I’m open to work. Sorry to start this weeknote with a blatant plug, but it is what it is. A long-term engagement ended last week, and I’m now looking for what’s next. If you or anyone you know needs someone to smash some words into shape (articles, case studies, press releases, App Store page copy, poems about your favourite giraffe, etc), please let me know.

WWDC25 happened. You probably noticed. I wrote about it:

• Liquid Glass: Apple vs accessibility digs into the accessibility implications of Apple’s new design language.
• Apple’s Liquid Glass looks like it’s beamed in from the movies. I don’t think that’s a good thing is a broader response to the aesthetic decisions Apple has made.
• Hands on with iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 – what’s slick and what’s half-glassed? in turn looks at Liquid Glass, unified iPhone app layouts, and iPad windowing.
• I got hands on with the next-gen iPad software: has Apple finally fixed iPad multitasking? is a deeper dive hands-on with the new iPad windowing system, which I really like.
• The quiet exit of the Home indicator in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 is another positive piece, with Apple (in the earliest dev betas at least) fixing one of my long-standing gripes about iOS and iPadOS.

Here are some of my favourite WWDC25 pieces from others:

• Joanna Stern’s superb interview with Apple software chief Craig Federighi and marketing head Greg Joswiak: full interview | short version.
• Fidelity in design by Howard Oakley criticises Apple’s ongoing obsession with windows that have rounded corners. As I’ve said elsewhere, it half feels like the next macOS will have fully circular windows. Even today, rounded corners cause other problems, not least on iPadOS.
• WWDC25: macOS Tahoe Breaks Decades of Finder History by Stephen Hackett skewers the abysmal redesign of Finder’s icon.
• Clip got stuck in notarization hell, says creator Riley Testut, with Apple rejecting his app because it didn’t do anything if Full Access wasn’t enabled. Thing is, that’s none of Apple’s business with an app for a third-party app store, like this one is. This is surely yet another DMA violation the EU won’t be happy about.
• Craig Federighi sounded like he was taking the piss with this exclamation: “Wow! More windows, a pointier pointer and a menu bar? Who’d have thought? We’ve truly pulled off a mindblowing release!” Maybe he was trying to acknowledge that Apple, after many years, had finally reached an obvious fix for iPad interactions. At best, something got lost in the edit.

Phew. Moving on. Ish…

The Apple Games app falls short. Huge shock, I’m sure. I wrote about my hopes for it last month. Here’s how Apple fared with my wish list:

1. Nail the basics: All covered, but sometimes implemented poorly.
2. Highlight controller support: Surprisingly, yes. But buried (Library > hamburger).
3. Add landscape support: Yes.
4. Embrace openness (LOL): Indeed a LOL so far – not even any app pinning, which is insane.
5. Recommend good games: No better than App Store, alas.
6. Not get bored after 11 seconds: We shall see…

Also on games, Daryl Baxter argued Apple should draw on the Pippin for a new iPhone gaming controller. Brave bringing up Pippin at all, but I get where he’s coming from in wanting a controller that could have AirPods-like multi-device pairing. However, I’d be concerned Apple would try to reinvent gamepads, like it did during the MFi disaster.

However, I disagree with Baxter’s argument that “other inputs work terribly with gaming”, by which he means non-traditional ones. With conventional gaming, sure, touchscreens aren’t ideal. But when you design specifically for them, that forces you to rethink gaming conventions, which can lead to innovative ideas. The problem today is relatively few games are iPhone-first because Apple pissed off so many devs. Instead, games come to the iPhone from other platforms, where they’re designed for gamepads. That makes the touchscreen’s perceived limitations more apparent.

AI is still doing bad things. I enjoyed a quote from planetmatt on Bluesky: “AI looks impressive in every area in which you are not a subject matter expert. In that area, it’s always a joke.”

I’m seeing this a lot these days, notably from people who think ChatGPT can generate amazing copy because it can write better than they can. But it falls short of what writers can do. Turns out, ChatGPT also falls short of an Atari 2600 when playing chess and in, um, not driving people mad. Oh dear. One piece of AI good news, though: Wikipedia has paused AI-gen summaries after an editor backlash. As Suw wryly noted on Bluesky: “But… most Wikipedia articles already have a summary. It’s the first few paragraphs at the top of the page.”

More things!

Good news in apps: superb camera Obscura has been added to my classic apps series. Thanks to Ben Rice McCarthy for their thoughtful answers.

