Another annual tech extravaganza, WWDC 25, took place in the early hours of this morning. As we all know, technology is fundamentally about changing skins. Apart from highlighting Apple Intelligence, which people in China cannot use on China-market devices consider beneath them, the biggest news was the latest release of every platform's OS, now uniformly named by year, and the accompanying Liquid Glass design language.
I do not usually follow WWDC and tend to play it safe, waiting for the stable releases. But this morning's flood of tech reviews, news, and mocking memes made it hard to ignore. After a quick look, I decided to update and try it myself.
Since I have sold my iPhone (see the previous post), this trial covers macOS and iPadOS, which seem to be attracting relatively fewer complaints.
The most obvious change is, of course, the UI. Liquid Glass, the design language now shared across platforms, supposedly originated in visionOS. I have also sold my Vision Pro, so I cannot compare directly, but it certainly has that visionOS feel: frosted-glass windows and a consistent skeuomorphic style for the icons—slices of frosted glass, perhaps? Let's call them that for now.
The unified icons actually work quite well on iPad. Third-party app icons get the same treatment, making the overall style very consistent.
Windows also share the new style, as does Apple Music. It looks more futuristic, unlike the old iTunes look, which seemed sluggish just to look at (the actual experience is another matter).
The biggest complaint about macOS is not Liquid Glass—the negative UI feedback mostly comes from iPhone users—but the removal of Launchpad and its absorption into Spotlight. Clicking the Apps button in the Dock does the same thing as Cmd + Space: it opens the Spotlight search box.
You then have to press Cmd + 1 to display all your apps.
This design is a bit deranged, especially for someone as hopelessly forgetful as me. I cannot remember app names; sometimes seeing the icon is barely enough to remind me what it does. What did Launchpad ever do to Apple? In a few days, some indie developer will probably release a Launchpad replacement and charge me 99 yuan.
Quiz: What is the photo app called, Albums or Gallery?
Answer: Photos. (I tried several wrong names in search.)
Another small change: pressing the keyboard's volume or brightness keys no longer brings up a full-screen overlay. Instead, a little popup appears in the menu bar, somewhat like a touchscreen interface.
Without an iPhone, I can only experience the quintessential Liquid Glass effects on my iPad: an 11-inch, fourth-generation iPad Pro with an M2 chip.
I skipped flashy features such as stretching the lock-screen clock, focusing on Notification Center and Control Center. Pulling down Notification Center produces a real-time glass effect that feels like dragging an actual sheet of glass. It is stunning, although I wonder about the performance requirements and whether older iPads can handle it comfortably.
Next is the much-criticized Control Center. It is so transparent that things are hard to make out. I imagine later releases will adjust this or let users customize it.
Of course, apart from being entirely worthless, this update does have a few redeeming features. The biggest is iPadOS's new windowed app mode. Previously, iPad apps were limited to full screen or Stage Manager, with one app kept on screen or basic multitasking through Split View. Windowed apps now behave exactly as they do on macOS: freely resize, maximize, minimize, and overlap windows. Connect a large display and you can practically use it as a computer. This is a major step toward making the iPad a real productivity tool.
Those are my immediate impressions of this update. Honestly, I am optimistic about the design language. Apple has finally delivered the future Windows Vista could not realize with the hardware of its time. The more serious problems and complaints should be addressed in later updates. This is only the first developer preview of macOS 26 and iPadOS 26. There is plenty to look forward to.