Last fall, I made a number of changes to improve how SmartGo One looks and works on iOS 26. The list views adopted the Liquid Glass look, but the game view remained pretty much unchanged. Making the game view with all its icons and toolbars and different views (go board, player names, comment, move tree) look good on iOS 26 seemed like a daunting task.

I was lucky to be able to attend a 3-day “Liquid Glass” workshop at Apple in January, with Apple designers and developers on hand, and got a good start on re-imagining SmartGo. After a few months of full-time work, I think I’m close to something that looks and works a lot better. I hope to be ready for beta-testing version 3.0 of SmartGo soon; please let me know if you’re interested.

Note that the new version will require iOS 26; there’s no practical way to make the new design work on older versions of iOS. No worries if you’re still on an older version for a while: SmartGo 2.8.3 will continue to run on your device until you’re ready to upgrade. Also, there will be a price increase for new subscribers. If you’re already subscribed, your subscription price will not change, so if you’re not subscribed yet, this would be a good time to sign up.

Richard Bozulich

I was sad to learn that Richard Bozulich, the founder of Kiseido Publishing and author of many English-language go books, passed away in early March. I was lucky to meet him and work with him on the Go Books project. The go world owes him a lot; he will be missed.

You can read more about his life in this article in the American Go e-Journal. And you can see the 30 books he’s written that are available in Go Books.

AlphaGo to Zero

The third AlphaGo to Zero book by Michael Redmond 9 dan and Chris Garlock covers the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo games. Note that Michael Redmond will be at the US Go Congress in Boston, in case you needed an extra incentive to come to the Go Congress this year.

Improved Hint

I recently improved how Hint works in SmartGo One: for each suggested move, it now shows how much it loses in terms of winning percentage or score. Tap on a move bubble to see the expected move sequence. This will be further improved in version 3.0.

Staying connected

Any questions or suggestions, please reach out with an email to support@smartgo.com. And you can follow me on Mastodon: @smartgo@mastodon.social

Anders Kierulf