Snippet: Do Stock UI Elements Matter? ☇

Brent Simmons:

Well, I still think Apple has the best collection of UI designers in the world, but, for whatever reasons, the guidance from above on how the Mac UI should look is missing the mark. I’m not blaming the people doing the work — they’re doing great work with the direction they’re given.

So this — bad direction — is where the secret third reason falls down. And we’re left with no real reason to stick with stock Mac UI (except for wanting approval from longtime Mac people like me, and you really shouldn’t care about that at all).

I think we’re in interesting times as far as the Mac UI goes. A lot of people don’t like Liquid Glass, even in its refined macOS 27 state and would prefer something that looks more at home in Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or maybe something in between. While I still think the older versions of Mac OS X look pretty good today (Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was a high point in my opinion), I’ve gotten used to the new UI and appreciate the return to some consistency in macOS 27. While not a Mac, I’ve been using windows on my iPad mini more often (mostly cascaded, rather than tiled) and it’s a bit jarring how some apps still have custom toolbars or put the “stoplight” button in a slightly different place.

Additionally, Steven Aquino makes some great points regarding accessibility:

…VoiceOver, for instance, gives developers proper labels “for free” when using stock UI elements. Likewise, features such as Dynamic Type are built to, in Tim Cook’s parlance, work seamlessly together with stock controls. Of course app makers must do some legwork to fully support accessibility; the salient point is only that Apple’s programmers and designers have done lots of the necessary legwork from Apple Park. These aren’t trivial gains—for developers or their users.

Similar to custom iOS interfaces not scaling well for new phone sizes or iPads (or the forthcoming iPhone Duo being a whole different beast), accessibility coming along for the ride with minimal effort makes sense. As much as I can appreciate the desire to fight Apple’s worst interface designs, I think a better alternative is to make the best of it and focus on how this can be a versatile and adaptive experience for everyone.

Snippet: Profile of Mark Zuckerberg ☇

Jeremy Stern for Colossus:

For 23 years, the single fact dominating every moment of every room he’s been in is that he is Mark Zuckerberg. It’s been true not just at Meta but in his Congressional testimonies and court proceedings, at Taylor Swift concerts and the Prada runway show at Milan Fashion Week, at dinners with friends and the birthday parties of his daughters’ friends. It’s been true even in his meetings with heads of state, including his own commanders in chief, to whom it must occur as they’ve tried at various points to squeeze and threaten and blame him for everything from electoral outcomes to ethnic cleansings, that one day they will be out of office, and eventually dead, while Zuckerberg—whose unique majority control of Meta’s voting power makes his removal effectively impossible—could in 50 years still be ruler of his empire. Today, that empire has 3.6 billion users, a market capitalization of $1.6 trillion, and has averaged, over nearly a quarter century, the addition of a zero to its valuation roughly once every U.S. presidential term.

I listened to this in podcast form read by Scott Brick while in the car on Saturday and it is a fascinatingly verbose piece. Although I’m not a fan of a lot of what Zuckerberg has “built” (or the effects of it), the piece demonstrates how challenging and isolating the role can be and I think profiles him in a bittersweet light.

Snippet: I’m Tired of Being on the Network ☇

Mat Duggan:

So every few years I buy the identical slab of metal and glass. I admire the color for a moment, because color is the only decision left to make. The last honest pleasure in a new phone is peeling the plastic film off the screen after which the box contains nothing of interest. I put the slab in a case so durable I never see the color again, restore from backup, and everything the old slab knew migrates, whole and continuous, into the new one. A soul transfer, over Wi-Fi, in ninety seconds. I feel nothing for the old slab, despite years of daily intimacy. I hand it off or sell it and never think of it again.

I’ve unintentionally been on a retro computing kick throughout this whole year. It’s interesting how tech used to age, as certain things would wear or not hold up over time. Every device had its own personality. Today? As long as you take care of them, most iPhones and iPads will hold up remarkably well and you’ll replace them with another when you get bored or want some new features. I don’t think people are going to be seeking out decade-old devices like they do with old computers. Services will drop support or batteries will eventually degrade and you’ll have a very nice object that does nothing. Contrast that with an old computer from the ’80s or ’90s that might need new capacitors or an add-on to replace long-dead obscure hardware, but it wasn’t left behind because its existence was never really defined by the Internet.

Snippet: Kate & Veronica at the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest ☇

A week and a half ago, I made the trip out to Schaumburg, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago if you’re not familiar) to attend the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest. I was only able to attend on Sunday, and wasn’t quite sure what to expect. In my head, I had planned on documenting the entire experience for an upcoming episode of Magical & Revolutionary, but was basically gobsmacked the minute I walked in the door—there was so much wonderful vintage tech and people simply enjoying both that and the camaraderie in general. I took quite a few pictures and want to get them up in a future post, so this won’t be the last of VCF Midwest for this year here. At this point, I plan on attending next year, too!

Consequently, Kate Fox (aka “Macintosh Librarian”) and Veronica Explains have started a new podcast, aptly-titled Kate & Veronica and it’s been a nice departure from the increasing trope of middle-aged-white-guys-talking-about-tech-but-drifting-to-AI. Their second episode took to the VCF Midwest floor during breaks of running their own booths, and it’s a fun ride—I’ve linked the video version from YouTube, but I highly recommend subscribing in your favorite podcast client, too.

Snippet: “59.94Hz is Standard on Televisions in North America.” ☇

Marcin Wichary:

A big screen carries with it different UI expectations, and how that manifests itself in Apple TV’s Settings app, is that there’s always room for an additional hint about the thing you’ve just selected.

So yes, I have been exploring Apple TV’s Settings after the recent update like any normal person would, and I have noticed how well-written those are. They help navigate difficult technical things, and they’re not afraid to get conversational, or offer advice, or even commentary…but they always seem to stay succinct and on-point. I think they’re worth studying.

I use my Apple TV daily, but it’s become a set-and-forget kind of gadget. Even with software updates, I rarely dig into the Settings app, so it’s interesting to see Wichary take the time and point out how good Apple’s copywriting is. There are a lot of technical options, but the explanations are simple and clear.

That’s a stark contrast to some of the cutesy text that has been appearing more and more elsewhere—Windows 11 has quite a few useless phrases that are infuriating when you’re trying to troubleshoot “updates are underway” or “good things are coming” (Narrator: they weren’t.) “Sit tight” has become a go-to across all sorts of waiting screens on web sites—what was wrong with “Loading…” or “Please wait?” Another one that I feel like is getting way too much use is “rest assured” in the language of error messages. In the case of the Apple TV, Apple finds the right balance of understanding that not everyone knows every technical detail, but also doesn’t treat the user like a complete moron.