It's just being pitched this way by marketing and the C suite. If it were really a snow leopard release, someone should have informed the engineers they were supposed to be improving resiliency and fixing bugs, because this is news to them. cough

My impression was that they're doubling down on that horrid Liquid glass.

Apparently there's a new fancy slider for making it more (but not completely) opaque? Did I miss an option for turning it off?

[accessibility settings -> display -> reduce transparency] is the main option afaik. while you're in there, try "reduce motion" too, it's pretty nice imo.

Keep in mind Apple would never admit mistakes on Liquid Glass. But: Looks to me they're fixing some of the worst aspects. I'm on the fence.

The iOS 7 flat redesign was a UX disaster. But they got back up to speed in subsequent releases.

There IS something to be said for design resets with follow-up refits to accomodate for actual human beings. Most companies just add crap on top of crap.

Not saying what everything Apple does is perfect, even as a user/fanboy since '86.

What I most enjoyed about todays's annoucement that they're doing a Snow Leopard performance/bug reset, because that was expected and needed. And they started out with it, so they know their WWDC audience.

So: Both a technical and UX debt effort, with some privacy-focused AI on top.

I can't complain.

Have you tried the Accessibility setting "Reduce Transparency"? Apple tends to hide too many things there.

that's been available from the beginning