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Apple Unveils macOS Tahoe With Liquid Glass Design, Phone App, Live Translation, and More

basdeninard said:
The new UI is just awful. Try reading the text underneath "Energy Mode"... you have to squint to read it because of the translucency behind it.

f-0b9a4edd4d60d52371c0102263250d05db2d4b3f.jpg
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This has been my chief complaint for over a decade now, starting with iOS7 and flat design. Too thin, too low contrast, too little distinction between what’s actionable vs. info. Very distracting to figure things out at times. And they talk about reducing user distraction. Really???
 
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antiprotest said:
With the white on white against white design, it will be harder for anybody to see anything on your devices -- including someone looking over your shoulder.
Click to expand...

If you’re saying it will be hard for anybody to read what’s on your screen, that includes you yourself! Readability looks just awful!
 
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izzy0242mr said:
Sounds like this is probably the last year of Intel support for macOS, based on what the dev preview is compatible with (https://lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-install-macos-26-tahoe-right-now-wwdc-2025):
  • MacBook Air (M1 and later)
  • MacBook Pro (2019 and later)
  • iMac (2020 and later)
  • Mac Mini (M1 and later)
  • Mac Pro (2019 and later)
  • Mac Studio
The 2019 Mac Pro is Intel and the 2019 MacBook Pro models (and some 2020 models) are Intel. There are some Intel iMacs from 2020 as well, too. But it seems increasingly unlikely that macOS 27 is going to work with those—but who knows.
Click to expand...
Yep, I was right: macOS 26 Tahoe is the last update for Intel Macs. https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/09/intel-macs-no-more-updates/
 
acrakes said:
I watched a couple of developer videos and have good news.

"Meet Liquid Glass" - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/219/

1. Colored glass is available. The examples appear to be from Apple apps.

All of the effects look better in motion. They're subtle, and most of this OS upgrade is cosmetic, but now I'm excited to see it "live" on a screen.

View attachment 2518074View attachment 2518075View attachment 2518076View attachment 2518077View attachment 2518078

2. Finder sighting (I don't remember which video this was, but I screencapped it). Again, subtle, but it does feel softer, more legible, and more contemporary.

View attachment 2518079
Click to expand...
It looks jarring right now to my eye. But I've also learned over time that all these UI overhauls tend to look crazy for a while and then eventually seem totally normal.
 
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acrakes said:
I watched a couple of developer videos and have good news.

"Meet Liquid Glass" - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/219/

1. Colored glass is available. The examples appear to be from Apple apps.

All of the effects look better in motion. They're subtle, and most of this OS upgrade is cosmetic, but now I'm excited to see it "live" on a screen.

View attachment 2518074View attachment 2518075View attachment 2518076View attachment 2518077View attachment 2518078

2. Finder sighting (I don't remember which video this was, but I screencapped it). Again, subtle, but it does feel softer, more legible, and more contemporary.

View attachment 2518079
Click to expand...
That list view looks terrible. It's a desktop OS, and it doesn't need that much padding because it's supposed to be used with mouse and keyboard!
 
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ignatius345 said:
It looks jarring right now to my eye. But I've also learned over time that all these UI overhauls tend to look crazy for a while and then eventually seem totally normal.
Click to expand...

I'm put off by the "liquid" sliders and toggle animations I've seen in videos. A little too fast, like the liquid is mercury.

They also haven't reimagined many of the apps to match the new "design language." It appears to apply only to buttons, icons and sidebar backgrounds. There's no animation for "panes" of glass, which could be interesting in motion, or much of interest for the fluid elements.

It's all reminding me of the iPhone's Dynamic Island, an interesting idea that never grew beyond a gimmick.

(Cool Island concepts here:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1571589244866396161
)
 
acrakes said:
I watched a couple of developer videos and have good news.

"Meet Liquid Glass" - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/219/

1. Colored glass is available. The examples appear to be from Apple apps.

All of the effects look better in motion. They're subtle, and most of this OS upgrade is cosmetic, but now I'm excited to see it "live" on a screen.

View attachment 2518074View attachment 2518075View attachment 2518076View attachment 2518077View attachment 2518078

2. Finder sighting (I don't remember which video this was, but I screencapped it). Again, subtle, but it does feel softer, more legible, and more contemporary.

View attachment 2518079
Click to expand...

I watched the video and all of it, even the clear stuff, looks awesome.

Can't wait to try it in person.

Aqua is back, baby!
 
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As I "reflect" on the Liquid Glass more, the style makes legacy designs feel too heavy. When icons, widgets, and buttons are all translucent, unobtrusive, and quick to disappear from the screen, suddenly I look at the Apple Music app and notice how solid and static the "body" background is. Solid album art, resting on solid white. I feel like I want the solid white to vanish, or at least be replaced with something "frosted," something with a little texture.. Especially because the library view is so busy to begin with.
 
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The phone app should be pretty useful. The call screening and hold assist features sound awesome but I kind of wonder how well they’ll work in the real world. For hold assist, I could see some bad customer service person hanging up immediately after hearing an automated message telling them I’m coming to pick up the phone. I’d stay there and pick up immediately just in case. I do really like that it silences the hold music. It infuriates me when the music has lyrics so I’m not able to read or listen to anything else or do anything that requires thought while I wait for an hour.

Glad Journal is now cross device but I’m waiting until it has a robust tagging system before I use it.

The Spot Light and Shortcuts stuff sounds very interesting. Could potentially be some real power user features.
 
platinumaqua said:
That list view looks terrible. It's a desktop OS, and it doesn't need that much padding because it's supposed to be used with mouse and keyboard!
Click to expand...
At least they kept the alternating row backgrounds, which the iPad Files app still doesn't have
 
rafark said:
Also is it me or did we barely get any new real features? I feel like this year aside from the new design was pretty weak in terms of features in macOS and iOS.
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I hope that they did a load of under the hood work also - snow leopard with new paint?

I guess we'll see as people drive the betas.
 
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I will judge this after I test it on some test machine. At the moment it does not so radical as I expected, which is a good thing. Will see how it feels after some use.
 
ignatius345 said:
If the past is any guide, there will be a control in Accessibility to kill it through "reduce transparency".
Click to expand...
What if Apple removes that feature in Accessibility?

But hopefully in Terminal you can still input some command manually to turn off the transparency.
 
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