macOS 26 preview: Spotlight's time to shine
After testing the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta for a few weeks, it definitely feels like a more substantial update than the last few versions. The revamped Spotlight alone will likely delight Mac diehards, since it makes it easier to find apps and perform all manner of tasks without requiring your fingers leave the keyboard. Add in a lovely visual refresh thanks to Apple's Liquid Glass design, as well as enhanced iPhone continuity features, and you have an operating system that feels like a genuine step forward for the Mac faithful.
I've never been a heavy Spotlight user, aside from the few times I've needed to quickly look for an app or file. But in macOS Tahoe 26, it's suddenly a lot more useful. Now Spotlight can also help you find specific files; search cloud file services and websites; run Apple shortcuts and automations; and even run basic commands, like looking up your recent screenshots when you type "/screenshot." Spotlight has become more than just a search engine for your Mac, it's practically a super-powered command line. (And notably, it has no real equivalent on Windows. So once again, Mac power users will be able to gloat about the supremacy of macOS.)
Over the course of my testing, tapping the command key and space bar to trigger Spotlight practically became second nature. I'd bring it up to find files, as usual, but I noticed that it was better at unearthing what I was looking for than before. Spotlight also replaced my usual practice of typing in search strings in Safari or Chrome's address bar. It takes just a few seconds to bring up Spotlight, type "YouTube," hit tab to trigger the search box and type in the video I'm looking for. This intelligent site searching also works for Amazon and IMDB — hopefully, Apple will add more commonly used sites over time (or perhaps just the ability to map a site's internal search engine to Spotlight).
If you're often buried by tons of tabs in your web browser, Spotlight can also quickly search through them. That helped me avoid getting distracted by social media and Slack conversations. I could just stay in my productivity flow, since I didn't have to sift through multiple app windows and tabs. The ability to trigger actions from Spotlight was similarly useful — it's a cinch to pop it up, start typing "Send Message" and jot out a quick text to my wife. Spotlight also learns your most common commands over time, so now I just have to type "se" for the Send Message action to pop up.
I'm sure for a certain type of Mac power user, Spotlight will give them far fewer reasons to ever touch their mouse or trackpad.
While Spotlight is the most powerful upgrade in macOS Tahoe 26, you'll notice the spiffier Liquid Glass interface first. As with iOS 26, it basically amounts to more transparencies and visual flourishes spread throughout the OS. The menu bar at the top of the screen is now fully transparent, instead of looking foggy like before. It's not much, but it does make your Mac's screen seem a little bigger (or perhaps that may have just been extra noticeable on the cramped 13-inch MacBook Air I've been testing on).
Similarly, widgets and the Control Center dropdown have more glass-like visual elements that make them look a bit more modern. There's no real practical advantage, but to paraphrase a classic Marge Simpson quote, I just think it's neat. Apple Silicon-equipped hardware has more than enough graphics power to spare, so these visual upgrades also don't hinder performance at all. I didn't notice any slowdown during my testing, and according to Activity Monitor, there didn't seem to be a big hit to CPU or GPU usage.
Even though you've been able to make phone calls on Macs for a while now through FaceTime, it's taken until macOS Tahoe 26 for Apple to debut a dedicated Phone app. The app itself is nothing special — it gives you a quick glance at your contacts and recent calls, all in a compact Liquid Glass window — but at least it's a more logical place for phone calls.
Even better than the standalone app, though, is the addition of iPhone Live Activities appearing in the macOS Tahoe 26 menu bar. That makes it easier to keep track of an inbound Uber or Doordash order, without whipping out your phone. And if you need to tap into a specific activity, macOS will also automatically launch the app from your phone via iPhone mirroring. It's the sort of usability feature you'd expect from Apple, and notably it's also not easily replicable on Windows. (And sure, you can also view it as a way to keep iPhone users from straying to the dark side too.)
