
        <p>In Episode 507 James grills Frank about UI choices in his iCircuit app—crowded toolbars, popover behavior on iPhone vs iPad, and flaky TestFlight/App Store review timing. They trace a nasty bug to Apple’s deprecated OpenURL behavior in iOS 26, debate in-app browsers vs Safari and multi-window docs, and remind developers that subtle platform changes and lack of polish can silently break UX—practical lessons for shipping mobile apps.</p>

<h3>Follow Us</h3>

<ul>
<li>Frank: <a href="http://twitter.com/praeclarum" target="_blank">Twitter</a>,  <a href="http://praeclarum.org" target="_blank">Blog</a>, <a href="http://github.com/praeclarum" target="_blank">GitHub</a></li>
<li>James: <a href="http://twitter.com/jamesmontemagno" target="_blank">Twitter</a>,  <a href="https://montemagno.com" target="_blank">Blog</a>, <a href="http://github.com/jamesmontemagno" target="_blank">GitHub</a></li>
<li>Merge Conflict: <a href="http://twitter.com/mergeconflictfm" target="_blank">Twitter</a>,  <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mergeconflictfm" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://mergeconflict.fm" target="_blank">Website</a>, <a href="https://www.mergeconflict.fm/discord" target="_blank">Chat on Discord</a></li>
<li>Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by <a href="https://soundcloud.com/adventureface" target="_blank">Adventureface</a></li>
</ul>

<p>⭐⭐ <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/merge-conflict/id1133064277?mt=2&ls=1" rel="nofollow">Review Us</a> ⭐⭐</p>

<p>Machine transcription available on <a href="http://mergeconflict.fm" rel="nofollow">http://mergeconflict.fm</a></p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/mergeconflictfm">Support Merge Conflict</a></p>
      

<description>
        &lt;p&gt;In Episode 507 James grills Frank about UI choices in his iCircuit app—crowded toolbars, popover behavior on iPhone vs iPad, and flaky TestFlight/App Store review timing. They trace a nasty bug to Apple’s deprecated OpenURL behavior in iOS 26, debate in-app browsers vs Safari and multi-window docs, and remind developers that subtle platform changes and lack of polish can silently break UX—practical lessons for shipping mobile apps.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Follow Us&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Frank: &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/praeclarum" target="_blank"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;,  &lt;a href="http://praeclarum.org" target="_blank"&gt;Blog&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://github.com/praeclarum" target="_blank"&gt;GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;James: &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/jamesmontemagno" target="_blank"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;,  &lt;a href="https://montemagno.com" target="_blank"&gt;Blog&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://github.com/jamesmontemagno" target="_blank"&gt;GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Merge Conflict: &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/mergeconflictfm" target="_blank"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;,  &lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/mergeconflictfm" target="_blank"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://mergeconflict.fm" target="_blank"&gt;Website&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.mergeconflict.fm/discord" target="_blank"&gt;Chat on Discord&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Music : Amethyst Seer - Citrine by &lt;a href="https://soundcloud.com/adventureface" target="_blank"&gt;Adventureface&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;⭐⭐ &lt;a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/merge-conflict/id1133064277?mt=2&amp;ls=1" rel="nofollow"&gt;Review Us&lt;/a&gt; ⭐⭐&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Machine transcription available on &lt;a href="http://mergeconflict.fm" rel="nofollow"&gt;http://mergeconflict.fm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
      </description>

Frank and James dig into iCircuit’s UI — why the toolbar feels crowded, popovers that behave like iPad-only elements on iPhone, and a broken help/sign-in flow (spoiler: OpenURL deprecation in iOS 26 and TestFlight/App Review quirks are partly to blame). They trade practical takeaways on in‑app vs external browsers, cross-device/SDK testing, and the tiny polish fixes that make real apps feel professional.

Merge Conflict

507: iCircuit UI Roast: Toolbar, Popovers, and Polish

507: iCircuit UI Roast: Toolbar, Popovers, and Polish

Description