Apple (xip, downloads):
Xcode 26.1.1 includes Swift 6.2.1 and SDKs for iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, macOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1. Xcode 26.1.1 supports on-device debugging in iOS 15 and later, tvOS 15 and later, watchOS 8 and later, and visionOS. Xcode 26.1.1 requires a Mac running macOS Sequoia 15.6 or later.
It’s hard to see what’s new in this version because Apple is showing a combined list of release notes for 26.1 and 26.1.1. The old page for 26.1 is gone and doesn’t seem to be in the Internet Archive, either. Luckily, I had saved a copy in EagleFiler. The only new item seems to be:
Fixed: Users interacting with ChatGPT in Xcode might experience performance issues when the assistant is applying code changes. (163507099)
So I guess the simulator and visionOS issues aren’t fixed.
Previously:
Update (2025-12-01): Christian Beer:
Xcode 26.1.1 was a mistake
Mac macOS Tahoe 26 Programming Simulator Xcode
DropDMG 3.7.1 is a maintenance update of my app for disk images and archives.
I continue to run into AppleScript problems with Tahoe. This script:
tell application "Finder"
tell window 1
set statusbar visible to true
end tell
end tell
no longer does anything (FB20794683). If I change window to Finder window, instead of doing nothing it fails with error -10006. The header says that’s telCAUnavail, which doesn’t seem like it would apply here. On Sequoia, it doesn’t work either, but it silently fails rather than reporting an error.
Apple again got in the way of shipping my app. I had to try several times this morning to submit it to the App Store. The upload kept hanging at this step:
CHANGE UPLOAD STATE TO COMPLETE (UPLOADING SPI ANALYSIS) REQUEST: […]
DEBUG: [ContentDelivery.Uploader.60000176C480] Download task 9 sent 113 bytes (113 of 113 bytes sent).
Finally, just before lunch, it worked, but now the business day is over here, and the update is still stuck in review.
Previously:
AppleScript Bug DropDMG Finder iTunes Connect Mac App Store macOS 15 Sequoia macOS Tahoe 26
Matthew Cassinelli:
The App Store icon is made up of three app icons supporting each other (like apps on the App Store do).
Just like the Shortcuts is two app icons, connected in the middle (like shortcuts connecting your apps together).
All these years, I thought the “new” App Store icon was just an abstract version of the original, with the A-shaped pencil and paint brush replaced by plain lines. But he says it’s actually a side view of 3D squircles representing app icons. This is also the basis for the Shortcuts icon (which I never understood) and TestFlight (the blades are apps).
Matthew Cassinelli:
Christian Selig, creator of Apollo for Reddit and Pixel Pals, went a step further and apparently spent the evening fully designing, printing, and sharing a 3D model of the App Store logo using his 3D printer[…]
[…]
However, with Liquid Glass, it has in fact been reduced to three popsicle sticks.
Previously:
Update (2025-12-11): Andreas Storm:
Apple just proved that the App Store icon is cleverly designed using 3 simple app shapes.
Sebastiaan de With:
Fun fact: this modern App Store glyph was itself based on the old OS X icon from its icon design paradigm: apps were represented by documents and tools, realistically rendered in perspective.
The icon for ‘apps’ was a collection of tools: a pencil, brush and ruler.
App Store Design History Icons iOS iOS 26 Mac macOS Tahoe 26 Shortcuts TestFlight
Paul Kafasis:
Apple updated their own app icons on Tahoe, for both the squircle shape as well as the new “Liquid Glass” interface. Mostly, these icons seem dumbed-down, with a loss of detail. For example, here’s Safari’s old icon from MacOS 15 (Sequoia) on the left, and the new Tahoe icon on the right.
To me, the new icon just feels blander, and that’s widely true for all of the updated icons. A small number, such as Screen Sharing and Audio MIDI Setup, may be improvements. Most, however, are not. Let’s review with direct comparisons, all of which again feature the older Sequoia icon on the left and the new Tahoe icon on the right.
[…]
Apple’s scripting application previously featured an awesome little robot dude. On Tahoe, it’s barely clear that’s a robot at all. What a pity.
[…]
These icons, however, make me sad. Perhaps one day, it will again be possible for icons to have shape and personality. We have the technology.
Adam Engst:
The post is worth reading for Paul’s trenchant commentary, but it also illustrates just how much of a step backward the Tahoe icons are in both concept and execution. I couldn’t quite believe they were as blurry as they looked in his comparisons until I extracted Safari’s icons and compared them by toggling between versions in Quick Look.
The only thing I can say in Apple’s defense is that the Tahoe icons aren’t as objectionable when viewed in isolation—outside of comparisons like this, most of us don’t scrutinize individual icons. But uniform shapes and softened details have real user impact: they increase visual search time in the Dock and make it harder to distinguish apps at small sizes—especially on high‑density displays and for users with low vision.
Michael Schmitt:
I can think of no squircle icon that is objectively better than the pre-squircle version. They all look like they’re being forced to compromise. Some, even a few Apple icons, look like they’re trying to show a little flair with parts extending behind the squircle, but even that is verboten in Tahoe.
And, they’re all smaller! A squircle icon isn’t permitted to be full size!
Dan Moren:
The look and feel of the Mac has always been—if you’ll pardon the pun—iconic. App icons were a place that developers could show off their creativity, and make apps that are instantly identifiable. Squircle jail remains a thing in macOS 26.1 (and, I’d argue, is worse than before, with a new lighter gray background that feels even more jarring). Here’s hoping this trend gets reversed before too long.
John Gruber (Mastodon):
They’re ugly, they’re dumb (like the new Apple Calendar icon, showing a month that somehow has only 24 days), and many of them — regardless of whether they’re aesthetically pleasing or not — are inscrutable. The fundamental purpose of an icon is to have meaning. And some of these are meaningless.
Even good styles fall out of fashion as trends change. But good styles come back into style eventually. A few decades from now, no one is going to say “Hey, let’s bring back 2020s-style icons.”
[…]
For a remarkably long stretch, Apple’s in-house icons represented the pinnacle of an art form worth celebrating. They were exquisitely crafted, and quite obviously the work of the most talented artists in the field. […] “Fuck it, who cares” is replacing “Insanely great” as the company’s design mantra for software.
Peter N. Lewis:
It’s bad enough they fuck up their own icons - but that they actively fuck up everyone else’s icons is unforgivable.
See also: the MacRumors forum.
Previously:
Update (2025-11-12): Jim Nielsen:
While Paul’s post mostly covers icons for the apps you’ll find in the primary /Applications folder, there’s also a subset of possibly lesser-known icons in the /System/Library/CoreServices folder which have suffered a similar fate.
When I first got a Mac back in college, one of the things I remember being completely intrigued by — and then later falling in love with — was how you could plumb obscure areas of the operating system and find gems, like the icons for little OS-level apps. You’d stumble on something like the “Add Printer” app and see the most beautiful printer icon you’d ever seen. Who cares what the app did, you could just stare at that icon. Admire it. Take it in. And you’d come away with a sense that the people who made it really cared.
Design Icons Liquid Glass Mac macOS Tahoe 26