The more I dug into macOS Tahoe 26, the more intriguing it became. Here are a few other updates worth highlighting: The Shortcuts app seems a lot more powerful now, especially with the addition of custom automations and Apple Intelligence-powered actions. You can have an automation trigger writing tools or Image Playgrounds, and there's also a new "Use Model" command that can tap into on-device AI models and ChatGPT. I'm still trying to wrap my head around building a complex automation, but conceivably it could let you do something like compare an audio transcript to text notes, according to Apple.
Safari has received a Liquid Glass redesign that looks pretty polished. It's not nearly as transformative as the Safari iOS upgrade, which makes it easier to read websites on a small phone screen, but at least it looks nice.
The Notes app now has Apple Intelligence-powered reminders whenever you share content to it. That could help you unearth some key tasks from a large email.
The Photos app has also received the Liquid Glass treatment, and you can finally use Pinned Collections on Macs to keep your favorite photo groups handy.
The Apple Music app can now use AutoMix to intelligently blend songs together, similar to a DJ. I've been using this feature on iOS 26 a lot, and it's honestly delightful — so long as you're not a total gapless playback purist.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
36 minutes ago
- CNET
Want to Improve Your iPhone Call Quality? Try This Hidden Feature
Apple released the first public beta of iOS 26 on July 24, and it brought call screening and more to the iPhone's of developers and beta testers. But you don't need to be a developer or beta tester to use a hidden iPhone feature that can make your calls clearer for the person on the other end. The feature is called Voice Isolation. Apple introduced Voice Isolation in 2023 with iOS 16.4. The tech company added the feature, alongside Wide Spectrum, to FaceTime calls with iOS 15 in 2021, but only Voice Isolation is available for regular phone calls at this time. When Voice Isolation is enabled, it muffles distracting background noises that interrupt your calls. That way, if you're on a business call or catching up with friends, you won't be interrupted by your dog's barking or construction outside your home. To enable Voice Isolation, you have to be on an active phone call, as the feature isn't located in Settings. Once activated, Voice Isolation will remain on for all future calls unless you manually turn it off. Here's how to activate and disable Voice Isolation for phone calls. You can also check out everything to know about iOS 18 before the release of iOS 26. How to enable Voice Isolation Apple/Screenshot by CNET 1. Tap your Phone app. 2. While in a phone call, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to access your Control Center. 3. Tap Phone Controls near the top of your screen. 4. Tap Voice Isolation. To disable Voice Isolation, follow the same steps above and tap Standard in Phone Controls. This will return your microphone back to its default setting. What is Wide Spectrum? Apple/Screenshot by CNET Next to Voice Isolation in Phone Controls, you'll also find Wide Spectrum. Unlike Voice Isolation -- which muffles background sounds -- Wide Spectrum amplifies background sounds without affecting your voice. Wide Spectrum is useful for calls with multiple people on one phone line. That way, everyone can be heard, not just the person holding the phone. Currently, Wide Spectrum is only available for FaceTime calls. Since the feature is still present in Phone Controls, it could become available for phone calls in the future. For more on iOS 18, here's all the features included in iOS 18.5 and iOS 18.4. You can also check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet and my thoughts on the iOS 26 beta.
