I've mentioned to a few people that I'm not planning on moving to MacOS or iOS 26 when Apple ships those. This attempts to collect some of my reasons for that stance. Not that things are organized by how I thought of them, not most important to me (at least not yet).

Continuing keyboard issues

The keyboard in iOS used to be pretty usable for me. Not as good as a physical keyboard, but during the three-and-a-half years I lived iOS-only, I got pretty adept at using the keyboard, and didn't have too many problems with it. But over time, Apple has done things attempting to fix problems for other people which have made the keyboard worse for me.

Dropping two keys pressed in rapid succession

If you type two keys rapidly on iOS (such as touch-typing “the”, when the “th” come very rapidly because they're on different hands), iOS simply throws them away. You get a solo “e.” This also bites me very frequently on “ng” at the end of a word, and I get a lot of words like “runni” when autocarrot generally mangles. This got noticeably worse in 2022 or 2023.

Slow autocarrot when it goes back multiple words

As you're typing, the “window” for autocarrot has grown, often past the capabilities of the device to keep up. On my iPad Air 5th Gen, when I'm typing rapidly on the on-screen keyboard, autocarrot will sometimes look back two or three words to make a correction, but I've typed multiple characters before it decides to make the change, so I end up with a word that's back a couple words getting selected, and rather than getting it changed, it ends up being what I'm currently typing, with words that should have been before it now after it, because autocarrot moved back.

Smaller bezels on everything

I have big hands. When I buy motorcycle gloves, I have to buy either 3XL or 4XL gloves in order to have them fit correctly. For work gloves in the yard, 3XL is also the minimum. As Apple continues to shrink the bezels on all of their devices, I get more false-hits from the hand holding the device. I've put a thick case on both my phone and my iPad, and still get false clicks near the edge of the screen which screw up whatever I'm trying to do at the time.

No Home Button

As I age, I have noticed that I'm developing a slight tremor in my hands. It's not bad, but it's enough to make it impossible to me to swipe reliably on an iOS device. If I'm trying to swipe up to get home, I frequently get a “swipe and a half” which takes me to the task switcher. Or a too-short swipe which activates one of the controls so many apps insist on putting across the bottom of the screen. The older I get, the more I need an actual Home button. I get by okay with the Assistive Touch home button, but that requires constant repositioning because there's always some control underneath it, and while it does move somewhat intelligently when the keyboard appears (for example), it doesn't always, and sometimes it just does the completely wrong thing.

Liquid Glass

The straw that broke the camel's back was Liquid Glass. Apple announced this for iOS and MacOS 26. I looked at a few examples and I just can't see the controls. There are supposedly ways to cut down on the effect to make the controls more visible, but this is a just plain stupid idea. Yes, content is important, but when you are working on content, the controls to work on it are also hugely important, and having them fade into the contents is... stupid. I may be looking at the past through rose-colored glasses, but I think SJ would've thrown a fit and fired people until this idea went away. It's a real shame Tim Apple doesn't have a similar sense of aesthetics.

#computers #tech #apple

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It was the last farmers market of the year on Friday, so I was walking around talking to various vendors, and ended up getting a bundle of rhubarb from La Capilla Hop Farms because I didn’t make many desserts this summer, and wanted to end the season on a high note. This is more or less my standard crumble recipe, with a little added sugar to offset the rhubarb’s tartness.

Fruit Ingredients

• 1 pound bunch of rhubarb from the farmers market, cut into 1 cm or ½ inch long chunks. In this case, it was 7 big stalks, and made about 3 cups chopped.
• 2 small apples, cored, sliced and chopped into similarly sized chunks. You can peel them or leave the skin on, as you like.
• A dozen strawberries, chopped into chunks
• ¼-½ cup sugar, depending on how sweet you like your desserts

Fruit Directions

• Chop all the fruit into chunks about 1 cm or ½ inch in size.
• Put in 8 inch square glass pan, and sprinkle with sugar.

Crumble Ingredients

• 150g all-purpose flour
• 100g butter (about 1T less than a quarter pound US stick of butter)
• 85g sugar

Crumble Directions

• Cut butter into flour until it looks kinda like bread crumbs
• Sprinkle sugar over mixture and cut together until it looks uniform
• Sprinkle mixture over fruit in pan

Baking

• Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 400°︎ oven
• If the top doesn’t have a few brown spots, put it under the broiler for a minute or two. See the photo above for how I think a finished crumble should look.
• Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

#recipe #rhubarb #apple

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