Belated Liquid Glass on iPhone first impressions
4 months ago
- #Apple
- #iOS
- #Design
- Author reluctantly updated iPhone SE (3rd gen) from iOS 18.7.2 to iOS 26.2.
- iOS 18.7.3 is no longer available via beta updates without enabling iCloud.
- Apple has stopped providing iOS 18.7.3 on the beta track and limited restore images to iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max.
- iOS 18 is effectively discontinued on most devices, leaving iOS 18.7.2 vulnerable to security exploits.
- Author criticizes Apple's design changes, particularly the new animations in iOS 26.
- Reduce Motion and Prefer Cross-Fade Transitions settings can mitigate some animation annoyances.
- Author highlights visual glitches in iOS 26, describing it as 'two-thirds-baked'.
- Enabled various accessibility settings (Reduce Transparency, Show Borders, On/Off Labels, Tinted Liquid Glass) to improve experience.
- Criticizes the slow Safari extension popup animation and filed a bug report (FB21387909).
- Condemns the replacement of close buttons with checkboxes, calling it confusing and poorly designed.