WWDC 2025 – Reactions

Now that the WWDC 2025 keynote has passed, it’s time for us and other pundits to provide our two cents about Cupertino’s latest efforts.

A few things that sadly didn’t pan out were:

• No new hardware announcements, including the anticipated HomePod or M4 Ultra.
• “Liquid Glass” (also known as “Glassmorphism”*) replaced “Solarium” as the codename for the new OS design motifs.
• No Vision Pro-style circular icons for iOS.

However, many of the other leaks and rumors turned out to be accurate. Overall, the reaction from industry analysts has been  positive to mixed.

As predicted, all the device OSes will be called by the target version year—in this case, next year, “26.” Luckily, Apple was ready with the betas, so we’ve installed the new xOS 26 Developer Betas on our iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad Pro (3rd gen), and MacBook Air 15” M2.

The most significant change from our perspective is iPadOS 26 adopting more Mac-like multi-window capabilities, including resizable windows and a top menu bar. The system inserts controllable drag bars to re-size the windows easily.

We’ll wildly and boldly predict an eventual long-term (4–5 year) merger of macOS and iPadOS into a single platform—or at the very least, you’ll be able to run Mac apps on an iPad. You can already run some iPad/iOS apps on the Mac. Apple probably won’t retire the iPad name or hardware, given its strong brand recognition—but then again, they did jettison the iPod.

In a clue to the possible eventual merger of the two OSes, desktop widgets have made a comeback on macOS 26 (“Tahoe”); the original widgets were dropped in 2019 with Catalina.

The ugly: Our biggest complaint about macOS 26 is that the double bezels on certain apps appear clunky and cheap. Additionally, the heavy/bold “News” and “Home” typography for app titles still hasn’t aged well (and never really looked great).

Professional UX designers have had a field day on various social networks pointing out the contrast/legibility faults. We agree with other critics that contrast and legibility may suffer at times due to the translucent floating toolbars, depending on the underlying content. In certain situations, when elements of the top bar are light-colored and the background is also light-colored, it causes significant legibility issues.

On our iPad Pro 13” with the A14 Bionic SoC, we also noticed some slight UI animation glitches and stuttering. This is an early beta, so we’re hopeful that Apple will make improvements by the time of the general release.

This year, Apple mostly avoided highlighting Siri or Apple Intelligence, likely because they oversold it last year and then had to pull back on the full release dates due to internal issues.

Our critical take is that Apple is still behind the AI curve. They did announce the ability for developers to better leverage Apple’s NPU/ANE (Neural Processing Unit/Apple Neural Engine) by enabling local inference with their “Foundation Models” without an internet connection.

Live Translation: A possible killer app feature?

One of these local AI features introduced in iOS 26 is Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence. This feature enables real-time language translation across Messages, FaceTime, and Phone calls. In the Phone app, users can activate a translation mode where a voice translates the conversation in real time. Messages automatically translate incoming and outgoing texts, and FaceTime provides real-time translated subtitles. All translations are processed on-device.

*Liquid Glass isn’t entirely new. Apple’s term is known as “glassmorphism” in some design and front-end developer circles. What’s new is Apple’s attention to detail with simulated and animated light refractions, creating “shiny objects.” Cynics may claim this is Apple’s attempt to distract from their ongoing “Apple Intelligence” challenges.

Conclusion
We believe that WWDC 26 is part of Apple’s strategy to buy time until the announcement of Apple Intelligence “2.0” and devices like the iPhone 17 (Inc. Air) series. Although the Liquid Glass design language and the new OS renaming are “neat” distractions, we hope Apple will soon release some ground-breaking innovations such as a foldable iPhone next year.