be remedied in Apple software releases is long past. When they do a release, now, they’re releasing to literally tens–hundreds of millions of people, both for iPhones and iPads and Mac OS. They still make mistakes, and for that reason I always wait a week or two before updating, but there are few mistakes, now, and certainly not enough to get your knickers in a twist.
Back up before you update? Absolutely! Have older systems that you don’t want to update? Well then, hold on, and you’re going to be fine for a few years—unless you’re James Bond, you probably don’t have to worry about security. (Really!)
These systems are now hugely complex, and it will not be surprising that someone, somewhere, encounters a dismaying problem. That’s the great thing these forums offer: dealing with the petty irritations or the calamities that individual people encounter and we all want to help. But overall, Apple’s systems are really working well.
When a new system comes out, I update automatically because I want to see what they’ve done, whether it will be useful. I usually end up turning off a fair amount of what they offer, but if you don’t try it, you won’t know whether you like it. And if you’ve been a good person and done a full backup prior to the update, you can always revert back to the system that feels comfortable for you but maybe you should wait a while to see whether it’s really all that ghastly?
All of my Apple devices could run xOS 26. None do, by choice. When Apple figures out how to make Liquid Glass not suck (probably by reverting), I’ll upgrade. I’m frankly annoyed that Apple has yoked some useful features, such as call screening, to that albatross.
Sorry, but I seem to have missed what is wrong with call screening, other than defaulting to off after upgrade. iOS26 actually improves call screening when re-activated. Screen and block calls on iPhone - Apple Support
Apple forces its latest iOS version too soon IMO even at v26.2. I’d rather wait until the year later to get it before Apple releases the newer major version like v27.