Were they thinking that, by making it harder to use the chrome to leave the site, the user is encouraged to and more likely to stay on the site...?
But this is Apple after all, one of the biggest adherents to the "fashionable minimalism" trend, so it's not that surprising.
Making good UIs on a small screen is difficult, but I don't think the "hide everything and make it non-obvious and hard to discover" school of thought is the right way to go. I'll gladly sacrifice a small amount of screen space to put some useful controls there (or a reminder that there are more controls), instead of trying to maximise the area the content takes --- which is very similar to a television where you can't change the channel easily, and are just being force-fed content to consume.
But this is Apple after all, one of the biggest adherents to the "fashionable minimalism" trend, so it's not that surprising.
Making good UIs on a small screen is difficult, but I don't think the "hide everything and make it non-obvious and hard to discover" school of thought is the right way to go. I'll gladly sacrifice a small amount of screen space to put some useful controls there (or a reminder that there are more controls), instead of trying to maximise the area the content takes --- which is very similar to a television where you can't change the channel easily, and are just being force-fed content to consume.