Steve Troughton-Smith

The great part about iPad's new windowing model is that you can't hide from it if you're a developer. Users are going to window your apps, layouts are going to be resized, and your menu bar is going to be investigated.

The menu bar API, which is shared with Catalyst, should be your first port of call, as it's something that apps shipping today, built with the older SDKs, now show in the OS. There are plenty of iPad apps that never filled out their menu bar, and you can/should fix that right now

Jun 23, 2025 at 10:13amIvory for Mac
Show threadCraig GrannellJun 23, 2025
@stroughtonsmith I wonder whether this might stop some… lazy Mac ports? I always find it a pity when I launch an app on the Mac and it’s a least-effort conversion, without even a menu bar. (And even on iPad pre-26, shortcuts are so often omitted, which is bloody annoying when you’re using a keyboard.)
Show threadPaul HudsonJun 23, 2025
@craiggrannell @stroughtonsmith This would be very welcome.
Show threadTravis F WJun 23, 2025

@stroughtonsmith Apple could have delivered the world a better experience of navigating a decision tree than the menu bar by now, and this would have been a good time to do it.

I do #loveToHate #Apple, but there are sadly few companies who make bold moves in #HCI #UXD and are followed by industry. Maybe Apple isn't even that anymore?

Come on. Alan Kay was great, but the desktop metaphor *can* be improved on.

Show threadMehdi KharrazJun 23, 2025
@stroughtonsmith Maybe Screens 5 is better in this regard since it's a single multiplatform app, as opposed to Screens 4's separate macOS & iOS/iPadOS apps?
Show threadEmmanuel CrouvisierJun 23, 2025
@stroughtonsmith I’m going hard on these after seeing the sheer quantity of items in Safari on iPad, all my browser history segmented by day in there. Overloading the swipe down gesture is already a bit annoying tho when I want to access my notifications.