New macOS theme hints at something big
Apple insider Mark Gurman says in the latest edition of his newsletter Power On that macOS is about to undergo a new overhaul, and possibly get the moniker 'Tahoe'. This redesign will be part of the company's major rebranding effort that it will announce at WWDC ( Worldwide Developers Conference ) this month.Apple's macOS has, since 2013, been named after famous places found in the state of California. The company also has a habit of naming macOS with a very popular location's name when there is a major redesign or other overhaul to look forward to. These names also sometimes give a little indication of what users can expect from their MacBook and Mac computers going forward.This year, Apple is apparently naming the new version of macOS — macOS 26 — after Lake Tahoe. A gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains, this place is home to resorts and is also a famous vacation spot for people in the U.S. And, Gurman was able to spot something really interesting.Lake Tahoe is known for showing the reflection of the sky and the surrounding mountains on its surface. As Gurman notes, this is very likely a hint at the overall redesign that every Apple operating system is getting this year. These redesign will be inspired by the company's visionOS, which powers the Apple Vision Pro headset.
The visionOS user interface. | Image credit — Apple Gurman believes that macOS 26 will be a significant change over its predecessor. If I had to guess, we're going to get a lot more productivity-focused improvements. Apple is apparently bringing certain long-awaited macOS features to iPadOS this year, so it only stands to reason that macOS itself is getting new goodies too.
While WWDC 2025 will be a much more subdued affair compared to last year's event, Apple is likely going to be announcing Apple Intelligence support for its developer tools. I wouldn't be surprised if similar small-scale AI support for certain features in macOS gets expanded on with Tahoe. Apple is saving its AI advancements for next year, when it hopes to catch up to Samsung and Google in that regard. This year's software overhaul is the company's way of getting the hype going without outright admitting that it has fallen behind in the tech industry's newest craze.
Then again, given how most consumers feel about AI, Apple's redesign might be the most interesting announcement we see this year.
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