Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Upgrade Interviews Bob Borchers and Ronak Shah

Upgrade:

This week we welcome Apple’s Bob Borchers and Ronak Shah to the show to discuss macOS Big Sur, including all the new features in Safari. There’s also an awful lot of follow-up from the busy WWDC week that was, and we discuss the possible features of new Macs running Apple silicon.

Early in the show is a discussion of iOS 14’s Back Tap feature, which didn’t make the keynote. It sounds great.

Dr. Drang:

Has anyone explained why Apple is touting the translucent menu bar in Big Sur?

[…]

It is, of course, an awful feature, an impediment to usability because it makes the menu bar harder to read. Even Apple’s own PR screenshots have terrible contrast.

[…]

When Apple sends people out to talk, it expects them to stay on-message, and the translucent menu bar is apparently part of the message of Big Sur. And because I can’t figure out why they’re doing this, I feel myself sinking into paranoia (they’re not going to take away the Accessibility setting that turns this abomination off, are they?) and Kremlinology.

See also: Craig Hockenberry (tweet).

Previously:

Update (2020-07-06): Wil Shipley:

Look, I’m really happy macOS 11 got some graphical love. I’m glad we’re, as they say, “Starting a conversation.” I just hope Apple’s listening to our side of the conversation.

I mean, I admit to feeble old eyes, but this seems punishingly hard to read—on the default background.

Mike Hanley:

Definitely reminds me of the early Leopard demos. Hopefully they walk back from it a bit like they did back then...

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