macOS 26

I’ve always thought that the iMac G4 was one of the most beautiful products Apple has ever made. It’s now more than two decades old, but I still think it looks as futuristic as it did on the day it launched.

I’d also say that Apple’s 2025 Mac operating system looks somehow just right on this 2002 machine, as ably achieved by self-described tinkerer Colby Sheets …

Update 2:29 p.m. ET: After initially launching the beta exclusively on its developer website, Apple has now begun rolling out the OTA version as well.

Apple has released a new batch of developer betas for the systems it announced during WWDC25, including macOS Tahoe 26. Here’s what’s new.

While macOS 26 is set to bring a whole new look and feel, three new apps, and a slew of new features, it does also remove a very old feature still loved by some: Launchpad.

Launchpad dates all the way back to 2010, and lets you see and organize all your Mac apps across a series of screens. There are two main reasons some people still use it today …

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macOS 26 brings a major new user–interface to the Mac, as well as some powerful new functionality. Apple has also updated a lot of its own apps, in addition to bringing three apps to the Mac for the first time.

Here’s what the company has to share …

One of the most common complaints in macOS Tahoe 26 betas 1 and 2 was the new tab UI in apps like Safari and Terminal, which added a black bar to the bottom of inactive tabs. In beta 3, Apple seems to have reversed course.

Earlier today, Apple released its new set of developer betas, but a distribution issue affected the Apple Silicon version of macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta 3. Now, the issue seems to have been resolved, and the update is now available for all compatible Macs.

How dead is FireWire support in macOS Tahoe 26? As dead as the iPod, as far as the Mac is concerned, which is at least a little sad. Stephen Hackett checked.

In classic 512 Pixels fashion, he’s conjured together a real world demonstration using a battle-tested FireWire 800 cable-connected drive, two Thunderbolt adapters including a Thunderbolt 2 to 3 dongle, and a Mac. Woof.

Alongside today’s bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements, macOS 26 beta 3 introduces a new “Tahoe Day” aerial screen saver and wallpaper. Here’s what it looks like.

Update: It looks like Apple ran into a distribution issue affecting the Apple Silicon version of today’s macOS Tahoe beta. For now, the update appears to be available only to Intel Macs.

Two weeks after releasing the second wave of developer betas, Apple has just dropped macOS Tahoe 26 beta 3, alongside updates to its other operating systems.

As I pointed out recently, while Whisper is top of mind and still a pretty good transcription model, OpenAI has moved away from it. That said, the fact that Apple’s new transcription API is faster than Whisper is great news. But how accurate is it? We tested it out.

The new Finder icon in the first beta of macOS Tahoe 26 raised a lot of eyebrows when Apple did more than glassify it: the company also flipped the light and dark sides.

The internet wasn’t happy, and beta 2 saw the natural order of things restored – but many still think Apple has lost sight of an essential element, and one designer has put it right …

Apple has added a new toggle to show the menu bar background in macOS Tahoe 26 beta 2. The option was added after beta 1 arrived with no menu bar background and no toggle to restore it.

Apple has restored decades of precedent and restored color balance to the Finder icon in macOS Tahoe 26 beta 2. A controversial change in beta 1 was met with a healthy dose of criticism.

Before we deep dive into this topic, I want to mention that I love iPadOS 26. Yes, it’s the first beta, so plenty of tweaking and optimization still needs to get done. But overall, it’s been what I have wanted on iPadOS for years. That being said, a few things still hold it back from being a true MacBook replacement for some people. So if you’re debating between an iPad Pro or a MacBook, here are five essential things iPadOS still can’t do.

If you ever need to transcribe audio or video to text, most current apps are powered by OpenAI’s Whisper model. You’re probably using this model if you use apps like MacWhisper to transcribe meetings or lectures, or to generate subtitles for YouTube videos.

But iOS 26 and Apple’s other developer betas include the company’s own transcription frameworks – and a test suggests that they match Whisper’s accuracy while running at more than twice the speed …

WWDC 2025 ends today, and we’ve seen all the new features on offer from Apple’s shiny glassy new iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26.

The first developer betas are available now, and anyone can sign up to try them – but you probably shouldn’t. If you’re not a developer with sacrificial test devices, exactly how long should you wait in the beta cycle before risking them on your daily drivers … ?

After years of incremental tweaks, Spotlight is taking center stage in macOS Tahoe 26, in what Apple calls its biggest update ever. Here’s everything that’s new.

Apple disbanded its router hardware team in 2016 and officially exited the business in 2018. Now in 2025, Apple is signaling that one of the last remaining benefits of its networking hardware will be disabled next year.

Yesterday, Bloomberg broke the news that this year’s software update for the Mac will be macOS 26 rather than macOS 16. The update is expected to bring a sweeping redesign to the Mac, and now we have the first rumors on which models will be able to update to macOS 26.