iOS 18 to iOS 26? New Report Says Apple Will Shake Up Its OS Names
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.
We are all used to hearing bizarre rumors about Apple products, but every now and then, one still manages to catch us off guard. With just 10 days left until WWDC 2025, Bloomberg reports that the next version of iPhone software might not be called iOS 19.
Apple wants to align its operating systems with the year rather than version number. That means Apple plans to jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26. Though it will launch in 2025, Apple appears to be mimicking the auto industry, which releases its "model year 2026" cars in 2025, for example.
The goal is to bring uniformity to the naming system. Currently, because each OS originally launched in different years, the version numbers are inconsistent: iOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, and visionOS 2. At WWDC, Apple is expected to change that and rebrand the upcoming versions of all of its software with the number 26.
In addition, Apple is expected to announce a uniform UI for each OS, codenamed Solarium after the glass structures that allow a lot of light. Among other changes, the UI will borrow elements from visionOS, such as translucent backgrounds and circular app icons, add floating navigation menus, and reposition the search bar for apps to the bottom of the screen.
We'll get a first glimpse of the updated software during the WWDC keynote on June 9. As usual, the latest version of iOS is expected to roll out with the new iPhones in September. We might also get to see a new dedicated gaming app come pre-installed on the iPhone 17.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
an hour ago
- Tom's Guide
iPhone users say Mail app is suddenly freezing with iOS 18.5 — here's a fix you can try
Since Apple rolled out iOS 18.5, a growing number of iPhone users have reported issues with accessing their inbox as the Mail app is getting stuck on a blank white screen. Several comments on Reddit and the Apple Support Community describe being unable to view emails in their inboxes as the app is either glitchy or unresponsive. The underlying cause remains unclear, but the issues don't appear to be tied to any specific iPhone model, suggesting it could be a software-related problem tied to iOS 18.5 or the Mail app itself. Interestingly, reports of this Mail app issue have only been cropping up in the past few days, while iOS 18.5 went live last month. iOS 18.5 added a few notable features like screen time notifications and a new Pride-themed wallpaper, but its updates for the Apple Mail app could be causing the issues. With iOS 18.5, Apple brought back the "All Mail" inbox view and added the option to hide contact photos from the Mail app to make your inbox less distracting. Apple has not officially acknowledged the issue, and the company's System Status page does not indicate any problems with the Mail app. But while there's no official fix yet, some users said restarting their iPhones solved the issue, but only temporarily. Others have had luck with force-closing the app or disabling the keyboard's auto-correction to get it working again. Another affected user with an iPhone XR running iOS 18.5 was told by Apple Support to try resetting the phone's network settings, which seemed to do the trick, PC Mag reports. To do this on your iPhone, head to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset [Device] > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Until Apple acknowledges the issue and provides a fix, affected users should contact Apple support for assistance in the meantime.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Apple Prepares To Cancel The Classic MacBook Pro
New MacBook Pro laptops are displayed during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2023. (Photo by ... More JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images) As Tim Cook prepares to open the Worldwide Developer Conference next week, countless Apple fans are getting ready for new life to be breathed into their hardware. There will be something for everybody, from iPhones and iPads to Apple Watches and MacBook Pro laptops. Yet there will be some let down by the next version of macOS. It's worth noting that Apple is refreshing the numbering system across all of its operating systems, so the next version of macOS will be macOS 26, and the moniker naming looks set to continue with macOS Tahoe. Apple continues to offer multi-year support across its hardware, including the Mac platform in general and the MacBook laptops in particular. And this is where things get awkward for the laptop owners. The support window for the MacBook Pro is expected to reach back as far as the 2019 MacBook Pro. That passes an important rubicon. At that point, the Mac family was still running on x86-based Intel hardware. The ARM-based Apple Silicon arrived at the end of 2020, with the M1 MacBook Pro, M1 MacBook Air, and M1 Mac Mini. Apple Silicon offered a significant leap in performance, power and efficiency. That Apple can support the M1 chipset some five years down the line and bring the full range of new tools, including the latest generative AI suite, should not come as a surprise. Yet Apple still plans to