After a significantly extended hiatus (2010-2025), I have made a decision to switch back to Apple.
With my "fresh eye for UI" I can see some ugly things that should have been fixed long time ago.
For the sake of challenge, I will try and describe 27 "phenomena" that irk my eye every time and make me miss the good old Steve who was a profound, demanding, and family-based user - just like me.
Let's start with the Mac.
1. Fullscreen Mode.
This is some kind of strange and unbelievable (for 2026) experience where the user interface insists that you do not take only one step to do what you intent to do.
For example, when you click on the nice green round button in the upper left of the window, you enter the Full Screen mode. Now there are following issues that I simply do not understand why they exist:
a) you cannot click the yellow button now to collapse the window and expose (free) the screen;
b) you cannot choose "Hide App" action either, by pressing Command+H;
c) you cannot drag any other window onto this "already full" screen, for some reason the whole device is taken so in multi-screen scenarios dragging another open window over a running fullscreen video is impossible (!)
What you MUST do FIRST, is to "gracefully EXIT" this wicked mode in order to continue with repeating your next desired desktop action.
But no, it gets worse.
d) if while running something fullscreen, you activate another app (say, by switching using Command+Tab), you will see the previously fullscreen'd window take up its normal size, BUT become grey with text "Click to exit FullScreen". The audio will run normally.
Come on, I thought you have already exited the mode, have not you, System 26?
2. Stacks of screenshots.
I don't know about you but I like taking screenshots. With a constantly moving zeitgeist, they can be so much fun - in not so long time. What was weird, becomes normal, and vice versa. It helps to keep the record.
Since by default the screenshots drop onto your desktop I have enabled the feature to collapse them all onto a single stack (Command+Control+0). There is no subfolder.
Now, as time have passed, hundreds of them accumulated in the stack.
When I open the stack, a million of them stares at me. I think they cover the display many times over, forming sort of "sub-stacks" (!) at each position.
Now, how do I hide them back after perusing some? Lord only knows.
I resorted to quick log-outs, log back ins.
3. The window-less apps. (a pointless rant on inconsistency)
On a Mac, historically, and because it is "not Windows", there have been a possibility to have apps without windows. They can have a title bar, and menu, but you may close all windows and the app still runs there, waiting for you to press something like Command+N or Command+O so that it can gain a window (or two). Now, this means you can actually have TWO types of windowless apps - one as per above and the "system bar utilities". The laters do not have a menu and are not in the Switcher carousel on Command+Tab.
With upcoming (or ongoing?) attempts at unifying the various operating systems, it may be seen more harmonious if all devices (at least iPad and Mac) behaved the same way. But on iPadOS, the windowless apps are not there. You close the window, app is closed.
Speaking of iPad..
4. The (almost Microsoft-ey) Recall.
One of the better parts of switching apps on iOS become possible when hp webOS turned up face down ashore. The Andy Rubin's webOS design detail was impeccable - the best I have seen so far. And the app switching element of that OS have found its way (great artists do what?..) onto the myriad of Apple devices in our pockets. I am talking about "switcher carousel" where app "cards" are standing representations of... currently NOT OPEN apps, quite often and sadly.
I do not know definitively, but I can speculate about the reason why the app card remains when the app itself is swapped out of memory and all runtime context is lost. The reason is likely quite small RAM size in iPhones of the time that element was introduced (webOS went kaput in 2013 if I remember my TouchPad / Pre3 era correctly), back then it must have been 1GB.
Not surprisingly, Apple never wanted to give their users "impression" that the memory on the device is quite limited, so they decided to NEVER remove the cards from the carousel, no matter what happened to the apps themselves. Idiotically, those cards even now survive the device restart!
You may have nothing running, but your carousel will be full off cards with screenshots of something you have been doing there last time the app was ran and was swapped up on.
Dare I call this.. Apple Recall ?
There is two issues with that:
a) it breaks WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) priciple of UI design; you can see "Laura's face" in that message in email, but clicking on the card will only bring up email with Inbox and a list of current emails;
b) it exposes user activity, though to a lesser level than Microsoft Recall - there is only ONE snapshot, and it will be gone once the app is relaunched - still, spooky!
Why not remove the card once the app has been swapped? The RAM memory sizes now are quite generous, and this small mod may even trigger power users into buying more expensive devices to see more apps stay and remain in memory and in context. I am saying we can help Apple sales and UX all at once.
5. The Power Struggles.
Since we've been rekindling wonders of webOS, one thing it did best was notifications. All of them. All non-modal, e.g. not blocking whatever you were doing - typing, dragging bunch on files from a folder into another, painting doodles with your finger - none were ever interrupted. Even.
Not by a phone call. Not by a draining battery. Not by a text message. Not by email... you get the point.