Tom's Guide
an hour ago
- Tom's Guide
iOS 26 guide: All the new features for your iPhone and how to use them
Any iOS update is going to have its share of unfamiliar features with new twists and turns that you may not immediately grasp. Apple's iOS 26 update is a case in point, as this year's version of the iPhone software rolls out new capabilities and enhancements to old features while also switching up the interface for the first time in a dozen years. For the most part, these are positive changes, as I observe in my iOS 26 first look, but they will take some getting used to. Fortunately, we've been working with iOS 26 since Apple released the initial developer beta in June, and we can help you get the lay of the land. In this iOS 26 guide, I'll walk you through the biggest changes in Apple's software update, now available as a public beta ahead of its full release in the fall. This guide features highlights of the major iOS 26 changes as well as links back to our coverage for a more in-depth explanation of what's new in the update and how to make the most of it. Our guide on how to download the iOS 26 public beta offers step-by-step instructions on updating your iPhone's software. You'll need to enroll in Apple's beta software program, and then it's just a matter of going into the Software Update section of the Settings app to grab the iOS 26 beta. Just make sure you've got an iOS 26 supported device capable of running the update. That's any iPhone released from 2019 onward — basically, the iPhone 11 or later. That means the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are the only iOS 18-compatible devices that can't upgrade to iOS 26. (And no, you didn't fall asleep and miss eight iOS updates between iOS 18 and iOS 26. Apple decided to switch to a different naming convention for its software, replacing the version number with the year following the update's release.) Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Also, be aware that not every feature will work on every iOS 26-compatible phone. There are Apple Intelligence features in iOS 26 that require at least an iPhone 15 Pro or later. A new spatial photos feature only works on the iPhone 12 later. Liquid Glass is the name Apple's given to the new interface for its iPhone software, as well as for the software updates coming to the Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV this year. Apple wants a more unified software experience with streamlined menus with a look that takes its inspiration from the visionOS software that powers the Vision Pro headset. Liquid Glass is characterized by translucent menus and fluid animations as on-screen elements adjust to your actions. (Think the URL bar shrinking in Safari as you scroll down a web page.) Some icons have been changed around in iOS 26, and you've got new tinting options, including one that makes those icons completely clear. We've got a comparison between the iOS 26 and iOS 18 interfaces that can help you get used to what's changing with the look of Apple's iPhone software. And if you find the translucent look distracting, we can show you how to adjust the transparency of interface elements in Settings. As part of iOS 26's interface changes, your iPhone lock screen can take on a new look with spatial photos available as the background image for your phone and an adaptive time feature that adjusts the look of the on-screen clock to fit with the other visual elements. We go through all the iOS 26 lock screen changes. The Phone app gets a unified interface that combines your recents and missed calls into a single window. (You can switch back to the old look if you prefer.) But the biggest additions are call screening and hold assist, and they're available on any phone capable of running iOS 26. Call screening fields incoming calls from unknown numbers, having those callers identify themselves and why they're calling. That information appears on your iPhone screen, letting you decide whether to take the call. We've got a look at how the iPhone's call screening compares to what the Google Pixel offers. Hold Assist does exactly what its name implies — it will monitor the phone line when you're put on hold, freeing you up to do other things. When a live agent comes on the line, you'll get a notification. Here are more details on how call screening and Hold Assist work in iOS 26. FaceTime gets a new look, too, with a tiled interface that shows off contact posters of the people you've talked to. There are call screening features here as well. Meanwhile, phones that support Apple Intelligence get a big boost to both the Phone and FaceTime apps — live translations so that you can carry on a conversation with a person in another language. Only select languages are supported right now, and you'll need to download the appropriate language from the Translate app for the feature to work seamlessly. Of the current apps on your iPhone, Messages sees the highest volume of changes, and we detail everything that's new in iOS 26 Messages. But here are the highlights of what you'll see after updating. Group chats pick up a lot of new features, such as typing indicators and the ability to send Apple Cash to groups. Group chats are also the biggest beneficiary of a new polling feature that lets you put polls into chats so that people can vote for their favorite option. From an aesthetic standpoint, you can now use wallpapers as the background for your chat screens — each conversation can have its own background. And like