11 ms·

macOS becomes iOS: Safari video controls

147 points by latexr 1y ago

leakycap 1y ago
Tahoe seems to be so full of straws to break the camel's back for so many macOS users who have been slowly annoyed by the grind of version ~10.10 to 15.7
- jemmyw 1y ago
  I updated a couple of days ago. All the new transparency and blur they've added looks really bad. But then I turned on "Reduce transparency" and it's fine. There's nothing else new or different. I read a few of the stories on HN about it and was braced for a bad experience. But honestly - a few icons changing (don't care); the border radius of finder, the only Apple app I use much, changing (don't care).
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - leakycap 1y ago
    I'm glad you didn't find your straw in this version of macOS. Your lack of "caring" -as you put it- probably smooths a lot of rough edges that might be important to others.
ddtaylor 1y ago
Just modify the source code for programs you want changes to.
anon7000 1y ago
I’ve seen this in a ton of video players. This is an especially bad example. But it’s so common for the entire top third of the screen to be blurred or darkened just to display a single small UI element in a corner. Stupid design. The reason it’s especially stupid for Apple is because half of their new design system is about making content front & center.
- wpm 1y ago
  I love having to install Deno so I can run yt-dlp to download a video that I want to see a brief or small detail in when that small detail happens to be in the lower third of the video because when I pause, it puts a stupid gradient over the video or blocks it entirely with the controls. That's why the entire thrust of Liquid Glass was bad and dumb from the start. "The controls will get out of the way of your content....so we put them floating in front of your content" just absolutely braindead. There was a way to get them out of the way, give them their own space!
internet2000 1y ago
So they made a change he doesn't like, and that means merging macOS with iOS? Non-sequitur.
- rapind 1y ago
  It is a pretty dumb change though, let's be honest.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- lapcat 1y ago
  > So they made a change he doesn't like, and that means merging macOS with iOS? Non-sequitur. No. The change was made in iOS first, and then the same exact change was brought to macOS, as has happened many times now over the years.
ekvintroj 1y ago
I just need one OS and probably you too.
rTX5CMRXIfFG 1y ago
The whole thing about “merging iOS and macOS” was about combining them into a single source code, not a single design system. This is an irrational and especially dishonest and rant article.
dimal 1y ago
I’ve been on Mac for about 30 years. I’m planning my switch to Linux (probably KDE) and GrapheneOS. I can’t keep giving so much money to a company that clearly doesn’t have my interests in mind. So much of the ecosystem doesn’t “just work” anymore and now instead of fixing those issues, they are actively working to make my computing experience worse. I’ve hade enough. The more I investigate the current state of Linux desktops, the more excited I get. It seems like Linux is actually good for general use now, and I’ll have so many more options to make my technology fit me instead of the other way around.
- matthewolfe 1y ago
  What exactly doesn't "just work" anymore?
  - kcplate 1y ago
    Was going to be my question too. Mine works…
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - dimal 1y ago
    Autocomplete on iOS is a shit show. It regularly autocompletes non-grammatical text, which is unforgivable in 2025 when we have AI that can write coherent sonnets and code. Dictation is still at the same level it was at 10 years ago - complete shit. Carplay sometimes randomly starts playing music when I get in the car, other times it doesn't. My Apple Watch regularly can't find my heart rate, for long time periods. The HomePod app and Watch display incorrect information about what's playing on HomePods about 50% of the time. There's no way to filter text spam. The Messages app on MacOS doesn't let you filter by known senders. If you delete a text thread on iOS, it doesn't delete it on MacOS, so my desktop messages are cluttered with fucking donation requests from PACs. Try to do anything with Siri, even simple things like playing a song. It still makes bizarre mistakes. It can't answer basic questions about my calendar. The list is endless, really. Everything looks "delightful" as fuck. Mac and iOS fonts, colors and text padding are immaculate, so it gives the impression of solidity and competence that isn't really there. A lot of things "mostly work" but aren't reliable, so I can't rely on them. They can list them as "features" but if I can't rely on them, I can't use them, because I don't want to deal with constant frustration. They act like all their systems are this one integrated whole that works well together, but it doesn't. I don't think that everything will "just work" on Linux, but at least I won't be paying a premium for the privilege of having my needs as a disabled person ignored. I'll be able to customize my experience to meet my basic accessibility needs without fighting against a company that seems to hate me.
