Apple shows clear product roadmap at WWDC with design refresh
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote was released last night, revealing a refreshed design while pushing Apple Inteligence into the background.
The new ‘Liquid Glass’ design uses a transparent, glossy interface with glass-like effects inspired by visionOS – the struggling Vision Pro mixed reality headset.
Many of the new announcements had already been leaked. For example, instead of separate version numbers for each platform, Apple will now give all operating systems the same year as a version number, i.e. ’26’ for the year 2026. This change should provide more consistency and clarity within Apple’s ecosystem.
In functional terms, the Phone app is getting its biggest change ever. There is a new view where favourites, recent calls, voicemails come together as it were. Messages gets AI-assisted features such as automatic translations and polls.
The Camera app for iOS and iPadOS has also been overhauled, giving an option to toggle between still and video capture, followed by additional options such as resolution and frame rate.
Apple also announced macOS 26, officially macOS Tahoe, featuring an improved Spotlight search feature, a new Phone app and Live Activities.
Tahoe will be the last version of macOS to support Intel Macs. Apple has completely switched to proprietary silicon since 2020 (M1), and plans to focus all its innovation and future software optimisations on Apple Silicon.
Spotlight now combines results from files, folders, events, apps and cloud services in one view. In addition, it includes quick action capabilities that allow you, for example, to take notes or send e-mails directly from Spotlight.
For the first time, there is a native Phone app: you can access recent calls, contacts and voicemail messages directly on your Mac .
Live Activities (such as flight updates) now also appear on the Mac. Apple Intelligence features have been expanded to include live translations in Messages and FaceTime, improved Genmoji tools and Image Playground.
Apple also introduced a new framework today at WWDC called Foundation Models Framework, which allows third parties to access the same AI models that power Apple Intelligence. The models run completely offline on Apple Silicon chips in iPhone and iPad, with no Internet connection required.
For the first time, developers may directly use these so-called on-device models, meaning that features such as e-mail summaries will become available in third party apps, not just Apple Mail.
The framework will be made available with iOS 26 and similar releases on iPadOS 26 and macOS 26.
IOS 26 will only run on iPhone 11 and newer – older models with A12 chips may not be supported.
iPadOS surprise
The big surprise of WWDC was not so much the new design for all its hardware, but iPadOS 26, which is getting closer in feel to macOS.
Apple users generally find iPads quite handy, but not a complete replacement for, say, a MacBook – even with an attached keyboard. That’s going to change with iPad 26. The signature simplicity of iPad has remained, but iPadOS 26 includes a brand-new window system, with new ways to manage and organise apps, and switch apps more easily.
For the first time, the iPad lets you slide app windows on top of each other, like you’re used to doing on a Mac. Currently, you can only move app windows side by side. With the familiar window buttons, you can effortlessly close, minimise, resize or enlarge windows.
If you’ve already resized an app, it will be exactly the same size and position when you open it again. The familiar Exposé (a macOS staple) displays all open windows and lets you quickly go to the one you need. The new window system also works well with Stage Manager, for when you want to place your windows in separate groups, and with an external screen, when you need extra space to work with different apps.
Also, apps get a menu bar as per macOS, which can be found by swiping down from the top of the screen or by moving the cursor up.
The updated list view in the Files app, just like on the Mac, shows more details of your documents in customisable columns and folders that you can collapse. You can also find folders faster by colouring them or choosing a different symbol or emoji for them. Everything you set up this way also appears on your other Apple devices. You can also drag and drop folders from the Files app directly to the Dock so that you have the corresponding files right at hand.
The iPad also gets another a new apps, the most important of which is the Preview app for viewing and editing PDFs. This lets you use Apple Pencil to make markups. It’s not quite clear yet if the Preview app will be there for iOS.
With iPadOS 26, Diary (Journal) is also now available on iPad, which lets you record daily experiences and special events. Using Apple Pencil or by hand, you can add drawings and handwritten text, as well as photos, videos, audio recordings, locations and information about your mood.
Gaming
There is also a brand new Apple Games app. iPadOS 26 includes the new game overlay, which lets you quickly see new events and updates. It also lets you easily adjust settings, call someone while gaming, invite others to play along and more.
If you’re a creative professional working with audio and video, iPadOS 26 offers Background Tasks, Audio Input Selection, Local Capture and more. You get more control over your audio input and can choose different microphones per app – as well as for individual websites. Audio recordings sound “crystal clear” thanks to Voice Isolation, which filters out ambient noise. When you use AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation or AirPods Pro 2 to record audio, the sound is studio-quality. Your phone calls sound better, too.
Local Capture lets you make high-quality recordings on iPad in video conferencing apps. Afterwards, you can also easily share your audio and video files. Any echo from other participants’ audio is suppressed, so you can speak clearly and make great recordings.
Intelligent features
Siri and Apple Intelligence didn’t feature much by name but their influence was al over the keynote. In Phone, FaceTime and Messages, for example, you can now use Live Translation so you can make yourself understood in another language. In Messages, incoming text messages, including group messages, are automatically translated into your preferred language. In FaceTime, you can follow the translation through live captions as you listen to the speaker. And when you make a call, you’ll hear the translation immediately during the call. You can do the same on iPhone and Mac.
With the revamped Commands app, Apple said you can do “smarter things than ever,” such as summarise text with Writing Help and create images with Image Playground. You can use Apple Intelligence models directly to generate responses that you can use in the rest of your assignments. For example, as a student, you can create an assignment that uses Apple Intelligence models to compare an audio transcription of a lecture with your own notes – and automatically supplement them where necessary.
Calculator includes a new option for 3D graphs in Mathematics Notes, allowing you to create equations with three variables and graphs in three dimensions.
In Notes, you can now export a note to a so-called Markdown file. You can also capture conversations in the Phone app as audio recordings with transcription.
Emerce
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers