Theory: Apple introduced the Liquid Glass design to distract from the AI disaster

[jonblatho]

The decision to create a whole new design paradigm around what is a failure of a product (Vision Pro) is baffling. No one outside of Apple was saying "this looks incredible, make my phone look like this."

Let me get this straight, you think people aren’t buying the Vision Pro en masse because of its UI design rather than some combination of the steep price, weight, and limited software? Setting aside that Liquid Glass really doesn’t look a whole lot like prior visionOS versions, is your position that because Apple hasn’t shipped tens of millions of Vision Pros, they should never implement any concept from it in any other product? That it’s basically untouchable?

Otherwise, I’m not sure how the “failure” (Apple clearly doesn’t see it as one) of the Vision Pro is relevant at all here.

 

[HouseLannister]

People didn’t buy Crystal Pepsi. PepsiCo didn’t turn around and say “make all the things crystal!”

 

[Siliconguy]

Early 00s are back in fashion though.

Fashion runs in cycles. Hopefully the user interfaces won't start cycling as fast as women's clothing.

Once Apple's new UI is mostly complete I'm looking forward to the comparisons to Plasma. Can Plasma be tweaked to look like Apple, and can Apple be tweaked to look like Plasma?

Cinnamon may be a bit boring but it works quite well. I don't treat the UI as a computer game though, so that colors my expectations. On the Mac side I may have a preference for Mohave as much as anything. Tiger with the icons redone for high resolution LCD screens would be an interesting experiment.

 

[Madonepro]

I’ve been wondering how Apple could release such a terrible-looking UI that goes against all good UI and UX design principles, and even looks like something from the early 2000s. It occurred to me that perhaps it was a deliberate move to divert attention away from the problems with their AI efforts. The strategy seems to have worked, since now everyone is only talking about the new design.

I predict that next year, when Apple finally gets its AI ready for release, they’ll also fix the UI appearance in iOS 27.

Your hypothesis, not unlike string theory, needs a little bit more 'actual evidence', than just a statement. 😳

 

[ProbablyDylan]

If they wanted attention away from AI they'd just never mention it again like airpower.

 

[SevenTheGamingKitty]

Creating a redesign that wasn't needed to act like they still innovate. Classic Apple.

 

[SevenTheGamingKitty]

If they wanted attention away from AI they'd just never mention it again like airpower.

It's a bit hard for apple to do that when the majority of conversation when talking about apple is about the failure that is apple intelligence :‎
)

 

[aaronage]

This forum desperately needs a “🙄” reaction emoji 😅

 

[uacd]

This forum desperately needs a “🙄” reaction emoji 😅

Also 🥴🫠🤭🥱🤪 would be highly appreciated. As a perfect way to react to these posts🤣

 

[uacd]

You are talking about the AI disaster, but did you notice that they actually delivered some AI with iOS 26?

This is currently hidden on the system (probably because they don’t trust it enough yet), but in the Shortcut app, there is actually a way to communicate with Apple Chatbot! And while we are far from a GPT4 level, it actually works fine and well and it's promising for the future (and for a future Siri LLM actually).

And the new "Foundation Model Framework" seems like a big deal actually. Developers can access Apple LLM locally for free from any app with a few lines of code. As a developer myself, it seems huge actually and this can make a lot of new apps that would have been hard to make before.

While I was watching the WWDC, I honestly thought almost the same, like "well...nothing AI this year". But after watching the other conferences and playing with the beta myself, I think I changed my mind, and I feel like they actually woke up. It seems for me almost a bigger AI update than iOS 18 was (honestly) Just a tough..

The fun fact, people seem not to notice one important fact: Apple was always one step ahead when it comes to artificial intelligence. They just didn’t call it like that and had no intention to cater to investors and short sellers who fall for “AI is a new gold rush” kind of bs.

Take for example their neural engine. Not so many people still remember it was released back in 2017. Have we already had Chat GPT at our hands? Nope! And only many years after Android manufacturers and companies like AMD and Intel started developing their own “machine learning” solutions.

Apple was a pioneer in computational photography. I would be dishonest if I tell I like it without doubt, it certainly has its flaws, but only after that other companies have started embracing this… in fact to sell cheap hardware for better prices by applying HDR and tons of noise reduction to photos and calling it a day. But stuff like Smart HDR or Night mode?? Google and Samsung were mocking the iPhone X notch meanwhile, only after some time they were able to parrot these features into their green robot OS.

Also Face ID. Again, I don’t like it. But many people do! It involves TONS and TONS of AI algorithms behind. It is not simply “oh, that’s you? Come in”. It activates IR when it is poor lighting, locks the focus, compares, checks every minute or two… there are lots of computations behind.