cadamsdotcom 1y ago
Apple internally must be a constant battle between those who want to unify iOS and macOS and those who understand they’re different systems with different purposes, and need different treatment. Craig Federighi was a strong proponent of the latter camp but maybe he’s just getting on in years. Goes to show that key people being good and caring a lot can be all that stops things from backsliding. So the battle for macOS is being slowly lost. Lucky we have KDE. If it keeps going this way my next laptop won’t have that fruit logo. And that is a real shame.
- rapind 1y ago
  I remember many years ago (Snow Leopard) I liked Apple's OS enough to build a hackintosh, because the hardware wasn't great (subjective opinion). Now I like the hardware enough, but have been gradually annoyed enough with the OS that I'd much rather be running Linux. At least I can just turn off most of the "modern" features, but I'm in that "keeping an eye out for potential alternatives" phase.
  - happymellon 1y ago
    I've been quite frustrated today with my Jabra headset constantly triggering Apple Music. There are plenty of mandatory features we unfortunately can't uninstall. I can't think of a scenario where I want Apple music on my work laptop.
    - 1bpp 1y ago
      I use https://github.com/tombonez/noTunes https://github.com/tombonez/noTunes to fix this "feature"
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    I relate to this. I loved Snow Leopard. I used Hackintosh. Now there is no way I want to use that OS and there are just too many reasons to list by now.
- sumuyuda 1y ago
  Mojave was the last macOS version that had any features I cared about. Now each release is about how bad did they trash the macOS UI. Switching to Linux has been great.
throwaway13337 1y ago
I recently went down a rabbit hole on how researchers make mice depressed so they can test antidepressants on them. The short answer is they disrupt the mouse's environment in ways that are unpredictable and uncontrollable. It's a standard protocol. We know that this causes depression. The culture of products not under the control of the customer does the same thing. A culture that sees this as normal is a depressed culture. To test whether the mice are depressed, researchers give them something rewarding that requires a little effort to get (e.g., sugary water vs. plain water). The depressed mice give up. They are apathetic. I imagine the mice believe that there is no way to change things. That might be true for the mice but it's not true for us.
- woah 1y ago
  I imagine the mice would be far more depressed if they had to get trackpad drivers to work and give a good response on Linux
  - dishsoap 1y ago
    Seems to be an insurmountable task for anyone apart from engineers at apple, let alone mice
  - yogorenapan 1y ago
    There are laptops that work with Linux and ones that don't. Nobody is forcing you to use it on a device that isn't supported
    - righthand 1y ago
      This is that depression the comment author is talking about. Apple fans will make it a point to lash out at Linux for not being a trillion dollar company supported product. Only depressed people lash out at the parts of the world where communities are trying their best.
      - lwhi 1y ago
        macOS support for anything that isn't a new Apple product is appalling.
octo888 1y ago
I also hate how the controls are on top of the content, on eg desktop and QuickTime. I want to see the entire frame when scrubbing.
seec 1y ago
Apple is quietly but surely increasing its control on macOS. That definitely makes it a less desirable desktop OS. Today when you generate a PDF from you own content (from Apple Notes app) you are asked about opening links you click on. I thought that they were surely joking and there would be a way to disable that behavior. But no, this is intended and there is no way to disable that. It makes the Preview app a pain in the ass as a PDF reader, which means you have to replace it and begs the question of even using Apple software in the first place. The answer is that there are fewer and fewer reasons. I mean if you are OK feeling like a child biking around on a cycle with training wheels while an overbearing parent keeps nagging you, it might be for you. Otherwise, the experience is really more like a prison/walled garden and the funny thing is that you paid for it !
- mmmlinux 1y ago
