macOS 26 Tahoe: The MacStories Review - MacStories

I tend to read just one review of the big new OS releases from Apple and these days those are the MacStories ones. Why read seven pages on this? I spend a lot of time on macOS and I like to know how it is changing.

• Liquid Glass is the headline design element of all these releases. There has been a lot of hand wringing about it. Some love it and a lot of folks are less positive. I’m just getting my first glimpses and so far I've found it pretty comfortable and usable. We'll see how it evolves as developers get more experience with it.
• Control Center has gotten really powerful over many releases. Having multiple instances in Tahoe is interesting. Also you can now put individual Control Center capabilities in the menu bar.
• I wasn't aware of how much personalization capability there is in Tahoe. It isn't marketed that way, but it really feels like the most customizable version of macOS perhaps ever.
• I use Raycast and before that LaunchBar so I tend to not ever use Spotlight but the new Spotlight sounds like a huge upgrade for those that haven't used launchers in the past.
• Shortcuts is one of my most used capabilities and now having direct model access to Apple Intelligence is a big win. I've used OpenAI APIs to do things like this already and it is powerful. It is now tons easier to do. This is worth playing with.
• Journal is now on more platforms. I still have Day One and might consider moving to Journal but there is no easy path. I realize the right answer is use neither and just write in text files.

I never install the betas but I do upgrade the day the new releases are out. So far I’m having a lot of fun with Tahoe. Also see Ars Technica's macOS 26 review.