Ryan ConwaySep 6, 2025
Marco Arment

Dye’s “consistency” poorly attempts to solve a problem no Mac users had, by radically redesigning the Mac to be utterly unlike itself, carelessly discarding decades of thoughtful design, function, and delight without bothering to understand any of it, and lacking adequate resources to replace it with anywhere near the quality and consideration that it once had.

It’s the sad conclusion of macOS’ takeover, under Tim Cook, by people who seem to kinda hate the Mac.
https://mastodon.social/@marioguzman/115124814890741413

Sep 1, 2025 at 4:03amIvory for iOS
Show threadBrandonSep 1, 2025
@marcoarment YES @marioguzman
Show threadNigel Wadsworth 🇦🇺Sep 1, 2025
@marcoarment I’m spending more and more time in MacOS 9 (QEMU/UTM), and System 7 (SnowEmu). It is bringing me joy.
Show threadACSep 1, 2025

@marcoarment @marioguzman I know it’s no consolation, but they do seem to hate the iPad just as much. iPad app development within Apple has mostly dried up, and their approach to interface remains essentially the same as it was in 2010, Liquid Glass aside.

Could be that Apple under Tim Cook really only likes the iPhone — and that, only because it’s the moneymaker.

Show threadJon CarlestamSep 1, 2025
@marcoarment I’ve found Tahoe to be delightful the few weeks I’ve used it. Absolutely love the colors, shapes and materials of new design and haven’t ran in to any problems with usability thus far. The things that are bad (like the Settings app) are not any worse than before. As a user I’m stoked about this years OS cycle.
Show threadNiek van de PasSep 1, 2025
@jonc sorry to zoom in on the background but what is the menu bar app you’re using to show up/down network? Istat menus?
Show threadJon CarlestamSep 1, 2025
@niekvdpas It’s iStatistica Pro 😊
Show threadSteve BarnesSep 1, 2025

@jonc –

I admit this was the first Apple redesign-type announcement ever that unnerved me after I began to sit with it (I've previously found myself playing the temperate role as others were unnerved around me), so I appreciate hearing actual people say they actually like it.

Show threadSteve BarnesSep 1, 2025

@jonc –

(And almost no one has been posting Tahoe screen shots in dark mode, which I've considered the only real mode since Mojave. So this one is particularly helpful.)

Show threadStefan StuckmannSep 1, 2025
@jonc @marcoarment Have you tried Light Mode, too? I feel because Dark Mode can’t rely on shadows as much it also doesn’t have a lot of the problems those shadows create in Light Mode by messing up the visual hierarchy. It works much better that way.
Show threadJon CarlestamSep 1, 2025
@StefanStuckmann Nope, I’m a dark mode boi 🌚
Show threadreturnsnilSep 1, 2025
@marcoarment @marioguzman
An overzealous quest for consistency is one of the most common failure modes of design systems and teams that love their construction a little bit too much.
Show threadChancerubbageSep 1, 2025

@marcoarment @marioguzman

Maybe it’s a hit job.

They WANT Mac to die.

Show threadg_hillSep 1, 2025
@Chancerubbage say that enough times and they'll be out again virtue signaling they love the Mac.
Show threadChancerubbageSep 1, 2025

@g_hill

I think it’s mostly standard operating procedure of taking 66 percent of people to do 100 of a job because they reassign like crazy.

And not having a product person in oversight, a steering position. The mothership doesn’t stress test or use the products it makes the way its customers do.

Show threadNumeric CitizenSep 1, 2025
@marcoarment the iPhone generation finally took over Apple.
Show threadJohn AppleseedSep 1, 2025
@marcoarment Tahoe is only usable in dark mode, but there are still visual hierarchy issues throughout the system which are self-inflicted wounds by Apple.
Show threadIvo 🇪🇺Sep 1, 2025
@marcoarment ‘Cupertino has fallen’
Show threadChad C.Sep 2, 2025
@marcoarment That’s such an elitist tech-snob take. I’ve been using Macs daily for over 20 years, and I actually like the current design. What I don’t get is why so many old-school Apple pundits act like their personal taste is the only valid definition of “good design.” It comes off as entitled and out of touch. Honestly, that’s why I stopped listening to your show years ago—it feels like you’ve decided Apple should only build for people exactly like you, and no one else’s perspective matters.
Show threadDerek MartinSep 2, 2025
@marcoarment We can only hope that @craigfederighi stands up to represent all internal Mac-based developers at Apple and prioritizes fixing this and ensuring that it can never happen again.
Show threadWuMing2Sep 5, 2025
@marcoarment could we have Scott Forstall back now.
Show threadFrederic BarthelemySep 5, 2025

It’s Chesterton’s Fence on the Design Level. Apple gave creative people control but no access to the constraints/history.

It’s demonstrable, that they tested these designs under a super narrow set of conditions, and are shipping it without solutions to blocking problems.

This demonstrates they have deprioritized quality, usability in exchange for an aesthetic choice that is also debated.

I think many of us are disappointed in Apple: don’t break working things for aesthetic reasons.

Show threadFrederic BarthelemySep 5, 2025

Design Systems are super powerful for consistency within your company. They become accelerated building blocks.

But you have to own the system. Adopting someone else’s system blindly leads to friction & a bland homogeneity.

Your company’s design system should be easy for your users to understand, it should play a duet w/ the platform’s system.

If every pattern is unique, your users pay an understanding tax. If every screen is custom, you pay a design/eng tax & a large maintenance tax!