  last time i tried to set up a new android phone. the built in phone app asked me permissions to use the built in contacts app. people complain if the apps don't all have fine grained permissions. and then complain when they have to agree to stuff all the time. and then complain they got "hacked". damned if you do, damned if you don't.
  - DangitBobby 1y ago
    Implementation is the issue. They often forget your settings between updates. This is particularly bad on MacOS. MacOS updates and app updates both require me to re-grant permissions for the nth time! Then there's the separate issue of must-have apps requesting permissions they have no business asking for and refusing to function correctly without, and other must-have apps abusing their access for purposes not strictly limited to in-app functionality.
  - seec 1y ago
    Yes, permissions are horrid in all systems. In my opinion they are just a failure to design proper security without completely delegating the problem to the user. The funny thing is that since people who are subject to security problems will allow them regardless, defeating the entire purpose of the measures. Computer security is just a people problem; you can't solve it by child proofing stuff. Imagine a car that would prevent you going over the speed limit or ask permission every time you want to do so... But in that case, that's just beyond stupid, there is no permission for you to act on. They could have a per-document setting or an app level setting to allow opening links in PDFs without requiring the user to agree EVERY SINGLE TIME. On a document that was generated on the computer reading it. It's just complete incompetence.
dangus 1y ago
Not so related, putting the full screen button in the top left is completely annoying. No other video player puts it there.
_23sd 1y ago
I don't think I've ever appreciated a video player putting gradients above and below the controls or darkening the entire video when the controls are active. It's extremely annoying when you're trying to scrub through a video and read a particular bit of text. Why do UI designers from Apple to YouTube to Amazon think this is necessary?
- sippeangelo 1y ago
  Or putting a huge play button covering it when paused. Or taking painfully long to fade-out the UI after pressing play... The list goes on.
NoSalt 1y ago
This is one of the main reasons why I left the Macintosh ecosystem several years ago. Apple is, has been, transitioning from a computer company to a computing appliance company for many years now, and I just couldn't take it any longer. I have happily been a full time Linux user since then.
b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- lapcat 1y ago
  > Am I hearing this right? No.
cesarvarela 1y ago
No, everything is becoming visionOS.
game_the0ry 1y ago
The fact that they synced up the version numbers (macOS 26, iPadOS 26, iOS 26) is a signal that they intend to unify all OSes. My experience with iOS 26 + liquid glass (ew) on my phone has been terrible. Feels like a step backward. I am dreading upgrading my macbook bc I love it the way it is. Regrettable.
- dsego 1y ago
  Oh, it's even worse on MacOS, everything got rounder and bigger. There is no other explanation than touch enabled macs and eventual OS unification.
kemayo 1y ago
The criticism here is a bit overblown. What happened is: on recent iOS versions, when you tap a video in Safari to show the controls it slightly dims the video until the controls hide. In the latest macOS release, macOS Safari has adopted this behavior. The argument apparently being that any change at all, if it was first made on iOS, must inherently be a sign that the two platforms are merging. Now, I don't really have an opinion about this behavior (I imagine it makes it easier for the controls to always be legible, regardless of what the video content looks like?), but I'd assume that any logic that holds for it being a good idea when applied on iOS would apply just as well on macOS. It doesn't have to be a sign that they're merging, just that similar reasons to make a change can exist in both places. As such it seems like a particularly strange adjustment to hang a "macOS is turning into iOS" rant on. Particularly when there's things like "iPadOS just got macOS-style windowing and menu bars!" sitting right there.
- deleted 1y ago
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- deleted 1y ago
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- lapcat 1y ago