Bad news in apps: Sega discontinues Sega Forever mobile games. In hindsight, that series didn’t have the smartest name.

Bank warnings have jumped the shark. It’s bad enough when I get scary warnings when making purchases on national retailer websites. But this week I got one when transferring money between two accounts with a bank, while using the bank’s own website. Naturally, this is banks shifting responsibility on to customers. When a customer gets scammed, the bank will say they were warned. But they’re training users just to click OK for everything.

New coeliac tests incoming. A report claims this will remove the need for a ‘gluten challenge’, where you test for coeliac disease by consuming loads of gluten over a period of weeks. Despite many years of increasingly serious issues that may map to coeliac, I’ve never had a test. I’d be too scared, because it would leave me bedridden and unable to function. So this new news is very good news.

Twitter isn’t coming back – ever. I’m still seeing people on Bluesky (and, very occasionally, Mastodon) sad that Twitter is gone. To be fair, when I left in 2023, it was a wrench. Lots of friends and communities were lost to me. But even then, I missed what Twitter was, not what it had become. Today, I very rarely venture on to X, but have sanity-checked my ‘filter’ feeds, and most of the folks I followed have gone too. Maybe half are now on Bluesky and Mastodon. I’ve no idea about the others.

There still seems to be this idea we can somehow press a magic button to bring Twitter back, but it was a moment in time. Even if X wasn’t a hellhole today, the way the world has changed would make it a very different place from back in 2015. And, as it is, X is a ghoul wearing Twitter’s bloody corpse as a onesie. Enough.

No-mow May has become no-mow June. Again. And I’m fine with that. I enjoy letting the front garden grow and just seeing what happens. It feels alive, unlike gardens mown like a buzzcut every week. We have crickets and gigantic Oxeye daisies. The mow-happy… don’t.

To say iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have been divisive is putting things mildly. Much of that is down to Liquid Glass, which at best needs a lot of optimisation before these operating systems ship later this year. But look beyond that and there’s a lot to like, the most notable revamped feature being vastly improved iPad windowing.

Often, though, it’s smaller changes that can make or break an operating system. And one change has me doing a happy dance: the Home indicator no longer scythes across the bottom of the screen, above the app you’re using. I’ve grumbled about the Home indicator for years. I wanted an off switch – the means to get rid of it for good. Because the last thing I need when playing a game, using a music app, or reading, is a distracting line lurking at the bottom of the screen.

In the ’26’ dev betas, Apple hasn’t provided an off switch in Settings, but it has introduced the next best thing. Actually, it’s arguably created something better. When you switch to an app, the Home indicator now elegantly fades. Further interaction with the app doesn’t make it reappear. Instead, you have to make a deliberate upwards swipe from the bottom of the screen to bring it back.

I’m no fan of hidden UI. Apple seems a bit obsessed with hiding settings, menus and tabs away, and that can make things difficult for people. But just this once, I’m going to make an exception, because the interface element I least liked on iPhone and iPad is no longer an irritant and a nuisance – it’s there when I need it and gone when I don’t.

Edit: As per a comment I received, I should note that the ability to switch between apps with a swipe at the very bottom of the display remains, regardless of whether the Home indicator is visible. So what Apple has removed is the visual distraction, not the functionality. When you swipe, the indicator immediately reappears.

The keynote for Apple’s developer conference was held yesterday. Much of it involved Apple executives hyping Apple’s “delightful and elegant new software design”. In short, it’s like Windows Vista, visionOS and the interfaces in Minority Report had a baby. As I explain in a column for Stuff, I’m not thrilled about this new direction.

Online, I’ve seen plenty of pushback against those complaining. A common thread appears to be that Apple is a leader in accessibility and there are options to turn some Liquid Glass elements off. But there are problems with that point of view.

While I’m more writer than designer these days, I was trained in the visual arts. I was always taught that clarity and legibility should be at the forefront of anyone’s mind when designing. Surely, that’s even more the case when creating an operating system for many millions of users. Yet even in Apple’s press release, linked earlier, there are multiple screenshots where key interface components are, at best, very difficult to read. That is the new foundational point for Apple design. And those screenshots will have been designed to show the best of things.

