Benjamin MacLeod • Benjamin's Notebook

“Courage.” This was the term Apple Executive Phil Schiller used when Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7. About a month ago, Apple shared a preview of the upcoming release of macOS, iPadOS, and iOS (for efficiency purposes, I will call this AppleOS 26 henceforth). Having had time to reflect, I’d have to say that perhaps this release would also be deserving of the title “Courage”.

I’ve audited Apple beta software since iOS 12 in 2018. Typically, I make the bold and stupid choice to install the iOS beta on my iPhone. For me, this is my primary device, and I usually install the beta on it despite Apple telling me not to. This is partly because I rarely have a second supported device, but also because I like to go all in. However, this year was different. Like always, I watched the entirety of WWDC. This time I left at the end feeling slightly disappointed. I did install the betas, just only on my old Mac and my iPad. But something prevented me from wanting to put it on my iPhone.

That’s not to say that Apple did a terrible job with AppleOS 26. First of all, the unified name of OS 26 was brilliant. Like cars, AppleOS will use the incoming year to name the version number. When writing this article, I had to look up when iOS 12 was released. No longer will I need to do this. As well, Apple has (mostly) delivered all the “big features” it announced with Developer Beta 1. Apple has fallen into a bad habit of announcing features and then releasing them months later, or not at all (Looking at you, Apple Intelligence). But just because Apple delivered on time doesn’t mean I have to like the content they delivered.

Liquid Glass

Cue Liquid Glass. Liquid Glass is Apple’s latest design language, further unifying icons and UI elements across Apple’s entire ecosystem. Liquid Glass uses reflection, blur, and lighting effects to produce what I can only describe as “unreal” visuals. While it’s unclear (pun intended) what Apple is planning by introducing Liquid Glass, I think that it is very likely that Apple is preparing us for augmented reality (AR) glasses. Liquid Glass (and AppleOS 26) take many design cues from visionOS, and this is clearly where Apple wants to go in the VR/AR space.

I don’t want to dunk Apple too hard on Liquid Glass because it is still a very early beta. We are on Developer Beta 2 and many things have/may change. In fact, since WWDC, Apple has already fixed the Finder icon and the Control Center. Still, I can’t seem to get around the new UI. On the Mac, I don’t mind the changes too much. I think this is because I started using a Mac in the Mountain Lion days, and the slightly skeuomorphic aspects of it make me nostalgic. On iOS though, I just can’t.

The Superior Squircle

I never like being a hater, but in my opinion, the new icons look awful on macOS. Since macOS Bir Sur, icons on the Mac have been squircle shaped. Despite most icons looking the same, Apple did allow exceptions to the rule. This helped keep the macOS charm that many long time users knew and loved. macOS 26 says goodbye to these icons. 

What’s worse is that the new design isn’t just forced on native apps. macOS 26 forces the squircle on all apps, inserting a grey background behind any non-conforming app. There are (for now) ways of circumventing this “feature”, but Apple clearly wants icons to look the same across the ecosystem.

Icon Themes

Oh yeah, one last thing about the new icons is that they now have more themes. Like on iOS 18, AppleOS 26 supports tinted icons across the board, and a new clear theme. I haven’t decided whether I like it or not yet, but it’s here, and it’s here to stay.

Menu Bar

One thing I do like is the transparent menu bar on macOS 26. This was actually a bug I experienced on my MacBook Air a few months before WWDC happened. At the time, I thought it would look great as a feature. And it appears that Apple thought so too. Speaking of the menu bar, it’s on iPad now?!?! This one has been a long time coming, and I think it’s amazing. iPad now supports a proper menu bar, as well as a traffic light array for minimize, close, and full screen.

iMessage

Another app that has had positive updates is iMessage. iMessage now provides the option to change the background in any iMessage group chat. You can either use your own picture, an AI generated one from Image Playground, or an animated gradient. It may be a change that should have been done ages ago, but, it’s Apple. I’ll be happy that they did it at all.

Control Center

Back to the Mac, Apple now has a unified space for customizing the control center and menu bar in the Settings app. The selection menu is very reminiscent of the widget menu, and you just drag whatever icons you want to either location.

Apple Music

The new design for Apple Music is nice, although it does lose some of the design nods to iTunes that stuck with the Music app. As well, AutoMix is wizard craft. As someone who DJed at my high school, it makes me wonder whether it would even be worth it for a school to hire one now. 

Photos

Apple FIXED IT. Photos was utterly terrible in iOS 18. This year, the design mostly reverts back to how it was in iOS 17.

Spotlight

Spotlight is slightly better in AppleOS 26. This isn’t all positive, as Apple did kill Launchpad, replacing it with App Library. I personally loved Launchpad and was really disappointed about this. For those who never used Launchpad, it was basically the functionality of the iOS home screen but as a Mac app. Hope is not lost, however, as I have been following an individual online who is looking to bring Launchpad back as an open source project (yay!)

Lockscreen

There are new options for customizing the lockscreen on iPadOS and iOS, allowing the time to be all sorts of new sizes. I like this, and think it is a fun way to make your device your device.