{"id":49029,"date":"2025-08-25T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=49029"},"modified":"2025-09-02T14:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:07:17","slug":"macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/25\/macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-8\/","title":{"rendered":"macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/08\/25\/apple-seeds-macos-tahoe-beta-8\/\">Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/08\/25\/apple-seeds-macos-tahoe-beta-8\/\">\n<p>Apple today provided developers with the eighth beta of macOS Tahoe 26 for testing purposes, with the update coming a week after the seventh beta.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/documentation\/macos-release-notes\/macos-26-release-notes\">release notes<\/a> don&rsquo;t call out any changes since beta 5.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/18\/macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-7\/\">macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 7<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-8-update-2025-08-26\">Update (<a href=\"#macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-8-update-2025-08-26\">2025-08-26<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115090773906338524\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115090773906338524\"><p>How is this good design? It is so busy. Way too much clashing. Blobs of low contrast. JFC&#8230; why?!<\/p><p>They were so concerned with if they could pull off liquid glass that they didn&rsquo;t stop to think if they should or shouldn&rsquo;t DO liquid glass globally.<\/p><p>&#x1F635;&#x200D;&#x1F4AB;<\/p><p>I hate using my Mac now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@stroughtonsmith\/115091149028454120\">Steve Troughton-Smith<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@stroughtonsmith\/115091149028454120\"><p>The new macOS Tahoe seed has new &lsquo;order front&rsquo; and &lsquo;order out&rsquo; animations for windows, including some physics springs and a little bit of bounce. It&rsquo;s not as dramatic as on mobile, but it&rsquo;s a lot more like iOS than before. I hope they go further, though.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>I&rsquo;m also hearing that the <code>MEDecodedMessageBanner<\/code> API for Mail extensions is broken,<\/p>\n\n<p id=\"macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-8-update-2025-09-02\">Update (<a href=\"#macos-tahoe-26-developer-beta-8-update-2025-09-02\">2025-09-02<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@tuomas_h\/114672109542813969\">Tuomas H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@tuomas_h\/114672109542813969\"><p>Apple love to preach &ldquo;the UI gets out of the way of your content&rdquo; with each new redesign, but how true is that in practice? Let&rsquo;s compare the total height of the Safari UI with a toolbar, favourites bar and tab bar visible, across the three latest Mac OS design languages &#x2013; Yosemite, Big Sur and now Tahoe. I&rsquo;ve added a red line for emphasis.<\/p><p>It sure looks to me like the UI is eating more into my content with each redesign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@craiggrannell\/115095080117081916\">Craig Grannell<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@craiggrannell\/115095080117081916\"><p>Just installed dev 8 on Mac. If the suggestions are true and this is the final design, it&rsquo;s still shit. The window corners are ludicrous. The massive drop shadows make window buttons in eg Finder the most visually prominent thing in view. All these elements (incl the sidebar) sit ABOVE your content, rather than being deferential to it, thereby becoming a visual distraction.<\/p><p>Oddly, Reduce Transparency now knocks out most of the shadows. The result isn&rsquo;t pretty or coherent but it&rsquo;s more usable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@craiggrannell\/115095291003685708\">Craig Grannell<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@craiggrannell\/115095291003685708\">\n<p>I just don&rsquo;t get this design. At all. The eye is distracted by the drop shadows, which lift the sidebar and buttons &lsquo;above&rsquo;&nbsp;the content (ie the icons) and the title of the window. From a visual hierarchy standpoint, it makes no sense.<\/p><p>The menu bar also just feels weird without a background.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115091718875551107\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115091718875551107\"><p>I saw @stroughtonsmith mention that Beta 8 typically is the last beta before the RCs&#8230; okay but wait, Beta 7 completely broke my toolbar. The toolbar where my code hasn&rsquo;t changed since like -- 2018&#8230; And worked in Tahoe Betas 1-6 just fine. lol broken in Betas 7-8.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>And I am not blaming engineering. I am blaming this full-height sidebar design and Liquid Glass that creates all these crazy edge cases in apps. <\/p><p>No one ever asked for full-height sidebars where we have to the split toolbars into sections and create movement along with the width of said split view panels&#8230; no one asked for invisible toolbars either&#8230; so many little issues that need to be addressed because the design is fundamentally complex and broken.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wien.rocks\/@noheger\/115102721540303629\">Norbert Heger<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/wien.rocks\/@noheger\/115102721540303629\">\n<p>Is there a single person at Apple who thinks: &ldquo;Hey, this looks cool, let&rsquo;s keep it that way&rdquo;?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115101835950197665\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115101835950197665\"><p>Okay, someone pointed out to me the #macOSTahoe controls window I posted yesterday was Beta 1.<\/p><p>I went ahead and recreated it myself with additional controls using Beta 8.<\/p><p>I will point out a few things I DO LOVE&#8230;<\/p><p>1. The text field actually looks nicer. Sequoia and older had sharp corners &amp; the bottom edge was darker.<\/p><p>2. The Search field FINALLY has rounded ends again! Like in Mac OS X Tiger! Little visual cues like this go a long way!