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There are multiple reasons why Microsoft lost the mobile race - but I'm sure that one of them is that they contrained themselves to try and imitate the Windows UI (while also supporting touch, stylus, keyboard, number-pad, joystick, jog wheel, function buttons...) on a device where it just didn't work well - whereas what-became-iOS was designed from the ground up for a multi-touch-only phone-sized device, rather than as a sort of mini-MacOS. (and Android was designed for Blackberry-like devices until the iPhone came out & it was rapidly re-fitted for touch).

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Actually, I (and many people) believe that Windows phones actually had, by far, the best user interface.

 
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They put A LOT of effort into their circle jerk of “design elements” which are very pretty but they need to put much much more into getting SIRI and AI up to speed instead of being a toy. That is the future and they are way behind
 
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It’s the same unimaginative flat design that Apple copied from Microsoft starting in 2013 with iOS 7.

Tim Cook is clueless and mediocre, which is why he fired Scott Forstall and allowed Apple to eliminate Forstall’s skeuomorphic design, which was industry-leading in terms of innovation and user-friendliness.
 
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Apple has completely stopped pretending they’re innovating. They’re just recycling old designs, making everything more boring, then marketing it as groundbreaking “innovation” while OpenAI races ahead at lightning speed. The audacity is almost impressive at this point.
One of my professors was proud that as a scientist, he might not have been the first to publish in a specific area, but he was always correct in his publications.

Remember the Zune from Microsoft? Remember the old flip phones? Apple took its time and came out with the iPhone and the iPod. If you take a look at whatever goggles facebook has or any other others and then compare it to the Vision Pro you'll see Apple took it time and jumped ahead dramatically.

I really do hope that by the time they actually do implement some AI into the software that it actually reminds us that we all buy Macs because they look well at our pleasure to use
 


With iOS 26, macOS 26, tvOS 26, and watchOS 26, Apple is planning to debut a new design that's been described as taking inspiration from visionOS, the newest operating system. With WWDC coming up soon, we thought we'd take a closer look at visionOS and some of the design details that Apple might adopt based on current rumors and leaked information.

iOS-19-visionOS-UI-Elements.jpg

1. Translucency

Inside Apple, the iOS 26 redesign project is known as "Solarium," which gives us some insight into Apple's focus. A solarium is basically an all-glass room that's designed to let in a lot of light.

visionos-files-app-translucency.jpg

Since launch, visionOS has had menus and interface elements that are translucent because in an AR/VR environment, people need to be able to see their surroundings as much as possible to feel immersed.

The translucent design elements in visionOS better blend into the background for an unobtrusive look, letting color and light from the real world blend through. It's not hard to picture how this sort of translucent design would work well in apps like Photos, which we've already seen a mockup of.

2. Floating Navigation Bars and Menus

Floating menus and navigation bars go right along with translucency. In visionOS, everything is essentially floating in the open space around you, whether you're looking at your surroundings through the passthrough camera, or a virtual reality background.

visionOS-design.jpeg

In iOS 26, Apple could replicate this effect with shading and shadowing that makes interface elements look slightly raised over the content in the background, for a soft, blurred depth effect.

spatial-photo-visionos-2.jpg

visionOS has a lot of top-aligned toolbars rather than bottom bars, so it's possible we'll see iOS shifting that way too.

3. Rounded Buttons and Interface Elements

iOS already has rounded squares and rounded rectangles for icons, notifications, menus within apps, search bars, and all of the card-style interfaces that we're used to, but visionOS is even rounder. The floating navigation bars in iOS could be pill-shaped with more starkly rounded edges.

visionos-app-icons.jpg

visionOS also has more dramatic rounding at the corners, and the app icons are fully round. iOS 26 could be rounder in general, more closely matching some of the shapes in visionOS. Leaker Jon Prosser has claimed that there will be an option for round app icons, but it's not clear if Apple would want to go in that direction for iOS because Android has long used round app icons. The iconic squircle has been one of many design features distinguishing iOS from Android.

visionos-keynote-app.jpg

4. Glassy Look

With its translucency, the visionOS interface can look almost like frosted glass. Apple's WWDC 2025 design features a frosted glass rainbow with shifting pastel colors, which is perhaps a hint at plans to adopt a frosted, sea-glass-style look that's not too far off from what we've already got in visionOS.

visionos-image-playground.jpg

visionOS actually uses a system-designed material that Apple calls glass for app windows. It lets light, virtual content, and objects in the surroundings show through menus and windows. Glass adapts to background color and provides contrast for app content while also taking into account people's physical surroundings. Apple could use a similar material design in iOS 26.

visionos-glassy-look.jpg

5. Subtle Lighting Changes

In visionOS, the translucent interface elements can interact with lighting conditions of the room the user is in. That doesn't translate to the iPhone, but iOS is apparently going to have some subtle light effects that will emphasize the translucency and glass-like design.

visionos-app-preview.jpg

In visionOS, the windows also cast shadows that are responsive to head movements. That's not something that translates to iOS, but lighting and shadow effects that shift when you move your iPhone is a possibility. In fact, Prosser claims there's a glint on the Lock Screen's Flashlight and Camera (or customized) buttons when moving the iPhone.

visionos-glass.jpg

Apple could use dynamic shadowing in apps and for widgets, and adaptive color could further the effect by allowing interface elements to blend with wallpaper and shift with ambient light.

