macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 4
Apple today provided developers with the fourth beta of macOS Tahoe 26 for testing purposes, with the update coming two weeks after the third beta.
This update did correctly install for me via Software Update.
The only beta 4 item that I see in the releases notes is that it says Xcode Previews will “frequently panic” so you should use beta 3 instead.
You can barely tell that Continue is a button.
See also his screenshots of Safari private windows, menu backgrounds, and sidebars.
I love not being able to read the now playing track info.
Is there some kind of contest within Apple to see how little contrast can be used while still technically indicating a selection? One of these disks is selected, believe it or not!
Previously:
Update (2025-07-23): John Gruber:
There is no good argument for selection states that are anything but instantly obvious. Whoever designed this doesn’t use the app.
That playback bar though is wild
Tahoe beta dislike I haven’t others complain about yet: the difference in look between the active window and all the inactive ones is way too subtle. I repeatedly have looked at one of my windows, pressed command-w and end up closing the wrong window. Will file a FB because easy enough and don’t need a sample app. Previous OS versions had a much more pronounced shadow + more obvious titlebar changes between active/inactive.
I think the Big Sur change for active windows was a regression, and Tahoe makes it worse.
But, still, who steps back from updating a PDF document viewer in which each page is cut off at the corners and thinks yes, this is an improvement? I repeat: a selfish design choice prioritizing Apple’s goals over that of its users.
I think one reason Liquid Glass is causing such a profoundly negative reaction is that it is making a lot of people realize that the idea that they own their computer was actually an illusion. There was a sense that by choosing the Mac and local native apps you were shielding yourself from the "rent everything own nothing" remote worldview, but the inevitability of this coming disaster reveals just how little agency you really have over "your computer.”
Increasingly, the computer feels less like "your house,” and more like being a a senior in high school living in an increasingly tense environment with your parents. You're 17 but they tell you to keep the door open. You want to tell them why you're frustrated in good faith, but they know they're in the power position and just tell you "my house my rules.” It exhausting because there's nowhere else to go, and you're still expected to be productive in this environment.
On macOS especially, some of the new component designs are just baffling, like how sidebars look, how buttons take up so much more room and float for no purpose, etc. This is just a giant, nearly always ugly mess. Apple desperately needs new software design leadership.
Hard drives get perspective, time machine volumes dont…
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It feels like the Time Machine icon is bulging out at the top.
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I usually try to leave more substantive comments but these all look fucking awful. Even for a beta.
I'm starting to think Liquid Ass is a deliberately tanked feature designed to take public attention off how far Apple is behind on AI.
Public sentiment around Apple software is now dominated by a "controversial interface" rather than "non-existent AI".
And this is the fourth Beta. And all the linked screenshots reveal that the situation is far from improved. If we're generous and estimate that Mac OS 26 will be released in the second half of October, this leaves Apple about 10 weeks to fix this UI. Good luck with that.
@Hammer
Regarding the absence of slop I'd consider that a feature, not a bug. Whatever the reason.
I doubt it's malice of any sorts. Where did the competency go though?
> I think the Big Sur change for active windows was a regression, and Tahoe makes it worse.
Part of it I think is that we're Old™ and spent so much time using title bars that (generally) got darker when they became active, whereas now it's the opposite.
Of course, brushed metal existed for a while, and that barely had any indication of focus. But even with brushed metal, at least we still had the default scrollbars which were visible by default and helped indicate focus by only displaying color for the active window.
All these years into the new design, I still regularly make mistakes when determining which window is active. Having more contrast between active and inactive windows would likely help re-train my brain.
Re "a lot of people realize that the idea that they own their computer was actually an illusion"
It's surprising to me that it's taken people this long to realize it, and some still haven't.
When was the last time you actually felt like your computer running macOS was truly *yours*? For me I'd say back in 10.13. And even then I had to go out of my way to keep Apple out of places it didn't belong.
But one of the worst aspects of modern computing is the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Google, or really any of the big tech companies changing the design of everything out from under you, whether you want it or not. There's no recourse. You can't keep effectively using an Apple device without updating -- Apple sees to that. Nor can you prevent a web service from changing its design to something worse, and it's always worse. I didn't want to upgrade to Big Sur's shitty redesign that made everything worse, but I had no choice because I need to run modern software on my computer for my job. I'm going to hold out on Liquid Glass for as long as I possibly can.
And as an aside, one of the side effects of this that really grinds at me is all of the people on reddit and elsewhere saying "You have to update!! Otherwise your system is vulnerable! The vulnerabilities!!!" and then can't conceive of any reason anyone might not want to update. In fact they react with intense hostility the moment you point out that updating has any issues at all. Even worse if you point out that a) fully patched mac systems are still vulnerability given all of the 0-days that get revealed, b) most malware just waits for you to enter your admin password anyway, and c) competent users can run unpatched systems securely, mainly by not being dumb and not downloading malware.
@Hammer @Torrington You're both right.
I have no doubt that one of the main reasons for this redesign is to distract from last year's debacle and have something flashy to show at WWDC. Aside from Liquid Glass, there were very few actual updates that they talked about.
I don't think they did a bad job on purpose, though. They did succeed in changing the conversation, just not the way they intended.
But they did release this and apparently expected a positive reception, when it is obviously poorly thought out and in need of much more refinement in the most charitable interpretation. That is almost as worrying as them doing a bad job on purpose.
In fact it genuinely makes me and apparently many others wonder if the executives that signed off on this actually use a computer themselves. I don't think I have ever seen Tim Cook anywhere near a functioning Mac even in publicity shots. It's always an iPhone.