  > The argument apparently being that any change at all, if it was first made on iOS, must inherently be a sign that the two platforms are merging You know, it's frustrating when people just flippantly assume that someone who has been a professional Mac developer for 19 years could be so stupid. I'm not stupid. Did you notice when I said in the blog post, "as we've seen repeatedly [emphasis added] since then" and "Apple is continuing [emphasis added] to merge iOS and macOS"? Also when I said, referring to the embedded video, "This rhetorical question was presumably in response to widespread criticism." So the impression that Apple was merging iOS and macOS was already out there years ago. My criticism should be understood in the context, which is that Apple has been merging iOS and macOS for years, in many different ways, and this is just the latest example. I couldn't even enumerate all of the examples, because there have been so many. So no, the argument does not hang on this one example. It's an argument I've been making since at least Mac OS X Lion, 14 years ago. I don't expect you to know my full history. However, I expect comments to follow the HN guidelines, which say "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." > I'd assume that any logic that holds for it being a good idea when applied on iOS would apply just as well on macOS. Why would you assume this? The two platforms are very different in physical characteristics. This is a principal objection to merging the platforms, especially merging the user interfaces. What makes sense for a tiny touch screen doesn't necessarily make sense for a much larger screen with keyboard and mouse input.
jajuuka 1y ago
A change in webkit (which both OS's have used forever) somehow means they are merging iOS and macOS? I'm not following this logic at all.
- chrisbrandow 1y ago
  it's not a change in webkit. the webpage just displays the current OS video player. i read the page in Sequoia and it shows the old version
mimsee 1y ago
Apple also built a custom video element for web they use for their events. See the Apple Events page[0] and click "Watch the event". It also seems to dim the video when mousing over. I kinda like the design, but the animations seem a tad bit slow. [0]: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/ https://www.apple.com/apple-events/
pier25 1y ago
I love Apple Silicon and hope Apple tones down all the iOSification of macOS. It's a mistake.
alberth 1y ago
Since the thread is slipping into a Liquid Glass topic … Question: does anyone have anything good to say about Liquid Glass?
- kemayo 1y ago
  I like how it looks. It's nice to have a fairly-minor shake-up in the aesthetics every now and then, and it makes everything feel a bit fresh and new. And I do sincerely find it fairly minor -- things got a bit rounder and glossier, and there's a few bits of iOS that have some fairly cute glass-distortion effects, and some apps got some not-huge UI redesigns. Overall, particularly on my phone, it's just giving me an occasional pleasant burst of "ooh, shiny". On my laptop, I admittedly barely notice anything has changed. (I don't personally have any legibility issues with it, though I'm willing to believe that's down to individual usage patterns.)
- kstrauser 1y ago
  1) Aesthetically, I think it's pretty. That's a subjective opinion, though. 2) I vastly prefer it displaying buttons as buttons, instead of as just undifferentiated text on a screen. In the past I've sometimes been frustrated that an app didn't have a feature I wanted, only to learn that it actually had that feature, hidden behind what I'd assumed was just a text label but was actually a button. This is an enormous freaking improvement. 3) I very much prefer the new UI patterns in other places. For example, when highlighting text on iOS, the old UI gives a horizontally scrolling list of options with arrow keys to rotate through them. The new UI replaces that with a ">" More button that pops up a vertical list of all available actions. Again, this is an enormous freaking improvement. I like the appearance of Liquid Glass, but that could go either way. I think the actual UI implementation behind the graphics is so much better than before.
- wpm 1y ago
  There is something about the font weights or I dunno in the context menus on macOS Tahoe that I really like. Somehow, they feel a lot more readable than they did from Big Sur to Sequoia. And even if I think they utterly botched the concept and execution, I will always cheer the death of "minimullizm" that destroyed Aqua. I've absolutely loathed how macOS looks since Big Sur.
ZhiqiangWang 1y ago
The biggest difference between macOS and iOS is file system access. One day macOS terminal will disappear, just a matter of time.
chrisbrandow 1y ago
the liquid glass video controls on iOS absolutely does obscure more of the content than the pre-26 players did and it's not even close. it's just UI chrome for its own sake
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
Razengan 1y ago
Oh god that darkening infuriates me as well
hirvi74 1y ago
Tahoe is my favorite macOS since Snow Leopard. I really enjoy how everything looks overall. Sure, it's not perfect, but I can't remember any OS that truly ever was. I feel as though people will always find something to complain about.
baxuz 1y ago
The new Safari is absolutely horrid: https://bsky.app/profile/infrequently.org/post/3lztots6lgc35 https://bsky.app/profile/infrequently.org/post/3lztots6lgc35