Phone and FaceTime, Messages gains a way to screen out texts from unknown senders, just by adjusting one of the app's settings. Streamlined controls are a theme throughout iOS 26, but that's the most evident in the Camera app. Launch your camera, and you'll see just two controls for video and photo. Swiping left or right brings up other camera modes, such as portrait, pano, slo-mo and time lapse. An upward swipe brings additional settings to adjust things like aspect ratio, exposure and more. And in video mode, you just need to tap the Format button to bring up all your available options. My colleague John Velasco has more on the streamlined camera interface and how it simplifies the task of adjusting settings. He also looks at new iOS 26 AirPod features that turn your earbuds into camera remotes and recording tools. After a big Photos overhaul in iOS 18, Apple is at it again with iOS 26, though this time the changes are more modest. The new version of Photos restores tabs for toggling between your library and your collections, an addition that should save some scrolling while addressing complaints about last year's redesign. That's not the only change to Photos' look, though. You also have the ability to customize the layout of Collections. And if you have an iPhone 12 or later, you can turn images in your library into spatial photos that offer depth effects. (A bonus: if you've got a photo widget on your home screen to serve up favorite photos at random, they'll be automatically converted to spatial images.) See our guide to the biggest changes in iOS 26 Photos for more details. iPhones that support Apple Intelligence will benefit from expanded Visual Intelligence features in iOS 26. Specifically, the update adds the ability for the AI-powered tool to look at the contents of your iPhone screen via a screenshot. When you take a screenshot on a supported phone, you'll get on-screen options for searching with Google or ChatGPT. You'll also have contextually relevant commands like translation tools or creating calendar events. And you can highlight specific areas of the screenshot for searching, similar to Android's Circle to Search feature. I spent some hands-on time with Visual Intelligence in iOS 26 if you want to see examples of what the new capabilities allow you to do. One of Apple's goals with iOS 26 has been to work Apple Intelligence into more of the iPhone's built-in apps. That's evident in the new versions of Shortcuts and Reminders, both of which now support some of Apple's AI features. In Shortcuts, you can now create workflows that tap into Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools or Image Playground. For example, you could now make a shortcut that summarize text, pasting that summary into a document. Apple Intelligence support also extends to Apple Intelligence's on-device models and ChatGPT. We've got a look at what Shortcuts' integration with Apple Intelligence means for you. As for Reminders, the app can now look at text in emails and on websites to find and create relevant tasks. It also works with recipes in the Apple News Plus service to automatically create grocery lists. And reminders can now be automatically categorized in a list thanks to Apple Intelligence integration. The first time you launch the iOS 26 Maps app, you'll be asked if you want the app to log all the places you visit. The idea behind this Visited Places feature is that it will help you remember favorite locations for later reference without any additional action on your part. I took a look at why Visited Places figures to be a great addition in iOS 26 Maps. Another new Maps feature takes note of your preferred routes for frequent trips like commutes, school drop-offs and errands, showing you a preview of that route in a Maps widget. There are also notification alerts when there's likely to be a delay on that route so you can look for an alternative way of getting to Point B. iOS 26 adds a couple of new apps — Preview, which is an iPhone addition of the PDF viewing app on your Mac, and Games, which is entirely new. Apple treats Games like a one-stop shop for all the games installed on your iPhone, and indeed every game you've ever tried. You can launch games directly from the app or re-download them from the App Store if you've discovered something you haven't played in a while. You'll find recommendations, especially from the Apple Arcade subscription service. The true value of the Games app may not emerge until the fall when app makers starting releasing their iOS 26-inspired updates. There's a Play Together tab in which you can challenge friends to see who can post a better score in specific games, and there's clearly a push for app to add challenges that you'll be able to access from the Games app. Liquid Glass also comes to CarPlay in iOS 26, but our CarPlay hands-on found the most welcome changes to be the addition of widgets and the ability to respond to text messages with tapbacks. Both of those features let you glance at information and respond quickly without distracting you from your drive. By now, you've probably surmised that there's a lot to this iOS 26 update. Here's a quick round-up of other features and additions you should be aware of as you try out the public beta. The iOS 26 public beta released on July 24 is just the first of what figures to be many versions rolled out during the summer. Check back with this guide, which we'll update as Apple adds more features and we get the chance to put them to the test.