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115097603088826634\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115097603088826634\">\n<p>What have they done to my boi in macOS Tahoe!?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115097503208028688\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115097503208028688\">\n<p>I just realized that Mac always had centered window titles since the original Macintosh and Alan Dye just came in and changed all of that out of nowhere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@BasicAppleGuy\/115112770421552486\">BasicAppleGuy<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@BasicAppleGuy\/115112770421552486\"><p>Look how they massacred my boy&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@BasicAppleGuy\/115118436336320555\">BasicAppleGuy<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@BasicAppleGuy\/115118436336320555\">\n<p>No more creative edges; macOS Tahoe forces all icons to stay trapped within the squircle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115115509974491035\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115115509974491035\">\n<p>The state of Mail in macOS Tahoe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115118366499776150\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115118366499776150\"><p>A while back, I reported feedback for FaceTime on macOS because the Settings window was so long and not resizable, some controls would be behind the Dock and were inaccessible.<\/p><p>I finally got a reply that it should be addressed now in #macOSTahoe&#8230; This was their solution.<\/p><p>Did Apple forget their own HIG for macOS app layouts? You might be saying, &ldquo;but it is Catalyst.&rdquo; So. And? They make this technology, it should be perfect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115125080951472514\">Mario Guzm&aacute;n<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@marioguzman\/115125080951472514\"><p>This makes me so sad; this is why you need a proper HIG.<\/p><p>Checkbox labels should succinct (short, to the point). If you need a description, it goes as a secondary label under it and aligned with the checkbox&rsquo;s title.<\/p><p>What you DO NOT DO is put the checkbox title to the left of the checkbox and the whole ass description to the right.<\/p><p>Trying to figure out how they got some right and some just super wrong in the FaceTime app Settings window&#8230; The left side is for section titles only.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/decoding.io\/2025\/08\/first-impressions-of-liquid-glass-in-macos-tahoe\/\">Zsolt Benke<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/decoding.io\/2025\/08\/first-impressions-of-liquid-glass-in-macos-tahoe\/\">\n<p>The dynamic background adaptation is broken. Buttons shift from black to white as the background changes, and it&rsquo;s jarring every single time. Toolbar consistency is all over the place too. Photos and Mail use progressive blur with gradients while Safari keeps the old blurred rectangle, with no apparent logic to which apps get which treatment. Scrolling through Photos is particularly painful as the interface flips from black to white and back again as you move through your library. This isn&rsquo;t a minor polish issue. It&rsquo;s a fundamental problem with how the adaptive system responds to content, and Apple should fix it.<\/p>\n<p>When the general public gets their hands on Liquid Glass, I&rsquo;m sure people will complaint. The current state is too buggy to survive contact with millions of users. I expect iterative improvements throughout the OS 26 cycle as the design gets tweaked based on user feedback.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/krzyzanowskim\/status\/1961854232824344646\">Marcin Krzyzanowski<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/krzyzanowskim\/status\/1961854232824344646\">\n<p>the new icon for http:\/\/notepadexe.com embodies the macOS26 shape. it had to happen. but I'm not parting with the original icon. now it's available as an alternative dock icon &#x1F5BC;&#xFE0F; - maybe add more in the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/eternalstorms\/status\/1961365184724746697\">Matthias Gansrigler-Hrad<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/eternalstorms\/status\/1961365184724746697\"><p>I don&rsquo;t know, but I feel like this grey artwork on the zip file icon makes it look like the file is not available yet, like when copying or something.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/eternalstorms\/status\/1962493904235692406\">Matthias Gansrigler-Hrad<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/eternalstorms\/status\/1962493904235692406\"><p>It&rsquo;s weird you have to hold down option (&#x2325;) to edit widgets in Notification Center, but command (&#x2318;) in Control Center to edit control widgets on macOS 26 &ldquo;Tahoe&rdquo;.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/01\/the-tim-cook-era\/\">The Tim Cook Era<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/notepad-exe-1-2-1139\/\">Notepad.exe 1.2.1139<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juli Clover: Apple today provided developers with the eighth beta of macOS Tahoe 26 for testing purposes, with the update coming a week after the seventh beta. The release notes don&rsquo;t call out any changes since beta 5. Previously: macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 7 Update (2025-08-26): Mario Guzm&aacute;n: How is this good design? It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-08-25T17:48:16Z","apple_news_api_id":"0d4b84e9-08cd-4ef9-93a2-886a971ce712","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-09-02T18:07:20Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ADUuE6QjNTvmToohqlxznEg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[77,558,545,2785,30,2308,2742,2409,1816,1050],"class_list":["post-49029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-design","tag-facetime","tag-icons","tag-liquid-glass","tag-mac","tag-macos-beta","tag-macos-tahoe-26","tag-mail-app-extensions","tag-music-app","tag-textedit"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49029"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49103,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49029\/revisions\/49103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}