147 points by latexr 1y ago

Tahoe seems to be so full of straws to break the camel's back for so many macOS users who have been slowly annoyed by the grind of version ~10.10 to 15.7

jemmyw 1y ago
I updated a couple of days ago. All the new transparency and blur they've added looks really bad. But then I turned on "Reduce transparency" and it's fine. There's nothing else new or different. I read a few of the stories on HN about it and was braced for a bad experience. But honestly - a few icons changing (don't care); the border radius of finder, the only Apple app I use much, changing (don't care).
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- leakycap 1y ago
  I'm glad you didn't find your straw in this version of macOS. Your lack of "caring" -as you put it- probably smooths a lot of rough edges that might be important to others.

ddtaylor 1y ago

Just modify the source code for programs you want changes to.

anon7000 1y ago

I’ve seen this in a ton of video players. This is an especially bad example. But it’s so common for the entire top third of the screen to be blurred or darkened just to display a single small UI element in a corner. Stupid design. The reason it’s especially stupid for Apple is because half of their new design system is about making content front & center.

wpm 1y ago
I love having to install Deno so I can run yt-dlp to download a video that I want to see a brief or small detail in when that small detail happens to be in the lower third of the video because when I pause, it puts a stupid gradient over the video or blocks it entirely with the controls. That's why the entire thrust of Liquid Glass was bad and dumb from the start. "The controls will get out of the way of your content....so we put them floating in front of your content" just absolutely braindead. There was a way to get them out of the way, give them their own space!

internet2000 1y ago

So they made a change he doesn't like, and that means merging macOS with iOS? Non-sequitur.

rapind 1y ago
It is a pretty dumb change though, let's be honest.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
lapcat 1y ago
> So they made a change he doesn't like, and that means merging macOS with iOS? Non-sequitur. No. The change was made in iOS first, and then the same exact change was brought to macOS, as has happened many times now over the years.

ekvintroj 1y ago

I just need one OS and probably you too.

rTX5CMRXIfFG 1y ago

The whole thing about “merging iOS and macOS” was about combining them into a single source code, not a single design system. This is an irrational and especially dishonest and rant article.

dimal 1y ago

I’ve been on Mac for about 30 years. I’m planning my switch to Linux (probably KDE) and GrapheneOS. I can’t keep giving so much money to a company that clearly doesn’t have my interests in mind. So much of the ecosystem doesn’t “just work” anymore and now instead of fixing those issues, they are actively working to make my computing experience worse. I’ve hade enough. The more I investigate the current state of Linux desktops, the more excited I get. It seems like Linux is actually good for general use now, and I’ll have so many more options to make my technology fit me instead of the other way around.

matthewolfe 1y ago
What exactly doesn't "just work" anymore?
- kcplate 1y ago
  Was going to be my question too. Mine works…
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- dimal 1y ago
  Autocomplete on iOS is a shit show. It regularly autocompletes non-grammatical text, which is unforgivable in 2025 when we have AI that can write coherent sonnets and code. Dictation is still at the same level it was at 10 years ago - complete shit. Carplay sometimes randomly starts playing music when I get in the car, other times it doesn't. My Apple Watch regularly can't find my heart rate, for long time periods. The HomePod app and Watch display incorrect information about what's playing on HomePods about 50% of the time. There's no way to filter text spam. The Messages app on MacOS doesn't let you filter by known senders. If you delete a text thread on iOS, it doesn't delete it on MacOS, so my desktop messages are cluttered with fucking donation requests from PACs. Try to do anything with Siri, even simple things like playing a song. It still makes bizarre mistakes. It can't answer basic questions about my calendar. The list is endless, really. Everything looks "delightful" as fuck. Mac and iOS fonts, colors and text padding are immaculate, so it gives the impression of solidity and competence that isn't really there. A lot of things "mostly work" but aren't reliable, so I can't rely on them. They can list them as "features" but if I can't rely on them, I can't use them, because I don't want to deal with constant frustration. They act like all their systems are this one integrated whole that works well together, but it doesn't. I don't think that everything will "just work" on Linux, but at least I won't be paying a premium for the privilege of having my needs as a disabled person ignored. I'll be able to customize my experience to meet my basic accessibility needs without fighting against a company that seems to hate me.