WIRED
an hour ago
- WIRED
Gear News of the Week: Amazon Buys Bee, VSCO Has a New App, and CMF Debuts a Smartwatch
Plus: Google Photos lets you convert images to videos, Microsoft has a 5G Surface, and Palmer Luckey asks if you'd buy a US-made laptop. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Amazon has acquired Bee, a relatively new AI company that debuted an always-listening wearable earlier this year. Bee cofounder Maria de Lourdes Zollo shared the news via LinkedIn. We covered Bee AI at CES 2025—it was one of many new wearables that promised to listen to everything around you. It didn't save audio recordings, but it used the power of third-party and in-house large language models to transcribe words and create a journal of sorts, offering insights into your day, crafting takeaways, actionable tasks, and summaries of conversations. Despite being one of the first on the scene with its Alexa voice assistant, Amazon has been trailing behind the likes of OpenAI and Google's Gemini in the AI space, only recently debuting the upgraded version of Alexa+, powered by LLMs. The Bee acquisition would let Amazon offer its customers a different kind of AI experience from Alexa, one that is with you wherever you are and is always listening. That raises several privacy concerns, and Amazon has historically had a poor track record on that front. We'll have to wait and see whether Bee's current privacy policies will shift under the new ownership, and what will become of the little yellow wearable. CMF Debuts the $99 Watch 3 Pro Nothing's sub-brand CMF has a new smartwatch, following up on last year's Watch Pro 2. It's called the Watch 3 Pro, which is a subtle shift in the naming convention that makes it more similar to the CMF Phone 2 Pro that debuted a few months ago. The price is also now $99. Even with the $30 price bump, it's still one of the cheapest smartwatches around, though it runs RTOS (real-time operating system), meaning you won't be able to access your favorite apps here. That trade-off lets the Watch 3 Pro purportedly last 13 days on a single charge, a slight bump over its predecessor (the new watch lasts 4.5 days if you have the always-on display enabled). There's a new dual-band GPS for more accurate route tracking, 131 sport modes with a personalized running coach, and a new heart-rate sensor that CMF claims is more accurate across workout intensities and skin tones. Naturally, there's a dose of 'AI-powered' post-workout summaries. The CMF Watch 3 Pro can now track blood oxygen levels and stress, and it offers guided breathing exercises to help you relax. It even has period tracking. That's almost all the typical health features found on more full-featured smartwatches, save the electrocardiogram and fall detection. You'll be able to see basic notifications on the watch, and there's now a ChatGPT integration that lets you talk to the chatbot and set reminders, though your phone will need to be nearby for processing. It's available in dark gray, light gray, and orange, with a metal body and soft-touch silicone straps. CMF says all of its smartwatches are now transitioning to the Nothing X app, the same app used to configure Nothing's audio products. There's support for Apple Health, Strava, and Google Health Connect, so your data will show up in those respective platforms. It officially went on sale July 22, though some regions will have to wait until later this year. 5G Laptops Make an Unexpected Return Microsoft has announced a new Surface Laptop with an integrated 5G cellular modem, which will use Verizon's 5G network. Although it looks nearly identical to the current Surface Laptop 13.8 (7th Edition), it uses a new 'custom multi-layered laminate' material on the exterior rather than aluminum, which Microsoft says 'allows radio signals to pass through without impacting performance,' according to the company's blog post. Microsoft also boasts that it has completely redesigned the Surface Laptop to 'thoughtfully' and 'strategically' integrate the antenna inside to reduce interference. The new device is targeted toward business users, but it's an interesting reversal to the severe lack of cellular laptops recently. Microsoft has been offering a 5G option of the 2-in-1 Surface Pro for a while now, but never a Surface Laptop. When 5G was first rolling out in 2019, laptops with integrated 5G cellular connections were starting to roll out, such as the Lenovo Yoga 5G in 2020. But interest died out pretty fast. Perhaps Covid killed the momentum, since people were at home with their stable Wi-Fi connections. Or maybe it was because the Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered laptops at that time really couldn't compete with Intel. Interestingly, because it's an enterprise device, the Surface Laptop 5G is actually powered by an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 rather than Qualcomm's Snapdragon X. Microsoft may also be trying to preempt Apple's move into cellular MacBooks. It was reported late last year that Apple was exploring the idea, having acquired Intel's 5G modem business back in 2019. The Surface Laptop 5G will be available starting on August 26, with a starting price of $1,800 for an Intel Core Ultra 5, 16 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage. — Luke Larsen Would You Buy a US-Made Laptop? That's the question posed by Palmer Luckey this week. The pro-Trump tech entrepreneur has already stamped his footprint in the worlds of virtual reality through Oculus and military tech through Anduril, but a more conventional computer would be new ground for Luckey. He raised the provocative question at the Reindustrialize 2025 Summit earlier this week. 