Furthermore, Apple may be a leader in accessibility, but it is far from perfect. I first wrote about vestibular issues on this blog, back in 2012. But it was the following year, with a piece for The Guardian (Why iOS 7 is making some users sick) that the word got out there regarding major accessibility issues with a new design language. To Apple’s credit, it did listen. Changes happened. The iOS team in particular has been very responsive to my recommendations – and I’m sure also to those from others.

But the key word is responsive. Apple is still very often reactive rather than proactive regarding vision accessibility. Even today, there are major problems with the previous versions of its operating systems (one example being the vestibular trigger if you tap-hold the Focus button in Control Centre). One year on, they aren’t fixed. And now we have an entirely new design language that will upend everything and that starts from a place where clarity has been eroded, animations are even more prevalent, and broad accessibility is seemingly an afterthought.

My hope is that there will be time in this beta run for enough fixes to be made. My fear is that many of us will be waiting months for a fully usable OS, if that ever occurs. So, sure, argue against what I and others are concerned about. State, correctly, that Apple is a leader in accessibility. But stop assuming that just because this new design might be OK for you and because Apple has controls in place that might help people avoid the worst effects of design changes, everything is just peachy. Because it isn’t. Millions of people are now a coin flip away from whether or not they’ll be able to comfortably use their devices in just a few short months from now.

iCloud Photos sync is a joke. So my Stuff column this week is: All I want from WWDC25 is for iOS 26 and iCloud to finally sync my photos properly. Although after I wrote this, I discovered Apple Music had eaten half of one of my uploaded digital-only albums. And that iCloud Drive hadn’t bothered to sync a column I’d written on another computer while abroad. Why is iCloud still such a disaster? Come on, Apple.

Ruark released some new speakers. That in itself isn’t news. But it made me think about the piece I wrote, because I have two of this system’s predecessors and I love them. So this is a fairly rare example of one of those “my favourite” headlines that’s actually fully genuine.

I wrote about the great outdoors. At least, using your iPhone in it. Have a read for tips, apps and gear for making it at least somewhat less likely you’ll end up lost in a forest, all alone.

I spent last week in Spain. Which, for a range of reasons I may write about later, was much-needed. We arrived in a deluge, which was surreal, given how little rain the UK saw in May. But after that, it was sunny bliss. The one negative: the THUNK of having my passport stamped. I still hate that abrupt reminder of the stupidity of Brexit. Perhaps one day Brits will, en masse, finally recognise that freedom of movement was a gift, in all its forms, and embrace it.

Doctor Who’s latest series ended. I’m not going to get into the pros and cons of the latest episodes, but I am going to gripe about the BBC website immediately throwing up a massive headline that spoiled the final twist. Yeah, yeah, SEO blah blah blah. But it’s rubbish these days that the second a show is over, major publications clamour to get on their front pages what happened. Heaven forbid people not watch shows the second they are broadcast.

Workers are losing their jobs to AI. The Guardian interviewed a bunch of folks who’ve been hit. What depresses me most about this is companies are using AI to cut out creatives rather than to deal with the boring stuff. And the UK government’s response is to try to enshrine in law no protections for said creatives, while the Lords fights back. Absurd, really, that we’re relying on an unelected house to battle elected representatives and force the Labour Party to protect a labour market.

Covid is back, says the i. Although, of course, it never went away. I got my first dose last August and it was hideous. Naturally, the UK government is doing the square root of fuck all to prepare, as it has from the time Boris Johnson’s lot declared they’d somehow beaten an ever-evolving virus and that the threat was over. I’m not suggesting we lockdown or anything. But we could prep for autumn with air filters in workplaces and schools. We could expand booster take-up and dramatically lower their price for those who can’t get one for free. We could restart proper UK-wide monitoring and encourage mask use during spikes. But no. Let’s all bury our heads and wonder why we have more and more long-term sick.

Non-shock as study shows 20mph limits result in fewer deaths. We have a few 20mph streets in my town. Years after they were introduced, entitled muppets are still screaming about them on Facebook, eradicating any notion of further changes. Astonishingly, we still have 40mph limits in some residential parts of town. But, hey, so long as people can save 23.7 seconds driving the full length of a street, I suppose that’s somehow better than reducing injuries and deaths? Gah at these people. Hashtag Team Twenty. Etc.

I’ve been watching Murderbot. It’s on Apple TV+. My recommendation is: watch Murderbot. Because it’s really good.

Apple is reportedly working on an Apple Games app. But we’ve all played this game before, and I’m not sure it warrants an extra life. So over at Stuff, my column this week is ‘What I think the Apple Games app needs to work – and why it won’t’.