cadamsdotcom 1y ago

Apple internally must be a constant battle between those who want to unify iOS and macOS and those who understand they’re different systems with different purposes, and need different treatment. Craig Federighi was a strong proponent of the latter camp but maybe he’s just getting on in years. Goes to show that key people being good and caring a lot can be all that stops things from backsliding. So the battle for macOS is being slowly lost. Lucky we have KDE. If it keeps going this way my next laptop won’t have that fruit logo. And that is a real shame.

rapind 1y ago
I remember many years ago (Snow Leopard) I liked Apple's OS enough to build a hackintosh, because the hardware wasn't great (subjective opinion). Now I like the hardware enough, but have been gradually annoyed enough with the OS that I'd much rather be running Linux. At least I can just turn off most of the "modern" features, but I'm in that "keeping an eye out for potential alternatives" phase.
- happymellon 1y ago
  I've been quite frustrated today with my Jabra headset constantly triggering Apple Music. There are plenty of mandatory features we unfortunately can't uninstall. I can't think of a scenario where I want Apple music on my work laptop.
  - 1bpp 1y ago
    I use https://github.com/tombonez/noTunes https://github.com/tombonez/noTunes to fix this "feature"
- johnisgood 1y ago
  I relate to this. I loved Snow Leopard. I used Hackintosh. Now there is no way I want to use that OS and there are just too many reasons to list by now.
sumuyuda 1y ago
Mojave was the last macOS version that had any features I cared about. Now each release is about how bad did they trash the macOS UI. Switching to Linux has been great.

throwaway13337 1y ago

I recently went down a rabbit hole on how researchers make mice depressed so they can test antidepressants on them. The short answer is they disrupt the mouse's environment in ways that are unpredictable and uncontrollable. It's a standard protocol. We know that this causes depression. The culture of products not under the control of the customer does the same thing. A culture that sees this as normal is a depressed culture. To test whether the mice are depressed, researchers give them something rewarding that requires a little effort to get (e.g., sugary water vs. plain water). The depressed mice give up. They are apathetic. I imagine the mice believe that there is no way to change things. That might be true for the mice but it's not true for us.

woah 1y ago
I imagine the mice would be far more depressed if they had to get trackpad drivers to work and give a good response on Linux
- dishsoap 1y ago
  Seems to be an insurmountable task for anyone apart from engineers at apple, let alone mice
- yogorenapan 1y ago
  There are laptops that work with Linux and ones that don't. Nobody is forcing you to use it on a device that isn't supported
  - righthand 1y ago
    This is that depression the comment author is talking about. Apple fans will make it a point to lash out at Linux for not being a trillion dollar company supported product. Only depressed people lash out at the parts of the world where communities are trying their best.
    - lwhi 1y ago
      macOS support for anything that isn't a new Apple product is appalling.

octo888 1y ago

I also hate how the controls are on top of the content, on eg desktop and QuickTime. I want to see the entire frame when scrubbing.

seec 1y ago

Apple is quietly but surely increasing its control on macOS. That definitely makes it a less desirable desktop OS. Today when you generate a PDF from you own content (from Apple Notes app) you are asked about opening links you click on. I thought that they were surely joking and there would be a way to disable that behavior. But no, this is intended and there is no way to disable that. It makes the Preview app a pain in the ass as a PDF reader, which means you have to replace it and begs the question of even using Apple software in the first place. The answer is that there are fewer and fewer reasons. I mean if you are OK feeling like a child biking around on a cycle with training wheels while an overbearing parent keeps nagging you, it might be for you. Otherwise, the experience is really more like a prison/walled garden and the funny thing is that you paid for it !