'I actually think Anduril could build computers in the United States,' he stated. 'I've looked into it very, very deeply. I've had conversations with everyone you would need to do this. On the chip side, on the assembly side, on the manufacturing side. I know exactly how to do it, what it would cost, how long it would take.' Luckey goes on to say that the only thing holding him back is that he hopes someone else does it first. He later posted the following question on X: 'Would you buy a Made In America computer from Anduril for 20% more than Chinese-manufactured options from Apple?' At the time of writing, 64 percent of the over 77,000 responses said yes, while the rest said no. Whether or not there will be Anduril laptops in the future isn't so interesting as the larger question of how much it would cost to build technology from the ground up without relying on foreign production. The way his question is stated implies that he doesn't just mean laptops that are assembled in the US, but actually devices where every component is made in the US. If we trust Luckey in his price estimation, that would mean a MacBook Air–like device would cost an extra $200. That's less than what analysts have said in the past, including one approximation that stated iPhones would cost at least 25 percent more due to increased labor costs alone. Others have put that estimate much higher—as high as $3,500 for an iPhone, or stated that it's altogether impossible due to supply chain limitations. — Luke Larsen Google Lets You Convert Images to Videos Google Photos officially rolled out a feature this week that lets you convert static images to videos using generative artificial intelligence. We first saw this capability on an Honor smartphone, but it's now becoming more widely available. Google says the feature is powered by its Veo 2 generative AI model. All you need to do is select the image from your gallery and choose 'Subtle movements' or 'I'm feeling lucky,' and it'll get animated into a six-second clip (of something that never happened). That's not all that's new. The company is also adding a feature called Remix, which lets you convert existing photos into art styles, like anime, comics, and 3D animations (remember Prisma?). It'll be rolling out over the next few weeks. All of these effects and features might feel a little much, especially considering all the other tools at your disposal in the app, which is why Google also has a new Create tab. This is where you can go to convert photos to videos, use Remix, create collages, highlight videos, and more. The tab will be rolling out in August. Facer Is Back in Wear OS 6 Google's Wear OS 6 update started rolling out this week—it's the latest version of the smartwatch operating system, introducing a more colorful interface, widgets that are even more glanceable, alongside power efficiency improvements for better battery life. One of the oldest watch face apps, Facer—which has hundreds of themed watch face designs across various platforms—has announced an update adding compatibility with Wear OS 6. That's big news, considering that the app lost compatibility after Wear OS 5 rolled out in 2024. Facer didn't support Google's Watch Face Format (WFF) when Wear OS 5 launched, which was mandatory to access watch face complications. The company had to work with Google to bring back full functionality of its watch faces to Wear OS 6, and the it even says Facer will deliver 'significantly improved battery life' on all faces. The Facer update also adds new collaborations, like a SpongeBob SquarePants watch face, as well as a social component called 'Looks.' It's a tab in the app that lets you show off your favorite watch faces. Think of it as a new way to discover watch faces outside of the app's general explore page. If you like a look, you can find out what watch face they're using and download it, and if you like their watch strap, Facer will point you to its own strap store so you can nab it. VSCO Launches a New App Called Capture Photo filter and editing app VSCO—yes, the very same that popularized the 'VSCO girl'—has been around since 2012, but the company just launched a stand-alone mobile app after a decade. Capture is an iPhone-only camera app that has more than 50 'live presets' with real-time film effects and manual camera settings for better control over the final image. It essentially lets you preview the final look of your photo before you even hit the shutter button. These presets are non-destructive, so you can still edit the original captured image later on if you decide to change things up. It supports RAW and ProRAW formats, has real-time effects like bloom, and can instantly sync with the VSCO app for additional edits or sharing. It's free to download now, and there's no word if an Android app will be available in the future.
