Apple has renamed, as predicted, all of their operating systems after the year 2026,
meaning iOS is gonna jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26.
So please, a moment of silence for iOS 19 through 25.
It just sucks because I knew 23 was gonna 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, iPadOS, MacOS, WatchOS, TVOS, and VisionOS
will share a new unified design language called liquid glass,
which brings back some skeuomorphism. 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 iPadOS release ever
involves finally giving iPads a new window management system
that works pretty much like MacOS 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 MacOS,
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, et cetera at the top and folder stacks in the dock, just like MacOS.
I keep saying it. 2019 Riley reviewing iPads on Linus Tech Tips
is losing his sh... The MacOS inning doesn't stop there.
The iPadOS files app gets more detail and an open with default app option.
Background tasks allows, say, a video render
to complete without the app auto closing and preview is finally on iPad
with the annotation, auto-filling, and other stuff you can do to PDFs.
Don't tell me about it. I don't wanna know. There's also improvements to audio, video,
and screen recording that seem cool, but I gotta be honest, I'd rather move on to MacOS 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.
Uh, uh, uh, uh. MacOS 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 ad reminder.
Spotlight can search for in-app menu items and activate them, and it can access your clipboard history,
which previously required third party apps, which means some developers just got Sherlock'd.
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 chat GBT into an automation workflow, which can be summoned in any app with spotlight.
MacOS will soon have more customization for icons, folder colors, and control center options.
The phone app is on MacOS 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 Federighi 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 chat GBT questions about images.
And Apple's new foundation models feature lets third-party apps use Apple's on-device 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 auto mix 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, 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.
Yeah, cool, 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, what's app?
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.
WatchOS is getting workout buddy, the perfect AI non-person to hack your brain
with the audio equivalent of an encouraging cat poster. VisionOS 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. And I guess Apple is happy to continue losing money on those,
and I'm totally fine with that. I also wouldn't be bothered if you checked out our sponsor.
You 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 ROGX Box Ally X.
Okay, this is an Xbox, they say,
and this is an Xbox if you're poor.
That's the ROGX Box Ally non-X 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 exec 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.'"
And Xbox execs have a gift for hyping up gamers with language you'd use in financial reports, 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 chock 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 gonna be a Black Ops 7?
But don't worry, 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 Oris RTX 5090 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 micro-center stuffed full of cross-body backpacks.
I sincerely hope these 5090 switch roos don't become a trend,
although at least these scammers were nice enough to include some carbs.
You know, let's throw some chicken bones in there, and baby, you got a stew going.
I'm currently stewing over the fact that there was far too much tech news today.
So let's all take a one day recess and meet back here on Wednesday, okay?
It'll give me some time to work through whether I like Apple now.
It's very confusing. I guess Apple is ha-
Ooh, okay. That's just lights.
Hello. Thank you. Rude.