Barijaona Ramaholimihaso:
After some minor fiddling, I got the initial version of Vienna running on VirtualBox on my retro hack.
[…]
Founding father of Vienna, Steve contributed mostly from 2004 to 2008, made a short comeback in 2010, and is definitely at the root of Vienna’s ethics: making a clean, spartan, and highly useful app.
He almost never publicized his bio, but I finally found an “About me” (he was from the UK and a software developer working in the US for Microsoft Business Solutions), and some reflexions on writing software : part 2 and part 1.
[…]
While I was finishing the Google Reader support started by Adam Hartford and Salvatore Ansani, Google announced it would end Google Reader… That is far from being the single reason why Vienna 3 had 20 beta versions and 9 release candidate versions before being released in November 2014!
Previously:
Anniversary Mac Mac App macOS 15 Sequoia Open Source RSS Vienna RSS
Steve Hayman:
Apple has spent a ton of money getting AirPods Pro approved by the FDA and other regulators to work as over-the-counter hearing aids, including providing a hearing test app on the iPhone that tweaks the audio profile on the headphones. This feature is available in a whole lot of countries, not yet including Canada, but, um, … I don’t work there any more so I guess I can say “it’s not too hard to work around that.” So I’ve had my AirPods Pro 2 set up as hearing aids for a few months now and have been trying them sporadically for hearing assistance (and more frequently just for listening to music or podcasts or whatever.)
[…]
The hearing aids cost 25 times as much as AirPods Pro. Are they 25 times better? No. Maybe for some people. Not for me. AirPods might still be good enough in some situations. I have only mild hearing loss, so I’m probably on the edge of hearing aid utility here.
[…]
If you’ve got your AirPods in, it’s totally obvious to everyone, and they all assume you’re listening to music and not paying attention to them. Kind of a stigma there. Conversely, these hearing aids are pretty inconspicuous, especially because they match the colour of the wire to the colour of your hair.
[…]
I already miss the tight integration between AirPods and my phone. Apple is doing some proprietary Bluetooth things that these hearing aids can’t match. The hearing aids do let you answer phone calls or adjust volume by tapping a button, but they’re sure not as tightly integrated as AirPods+iPhone are.
Previously:
Accessibility AirPods Audio iOS iOS 18
Juli Clover:
In some apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and the App Store, Apple has toned down the transparency of the navigation bars. The look is more opaque to make the buttons more legible.
[…]
Apple added new color options for the default “iOS” wallpaper that it designed for iOS 26 , so now we have Halo, Dusk, Sky, and Shadow.
[…]
Apple tweaked the blue and green colors for the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, and Cellular Toggles. The colors are brighter and more in line with the other colors in Control Center.
Emma Roth:
Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language just got a little more… frosted. In the third iOS 26 developer beta, Apple dialed back the transparency of navigation bars, buttons, and tabs that once allowed you to clearly see the content beneath them.
Zac Hall:
Here are just a few more examples of iOS 26 beta 2 and iOS 26 beta 3 visual changes[…]
Steve Troughton-Smith:
It’s subtle…
Brandon Butch:
iOS 26 Beta 2 vs iOS 26 Beta 3 Music nav bar.
Matt Birchler:
I’ve collected a few that stand out to me.
Nick Heer:
Liquid Glass officially has two appearances: clear and “regular”, which is frosted. If there have been any changes to the clear style in any of the betas, I cannot say I have noticed them. But the frosted style has become steadily more opaque since the first developer build of iOS 26 in some places. In particular, when iOS is in light mode and the screen is predominantly white, like the buttons in a Mail message, the effect is now extremely subtle, to the point where I wonder if there is a third Liquid Glass appearance.
Benjamin Mayo:
I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed it isn’t as flashy as the first beta, but it still looks nice and readability is way up.
Also, there’s a fair few places where stuff is now completely opaque which I think is probably a bug.
Federico Viticci:
Apple significantly toned down Liquid Glass in iOS 26 beta 3 and, honestly, I’m a fan.
Looks modern without feeling like a gimmick with (unfixable?) legibility issues. Still not perfect, but better IMO.
