In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the latest internal version of iOS 27 does not have major Liquid Glass design changes, but there might be a new system-wide setting for precisely adjusting the look of the interface.
iOS 26.1 lets you choose between "Clear" and "Tinted" options for Liquid Glass, with the "Tinted" look adding more opacity to user interface elements. And with iOS 27, which is expected to be released later this year, Apple might go even further.
iOS 26.2 introduced a slider that allows you to manually adjust the opacity of Liquid Glass, but only for the Lock Screen's clock. Starting with iOS 27, Gurman said the setting might be expanded to the entire operating system.
Apple was initially working on a system-wide Liquid Glass slider for iOS 26, but it ran into engineering challenges when trying to extend it across the entire system, according to Gurman. However, he said Apple could go back to the drawing board and manage to get the system-wide slider working in an iOS 27 version.
"Apple is trying again now for iOS 27," said Gurman, in a social media post referring to the system-wide Liquid Glass slider. "TBD if it lands."
iOS 27 beta testing should begin in June, ahead of a September release.
For watchOS 27, Apple is testing new Apple Watch faces, and one of them is a simpler version of an existing Apple Watch Ultra watch face that could be coming to standard Series models.
Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple is testing multiple new faces for watchOS 27, code-named "Orchid." One of them is said to be a "simplified take" on the...
Back in April, we highlighted a new add-your-own card Wallet app option coming in iOS 27, and now Bloomberg has shared additional information. At the time, we said Apple was working on a feature that would let users generate digital passes from scans of things like movie tickets, concert passes, and gym membership cards.
The option will be called "Create a Pass," and it will bridge the gap...
iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 will let users set third-party AI services as the default for Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools and Image Playground, reports Bloomberg.
Apple has signed a deal with Google and plans to use a Gemini-based model for Apple Intelligence and Siri features in iOS 27, but users will also be able to choose their favorite AI service as an alternative....
It's not additive or more usable to have colors & content "bleeding through" onto controls from underneath.
That may demo well for being "fun, flashy, cool and wow", but it effectively just adds friction and frustration as it lessens legibility and clarity of controls one is trying to interact with.
The seeds of this flawed ideology go all the way back to when Safari on macOS started "tinting" based upon what is behind the window. It's just insane when you think about it.
Imagine if road signs along the highway were sort of translucent and showed "hints" of the scenery behind them.
I’m not an engineer, so maybe I don’t get it. But, you can make the whole iOS look crappy. But you can’t give us 5 levels of adjustable crappiness or the ability to revert?
Precisely. Transparency isn’t the biggest issue, the concept itself is. The whole behaviour of the UI doesn’t add anything meaningful to the experience.
It’s actually quite sad looking at Sequoia now, because that interface truly subscribes to less being more.