Post · bonfire.cafe

Post

Warning: kissing fascist ass may result in liquid glass.

So my phone tricked me into updating to iOS 26 (nice one, asshats). And wow: it really is a case study in form over function. Gratuitous, meaningless aesthetics and motion. Decoration, not design. “Look what I can do!”

Oh well, if it gets me using my phone less, that’s a good thing, I guess.

But the next time you hear someone from Apple talking about design, please feel free to laugh in their damn faces. What a sad joke they’ve become.

#apple #ios26 #liquidAss #design #decoration #BigTech #fascism #aesthetics

GIF

Datarainbow Privacy Assistant✅

@clarinette@mastodon.online replied · 26 minutes ago

@aral absolute useless desigbtha tools a while to update and reset all privacy settings such as asking Siri not to applied on apps

Silvia

@esilvia@snowfan.it replied · 7 hours ago

@aral
Io non lo faccio, non lo faccio no

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 9 hours ago

Apple cares so much about accessibility that they are now baking accessibility needs into their interfaces just so you can experience their accessibility features.

If you’ve been tricked into updating to iOS 26 also (because, really, what numbskull in their right mind would subject themselves willingly to that Shakespearian clusterfuck?), the reduce transparency and reduce motion accessibility settings are your friend.

Sure, your phone will look and feel worse than before but that’s a small price to pay for progess, amirite? Now stop your bitching before Apple sets ICE on you or something.

Erik Ableson

@erik@mastodon.infrageeks.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral All I can think of about this atrocity is that Alan Dye is no longer in charge and hoping his replacement will have the power to revisit the many questionable choices of his predecessor.

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 8 hours ago

Nah, fuck it, turned everything back on again. Why should I fix your damn broken interface and fool myself into thinking this piece of shit is anything but? Going to experience iOS 26 in all its enshittified glory. Will make it easier to hate this phone and move onto something more ethical once it finally croaks.

Apple is likely one release cycle away from going full Microsoft/Google anyway.

#ios26 #BigTech #apple #theAestheticsOfBurgeoningFascism

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

macOS 27 Liquid Glass updates leaked.

#apple #LiquidGlass

Screenshot of a WinAmp skin with rounded skeuomorphic controls and glass-like transparency.

Tormod

@airwhale@beige.party replied · 5 hours ago

@aral

Shades of Kai’s Power Tools!

As I loved Kai’s wacko interfaces back in the mid nineties, I actually don’t mind Liquid Glass at all. These devices have more compute power than I need anyway 😄

@fx@chaos.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral Finally an improvement

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

@fx Indeed :)

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

This one weird trick will make you love Liquid Glass.

#apple #LiquidGlass

caitp

@caitp@mstdn.social replied · 4 hours ago

@aral @crispius i have to stab my good taste receptors? but I need those

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

This is me, unable to send the previous post on @MonaApp on iOS 26 because the keyboard is covering the send button.

(The workaround, as I’ll soon be employing for this post also, is to go to close the post, tap outside it to close the pop-up confirmation dialogue, and then use the send button, which becomes accessible again.)

🤦‍♂️

#ios26 #LiquidAss

Fischer Price My First Phone interface (iOS 26 with Liquid Glass) showing the keyboard covering the send button (blurred blue in the background) in Mona app on the composition screen for the previous post.

F4GRX SÃ©bastien

@f4grx@chaos.social replied · 6 hours ago

@aral @MonaApp it's you!

Vinnie (any)

@greenWhale@dice.camp replied · 7 hours ago

@aral oh djeez. 🙄 @MonaApp

eruwero

@eruwero@ieji.de replied · 7 hours ago

@aral @MonaApp love it, there must be some real geniuses at work at apple. Steve Jobs would be proud.

Metin Seven 🎨

@metin@graphics.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral Also, you've apparently been cancelled by Apple. 😉

1 more replies (not shown)

Yann 不停 Heurtaux🔻

@shalf@mamot.fr replied · 7 hours ago

@aral Brutal 😂🫶🏻

John Carlsen 🇺🇸🇳🇱🇪🇺

@johnlogic@sfba.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral CW please

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

@johnlogic CW: Daft interface design.

Nicovel0 🍉

@Nicovel0@mastodon.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral 😂

Andre123

@andre123@snowfan.it replied · 7 hours ago

@aral 🤣 Winamp was way ahead....

nemo™ 🇺🇦

@nemo@mas.to replied · 7 hours ago

@aral xD

Free Gardenia

@Gardenia@piaille.fr replied · 7 hours ago

@aral Aral j'ai besoin d'aide.

schrotthaufen

@schrotthaufen@mastodon.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral The biggest dick move with this whole liquid ass clusterfuck is, that for a very brief time window one could install 18.7.3 on iPhone 11, and later. And then Apple pulled it. “Oh no! Almost everyone prefers the security only update over our nightmarish Windows Vista clone!”

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

@schrotthaufen Wait, you can’t even wipe it and go back to 18? 🤬

schrotthaufen

@schrotthaufen@mastodon.social replied · 7 hours ago

@aral I didn’t try that, tbh. Maybe you can wipe and go back to 18.7.2, but .3 isn’t on the table for any device that can run iOS26.

Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw

@doc@mastodon.social replied · 8 hours ago

@aral curious as to what you’ll choose. The fairphone is the obvious candidate, but then you’re saddled with Android, which has different but equally annoying ethical and usability limitations. Or am I missing something?

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 7 hours ago

@doc Not choosing anything yet. I have a drawerful of older Linux phones that I can’t use for any meaningful day-to-day tasks (banking, paying for stuff, etc.) I’m not made of money + very conscious about contributing to landfill. Will wait until this phone croaks. Then I might look at the new Jolla phone maybe.

Reddog

@Reddog@syzito.xyz replied · 8 hours ago

@aral In a similar note..
I have a mid 2012Macbook pro, running OS Catalina.... 2 x 1Tb SSDs, 16Gb ram....probably the last decent OS IMO.
Use mostly 3rd party apps for better functionality...
My partner has 2 ( 1 work, 1 personal ) M2 MB pros, latest OS.. Can't bide them

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 9 hours ago

Goodness those pop-up menu animations are the worst. And no way to disable them (reduce motion doesn’t affect them). Meaningless, gratuitous skeuomorphism that fails at even the basics of modeling the physical integrity of its source material.
What a shit show.

Liquid Ass should be a cautionary case study in Interface Design 101.

*smdh*

#ios26 #accessibility #design #decoration

Paco Velobs

@PacoVelobs@mamot.fr replied · 8 hours ago

@aral
Funny how it's not even about exclusive apps anymore. Or the price tag, you name it when it comes to equivalent hardware compared to Android phones.
It's now "even what Apple used to do right, is no more".

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al replied · 9 hours ago

Liquid Ass: Because you’ve always wanted to see your face morph into a back button™

sortius :Fire_Bisexual:

@sortius@infosec.exchange replied · 9 hours ago

@aral about 15 years ago I started buying the cheapest new phones with the best battery life, and bought myself a DSLR. I run my phones into the ground, my DSLR is still taking awesome photos.

I've never looked back