The Seven Voyages Of Steve

Ugh my phone updated to iOS 26 last night. Whoever thought Liquid Glass was a good idea needs a slap. Yeah let’s make buttons with text on them transparent, that will be suuuuper legible. Idiots. And to think they’re burning GPU time to make their UI worse. Who runs UX at Apple these days anyway? They clearly don’t know what they’re doing.

Luckily found Accessibility > Display & Text > Reduce Transparency so most of it is gone now

Dec 6 at 9:56amWeb
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
So apparently the person responsible for this nonsense has now left Apple for Meta. The fact that they’re willing to work for that garbage company says it all really. Hire better in future Apple
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
Let’s be clear though - this decision to make UI elements less readable because you want to do fancy glass effect for no reason other than pretty posturing despite the clearly obvious edge cases wasn’t just one guy. Multiple people must have signed off on Liquid Glass. I hope all of them are getting torn a new one and learning a hard lesson from this: pretty pictures don’t matter if it makes the thing worse to use.
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
In a more general sense this sends a worse message to me: that Apple didn’t listen to the people who *must* have pushed back against this internally. They *must* have. But instead it seems that some clique of glass sickos overruled them. How did that happen? Fixing that must be a priority now. I get the impression Tim Apple is mostly a money & logistics guy who has let design control get into the hands of the wrong folks
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
My advice to Apple (and anyone else making OS’s that are stable) would be: make 2026 a Snow Leopard year. Just spend some time making things faster, more stable, better. I still think Snow Leopard was the best OS release ever made on any platform. People absolutely loved it. No-one actually wants yearly feature releases; new things every 2 years with refinements in between would be much better than this treadmill
Show threadtoerrorDec 6
@sinbad The Jobsian way was always to do whatever he wanted and screw everyone else though... Maybe something of that big man ethos still viewed as desirable?
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
@toerror maybe, but I think you need someone at the top with some level of taste who is not afraid to be the asshole saying “no, this doesn’t work”. I kinda think he would have thrown this nonsense out
Show threadeobetDec 7

@sinbad @toerror Jobs definitely had some taste, not sure who left at Apple has that anymore or if their voices are heard even if there are…

https://oldbytes.space/@eobet/115584046667475442

eobet (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image #Apple logo update... > No liberal arts and no humanities left at Apple... only technology married with the shareholders.

OldBytes Space - Mastodon
Show threadNeil HenningDec 6

@sinbad problem is I think it worked - before liquid ass the narrative was Apple is behind in AI. Now no one talks about that and everyone has been distracted arguing about the new UI.

Because of their lock in no one is seriously considering alternative platforms either.

Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
@neilhenning my problem has always been: where else to go? Android is Google who are even worse (and they’re tightening it down so you can’t escape) and if I want to keep using essential apps like banking I can’t use the weirder ones. iOS has always seemed the lesser of the evils since at least Apple makes money off me so has an incentive to make products for me rather than make me a product. But damn, won’t someone just make good products any more? 😩
Show threadAllpointsDec 6

@sinbad @neilhenning the problem is, that's no longer true. Yes, Apple makes money off of you but now you're locked in. They'll continue to enshitify because they'll get to triple dip. They'll squeeze the developers because they're locked into the Apple Store. They'll squeeze you because you have nowhere else to go and they get you to pay them on top of it

Heads, Apple, wins. Tails, everyone else loses.

Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
@allpoints @neilhenning meh, I’m not locked in in any significant way. I back up all my photos to my own storage, it would be a pain to migrate somewhere else but doable. I just fail to see anywhere better, I trust Google even less
Show threadAllpointsDec 6
@sinbad @neilhenning that's the thing though, you're still locked in if there's no real alternative.
Show threadMarijke LuttekesDec 6

@sinbad The only good thing to come from this is that he now has an opportunity to mess up Meta's UIs, too.

Meta deserves it.

Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
Another thing I’ve done on iOS 26 is enable the “Reduce Motion” accessibility option, because after less than a day I’ve found the squishy stretchy bouncy effects when you flip between screens or scroll around have become truly obnoxious and I just wanted them gone. What a design mess this version is out of the box
Show threadRicDec 6
@sinbad we've had that in KDE for well over a decade, and I love it! Windows feels so primitive to me with it's stubbornly unsquishy rectangles these days.
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 7

BTW yes I’ve tried changing Liquid Glass to “Tinted” rather than “Clear”. It’s still shite in certain background cases.

Check out Liquid Ass in Tinted mode vs Reduce Transparency mode on my lock screen. Because the flashlight happens to be on top of Pippin’s white paw it looks really indistinct, and Clear mode is even worse.