And then people go like “LOOOOL Apple are losers because they cannot do like Chat GPT!! I want my Ghibli-style anime mockaricatures but made by Siri”

 

[HouseLannister]

The fun fact, people seem not to notice one important fact: Apple was always one step ahead when it comes to artificial intelligence.

DARPA had algorithms solving algebra in the 1950s. What’s your point? Apple has not delivered anything “intelligent” yet. Clippy was a better AI than Siri.

 

[Parowdy]

Well, apologies, but that’s my opinion. You’re of course free to disagree. If you look at the direction AAPL has taken recently due to AI and how many billions they could potentially lose because of it, I believe my theory is quite plausible.

It’s not an opinion if you label it a theory.
And nothing about it is plausible.

 

[Sami13496]

It’s not an opinion if you label it a theory.
And nothing about it is plausible.

My opinion is that the theory is plausible.

 

[Sami13496]

It’s not an opinion if you label it a theory.
And nothing about it is plausible.

And, you probably have to admit that, at least in theory, it would be possible, even if it sounds unlikely to you.

 

[navaira]

Also Face ID. Again, I don’t like it.

Oh, interesting. Why not? I especially love that it works in the dark.

As for the new interface, I like it on the WWDC video, but if it doesn’t actually look like that when iOS 26 is out, I’m going to be underwhelmed. Again. Upple Intelligence: Coming Within The Next Year!

 

[KENESS]

I believe they’re deliberately doing something worse now so that next year they can do something better and the contrast will be greater.

That's... absurd.

 

[NicoTRZ]

My opinion is that the theory is plausible.

Did you decide to completely ignore the fact that iOS 26 have new AI embedded ?

 

[Sippincider]

Tim Cook must have the easiest job in the world. He just has to read posts here from what are obviously extremely successful people with their own enterprises to know what to do.

Maybe like that time when a certain international business machines company, with all its wealth/resources and a gleaming HQ complex, got displaced by scrappy startups in Redmond and a Silicon Valley garage.

Surely that powerful CEO should have known better...

 

[Dr Nobody Important]

I’ve been wondering how Apple could release such a terrible-looking UI that goes against all good UI and UX design principles, and even looks like something from the early 2000s. It occurred to me that perhaps it was a deliberate move to divert attention away from the problems with their AI efforts. The strategy seems to have worked, since now everyone is only talking about the new design.

I predict that next year, when Apple finally gets its AI ready for release, they’ll also fix the UI appearance in iOS 27.

Due to the amount of work required, Liquid Glass was not a response to the perceived “disaster” of Apple Intelligence.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

This forum desperately needs a “🙄” reaction emoji 😅

I think about that daily.

 

[Slartibart]

And, you probably have to admit that, at least in theory, it would be possible, even if it sounds unlikely to you.

also consider the upcoming macbooks, macs, ipad, Apple pencil models - clearly intended to shift focus from Apple Intelligence 🙃😁😂

What if Apple moves into AR? That would be another »plausible« hypothesis (?)… so we have three valid ones now. Anyone wants to chip in? 😁

 

[TechnoMonk]

Outside of an echo chamber of shills claiming AI will replace everything, AI has been a disaster. Ai is far from zero shot. I got to be in a boot camp recently, and folks were asking cursor build this, it wouldn’t work, then please fix the code, again and again. Finally the guy gave up.
We are in the same phase of early days of Ecom/internet days with AI. What we have is Netscape/AOL or yahoos of AI. The Google and Amazon of AI are few years away.

 

[TechnoMonk]

also consider the upcoming macbooks, macs, ipad, Apple pencil models - clearly intended to shift focus from Apple Intelligence 🙃😁😂

What if Apple moves into AR? That would be another »plausible« hypothesis (?)… so we have three valid ones now. Anyone wants to chip in? 😁

Any new update or product version is only released to distract from AI. Word on the street is Tim Cook has a big Poster, anything and everything to distract the world from AI.

 

[Dr Nobody Important]

also consider the upcoming macbooks, macs, ipad, Apple pencil models - clearly intended to shift focus from Apple Intelligence 🙃😁😂

What if Apple moves into AR? That would be another »plausible« hypothesis (?)… so we have three valid ones now. Anyone wants to chip in? 😁

The Vision Pro is definitely going to rise in importance!

 

[CyberDavis]

I’ve been wondering how Apple could release such a terrible-looking UI that goes against all good UI and UX design principles

I see lots of UI designs in my job and don’t think it’s too bad.🤷🏽
The transparent option seems to have people frothing at the mouth, but it’s optional.
And many other elements look like they could be good.

There is still the beta testing to go through, so I’m sure many usability issues will be addressed and considered.