Software program is greater than only a new model quantity: at this yr’s Worldwide Builders Convention, Apple rolled out expansive updates throughout its platforms, with a model new Liquid Glass design, entry to AI fashions for third-party builders, and new options.
However you’ve heard about all of that, I’m certain, so we’re not going to rehash it. As a substitute, let’s get private: I’m selecting out, for my part, the perfect and worst new options of every of Apple’s platforms. To be clear, these are my utterly scientific and completely well-reasoned professional opinions on the options that had been introduced, not just a few off-the-cuff reactions lower than a day later.
macOS
Finest: Highlight enhancements
Sure. This. 100, as the children say. Not everybody with a Mac is an influence person, however energy customers most likely disproportionately use the Mac, so a function that’s geared toward them looks like a tacit admission that the Mac goes to maintain being the Mac. I gave up third-party launchers a very long time in the past, and I’m glad to see Apple lastly embracing the extra highly effective options they’ll provide.
Worst: Disappearing menu bar
Didn’t we undergo this again in 2007? The menu bar is an integral a part of the macOS expertise, why don’t you need me to see it?
iOS
Finest: Spam filtering in Messages
Lengthy overdue. There was some facility for third-party filters prior to now, however they had been by no means actually used. But when I by no means get one other bizarre spam message asking if I left my sun shades at their home, will probably be too quickly.
Worst: Tapbacks in CarPlay
Perhaps calling this the “worst” is overselling it, however a) there wasn’t rather a lot else in iOS 26 that I discovered objectionable, and b) do I actually need folks tapping on messages and making an attempt to choose the proper emoji whereas driving? I don’t.
iPadOS
Finest: Improved windowing
Lastly, after what looks like seventeen totally different multitasking approaches, Apple has come across a surefire winner: home windows you may place wherever, handle through Expose, and tile to components of the display screen. Perhaps they lastly developed a time machine and went again to Xerox PARC.
Worst: Video games app
It’s a supercharged Video games Heart, however that doesn’t do a lot for me. I admire that no less than it tends to indicate off apps that I even have performed, however a large splash display screen of video games advisable for me looks like an advert greater than something.
watchOS
Finest: Configurable widgets
I just like the Climate widget on my Watch, however I’m aggravated that it forces me to incorporate the wind course and AQI together with temperature. With the ability to decide the objects it’s exhibiting is vastly preferable—I at all times prefer to have the UV stage in there to know the way a lot I’m going to sunburn. Not if. How a lot.
Worst: Exercise Buddy
Look, I’ve lately began working once more, utilizing the Nike Run Membership app, which has a chipper (perhaps too chipper?) coach who roots you on. However for all that it’s an precise particular person, not a robotic. Your robotic enthusiasm does nothing for me, you hear me? NOTHING.
visionOS
Finest: Widgets
Look, the power to create little widgets and go away them in persistent locations round your workspace is simply cool. It’s a wholehearted embracing of spatial computing. The Imaginative and prescient Professional could also be too wealthy for my blood, however Apple appears dedicated to pushing that ahead, and extra energy to them.
Worst: Picture Playgrounds
We didn’t preserve the virus contained.
tvOS
Finest: There’s nonetheless a tvOS
Damning with faint reward, however the Apple TV continues to be the system I exploit probably the most that Apple appears to care concerning the least. tvOS doesn’t even get a tab in Apple’s preview of all the brand new working techniques. Poor child.
Worst: Sing in Apple Music with iPhone
I actually don’t want to listen to your off-key rendition of “Africa”, a lot much less amplified by way of my soundbar.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the sci-fi spy thriller The Armageddon Protocol, is out now.]
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