But in Reduce Transparency mode the predictably coloured dark buttons are perfectly clear with white icons and much more attractive IMO

Show threadGiles GoatDec 7
@sinbad The question is .. "why you keep buying Apple phones" 😎 ?
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 7
@gilesgoat because I hate Google even more
Show threadGiles GoatDec 7
@sinbad Seems like a NO WIN scenario in ANY case 😐 I have a Nokia can't remember what Android paid only 120 eur ..
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 7
@gilesgoat I loved my Nokia phones. If it wasn’t for the fact that you can’t get essential banking apps I’d try something like Sailfish
Show threadJonathan Poh 📷 🏳️‍🌈Dec 6
@sinbad yeah I’ve been using it for a month now, some parts of it are ok, some of it definitely not. the legibility a lot of UI elements have suffered. the head of design at Apple that pushed for this Liquid Glass nonsense has just left, so maybe we will start seeing some improvements soon.
Show threadandrewwillmottDec 8

@jpoh @sinbad I hope so. The insanity that is iOS 26 is actively preventing me from buying a new phone, even though it's well past time, and I'd love a better camera. (Still on a 13 mini.)

Ironic given that their entire software ecosystem is supposed to be in support of flogging you pricey hardware.

Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 8
@andrewwillmott @jpoh TBH now that I’ve disabled Liquid Ass via Reduce Transparency the rest of the OS is fine. Some things seem better such as Mail being much snappier
Show threadNeil HenningDec 8
@sinbad @andrewwillmott @jpoh yeah it’s definitely nippier in some things and useable with that mode on.
Show threadandrewwillmottDec 8
@neilhenning @sinbad @jpoh That's positive to hear given the stories about further slow-downs I've been reading. (Less relevant to a new phone I guess but it means I'm unlikely to 'upgrade' the current one.) Maybe they -- gasp -- spent spent some time on optimisation post-beta, Snow-Leopard style.
Show threadLuna 🦊🇩🇰🏳️‍⚧️Dec 6
@sinbad tbf, all of apple's OSes have been burning GPU time since like, 2007.
Show thread Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑Dec 6
@sinbad Just below you in my feed there's a showcase for how much the new RUN dialogue in Windows 11 sucks and quite frankly I would love it if Microsoft went back to Windows 7's or Vista's Glass look RIGHT NOW.
Show threadschrotthaufenDec 6
@sinbad The second I saw that iOS 26 was going to install itself, I disabled the auto update setting 😅 Liquid Glass is an accessibility nightmare. My sympathies for getting this pile of crap forced on you.
Show threadTaffer 🇨🇦Dec 6
@sinbad @aeva Liquid Ass infected our phones last night. Until then these iPhone 13s worked well, now the UI lag is insane. I hope that setting fixes this fiasco.
Show threadPhilip BraggDec 6
@sinbad Mine tried but didn't have enough free space so I manually updated to the latest non-liquid non-glass version this morning.
Show threadBruno NicolettiDec 6
@sinbad Same. I woke up to an updated phone and man is the UI ugly. They’ve also change various affordances in a bunch of apps which make them more painful to use.
Show threadsu_liamDec 6
@sinbad You want to make UI better? Here’s one suggestion, make it so when I press a key the character appears on the screen in significantly less than a business day.
Show threadmetasilkDec 6
@sinbad my least favorite part is the conversion of slightly rounded-corner rectangular fields to almost-ovals. AUGH. Too much curvature conflicts with organized design!
Show threadJernej Simončič �Dec 6

@sinbad

Who runs UX at Apple these days anyway? They clearly don’t know what they’re doing.

I think Meta just poached him, so maybe it'll turn for the better now? Now if only Meta did the same thing to Microsoft's designers…

Show threadOlivier Roux (moose)Dec 6
@sinbad @cstross That was Alan Dye and he just left for Facebook. Good riddance.
Show threadJonathan GulbrandsenDec 6

@sinbad @cstross the Liquid Glass setting is front and center if you go to Settings - Display and brightness (in 26.1). It will yield way better result than reduce transparency. That one has a different purpose.

Also, ”who runs UX”, he very publicly resigned this week.

Show threadCharlie StrossDec 6
@JonathanGulbrandsen @sinbad ... Thereby increasing the average IQ of both corporations!
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveDec 6
@JonathanGulbrandsen @cstross I tried that, I prefer the solid buttons
Show threadRitesh Oedayrajsingh VarmaDec 7
@sinbad I am never pressing this button