By John Moltz
This Week in Apple: Tone policing
Apple makes Liquid Glass optional, iPhone 17 sales go through the roof, and the UK cracks down on the App Store.
This one goes to -11
When your children ask you what you did in the Great War against Liquid Glass, you can be proud to say you fought on the front lines. By which I mean complaining about it on social media.
Victory, comrades!
“iOS 26.1 beta 4 adds new setting to tone down Liquid Glass transparency”
Let us not rest on these mighty laurels, however! We must be relentless! There is still much more complaining and posting of screenshots and little videos and stuff to do to eradicate this pestilence!
Because Apple only toned it down, you see.
“Choose your preferred look for Liquid Glass. Clear is more transparent, revealing the content beneath. Tinted increases opacity and adds more contrast,” Apple explains.
In other words, Liquid Glass and not Liquid Glass.
Also, is transparent really “revealing” the content beneath or just sort of hinting that there’s content beneath? If you run a Bump filter over a page of text, is that “revealing” it or actually obscuring it?
What they really should do is a toggle that turns skeuomorphism back on. I miss that sweet green velvet.
Sniffing the Air
The annual handwringing about iPhone sales is off to the races, with estimates of this year’s crop selling so well that the institutionalized gambling mechanism known as the stock market rewarded Apple with a buying spree.
“Apple’s stock hits new all-time high with iPhone 17 sales surging”
The only question about the lineup is the iPhone Air. Dream date or dud?
“Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales”
It’s a dud! No one likes it!
Except for just 1.4 billion people.
“iPhone Air sells out almost instantly in China”
You ever wish the Apple rumor mill would just make up its mind? I do.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been in China for the last week…
Oh. Did he buy them all?
Tea-ing up the jokes
Something that has made up its mind is the UK.
“Apple loses landmark UK lawsuit over app store commissions”
The CAT ruled that Apple had abused its dominant position from October 2015 until the end of 2020 by shutting out competition in the app distribution market and by “charging excessive and unfair prices” as commission to developers.
The cost to Apple could be as much as $2 billion, which certainly isn’t going to drive to drive the company to bankruptcy but it’ll leave a mark. Not a big mark. More like a hickey. But Steve Jobs was the one with all the turtlenecks and Apple doesn’t want to be walking around looking like a randy teenager so it plans to appeal the decision.
“This ruling overlooks how the App Store helps developers succeed and gives consumers a safe, trusted place to discover apps and securely make payments,” an Apple spokesperson said.
Ah, yes, the safe and trusted place to discover apps like Tea, a dating app that Apple pulled from the App Store… three months after reports of its rampant security flaws.
Well, safe-ish.
The App Store: Eventually Safe.
You know, it’s too bad King Charles probably already has more ballrooms than he could use in one lifetime or Apple might be able to make this go away on the cheap.
“Apple on short list of donors to Trump’s White House demolition ballroom project”
Yeah, I know that’s not how the government in the UK works but technically that’s not how it’s supposed to work in the U.S., either. Yet here we are.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]