PHOTOS and Storeage. ACK.

Hi Hoss 🙂, I gave a brief copy/paste answer to your original question in the iOS 9.3 beta forum - it's basically just a link to a Quora article on the subject though (a fairly good one), together with an excerpt from an Apple Support page.

I suggest you read through the Quora page to aquaint yourself with the situation as it stands and then submit an enhancement request as there is clearly room for more control to be given to the user in this area.

Wishing you well,

Max.

So currently there are two options:

1. Default - Store all photos at full size on both iDevice and iCloud. This seems like it might suit someone with a 64 or 128GB device without an incredibly large photo/video library and/or who wants to avoid the possibility of mobile data being used for downloading the full-size version of media back to the iDevice.
2. A middle of the road option that stores reduced/thumbnail versions of the media on the iDevice and downloads the full-size version when the photo/video is opened for viewing or editing. This seems suitable for people with 32 or 64GB devices or even a 16GB device if they have very few photos. This allows the quick and easy browsing of the users entire library (in thumbnail form at least) from the device, even when no internet connection is available. A bit mobile data will be used in downloading the full sized versions when away from wifi.

I agree with you that, at the very least, option 2 should be the default because I would confidently guesstimate that it is suitable for more users than option 1 as things stand and because, more often than not, users are unaware that they have even the choice of these two options.

I also agree that a third option is needed where not even the thumbnails of pictures/videos are stored on the iDevice (apart from specific ones that the user ticks as "keep on device", with a slider that is defaulted to off like you mentioned). Much of the library would be completely unavailable when away from an internet connection, and mobile data would be consumed when browsing even thumbnails of the iCloud-only media when away from wifi, but it would still be the preferred option for many with 16GB iDevices, yourself included.

If Apple listen to you and implement such a third option, the second option would still probably make the best default, and it would be good if the Photos app could make the user clearly aware of the 3 options during the initial setup, and again at certain points of memory consumption (e.g. 10GB left on device, 5GB left, 2GB left, or something similar).

As for the option to remove certain Apps that are bundled with iOS, but are not integral to it, this enhancement request has been made by many users over many years. So much so that Tim Cook even made special reference to it in an interview recently (http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/15/tim-cook-interview-siri-iphone-6s-default-apps/). He made positive noises at least.

As for 3D touch on the iPad Pro, the first gen probably just missed the 3D touch boat because it was only released a couple of after the hardware was debuted on the 6s - perhaps not enough time to scale it up for the Pro. That would suggest that a second gen model of the Pro might have it but, against that, there is also the possibility that it would add too much to the weight of the Pro (which some already complain is quite a lot for a handheld device) when scaled up over the much greater area. In that case it may not be until the 3rd gen or so that they can refine the tech such that they feel happy to include it. I certainly agree that iDevices don't get much more "premium" than the Pro and, on that basis, it shouldn't be denied "premium" features like 3d touch without very good reason.

I hope that cover's all the bases 🙂.

Happy to help 🙂

Is there a way we can just send THEM this set of discussions in the feedback assistant?

Just link to it (https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/31051).