mmmlinux 1y ago
last time i tried to set up a new android phone. the built in phone app asked me permissions to use the built in contacts app. people complain if the apps don't all have fine grained permissions. and then complain when they have to agree to stuff all the time. and then complain they got "hacked". damned if you do, damned if you don't.
- DangitBobby 1y ago
  Implementation is the issue. They often forget your settings between updates. This is particularly bad on MacOS. MacOS updates and app updates both require me to re-grant permissions for the nth time! Then there's the separate issue of must-have apps requesting permissions they have no business asking for and refusing to function correctly without, and other must-have apps abusing their access for purposes not strictly limited to in-app functionality.
- seec 1y ago
  Yes, permissions are horrid in all systems. In my opinion they are just a failure to design proper security without completely delegating the problem to the user. The funny thing is that since people who are subject to security problems will allow them regardless, defeating the entire purpose of the measures. Computer security is just a people problem; you can't solve it by child proofing stuff. Imagine a car that would prevent you going over the speed limit or ask permission every time you want to do so... But in that case, that's just beyond stupid, there is no permission for you to act on. They could have a per-document setting or an app level setting to allow opening links in PDFs without requiring the user to agree EVERY SINGLE TIME. On a document that was generated on the computer reading it. It's just complete incompetence.

dangus 1y ago

Not so related, putting the full screen button in the top left is completely annoying. No other video player puts it there.

_23sd 1y ago

I don't think I've ever appreciated a video player putting gradients above and below the controls or darkening the entire video when the controls are active. It's extremely annoying when you're trying to scrub through a video and read a particular bit of text. Why do UI designers from Apple to YouTube to Amazon think this is necessary?

sippeangelo 1y ago
Or putting a huge play button covering it when paused. Or taking painfully long to fade-out the UI after pressing play... The list goes on.

NoSalt 1y ago

This is one of the main reasons why I left the Macintosh ecosystem several years ago. Apple is, has been, transitioning from a computer company to a computing appliance company for many years now, and I just couldn't take it any longer. I have happily been a full time Linux user since then.

b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago

[flagged]

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
lapcat 1y ago
> Am I hearing this right? No.

cesarvarela 1y ago

No, everything is becoming visionOS.

game_the0ry 1y ago

The fact that they synced up the version numbers (macOS 26, iPadOS 26, iOS 26) is a signal that they intend to unify all OSes. My experience with iOS 26 + liquid glass (ew) on my phone has been terrible. Feels like a step backward. I am dreading upgrading my macbook bc I love it the way it is. Regrettable.

dsego 1y ago
Oh, it's even worse on MacOS, everything got rounder and bigger. There is no other explanation than touch enabled macs and eventual OS unification.

kemayo 1y ago

The criticism here is a bit overblown. What happened is: on recent iOS versions, when you tap a video in Safari to show the controls it slightly dims the video until the controls hide. In the latest macOS release, macOS Safari has adopted this behavior. The argument apparently being that any change at all, if it was first made on iOS, must inherently be a sign that the two platforms are merging. Now, I don't really have an opinion about this behavior (I imagine it makes it easier for the controls to always be legible, regardless of what the video content looks like?), but I'd assume that any logic that holds for it being a good idea when applied on iOS would apply just as well on macOS. It doesn't have to be a sign that they're merging, just that similar reasons to make a change can exist in both places. As such it seems like a particularly strange adjustment to hang a "macOS is turning into iOS" rant on. Particularly when there's things like "iPadOS just got macOS-style windowing and menu bars!" sitting right there.

