The Fallling Apple

I’m an Apple man, through and through. I’ve come to rely on the useful, thoughtful, straightforward apps and devices that Apple’s reputation was built on. 

But something is changing. The changes are small, but they reflect a disconnect to users that Apple ten years ago would consider unthinkable. Here’s a couple of examples.

Red is the new green

In the iOS 26 family, when you go to put a new event in Calendar, you have the option to accept changes or discard them—exactly as one would expect. However, the accept button is a red checkmark, and the cancel button is a white X.

So red, the universal color of stopping/deleting/cancelling, is Apple’s choice for confirm/accept. And the cancel/delete button is a neutral white. It defies logic that Apple’s quality control is excited about re-brandking the color red to mean “go” when literally every else in our solar system, red means “stop.’

Sub bullets are not a thing

The Journaling app (which I use and genuinely like) has a handy feature to add bullet and number points. However, there is only one level available.

This means you can have 1, 2, 3, but you cannot have 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. The ability to add sub bullets/numbers has been a part of Apple apps for a while: Pages and Notes in particular.

So why not Journal? As one who thinks in points and sub-points, this lack of a simple formatting tool seems like an obvious miss.

Get directions to the highest bidder

One of the best things about Apple products is the scarcity of advertisements. My Apple One subscription gives me ad-free TV and music, for example.

​Soon, however, the ads will be a-coming to the Maps app. Like the busier interfaces of Waze or Google Maps, Apple maps will have ads on your screen. According to 9to5mac.com, Maps will include advertisements as you drive/walk/bike.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to Apple users that our purchase of Apple devices, Apple apps, and Apple services have always insulated us from the non-stop, in-your-face ad practice on non-Mac devices.


These examples are difficult to reconcile with the controlled, quality-checked Apple of just a few years ago. Please don’t let Apple become as shitty, busy, and ugly as the PC/Android/Fire universe.

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