All of those notifications appeared as a sub-banner down at the bottom bar of the screen, along with buttons to accept/reject a call, reply to a message, or switch to powersaving mode (now I'm fantasising - the low power ones simply had a spinner circle with a countdown to self-hide, I think it was 3 seconds).
They all would leave you alone if you ignore them. They would self-hide, you may check them again when you pull-down from the Home Screen.
And none would block your work, or take your focus on themselves.
Now, iPad will block you at 10% battery (and stop your gaming), then will reassert its arrogance at 5% battery. It will also ask you whether you want the Low Power mode on.
Why is this so hard to remember I always want the low-power mode? My Mac can do that. iPad too stupid?
6. And why my Mac cannot enter Low Power mode automatically at 10%, or 20%? There simply is no setting for that, I am asked every time even though I do not want the stress of this serious decision on my shoulders all the time.
7. The numbers and the logic of auto-enter-low-power-mode should be same on all Apple devices, and should not distract users from their activities.
8. I am still hurting from them removing Split Screen and Hang Over from iPadOS. Yes I used that, and wanted more in iPhone (split screen vertically).
But no, some twisted parody of window management was added (that's OK, just leave it to the Stage Manager). The simple convenience of two-windows-per-screen, simply arrange is gone. I want it back and in iPhone (vertical stacking in portrait, side-by-side in landscape).
9. Assistive Access.
This is a feature listed in the Accessibility category. However from looking at it, the logic and how it is safeguarded, I can only reach the conclusion this is copycat from the Windows Phone's "Kids Corner" feature.
Both essentially allow parents to share their devices with kids so that kids would remain in a safeguarded "sandbox" of sanctioned apps only, with pre-selected permissions only, and protected by a separate secret PIN kids won't know - otherwise they escape.
Nice on paper - ugly in reality.
In real life, once kids get Apple devices, it is a case of lost parental control. Because they configure Assistive Access for themselves - and escape the time limits and supervision processes there. In that sandbox, almost nothing runs - by design - this making any type of supervision impossible.
Screen recording stops, phone calls drop, every process is basically killed while you are there - except those sanctioned app they can set up on their own devices.
Apparently nobody thought kids can get their own devices back when this was designed (2012?)
Another issue is MDM - your big brother boss will lose you tracks once you enter Assistive Access. Enjoy.
I have had a case opened and offered Apple three or four ways to fix the issue. My L3 case has been closed and abandoned quietly, which told me quite a bit about internal engineering and product improvement culture.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255620405?login=true&sortBy=rank
10. Skin colour tone mapping. There is something really wrong about this, especially apparent when shooting people in sunset light. Everybody looks like an orange. This is not so with Samsung or Pixel devices, please pick up slack here Apple. It used to be worse, many mixed race people used to gain olive-green tones at the are unnatural, but that had been improved now. "Sunset Orange Peel skin faces" remain. And in general, in artificial light sometimes a hue of orange pops in unexpectedly on people's faces. I quite often can see this "shot on iPhone" trademark - even without the authors disclosing. Take a look for yourself.
11. Ads in Paid Apple News+ ? WTF?
No way I am even going to touch that app, not to speak of paying for this. Anything I pay for, must be ad-free.
12. iOS/iPadOS Control Centre annoys.
Apple should arrange the multiple Control Center pages horizontally.
When arranged vertically, there are two issues:
a) non-reversibility of the swipe action - when you pull down, you expect that pull up will hide the Control Center. Instead, it most irritatingly goes to the next page of the Control Center; one has to "touch wood" somewhere below, which is a ugly and asymmetric solution - imagine using the door knob to open the door, and then having to flick the light switch to close it, the door knob opens another door instead;
b) a long pull-down can bring you somewhere unexpected (next pages).
13. The biometric inconsistency.
Some devices take the fingerprint, others want your face. None require a blood this far (but watch the Apple Watch).
iPad is particularly annoying, with my left palm obscuring the camera when in landscape. They moved the camera now, I guess it is obscured by the right palm when in portrait mode now...
Not to speak of cases when you simply wanna take a peek without lifting half of your face off the pillow. Mission impossible. Enter your PIN and social security number.
Another case is when riding my motorcycles, wearing a helmet - PIN at the ready. When queue neighbours are watching... You need that wallet activated to pay for petrol now... Or a quick stop to check directions - helmet off or PIN away.
Come one, I'm used to use my fingers, not my face.
14. Alive after restart? Zombiemac?
When I have installed the last update, macOS 26.6.1, the computer has done a restart. What is weird, is that after restart, without myself logging in, the Mac continued playing a video!
Now, I do NOT have "restore my apps after logout" checkbox checked. I am not one of those who tend to keep same apps running all the time. I do consider what happened a breach of my preferences.
macOS Updaters, please honour user preferences!