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lapcat 1y ago
> The argument apparently being that any change at all, if it was first made on iOS, must inherently be a sign that the two platforms are merging You know, it's frustrating when people just flippantly assume that someone who has been a professional Mac developer for 19 years could be so stupid. I'm not stupid. Did you notice when I said in the blog post, "as we've seen repeatedly [emphasis added] since then" and "Apple is continuing [emphasis added] to merge iOS and macOS"? Also when I said, referring to the embedded video, "This rhetorical question was presumably in response to widespread criticism." So the impression that Apple was merging iOS and macOS was already out there years ago. My criticism should be understood in the context, which is that Apple has been merging iOS and macOS for years, in many different ways, and this is just the latest example. I couldn't even enumerate all of the examples, because there have been so many. So no, the argument does not hang on this one example. It's an argument I've been making since at least Mac OS X Lion, 14 years ago. I don't expect you to know my full history. However, I expect comments to follow the HN guidelines, which say "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." > I'd assume that any logic that holds for it being a good idea when applied on iOS would apply just as well on macOS. Why would you assume this? The two platforms are very different in physical characteristics. This is a principal objection to merging the platforms, especially merging the user interfaces. What makes sense for a tiny touch screen doesn't necessarily make sense for a much larger screen with keyboard and mouse input.

jajuuka 1y ago

A change in webkit (which both OS's have used forever) somehow means they are merging iOS and macOS? I'm not following this logic at all.

chrisbrandow 1y ago
it's not a change in webkit. the webpage just displays the current OS video player. i read the page in Sequoia and it shows the old version

mimsee 1y ago

Apple also built a custom video element for web they use for their events. See the Apple Events page[0] and click "Watch the event". It also seems to dim the video when mousing over. I kinda like the design, but the animations seem a tad bit slow. [0]: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/ https://www.apple.com/apple-events/

pier25 1y ago

I love Apple Silicon and hope Apple tones down all the iOSification of macOS. It's a mistake.

alberth 1y ago

Since the thread is slipping into a Liquid Glass topic … Question: does anyone have anything good to say about Liquid Glass?

kemayo 1y ago
I like how it looks. It's nice to have a fairly-minor shake-up in the aesthetics every now and then, and it makes everything feel a bit fresh and new. And I do sincerely find it fairly minor -- things got a bit rounder and glossier, and there's a few bits of iOS that have some fairly cute glass-distortion effects, and some apps got some not-huge UI redesigns. Overall, particularly on my phone, it's just giving me an occasional pleasant burst of "ooh, shiny". On my laptop, I admittedly barely notice anything has changed. (I don't personally have any legibility issues with it, though I'm willing to believe that's down to individual usage patterns.)
kstrauser 1y ago
1) Aesthetically, I think it's pretty. That's a subjective opinion, though. 2) I vastly prefer it displaying buttons as buttons, instead of as just undifferentiated text on a screen. In the past I've sometimes been frustrated that an app didn't have a feature I wanted, only to learn that it actually had that feature, hidden behind what I'd assumed was just a text label but was actually a button. This is an enormous freaking improvement. 3) I very much prefer the new UI patterns in other places. For example, when highlighting text on iOS, the old UI gives a horizontally scrolling list of options with arrow keys to rotate through them. The new UI replaces that with a ">" More button that pops up a vertical list of all available actions. Again, this is an enormous freaking improvement. I like the appearance of Liquid Glass, but that could go either way. I think the actual UI implementation behind the graphics is so much better than before.
wpm 1y ago
There is something about the font weights or I dunno in the context menus on macOS Tahoe that I really like. Somehow, they feel a lot more readable than they did from Big Sur to Sequoia. And even if I think they utterly botched the concept and execution, I will always cheer the death of "minimullizm" that destroyed Aqua. I've absolutely loathed how macOS looks since Big Sur.

ZhiqiangWang 1y ago

The biggest difference between macOS and iOS is file system access. One day macOS terminal will disappear, just a matter of time.

chrisbrandow 1y ago

the liquid glass video controls on iOS absolutely does obscure more of the content than the pre-26 players did and it's not even close. it's just UI chrome for its own sake

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Razengan 1y ago

Oh god that darkening infuriates me as well

hirvi74 1y ago

Tahoe is my favorite macOS since Snow Leopard. I really enjoy how everything looks overall. Sure, it's not perfect, but I can't remember any OS that truly ever was. I feel as though people will always find something to complain about.

baxuz 1y ago

The new Safari is absolutely horrid: https://bsky.app/profile/infrequently.org/post/3lztots6lgc35 https://bsky.app/profile/infrequently.org/post/3lztots6lgc35