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The Icy-Change Edition Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Liquid Glass In iOS 26 Beta 3 Is Much Less Dramatic As Apple Optimizes Redesign For Usability, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Sorry or you’re welcome? Apple’s new Liquid Glass visual element is getting any icy design change in some places before it reaches customers. iOS 26 developer beta 3, which will likely be iOS 26 public beta 1 later this month, reduces the transparency effect in a number of places like navigation bars in certain apps.

Transparent Development, by Nick Heer, Pixel Envy

It is not evidence Apple has been wrong all along when it comes to the ideas behind Liquid Glass, though it indicates the unique problems faced when working with transparency. But, also, you would think a company that has been working with transparent interfaces for twenty-five years would have some institutional memory and know what to avoid.

Beta 3

macOS Tahoe 26 Beta 3 Makes Tabs Less Confusing, by Marcus Mendes, 9to5Mac

Apple has increased contrast and eliminated the black bar, making it much easier to spot the active tab at a glance.

The iPad Cursor Gets A Fun Mac-inspired Feature In iPadOS 26 Beta 3, by Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac

This “shake to find” feature comes in handy when you’re not sure where your cursor is at any given moment.

And now in iPadOS 26 beta 3, the same feature is coming to the iPad.

macOS 26 Beta 3 Features A New 'Tahoe Day' Aerial Screen Saver, by Marcus Mendes, 9to5Mac

With today’s beta seed, Apple included a new “Tahoe Day” screen saver that glides across the surface of Lake Tahoe’s rocky shoreline, with snow-capped mountains in the background.

Stuff

Why Does An iPhone Ignore A User-set Charge Limit?, by Glenn Fleishman, Six Colors

Why would his iPhone ignore his attempts to limit charging? We need to dig into how Apple balances battery safety and reducing wear against our stated preferences.

Notes

What Would A Cheap, Apple A18-powered MacBook Actually Be Good At?, by Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

Replacing that M1 Air, possibly with an A18-powered version that uses the exact same design, fills a gap in the Mac lineup that Apple has filled in all of its other product families. Buyers would be able to rest easier, knowing they were buying a modern product with years of software support ahead of it (Apple sometimes cuts off its "cheap" devices a year or two before higher-end ones, but it varies from device to device). And Apple has already proven that it can make and sell a MacBook that serves basic needs for way less than $1,000, without (apparently) totally wrecking demand for new MacBook Airs and Pros.

Apple Wins Fifth Circuit Challenge To US Labor Board Ruling, by Robert Iafolla, Bloomberg Law

Apple Inc. successfully challenged a National Labor Relations Board ruling that it violated federal labor law by coercively interrogating a worker and removing union literature from a break room.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the NLRB lacked substantial evidence for its finding that Apple committed those unfair labor practices at its World Trade Center store in Manhattan.

Apple, Masimo Spar Over Apple Watch Import Ban At US Appeals Court, by Blake Brittain, Reuters

Apple asked a U.S. appeals court on Monday to overturn a trade tribunal's decision which forced it to remove blood-oxygen reading technology from its Apple Watches, in order to avoid a ban on its U.S. smartwatch imports.

Bottom of the Page

Yes, I do wonder why Apple need to have these betas out in the public to realize some of the problems with Liquid Glass.

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Thanks for reading.