It would have really been problematic if I simply left the Mac once Updater started the log out. It means the Mac would have resumed playing my content without e present, and possibly with others present. The Mac was locked after restart but audio quite audible.
Not only this would have been a breach of preferences, but also unexpected data exposure and battery drain.
15. Self-hiding Notifications please.
So far, Apple have copied Notifications from Growl software, essentially "Sherlocking" it. RIP in 2012.
What they have NOT copied is self-dismissal. This makes Mac screens quite messy - unless you like tidying or do not get any Notifications.
A global option to self-dismiss Notifications in, say, 5 seconds would have been perfect. And a meaningful UX progress, since 2012.
16. Vertical Tabs in Safari?
Maybe in System 30. But OK this actually prevents visual confusion with other (alternative) browsers.
17. Is Aperture coming back?
We've heard so, and Adobe is so passé. There is also some vacuum in lightweight photo management a-lá FastStone.
18. Two ports on the left, no ports on the right?
Please move one port in MacBook Air to the right. This is where my charging cable comes from behind the sofa. This is where some left-handed people want their display cable be. When you mount a sizeable USB stick, there may not be enough space between two close-positioned ports to mount another.
If a Dell XPS from 2019 can do this, so should a 2026 MacBook.
19. Half-size cursor keys.
The up and down curse arrow buttons are half-height, this makes playing something like Crossy Road a nightmare. You want back, you go forth and rise versa. One mistake and score is ruined.
The rest of the buttons are fine, but these you could not fit. They are kind of important, at least for gaming.
20. Insistence on hidden (invisible) controls.
It is quite apparent that slogan "less is more" has been taken as "less visible controls is more fun".
The stark tendency to de-visualize onscreen elements that allow users to control applications and system has become apparent during "3D Touch" era. But then, this required a special hardware (screen) and because this was hidden, e.g. invisible, very few users realised it is there, or remembered to use it. As an effect, Apple have given up and deprecated the feature.
But the tendency stuck and grew.
For example, visible Home Button has been replaced with a super-slim small "inverted line" that is hardly visible. You have to know it is there, and "swipe up". Someone who picks up iPhone the first time will have no idea. And will deride Apple for being counter-intuitive and non-apparent. Sometimes even interferes with app functionality (being so small, to save diminishing screen verticals?)
That would be understood if there was an ever-decreasing screen space available that would force to remove visual elements, but hey - it is quite the contrary, iPhone screens are getting stupid tall and that height often goes unused. It is only good for sticking out your bum pocket.
21. I still don't know why there's no 9:16 phone screens anymore.
There must be a conspiracy to force you onto narrow screens so less webpage text fits. They are doing whatever they can not to give you 1440 pixels wide. Perhaps the "big screen" TV manufacturers give those narrow cutouts away at deep discounts? This is really silly when they want a larger folding screen. "Whatever you do, do not go 9:16 wide!" must be a commandment somewhere.
But you can try prying my Razer Phone 2 off my dead fingers.
22. Non-flicker screens.
Try asking an Apple Genius for a health-focused non-flicker iPhone and see them scramble.
The newest iPhone 17 have made some steps towards that, still hybrid dimming is not the full answer. Thousands suffer headaches and nausea from the 240Hz OLED flicker. iPhone 11 or SE are your only bets.
23. Filesystem Support.
Please bake in NTFS read-write and EXT4 read-write. The three big worlds - Linux, Windows and Apple should be able to read and write each other's storage. This is not hard to do given a UNIX_based OS.
24. Apt-X bluetooth as paid option.
I know Apple hates to pay royalties to 3rd parties. They prefer it the other way instead. But this really gets kinda ridiculous - there is no high-quality bluetooth codecs on Apple, only AAC. There is only so far you can go on a 2003 codec.
Please allow 3-rd party paid extensions so users pay. You get your 30%.
25. Lower App Store fees.
Yes I think 30% is ridiculous. It should be 10%, the same amount Church charged for ages without revolts.
Correction - they only charge 15% for the first million dollar revenue. Then you get slogged quite a bit.
26. A pencil for each iPad.
It looks like each generation of iPads designed to be unable to work with previous generation of Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. Given the non-trivial price of those accessories (reaching the cost of mid-way Android phone) this makes iPad ownership even more expensive than it should have been.
We're getting petty, so I shall leave you with this last one.
27. Battery Level of Bluetooth Devices.
For connected 3rd party Bluetooth devices, on iPadOS/iOS there is no indication of how much battery they have left. Going to Settings - Bluetooth and choosing the device only gives you option to Disconnet or Forget it. No battery level. Duh?
One must install the 3rd-party accessory utility and launch it to enjoy seeing the battery level. On the good side, this decreases "battery anxiety".
After all, somehow Apple must nudge you towards their own accessories. The headphone roaming across all devices is really good... I wonder when EU will force them to open this up for all...
