apple has renamed as predicted all of their operating systems after the year 2026 meaning iOS is going to jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26 so please uh moment of silence for iOS 19 through 25 it just sucks cuz I knew 23 was going to be good but the rebranding announced during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote this morning represents some of the most substantial changes to Apple’s software in years ios iPad OS Mac OS Watch OS TV OS and Vision OS will share a new unified design language called liquid glass which brings back some skuomorphism ui elements warp and refract light apple says they behave just like glass in the real world for instance menu bars can be shattered and used as improvised weapons in an emergency apple also highlighted more dynamic controls which will appear when the system thinks you need them and disappear when it thinks you don’t an approach that has caused frustration in the past but we have AI now so but we’ll talk AI later because what Apple called the biggest iPad OS release ever involves finally giving iPads a new window management system that works pretty much like Mac OS or Windows unlike Stage Manager which is still a thing and separate from this apparently multiple windows can be resized with what Apple calls a grab handle and repositioned anywhere or flicked to snap to the side but there’s more tiling options under each Windows controls for minimize maximize and close like Mac OS which you can click with the new mouse pointer that looks like a freaking mouse pointer what is there’s even a menu bar with drop-downs for file edit etc at the top and folder stacks in the dock just like Mac OS i keep saying it 2019 Riley reviewing iPads online as tech tips is losing his the Mac OSing doesn’t stop there the iPad OS files app gets more detail and an open with default app option background tasks allows say a video render to complete without the app autoc closing and preview is finally on iPad with the annotation autofilling and other stuff you can do to PDFs don’t tell me about it i don’t want to know there’s also improvements to audio video and screen recording that seem cool but I got to be honest I’d rather move on to Mac OS 26 and the upgraded Spotlight Search which continues to seem like a glorious angel from heaven compared to the wart covered troll under the bridge that is Windows Search i don’t know what that is but I could ask Bing perhaps mac OS 26 lets you describe actions and take them directly from Spotlight like sending an email that says a certain thing to a certain person with a certain subject line and lets you assign quick keys for certain actions like just typing AR for add reminder spotlight can search for inapp menu items and activate them and it can access your clipboard history which previously required third-party apps which means some developers just got sherlocked i’m sorry it had to be today but one of the coolest things is the integration with shortcuts which now supports adding Apple’s own AI models or chatebt into an automation workflow which can be summoned in any app with Spotlight mac OS will soon have more customization for icons folder colors and control center options the phone app is on Mac OS now very cool and there’s even an in-game overlay all this will be available to any Apple Silicon Mac and the four remaining Intel powered Macs that are still supported they are just holding on for dear life long after they should have let go early in the iOS 26 section of the keynote Craig Federigi said “Many of you missed using tabs in the photos app photos now features separate tabs for library and collections which I think is the first time Apple has directly acknowledged complaints about one of their changes is losing all of those app store court battles finally getting to them if so we should keep breaking their spirit this is good stuff visual intelligence can now search and take action across multiple apps based on your iPhone screen extract the date time and location from event posters and add it to calendar and ask chatbt questions about images and Apple’s new foundation models feature lets third-party apps use Apple’s ondevice AI models because somebody might as well use them while the new AI powered series still in her trailer memorizing her lines other cool AI stuff includes live translation integrated into messages FaceTime phone calls and kind of into Apple Music which now has lyrics translation and pronunciation guides so you can stop mumbling the Korean part i genuinely think automix is is cool which will use AI to mix songs into each other like a human DJ does but with less head bobbing i know you’re waiting to hear about that rumored games app though well uh yeah it aggregates your games and Apple Arcade but it also has a play together tab to see what your friends are playing and compete with them in challenges which can turn single player games into social experiences yuck very cool and there’s actually quite a few more iOS changes including call screening and hold assist in the phone app custom backgrounds and group polls in messages what’s up WhatsApp and realistic chat GBT image generation in image playground so your mom can make deep fakes now too but we don’t have time to consider the ramifications of that watch OS is getting Workout Buddy the perfect AI non-person to hack your brain with the audio equivalent of an encouraging cat poster vision OS supports accessories now like the Logitech Muse Pen and PlayStation VR2 controllers and tvOS has a new API that should make signing in suck less and there was a new trailer for a bunch of Apple TV Plus Originals which are statistically pretty good i mean I guess Apple is happy to continue losing money on those and I’m totally fine with that know iOS got to skip 19 to 25 and frankly I’m jealous i would have loved to skip those years too microsoft and Asus have revealed their rumored handheld collaboration the ROG Xbox Ally X okay this is an Xbox they say and this is an Xbox if you’re poor that’s the ROG Xbox Ally nonX also being announced with weaker specs but both of them apparently benefit from Microsoft allowing the Xbox team to modify Windows itself on these handhelds they’ll skip loading Windows elements like the desktop freeing up performance and rapidly booting straight into the Xbox app which will feature an aggregated library with games from Xbox Steam and other stores okay the devs behind Xbox and Windows have wanted to make this special Xbox Windows handheld experience happen for a while but as one exact told The Verge “This is really the device that galvanized those teams and got everybody marching and working towards a moment that we’re just really excited to put into the hands of players.” Xbox execs have a gift for hyping up gamers with language you’d use in financial reports it’s very cool but one thing they said that is hype this full screen Xbox experience will roll out to other Windows handhelds next year after the two Xbox allies launch at the end of 2025 it’s just too bad that everybody will be gaming on some form of Linux by that time already oh well this week was chalk full of game announcements between Sony’s PS5 State of Play the kickoff of Summer Games Fest and yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase where we learned there’s going to be a Black Ops 7 but don’t worry uh it stars original Black Ops character Alex Mason who will finally tell us what the numbers mean and an Amazon customer has reported receiving an Orus RTX5090 package only to find it filled with macaroni rice and some kind of dusty old GPU the incident comes after at least 32 Zotac 5090 boxes were discovered at a microenter stuffed full of crossbody backpacks i sincerely hope these 5090 switcheroos don’t become a trend although at least these scammers were nice enough to include some carbs you know throw some chicken bones in there and baby you got a stew going i’m