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iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

macrumors.com

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Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#81

Post by thewebguyd »

Gigachad wrote: post #56
throwaway48476 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The glass transparency effect is just very computationally expensive.

The glass UI renders on my Apple Watch 6 just fine and that thing has probably 0.5% the GPU power as the Macbooks.

There's visible lag & stutters opening the control center on my Series 10.

Likewise, while it performs "fine," interacting with the UI still feels sluggish on Tahoe on my M4 Pro compared to Sequoia. I still have another M4 Pro with sequoia on it and it's a night and day difference, in favor of Sequoia.

There may not be any real performance loss but there is definitely UI latency and it's very noticable.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#82

Post by ASalazarMX »

arghwhat wrote: post #35
dabinat wrote: post #28

It’s technically impressive that they’re simulating the way light travels through glass. But a lot of the time it’s so subtle that I wonder if they could have just used simple semi-opacity and it would have had 85% of the same effect at a fraction of the CPU cycles.

I seriously doubt they're doing anything more than a boring shader with some decent approximation. We can stimulate light, but that's just a waste of ray tracing and introducing annoying complexities.

I agree. Actual simulation would be an inexcusable waste of resources when the end result is simply indistinguishable from a normal distortion filer. Specially when their newest flagship has a smaller battery.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#84

Post by shantara »

spankalee wrote: post #45

How did they not do enough user testing to know users wanted this before it even got to beta? Are they so paranoid about secrecy that they can't do event the most basic of UX design processes?

They received a lot of bug reports and negative feedback from developer and public betas. Guess what, they’ve still released the glass almost unchanged. “We know better than you” is a fundamental part of Apple’s mentality

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#85

Post by CharlesW »

gambiting wrote: post #49
toast0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try it if you're only a step into their ecosystem. Kiddo got some airpods for use with his android phone. Registered them with 'find my' on an iPhone SE I have for work that sits on my desk, so that when they get lost, we have a chance of finding them. Now, we get to be alerted to potential trackers every time when travel with him... even he gets the alerts, because he travels with his airpods frequently.…

I just don't understand how more people don't complain about this all the time. My wife has an apple tracker on her keys and I get a notification about an unknown tracker travelling with me on my phone every time we go anywhere. Why isn't there an "I know this tracker, leave me the fuck alone" option anywhere???

> I just don't understand how more people don't complain about this all the time.

I'd assume because they're using the share feature: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/share-an-airtag-iph41...

You can also turn them off altogether in Settings > Notifications > Tracking Notifications.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#86

Post by ASalazarMX »

Austin_Conlon wrote: post #70
kridsdale3 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does zero user testing and AB testing, and has always worked that way.

Even in services?

My experience with corporate Apple services (MDM):

"We changed the terms of service. Accept them to keep using this service."

Outside of that, not much in the way of communication. They change and you keep catching up to them.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#87

Post by ASalazarMX »

joshuat wrote: post #48
mycodendral wrote: post #20

I switched from Android to iOS exclusively because of Liquid Glass. It's amazing. I'll just sit there and drag the glass back and forth over different things on my screen and stare in awe.

You forget that HN is incapable of detecting even the most obvious sarcasm

To be fair, it is an affront to usability, but it looks pretty the first time you play with the distortion of several confusing layers of Glass. I had to play with different wallpapers to find one who distorted the better.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#88

Post by zamadatix »

monster_truck wrote: post #38
zamadatix wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The M3 can run modern 3D games at high frame rates, surely it was something else about the update than the glass effect in the UI causing slowness?? It's a more appreciable burden on older iPhones though.

It barely handles that, and even the M5 still cannot cope with 8khz mouse input coupled to a high refresh rate (>240) screen. I laugh every time they try and sell us on these things being able to play games

Even looking at pro CS players, a single 8 KHz entry is found in the table at https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/List_of_player_mouse_se..., so it's a really odd hill to try to die on.

They really are great gaming machines from a hardware perspective. I wouldn't bother with an x86 laptop for gaming if it weren't for the software (mostly DRM) side.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#89

Post by ASalazarMX »

mycodendral wrote: post #20

I switched from Android to iOS exclusively because of Liquid Glass. It's amazing. I'll just sit there and drag the glass back and forth over different things on my screen and stare in awe.

But wait, have you noticed that it's named "Liquid Glass(TM)", but none of the glass is actually liquid, or even flowing? Everything is solid pieces of glass. You fooled us again, Apple!

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#90

Post by clickety_clack »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #82
arghwhat wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously doubt they're doing anything more than a boring shader with some decent approximation. We can stimulate light, but that's just a waste of ray tracing and introducing annoying complexities.

I agree. Actual simulation would be an inexcusable waste of resources when the end result is simply indistinguishable from a normal distortion filer. Specially when their newest flagship has a smaller battery.

If you assume a fixed depth “behind” the screen and a fixed eye position, a lot of the math shakes out. It’s overkill for button backgrounds, but the actual implementation of a simplified simulation isn’t as computationally heavy as I think you’re imaging.
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