Arc browser is dead. A blog post outlines the company behind it is pivoting to new product Dia. Two things. First, I’ll be sorry to see mobile app Arc Search mothballed. It was an excellent example of the potential in AI-assisted search, serving up magazine-like synopses with full source links. Secondly, when you’ve built a niche product that commands a loyal audience and pull the rug out from underneath them, what makes you think they’ll be back for more?

I asked ChatGPT to be Jimmy Carr. This in response to his arrogant bullshit about AI being better than art and design. Doubtless, he’d argue it was a joke. But, hey, people might argue that about Carr. Anyway, my thread suggested his quippy one-liners can be adequately replaced by ChatGPT. (Or can they? Probably not! But I’m not a comedian and so don’t fully know what good looks like in the context of new puns. Which is the entire bloody point. If you don’t have humans in the loop with relevant knowledge in the subject matter at hand, GenAI is mostly some level of bad.)

AI discourse needs nuance. Following on from the above, Steve Klabnik wrote about the pros and cons of AI/LLMs and how he’s disappointed in the discourse. On Bluesky, Prof. Christina Pagel suggested LLMs have benefits and that public comms arguing against them mostly comes from AI-hating journos.

I’d say there are intertwined issues here. LLM creators oversell. Consumers and managers assume LLMs can do everything and replace humans when they ultimately need expertise at each end of the process – and for those people to know what good looks like. Much of the pushback I’m seeing about GenAI/LLMs is actually from educators rather than tech hacks like me, because students are using this tech as an alternative to thinking. But also, many creators are staring aghast at LLM output making it to public eyes and asking: why? (Answer: if an LLM can churn out, say, some text that’s better than what the prompt author could write themselves, it looks good to them. And right now, that seems to be what many folks are going with. Which means a massive WOMP WOMP for writers like me who actually care about quality output.)

What we need is more nuanced discussion. GenAI and LLMs can be beneficial. They can also be terrible. Often, they’re somewhere in between. But you get way more eyeballs online when you argue something is the Best Thing Ever™ or evil incarnate. As ever: sigh.

However, Nick Clegg discourse needs no nuance. Following on from the above and the ‘above above’, Nick Clegg can go fuck himself. As can the current Labour government when it comes to AI policy. Constant whining (the latest being from Clegg, but various Labour figures have said the same) that the AI industry cannot survive if it has to ask permission to use the content it ingests and recycles (or even be transparent about what content is used) is irksome beyond belief. If your business model depends on mass copyright infringement, maybe you don’t have a business model.

Again, I feel the need to point out that the UK’s copyright laws are so strict that it in almost all circumstances remains illegal for a consumer to rip a CD they’ve bought to their own computer, for entirely personal use. Yet every single thing you’ve ever created should be freely available for a handful of AI companies, because their business model depends on that? Pfft. Anyone else up for starting a company whose business model depends on giving away Nick Clegg’s stupid book for free? Something tells me he wouldn’t be so supportive of that.

Bluesky is dying. Apparently. There was a lot of THE SKY IS FALLING this past week, with people posting stats that show the site trending towards approx minus fifty billion users by next Friday. Reality: things there seem… fine? There still seem to be many folks happily nattering away, rather than slinking back to Musk’s bosom. But author Jarrett Walker’s post caught my eye, basically being an argument that he should stay on X because 40% of his audience wouldn’t follow him if he quit. My take: if I were still posting in the Nazi bar and half my followers said they’d scoot over to somewhere else, I’d take that as a win. But then I don’t care much about numbers. 

Just as well, TBH, given my actual numbers. Then again, I’ve always thought it’s about who is reading rather than how many people. This blog’s stats will never set the world on fire, and yet my writing here is the reason I’m writing for Stuff. (An ex-editor was – maybe still is – a reader.) Over on Bluesky and Mastodon, I’m not posting there in an attempt to amass an audience that can fill Wembley Stadium. I’m just parping out random thoughts and having nice chats with lovely folks. That’s enough for me. (Unless, you know, you’re an editor who’d like to employ me. Because I wouldn’t say no to that right now.)

The Phoenix Comic reached 700 issues. A phenomenal achievement in a tough market. If you’re in the UK and have/know a kid in the 7–12 range (or fancy reading fun comics yourself), there’s a zero-risk trial that nets you six issues for a quid. Barg.