I have complained before about how usability is playing the second fiddle in iOS and the mac. Comparing with the much slower original iPhone, the newest phones seems slower. That is because it is more important, in the minds of Apple's designers, that you watch and wait for animations than use your phone.

An exciting thing happened in the first iOS 10 betas, suddenly watching animations was not the top most priority anymore. There were some non-blocking animations! This meant that you were allowed to use the interface, while the animations were playing. I interpreted this as a statement from Apple: "we have realized what is bad design and will change it". However, it now seems that I was mistaken. Usability is not a priority at Apple and they are turning down the usability dial. For several releases, all animations have been blocking user input.

It really seems as if there are two competing forces within the company, one who fights for usability and tries to sneak it in wherever it can, and one that tries to oppose such attempts. Sad to say, usability is loosing battle after battle. We are now at beta 8, and the GM will most likely be released this week - it is fairly evident that usability will lose the war agains fluff in iOS 10. I'm still hoping that Apple comes to its senses next year.