6. Simplicity

For the most part, visionOS has a simplified design in Apple apps, with an airier feel due to the spacing that's needed to ensure people have enough room to look at a button to interact with it. iOS 26 could adopt streamlined navigation and menu elements for a less cluttered look.

visionos-2-photos-app-design.jpg

visionOS uses cleaner fonts, bolder text, and increased line height, which may or may not translate to iOS.

visionos-safari.jpg

Apple is likely taking a good look at navigation, menu options, and layout, because one of the main aspects of the redesign is more cross-platform cohesion, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He says that iOS 26 will be "simpler to use, faster to navigate, and easier to learn."

Design Consistency

It's n... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: 6 visionOS-Inspired Design Elements Coming to iOS 26

Meh?

Sounds like I can skip this one.

Hopefully will be able to turn this crap off.

Couldn’t we have just had an update that focused on fixing everything that needs fixing instead of … this?

Sigh.
 
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Glassy translucency? Why? You’re not looking through your iphone like you are in visionOS. All it will do is make stuff harder to read. Most I suspect will just turn this off (God help Apple if you can’t do that). This is just fiddling with the aesthetics of the interface when there so many actual real issues to be solved!
…That’s not why translucent exists in UI implementations usually being more akin to the benefits of dark mode in which translucent enables modals and system UI to not detach users too much from their current computing context that often is ideal for many apps like creative professional ones
 
Unless they provide value at an acceptable price. You're also acting like people will have to wear them all the time; do you hold your smartphone in front of you all the time?

Most people in 1999 would call you crazy if you predicted they would spend a grand on a telephone which they would stare at for hours at a time. Email, AOL and BBSes can wait till I get home.
"Most people in 1999 would call you crazy if you predicted they would spend a grand on a telephone which they would stare at for hours at a time."

I am still of that opinion.
 
They forgot about the upcoming Apple Watch!!!

Super Thin
Saphire glass
Titan
Fresh design

10 DAYS of battery life!!!!

IMG_2019.jpeg



And yes, I know that the upcoming Apple watch is from Huawei. But the EU is forcing 🍎 to allow better integration with iPones. So s soon s this happens rhis will be my next watch -10 DAYS!!!!

And yes I guess you can not install apps - but who cares?
 
Actually, I (and many people) believe that Windows phones actually had, by far, the best user interface.
I was referring to the Windows Mobile phones which were around when iPhone and Android launched. I had one - it was truly terrible.

You’re talking about Windows Phone 7/Metro which came out in 2010. Never used one enough to really have an opinion but, yes, what I saw impressed me at the time. Unfortunately, by then, iPhone and Android had cornered the market.

Of course, Metro crashed and burned when MS tried to force it onto PC desktops/laptops with Windows 8… which ties in to the whole theme of trying to use the same UI across fundamentally different devices…
 
…That’s not why translucent exists in UI implementations usually being more akin to the benefits of dark mode in which translucent enables modals and system UI to not detach users too much from their current computing context that often is ideal for many apps like creative professional ones
That sounds like after-the-fact rationalisation for “because we can”.

There’s a limited use for transparency if you want to dim/blur the background to draw attention to a modal dialog - but a rather better design solution is to try to find a way to avoid the modal dialog (“modal is bad” has been a part of Mac design principles since day one). I’ve used it for that on websites - but mainly because of either the limitations of cross-browser html/scripting when it comes to asynchronous programming or (to be fair) laziness.

Having a translucent background behind anything you need to read just makes it harder to read - full stop. Having a translucent border then means you need another internal border around the content,wasting screen space.
 
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Apple has completely stopped pretending they’re innovating. They’re just recycling old designs, making everything more boring, then marketing it as groundbreaking “innovation” while OpenAI races ahead at lightning speed. The audacity is almost impressive at this point.
The bandwagon is innovating, so Apple decided to truly innovate by not innovating. Now that's innovation!
 
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At some point in the future, I would wish that the interface changes were just “skin” options. Default the new but give us a setting toggle to choose previous and even retro like back to iOS 6. But i always welcome UI overhauls so im curious what this Vista..I mean Vision inspired UI will look like.
 
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I think Apple is done. They can probably stay afloat for another decade but they will eventually fall into irrelevance.

It is probably just the way the cycle is. If you look at the most relevant businesses of the 50’s, by the 90’s the landscape was made up of completely different businesses.

Apple has had its wave of success. I’m really convinced they won’t be relevant in a decade or so. Something else will come in with some innovative ideas, driven by fresh leadership and we will be in a new cycle.


For the first time in two decades I’m considering getting rid of iPhone and get a Pixel. There is a shift on the horizon I think.
 
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Sounds to me that the first thing to do with this new "solar" iOS is to turn on high contrast mode in accessibility. If they still leave it in.

Do they have any usability team left, or it's just "thin" and "artistic" ?
 
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I think Apple is done. They can probably stay afloat for another decade but they will eventually fall into irrelevance.

It is probably just the way the cycle is. If you look at the most relevant businesses of the 50’s, by the 90’s the landscape was made up of completely different businesses.

Apple has had its wave of success. I’m really convinced they won’t be relevant in a decade or so. Something else will come in with some innovative ideas, driven by fresh leadership and we will be in a new cycle.


For the first time in two decades I’m considering getting rid of iPhone and get a Pixel. There is a shift on the horizon I think.
people have been saying the same rubbish for a decade already. Reality is apple will still be the main company which people will buy their devices from in 10 years time
 
Should be interesting to see if OCLP can make this work on Intel Macs. Not sure if they're going to overhaul the underlying rendering technologies making it harder to port. Non-Metal Macs may hit the end of the road, but they're at least 13 years old at this point. Everything has limits.

We haven't had a big interface revamp in over a decade, I'm super excited to try it out.
 
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