Apple Just Lost Me

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Age verification & credit-card requirement

  • Big flashpoint is UK iCloud age verification: many report being forced to prove adulthood via a credit card; other methods (ID scan, account age, passport) are unavailable, hidden, or buggy for some.
  • This especially breaks for:
    • People without credit cards (common outside US).
    • Immigrants with foreign cards or mismatched account regions.
    • Older adults who don’t drive or use credit.
  • Some users say their account age alone sufficed, or that a driver’s license option exists but is buried in the UI.
  • Many view Apple’s choice of credit cards as culturally “US-centric” and lazy; others argue it’s the easiest, cheapest proxy for identity.
  • Several note that the UK law doesn’t require OS‑level checks at all; regulators even praise Apple for going beyond the law, which angers critics.

Liquid Glass, macOS/iOS 26 and UI quality

  • Strong split:
    • Many describe Liquid Glass and macOS 26 (Tahoe) as a “fiasco”: performance hits, battery drain, bugs (keyboard, alarms, calls, Bluetooth), accessibility regressions, inconsistent icons, huge rounded corners, broken window resizing.
    • Others say it’s fine or even attractive, quickly fades into the background, and is overblown by tech forums.
  • Some see Liquid Glass as shorthand for a bundle of 2026 UI and UX changes, not just transparency effects.
  • A few acknowledge Apple is already walking back specific design choices (e.g., Safari tabs) and expect iterative fixes.

Gatekeeping, notarization, and developer friction

  • Long-running grievance: Gatekeeper, notarization, and warnings on notarized apps are seen as intentional friction to push users to the App Store, despite developers paying for signing.
  • Defenders argue the “walled garden” and security prompts are a feature for non‑technical users, with an off‑ramp for power users.

Apple’s trajectory vs alternatives

  • Some argue Apple has shifted from vision-driven to quarterly-earnings-driven, with software quality declining while hardware remains excellent.
  • Others counter that every redesign sparks the same “Apple is doomed” cycle and that most users don’t care.
  • Many say they’re moving or planning to move to Linux (often on ThinkPads or Asahi/Fedora on Apple Silicon) and Android/GrapheneOS, though others warn the grass isn’t greener and Linux/Android bring their own UX compromises.

Law, responsibility, and online identity

  • Debate over who’s to blame: governments passing age-verification laws vs corporations engaging in “anticipatory obedience.”
  • Some want government-run, minimal-data age APIs; others see that as an even worse surveillance risk.
  • Broad unease that “age verification” is becoming de facto identity verification and that this trend will spread beyond Apple.