ToothFairy 2.8.8 is a maintenance update of my Bluetooth menu bar utility.
As annoying as Bluetooth is as a user, it’s even more so as developer. Seemingly straightforward APIs don’t work as advertised. I don’t just mean that they can fail with an error. They can fail but say that they succeeded. They can succeed but say that they failed. Sometimes the synchronous API will work when the asynchronous one doesn’t or vice-versa. Sometimes the async API never calls back.
With each major new macOS release, I hope it will fix some of this, but each seems to add its own new wrinkle that requires a workaround. With Tahoe, the issue is that IOBluetoothDeviceSelectorController sometimes doesn’t show devices even though they are paired with the Mac. They work and show up in System Settings but not in the Bluetooth chooser dialog to add them to a third-party app. This never seems to happen with AirPods, perhaps because their pairing is handled differently and syncs via iCloud, but it seems to be reasonably common with third-party headphones and input devices (and even Apple’s own Magic mouse/keyboard/trackpad).
Previously:
AirPods Bluetooth Mac Mac App macOS Tahoe 26 ToothFairy
Juli Clover:
With the second beta of iOS 26.1, Apple updated the design of alarms set on the iPhone, making them harder to dismiss than before.
Stopping an alarm in iOS 26.1 beta 2 requires a new Slide to Stop gesture rather than a simple tap. You can continue to tap to snooze an alarm, but if you want to turn it off entirely, you need to use a swipe.
[…]
The new Slide to Stop button is still as large as the Snooze and Stop buttons, so Apple keeps its updated design, while solving the problem that it introduced.
Marco Arment:
The Alan Dye era: a new design creates problems, requiring more hacks and complexity to evade, ending up less usable and elegant than the old design.
Wensh:
Hard disagree, new design is much better than the old design. Makes it easier to hit the buttons, adding a slide action is good to avoid accidental hits.
Happy Striker:
Honestly, I hate the snooze feature and I wish for a setting, that will disable snooze for all new alarms i create once and for all 😅
zkarj:
I thought the old design was worse because I couldn’t read either button! I thought maybe I’d learn not to hit the bright orange thing, but no, I never did. I vastly prefer what we have in 26.0. Even if I can only read the orange button through bleary, just-woken eyes, I know it’s the wrong one to hit.
Previously:
Clock.app Design iOS iOS 26
Michael Teo Van Runkle:
Connecting to Ultra via Bluetooth takes a minute or two longer than traditional CarPlay and includes more consent screens to cover the additional legal ramifications of the operating system sharing data with the car, and vice versa. […] Once initiated, though, Ultra fired up straightaway every time. Much faster than the typical lag to boot up traditional CarPlay.
[…]
Call me old-fashioned, but I still enjoy seeing a tachometer, speedometer, drive modes, and fuel level versus range remaining and a digital speed—especially on an engaging performance vehicle like the DB12 Volante. Apple might be skilled at making new tech easy to use, but it’s hard to beat the power of millions of minds adapting to analog gauges over the past century or so. And in this case, Ultra’s tach(s) showed a bit of latency or lag while ripping that 671-hp twin-turbo V8 up through the revs, something I never noticed in the native UI.
[…]
Ultra’s biggest improvements over preceding CarPlay generations are in the center console infotainment integration. Being able to access climate controls, drive modes, and traction settings without leaving the intuitive suite of CarPlay makes life much easier.
[…]
Plus, over the course of my eight days with Ultra, I experienced one moment where both the infotainment and gauge cluster went totally black.
Fahadx:
Finally, someone tested what would happen to the CarPlay Ultra UI when your iPhone restarts or is shut down.
It’s what I expected, but a reboot still has annoying connectivity issues[…]
TheStraightPipes:
Yuri and Jakub Test Drive the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster[…]
They find that CarPlay Ultra is laggy, both switching between different modes and also just updating the gauges. They ask Siri to play music from channel 9, but it plays channel 18 instead.
William Gallagher (9to5Mac, The Verge, MacRumors):
The Ford Motor Company has previously committed to staying with the basic Apple CarPlay, but it won’t be adopting the newer CarPlay Ultra. Speaking to Joanna Stern on the Decoder podcast, CEO Jim Farley says he’s talked with Tim Cook many times about the future of integrated systems, but expects Ford may decide to make its own custom software.
Malcolm Owen:
Referring to a so-called “CarPlay myth” that drivers use it considerably, BMW SVP of UI/UX Development Stephan Durach insists that it is not true. Instead, BMW drivers really prefer using the car maker’s system.
[…]
Durach refers to BMW’s in-car data, collected from 10 million cars, as proof to bust the myth. “We can see what our customers are doing,” he adds.
Joe Rossignol:
On the latest episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told guest host Joanna Stern why the EV maker continues to pass on Apple’s CarPlay — both the standard version and the more advanced CarPlay Ultra.
Echoing his previous comments on the matter, Scaringe said Rivian is focused on offering a “seamless digital experience,” where customers do not need to switch between its own software and CarPlay. Instead, he said Rivian prefers to provide an à-la-carte selection of built-in apps, such as Apple Music, Google Maps, Spotify, and YouTube.
Casey Liss (Mastodon):
RJ is wrong: customers do not want a seamless digital experience within the apps on their car.
Customers want a seamless digital experience with their smartphones. Everywhere.
CarPlay is the way you get it.
[…]
But what if RJ is wrong? There’s no reason Rivian can’t have their bespoke
and seamless experience for those that prefer it, and offer CarPlay for
those that want it.
Previously:
CarPlay iOS iOS 26 Rivian
Jonathan Reed:
Apple brings much more customization to our in-car displays, mainly by letting the much heralded features of CarPlay Ultra trickle down to regular CarPlay.
[…]
CarPlay has taken on the visual qualities of Liquid Glass. Since CarPlay is essentially a mirror for your iPhone, this is to be expected, but it’s been done in a way that hasn’t created any legibility issues.
[…]
Legibility issues can be further improved with a new Large Text option. Quite simply, it makes text larger system-wide in 100, 110, 120, and 135% increments. While this is good to have, what’s stopped me from increasing my text size is that very implementation: system-wide.
I want to decrease the font size.
Lastly, Smart Display Zoom aims to resize elements of the UI to better fit your car’s screen. It’s unclear how it determines this, and I’ve seen as many people have their UI reduced as have their UI increased in size, which is what happened to me. Unfortunately, this made apps like Maps difficult to use, so I turned it off. It’s certainly worth checking out, but as with mine, you might not get the result you want.
[…]
CarPlay has created a new screen that you can access by swiping right from the multi-view layout. On this screen, you can have either one or two stacks of widgets (depending on your screen size).
This seems cool because it lets you see content from iOS apps that don’t have CarPlay versions.
Collin Allen:
Nothing but improvements here, particularly the adjustments to UI sizing. More like this, please.
On my particular display size, they got bigger and are much more tappable 😍
[…]
I think Smart Display Zoom is the feature that’s making the most difference for me.
Mario Guzmán:
Things on my display got way smaller and there’s way more density it seems.
Ric Ford:
Oligo Security discovered severe security flaws in Apple’s AirPlay and CarPlay software and Apple’s code embedded in third-party products. Apple eventually patched its own software after Oligo responsibly disclosed the security flaws to the company, but many millions of unpatched Apple devices and third-party devices remain vulnerable to wireless zero-click attacks and more.
Previously:
CarPlay Design iOS iOS 26 iOS Widgets Liquid Glass Security
