2025-07-03 22:00:00
I've been using all of the "26" Apple operating system betas for about a month now, and I've gotten past the "hot takes" stage and feel like I have a more complete feeling about the UI. I'm not going to go on for 1,000 words on it right now, but I'll just say it's very much all over the map. There are plenty of times where the UI looks positively gorgeous. In the Apple Music screenshot above, I think those elements look stunning, and they look even better in motion as content swirls around the background as I scroll. I also really like the address bar at the bottom of Safari, which really comes to life when scrolling sites with fun colors. Tellingly, I have an iPhone still on iOS 18 and it does feel a bit dull in comparison.
But there are also times where it doesn't look great and can be genuinely hard to read. This got better in the second round of betas, but it's definitely not completely fixed yet. And even when it is working right, UI elements bounce from what I can only describe as light mode to dark mode over and over as their background content changes. I find this distracting and visually unpleasant. Even with the Apple Music example above, I specifically scrolled to a point where I thought the UI looked best rather than scrolling to a random spot because it looks perfect everywhere.
If I could sum it up briefly, I'd say that liquid glass is highly dependent on the content it's covering to determine how delightful it is as a UI. That's a real challenge to overcome and it's a big reason why we tend to see these highly-transparent interface designs get more and more opaque in time. The highs are very high in my book, but there are still plenty of "yikes" moments that I wish weren't there and I hope get improved by the fall.
2025-07-03 21:00:37
What do we do when technology lets us offload human work?
2025-07-03 08:22:24
Microsoft is laying off over 9,000 people, including some entire game studios they have acquired. These studios were making interesting games with some buzz, including the new Perfect Dark game that had a prime slot just last year in Microsoft's game showcases. This of course comes less than a year after closing down 4 other studios, including Tango Gameworks, makers of the hit game Hi-Fi Rush. Arkane Austin, a legendary studio that had made hit games since 1999, was another one of those 4 studios shut down last year; they made it 22 years, but 3 years after Microsoft picked them up they were dead.
In fact, a quick tour of the Xbox Game Studios Wikipedia page reveals a raft of closed or sold-off studios, and a remaining list that's full of studios that I don't think many people would say are in their prime. Obsidian is maybe the only bright spot, but otherwise it's not great.
A few years ago I was concerned about Microsoft acquiring so many high-profile game studios because they would consolidate too much power over the industry. It turns out that they actually just made most of these studios irrelevant. It's a real bum deal for everyone from gamers to the studios to the tens of thousands of people Microsoft has laid off in the last year or two, many of whom came from the gaming division.
2025-06-27 01:23:37
What if you could just get the best of your Mastodon feed without scrolling forever?
2025-06-27 00:00:00
I’m old enough to remember when people in the Apple enthusiast crowd were disgusted by the new Finder icon. No, not the one released 2 weeks ago, the one released in macOS Yosemite in 2014. That icon was too bright, too “friendly”, and it didn’t respect the heritage of the icon that had existed for many years. That icon was created to put a new and distinct spin on a classic icon to match the new aesthetic of Apple’s software. I think it was brilliantly done and that Finder icon is now iconic.
In 2025 we find ourselves in a very similar situation, but admittedly with more pushback than I remember in 2014. Apple has a new design system for the Mac, that system has a new standard for icon design, and there’s a new Finder icon that’s ruffling feathers.
To be super clear, just because one design in the past ruffled feathers and turned out to be a winner doesn’t mean every icon that ruffles feathers is automatically a winner. I’m just bringing up the parallel as the past is often instructive to understanding the present.
Cards on the table, I’m a weirdo who actually liked the Finder icon in Tahoe developer beta 1. I think it looked great and was a proper reimagining of the icon I’d been staring at in my dock for the past few decades for the new design system in Tahoe. The layers of glass floating on top of a solid background match the rest of the system apps. Yes, the white and blue “switched sides” but I guess I wasn’t as bothered by that as some others were. I’m not saying I’m right or they’re right, I just think it was nice and made sense in the new system. Honestly, I didn't even think anything of the icon until I went online and saw people were very upset about this.
In beta 2, Apple clearly took the feedback and made a change which seems to have appeased a decent number of those who hated the first beta's icon. Personally, I think this new icon is good, but if I'm being totally honest I don't like it as much as the first one. The contrast is lower between the blue and white sides, something that's more noticeable when my dock is small rather than in large images like the one above. I'm not going to complain about it at length, and I think it's actually still pretty good, I just don't think it has the confidence of the last version.
Then there's this mock up which has been floating around as the "clear solution" that Apple should just pay the creator Michael Flarup and use in macOS. I think this icon design is solid as well, but it really is a bit of a punt on trying anything new, it feels like just putting a glassy filter over the existing icon and calling it a day (again, recognizing this took more work than that to me, but that's what it looks like to me). It's also inconsistent with the design Apple is using for every other icon in the system on Tahoe, with no other icons featuring edge-to-edge glass layers like this. Maybe that's fine, and this will be more normal once we have more third party apps making icons using the new glass system, though!
Ultimately, I think all these icons are pretty good, and I'll be fine. I just wanted to give the beta 1 icon a bit of love before we likely never see it again. I know this opinion is straight up "wrong" to many people, but what’s the point in having a brain if you don't sometimes have different opinions, right?!
2025-06-25 07:15:28
Ash Parrish: Netflix is letting go of some of its best indie games | The Verge
Several titles like Braid, Katana Zero, and yes, Hades, were available exclusively on mobile via Netflix, meaning that when those games go, that’s potentially it for them on Android / iOS.
The latest gem in the Monument Valley series is a Netflix exclusive on mobile, so it's just vanishing for the time being on July 14. The only silver lining is that a few weeks ago it was announced that Monument Valley 3 was coming to consoles and PC on July 22, 2025.. The bad news is that if you wanted to play this on an iPhone or iPad, you've only got a few weeks to do it. You gotta think it'll be back on mobile sometime, but who knows when that'll be?