What’s a subtle Apple design or UI decision that drives you nuts, and what were they thinking?

Making a track pad scroll backwards compared to everything else that ever existed then having the smug cajones to label the setting as "natural scroll direction". If you don't remember this change, you are young.

I'm all-in on natural scrolling, and have been since day one. It scrolls the same way as swiping on your phone.
Its the first thing I change when I set up any Linux distro.
- It's been default on the distros I've used so I have to change it. Donotwant.gif
The fact it couldn't be (maybe still is) different from the mouse scroll direction is wild to me. They should be separate settings!
I’m all natural, baby.
EDIT: I grossed myself out
- Shudders
  I cannot stand that setting

No dates in weather app.
Only days of the week.

You don’t need to know that information, and it’s wrong of you to want to.
/s
- ikr

Removing headphone jacks on phones
Putting the charging port for the magic mouse on the bottom, so it can't be used while charging
The notch on laptops. Seriously, I'd rather have a laptop with a full screen than have a camera embedded and lose part of it.
The acquisition and subsequent murder of Dark Sky (ok, this wasn't subtle)

I will reveal my ignorance for all to see. What is Dark Sky?
- It was arguably one of the best weather services available - the API was fantastic and many people built things around it.
  The spiritual successor is Pirate Weather: https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/

No back button

One of my very few successes was getting Karabiner Desktop to customize my new ergonomic mouse, so now button 5 goes back in Safari and button 4 goes forward. But only as long as Karabiner is running, so it launches on login now.
And let’s not forget the remote app on the iPhone, which had no Next or Back buttons whatsoever. They finally added it in iOS 18, however you have to do it in accessibility, and if you turn it on, then you can’t swipe anymore. Because fuck you.

no weather on homescreen drives me insane. No easy way to make custom ringtones in 2025 drives me insane. Not being able to sideload or customize my preferences... thats about it.

Let me know if you want help with the ringtones or if you want some of my my ringtone files.

Tired of “hidden” UI. Stop requiring the user to memorize gestures to get anything done.

What…what hidden gestures are you using?!

The mouse. You know the one.

I don’t know what you possibly could mean. Every apple mouse has been flawless.

Because now I shut the phone off accidentally 87% of the time when I’m trying to do anything else.

The first thing on the screen is the apple menu in the global bar. The first thing.

If you open it, you see a few menu options, each with their keyboard shortcuts next to them.

Try to locate the keyboard shortcuts for Apple's "Force Quit" menu option on Apple's own keyboard, where you know they have 100% full control of both the hardware and software involved.