support the older, slower and inefficient Intel MacBook Pro models. How much can Apple offer the older laptops? It's clear for MacBook Air owners still running Intel-powered Airs. The MacBook Air from 2020, the last with the Intel Core chipset, will be dropped, leaving only Apple Silicon powered MacBook Air models supported by macOS Tahoe and the versions that follow. It's less clear for the MacBook Pro. At the very least, Apple should offer security updates to the laptops, but whether the latest apps and utilities are offered remains to be seen. Given the demands placed on the hardware, it's likely to be a limited subset of those available to Apple Silicon Macs. Consumers using third-party apps will already be familiar with the 'unsupported' error messages on apps that are exclusively for Apple Silicon Macs) a list that is growing longer by the day), and more demanding apps such as Photoshop are asking for so much that the Intel Mac are being left behind, no matter what Cupertino is offering. It's unfortunate that no laptop can last forever. While Apple's support window is rarely specified for Macs, six years of updates is welcome, yet feels short for an Apple product. This is the downside of the 2020 move from Intel to ARM; Apple gained a much more powerful platform, but was left having to support the older platform for a polite number of years. That support is coming to an end. The consumer-focused MacBook Air has a hard stop coming up. At the same time, the professionally focused MacBook Pro will squeeze out another year or two, which will be welcomed by those using the laptop in a production environment, but Tim Cook has put the platform on notice. The MacBook Pro that many knew and loved is coming to the end of its story. Now read the latest MacBook Pro, macOS and WWDC headlines in Forbes' weekly Apple news digest...
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Week in Review: Why Anthropic cut access to Windsurf
Welcome back to Week in Review! Got lots for you today, including why Windsurf lost access to Claude, ChatGPT's new features, WWDC 2025, Elon Musk's fight with Donald Trump, and lots more. Have a great weekend! Duh: During an interview at TC Sessions: AI 2025, Anthropic's co-founder had a perfectly reasonable explanation for why the company cut access to Windsurf: 'I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI,' Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan said, referring to rumors and reports that OpenAI, its largest competitor, is acquiring the AI coding assistant. Seems like a good reason to me! Everything is the same: Chinese lab DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 reasoning AI model last week that performs well on a number of math and coding benchmarks. Now some AI researchers are speculating that at least some of the source data it trained on came from Google's Gemini family of AI. WWDC 2025: Apple's annual developers conference starts Monday. Beyond a newly designed operating system, here's what we're expecting to see at this year's event, including a dedicated gaming app and updates to Mac, Watch, TV, and more. This is TechCrunch's Week in Review, where we recap the week's biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Business in the front: ChatGPT is getting new features for business users, including connectors for Dropbox, Box, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive. This would let ChatGPT look for information across your own services to answer questions. Oh no: Indian grocery delivery startup KiranaPro was hacked, and all of its data was wiped. According to the company, it has 55,000 customers, with 30,000 to 35,000 active buyers across 50 cities, who collectively place 2,000 orders daily. Artsy people, rejoice! Photoshop is now coming to Android, so users of Google's operating system can gussy up their images, too. The app has a similar set of editing tools as the desktop version, including layering and masking. Let's try that again: Tesla filed new trademark applications for "Tesla Robotaxi" after previous attempts to trademark the terms 'Robotaxi' and 'Cybercab" failed. Rolling in dough: Tech startup Anduril just picked up a $1 billion investment as part of a new $2.5 billion raise led by Founders Fund, which means Anduril has doubled its valuation to $30.5 billion. On the road again: When Toma's founders realized car dealerships were drowning in missed calls, they hit the road to see the problem firsthand. That summer road trip turned into a $17 million a16z-backed fundraise that helped Toma get its AI phone agents into more than 100 dealerships across the U.S. Fighting season: All gloves were off on Thursday as Elon Musk and President Trump took to their respective social networks to throw jabs at each other. Though it might be exciting to watch rich men squabble in public, the fallout between the world's richest person and a sitting U.S. president promises to have broader implications for the tech industry. Money talks: Whether you use AI as a friend, a therapist, or even a girlfriend, chatbots are trained to keep you talking. For Big Tech companies, it's never been more competitive to attract users to their chatbot platforms — and keep them there. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at