It’s better, but I still think the entire concept is wrong and that at the very least they should tone it down even more.
Riley Testut:
Seems iOS 26 beta 3 is the equivalent of iOS 7 beta 3 where the most extreme design elements are finally dialed back — remember Helvetica Neue Ultra Light?
Nick Heer:
One of the stranger qualities of this year’s Liquid Glass visual update is how much it is changing within just a few weeks. One would assume some designers with power at Apple would have recognized the illegibility of the first version before it was made available in June. Alas, it seems Apple is working things out in public now.
[…]
Though I know there were changes in different releases of the iOS 7 development cycle, the first thing I thought of was the progression of Aqua in early builds of Mac OS X, first revealed in the second developer preview of 10.0. The most noticeable changes happened in the dock which, in the second and third previews, looked like a set of individual sometimes-underlined tiles. Those builds were released in January and February 2000; by the fourth preview, in May, the dock was closer to the version which eventually shipped. But those changes took place over many months; Mac OS X 10.0 did not ship to the public until March 2001. Complaints about the legibility of various translucent elements, however, were whittled away at for years to come.
[…]
But, also, you would think a company that has been working with transparent interfaces for twenty-five years would have some institutional memory and know what to avoid.
Louie Mantia, Jr.:
I repeat—anyone who has tried to make translucent UI is familiar with the story being played out right now. The core issue is that translucent UI is fundamentally flawed. You cannot make it too translucent without sacrifice. But every sacrifice you make makes it less cool. That’s why they started where they did. That’s why they are where they are now. It’s embarrassing to re-tread known issues like this. This could have been an exercise internally that no one ever saw.
The thing that kills me is that this is not Alan Dye’s first rodeo. That was iOS 7. His first go at doing software design was fixated on this same thing: translucency. It’s as if he can’t let it go, forcing everyone else to tag along while he makes discoveries the rest of us have known for quite some time. It’s awful being the end user of a product designed by someone who is effectively saying, “Oh, it’s illegible? Interesting. I didn’t know that.”
Konrad Kołakowski:
I think Microsoft kind of nailed it with Aero almost 15-20 years ago (especially when in matured with Windows 7)
I don’t remember any legibility issues back then - but because they used this glass material only as a “chrome” - window borders, backgrounds - on top of this „glass” we had placed “normal” opaque controls.
Limiting it to the chrome is certainly better, but I still don’t see what the point of a transparent title bar is Who wants to read skinny text atop crazy background?
Riccardo Mori:
You know what this is? iOS 15. Technically, 4 years old. Visually, absolutely fine. Why not work on bettering the parts of the UI that can be improved, while maintaining an organic look that ‘ages well’ and remains fresh, instead of doing a shallow facelift that really looks like the facelift certain Hollywood stars make to keep looking young, while ending up actually looking weird?
Previously:
Design iOS iOS 26 iOS Beta Liquid Glass
Federico Viticci:
How much has Apple really “nerfed” Liquid Glass in the latest beta?
Here’s a comparison between iPadOS 26 developer beta 2 (first image) and beta 3.
Steve Troughton-Smith:
Wow they kinda did the thing? Fullscreen apps on iPadOS work a lot more like fullscreen apps on macOS now — they generate a new ‘space’, and you can swipe between them.
Federico Viticci:
Truly another S-tier iPad multitasking change.
You can swipe back and forth between full-screen and windowed "spaces" AND if you re-resize a full-screen app, it automatically goes back to the windowed space.
Love this.
Ryan Christoffel:
10 years ago in macOS El Capitan, Apple added a convenient and fun new feature for the system cursor.
Shake the cursor back and forth rapidly and it would enlarge, making it easier to locate.
[…]
And now in iPadOS 26 beta 3, the same feature is coming to the iPad.
The iPad is already getting a more Mac-inspired cursor in iPadOS 26. It now looks like a proper pointer, rather than the circle that was available in iPadOS 18.
Steve Troughton-Smith:
They’re really all-in on stealing all the good ideas this cycle
Craig Hockenberry:
“Concentricity.”
Previously:
Design iOS Multitasking iPadOS iPadOS 26 iPadOS Beta Liquid Glass
