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1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 18:59:56 JST Aral Balkan

   Warning: kissing fascist ass may result in liquid glass.

   So my phone tricked me into updating to iOS 26 (nice one, asshats). And wow: it really is a case study in form over function. Gratuitous, meaningless aesthetics and motion. Decoration, not design. “Look what I can do!”

   Oh well, if it gets me using my phone less, that’s a good thing, I guess.

   But the next time you hear someone from Apple talking about design, please feel free to laugh in their damn faces. What a sad joke they’ve become.

   #apple #ios26 #liquidAss #design #decoration #BigTech #fascism #aesthetics

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 19:09:32 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     Apple cares so much about accessibility that they are now baking accessibility needs into their interfaces just so you can experience their accessibility features.

     If you’ve been tricked into updating to iOS 26 also (because, really, what numbskull in their right mind would subject themselves willingly to that Shakespearian clusterfuck?), the reduce transparency and reduce motion accessibility settings are your friend.

     Sure, your phone will look and feel worse than before but that’s a small price to pay for progess, amirite? Now stop your bitching before Apple sets ICE on you or something.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 19:26:28 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     Goodness those pop-up menu animations are the worst. And no way to disable them (reduce motion doesn’t affect them). Meaningless, gratuitous skeuomorphism that fails at even the basics of modeling the physical integrity of its source material.
     What a shit show.

     Liquid Ass should be a cautionary case study in Interface Design 101.

     *smdh*

     #ios26 #accessibility #design #decoration

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 19:28:28 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     Liquid Ass: Because you’ve always wanted to see your face morph into a back button™

     Alexandre Oliva likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 19:50:27 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     Nah, fuck it, turned everything back on again. Why should I fix your damn broken interface and fool myself into thinking this piece of shit is anything but? Going to experience iOS 26 in all its enshittified glory. Will make it easier to hate this phone and move onto something more ethical once it finally croaks.

     Apple is likely one release cycle away from going full Microsoft/Google anyway.

     #ios26 #BigTech #apple #theAestheticsOfBurgeoningFascism

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:42:10 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     macOS 27 Liquid Glass updates leaked.

     #apple #LiquidGlass

   • Embed this notice
     schrotthaufen (schrotthaufen@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:44:42 JST schrotthaufen

     in reply to

     @aral The biggest dick move with this whole liquid ass clusterfuck is, that for a very brief time window one could install 18.7.3 on iPhone 11, and later. And then Apple pulled it. “Oh no! Almost everyone prefers the security only update over our nightmarish Windows Vista clone!”

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:44:42 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • schrotthaufen

     @schrotthaufen Wait, you can’t even wipe it and go back to 18? 🤬

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:48:53 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     This one weird trick will make you love Liquid Glass.

     #apple #LiquidGlass

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:53:55 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Mona app

     This is me, unable to send the previous post on @MonaApp on iOS 26 because the keyboard is covering the send button.

     (The workaround, as I’ll soon be employing for this post also, is to go to close the post, tap outside it to close the pop-up confirmation dialogue, and then use the send button, which becomes accessible again.)

     🤦♂️

     #ios26 #LiquidAss

   • Embed this notice
     John Carlsen 🇺🇸🇳🇱🇪🇺 (johnlogic@sfba.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:54:17 JST John Carlsen 🇺🇸🇳🇱🇪🇺

     in reply to

     @aral CW please

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:54:17 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • John Carlsen 🇺🇸🇳🇱🇪🇺

     @johnlogic CW: Daft interface design.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:58:26 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Metin Seven 🎨

     @metin 🤷♂️

   • Embed this notice
     Metin Seven 🎨 (metin@graphics.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 20:58:28 JST Metin Seven 🎨

     in reply to

     @aral Also, you've apparently been cancelled by Apple. 😉

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 21:05:50 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • fmarl

     @fx Indeed :)

   • Embed this notice
     fmarl (fx@chaos.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 21:05:52 JST fmarl

     in reply to

     @aral Finally an improvement

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 21:20:00 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw

     @doc Not choosing anything yet. I have a drawerful of older Linux phones that I can’t use for any meaningful day-to-day tasks (banking, paying for stuff, etc.) I’m not made of money + very conscious about contributing to landfill. Will wait until this phone croaks. Then I might look at the new Jolla phone maybe.

   • Embed this notice
     Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw (doc@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 21:20:01 JST Dr. ir. Brian R. Pauw

     in reply to

     @aral curious as to what you’ll choose. The fairphone is the obvious candidate, but then you’re saddled with Android, which has different but equally annoying ethical and usability limitations. Or am I missing something?