Roel Van Gils
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roelvangils.bsky.social
Roel Van Gils
@roelvangils.bsky.social
Founder at Eleven Ways. Other half of @skerit. I mostly write about #ux, #a11y, #design and #tech. 🏳️‍🌈 He/him.
macOS (and iOS 26.1) adds an option to effectively remove the Liquid Glass effect. For me, it's a no-brainer to enable this feature. #accessibility
October 21, 2025 at 6:26 AM
One by one, macOS apps like Things, Fantastical & Mimestream get the Liquid Glass treatment: transparent sidebars that overlap window content, drop shadows on toolbar buttons, and oversized rounded corners! 😒 I dread how Electron apps like Notion & Slack will attempt to “fit in” with macOS Tahoe…
September 16, 2025 at 5:48 PM
I don’t like the abundance of SF Symbols icons that macOS Tahoe adds to my menus; they create visual clutter. I wish there were a hidden setting to turn them off. Apple taught me that less is more, and now this. Yuck 🙂
September 16, 2025 at 11:13 AM
The new Automix feature in Apple Music on macOS Tahoe (beta) is pretty neat. Similar to Automix in the Djay app (www.algoriddim.com/apps)

And this is a nice surprise: it DOES work over AirPlay (even though they say it doesn’t)! Perhaps they added this feature later and forgot to update that info.
September 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
In about two hours, I "vibe-coded” this. All I did was talk to my computer. AI did the rest: it built the app, deployed it to GitHub, created a marketing page, and designed the icon. Heck, it even wrote this post.

roelvangils.github.io/phim/
Phim - Superfast Ephemeral Webpage Viewer
Phim is a superfast, ephemeral webpage viewer. It has no history, cookies, navigation, or distractions. It's the perfect companion for Velja and Hyperduck.
roelvangils.github.io
August 14, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Claude: “Next, I will visually test the actual functionality using Playwright to ensure a smooth user experience."

Me: “I love you, Claude."
July 13, 2025 at 7:49 PM
For some reason, I was more intrigued by this product launch of new vacuum cleaning tech than by everything that Google announced at Google I/O 2025! ✨

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6J...
The Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones™ cleaner | Global Premiere
YouTube video by Dyson
www.youtube.com
May 23, 2025 at 10:19 AM
OMG
May 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I don't know what to make of this yet. On one hand, it's super cringe, but on the other hand, it excites me. Sam Altman and Jony Ive have a very strange dynamic when they’re together. I'm curious to see where this is headed.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W09b...
Sam & Jony introduce io
YouTube video by OpenAI
www.youtube.com
May 21, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I've been using Shazam to build a database of all the music around me. I created a small CLI utility for this: github.com/roelvangils/....

May 21 is my birthday… and look at the first song Spotify “shuffled” for me on this day! 😁
May 21, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Some bugs will just remain unfixed forever.
April 27, 2025 at 8:01 AM
LOL @ this Apple Commercial. C’mon, Apple, it’s not wooden floors that we are worried about! 🙄 It’s CONCRETE! 🧱

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdR3...
April 24, 2025 at 4:54 PM
What's wrong with Apple? This ad is so weird! Why are we seeing Excel on the guy's screen (and not Numbers)? And why is the guy looking at a spreadsheet with extremely high KPIs? What's the message here? That only rich people can afford nano-texture displays? www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fB...
April 16, 2025 at 5:14 PM
This is so much harder than it looks: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAis...
Severance Main Theme - EPIC Piano Cover
YouTube video by Katherine Cordova
www.youtube.com
April 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM
macOS comes bundled with an excellent version of Chess, but did you know it also includes everyone's favorite game… Tetris? 🙂 To be more precise, it’s part of zsh, the default shell on macOS. Just open your favorite Terminal app and type:

- autoload -Uz tetriscurses && tetriscurses
April 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
It looks like Apple is starting to catch up with their AI promises!
April 2, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Did you know: the people who consistently refer to an Apple Watch as an "iWatch" are the same people who say "ChatGTP" instead of ChatGPT! 🫢 I'm sure it's some sort of conspiracy.
March 25, 2025 at 3:47 PM
These free wallpapers by Microsoft are actually kinda nice, even if you're a Mac user 😉 microsoft.design/wallpapers/
Wallpapers - Microsoft Design
Enjoy this small collection of Microsoft wallpapers we curated for you.
microsoft.design
March 22, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Xcode: "Object 0x14160ac80 deallocated with non-zero retain count 2. This object's deinit, or something called from it, may have created a strong reference to self which outlived deinit, resulting in a dangling reference.”

Say what? I think Xcode is trolling me ‘cause it knows I'm “vibe coding"… 😳
March 5, 2025 at 10:34 PM
I just installed Microsoft Word on macOS because, yeah well, I had to open a complex document. When I explored its settings, I realized I miss the “spotlight on the relevant settings” search UI that Microsoft borrowed from Apple (but Apple abandoned itself five years ago) 😁 That was cool, right?
February 25, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I wonder when my Limitless Pendant is finally shipping. I pre-ordered it 16 months ago. I hear they've been hard at work, and I'm pretty excited to finally try it out! 🙂

www.limitless.ai#pendant
February 2, 2025 at 4:02 PM
This app keeps on improving. I cannot imagine a train ride in Belgium without this app on my phone 🙂
✨ Railer 1.18.8 is out with support for the new M7BD carriage, providing step free platform access.
February 2, 2025 at 3:06 PM
If I would play 8-bit Super Mario in a nightmare, this is probably how it would look like. Only then it would be like a first person experience. jellymar.io
Jelly Mario
Something is VERY wrong in the Mushroom Kingdom...
jellymar.io
February 2, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Exclusive Mark Zuckerberg Interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLAZ...
Exclusive Mark Zuckerberg Unaired Interview | Austin Nasso Comedy
YouTube video by Austin Nasso
www.youtube.com
February 1, 2025 at 11:28 AM
The Dell Pro Max is real! 🤡
Dell kills the XPS brand
Say hello to devices like the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus.
www.theverge.com
January 7, 2025 at 1:16 PM