Five things I like (and one thing I still want) in the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta
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A pox on Mac Vista. Just because you've the compute to do pointless glass effects doesn't mean you should.
And don't get me started on the fact it's taken Apple 8 years since they became available for them to support 5k ultrawide displays. Why on earth do they need to add specific support for a resolution?
And don't get me started on the fact it's taken Apple 8 years since they became available for them to support 5k ultrawide displays. Why on earth do they need to add specific support for a resolution?
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Hey are the second and third screenshots swapped? The second one says it is set to "maximize liquid glass" but everything under it is pretty blurry, whereas the third one says it is set to "tinted" but you can almost read the widgets underneath the control center.
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anguisette
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
i don’t understand this whole UI thing at all. they changed the UI for basically no benefit, then spent several releases trying to “fix” it, when they could have simply not changed it to begin with.
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Have they improved the disaster of the contacts app/sheets? On both iOS and macOS I find the UI confusing and often buggy since at least Tahoe, especially when one tries to access/edit contact info from the sheets brought up in other apps.
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ubercurmudgeon
Ars Praefectus
Please can we have a screenshot of the System Settings page to switch off all "Apple Intelligence" features? Not because it matters how translucent the toggle is, just to confirm that it is there (although doubtless the downloading of gigabytes-worth of LLM models with each and every release and patch from now on will be required, regardless of whether you choose to use it or not.)
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Have the left and right pictures of clear vs tinted switched places?
(The control center pictures that is)
(The control center pictures that is)
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MilanKraft
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Thanks for the write-up on the non-AI tweaks, Andrew. Can always count on Ars macOS coverage for useful details like this, and Apple should add a few more tweaks between now and release (or next spring). By any chance, has Apple un-f**ked the Music app UI??
As for the rest, I continue to predict the UROWC feature (pronounced as a Billy Idol-ish "You ROHWK!") will be the one that most greatly decreases random threads of internet whinging later this year. Yes, they should've done it with one of the major updates to iOS26 rather than promoting it like a feature at WWDC, but Apple gonna Apple when it comes to UI. (Uniformly ROunded Window Corners, in case anyone was wondering).
Also: faster Airdrop discovery is a good one. No matter how close my devices are, it always takes an extra minute for them to find each other. Annoying. Finally, the slider...... it is going alllll the way right.
As for the rest, I continue to predict the UROWC feature (pronounced as a Billy Idol-ish "You ROHWK!") will be the one that most greatly decreases random threads of internet whinging later this year. Yes, they should've done it with one of the major updates to iOS26 rather than promoting it like a feature at WWDC, but Apple gonna Apple when it comes to UI. (Uniformly ROunded Window Corners, in case anyone was wondering).
Also: faster Airdrop discovery is a good one. No matter how close my devices are, it always takes an extra minute for them to find each other. Annoying. Finally, the slider...... it is going alllll the way right.
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I feel strongly that all of the Liquid Glass accessibility regressions should have been fixed in Tahoe and should not be tied to a major OS version update which is still months away; especially since Intel macs aren’t eligible.
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RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Yeah. Like some kinda kids toy. Why does the Command Center take up so much space? Is this just carrying over iOS dev to Mac, or will we see touch-screen laptops and Studio displays...because why the wasteful areas around the buttons?
I know its sounds whiny, but I miss having more information not taking up so much real estate. Even the Apple Watch Ultra...you want to use low power, then you want to set for 3 days and its down below the face...like someone never really tested this on users?
Gone are those of Human Interface Guidelines....
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A 'tint' slider is nice, but the effect is very very limited. It is so muted that my impression is they simply wanted to give the illusion of user control. Are there separate settings (a la iOS 26) for "Reduce Transparency" and "Increase Contrast"?
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Is the containerization stuff built-in?
I am currently using UTM on my mac with an Ubuntu Server install and a custom-configured VM that has a serial console instead of VGA to approximate the functionality of WSL.
Would be nice to have something more natively integrated.
I am currently using UTM on my mac with an Ubuntu Server install and a custom-configured VM that has a serial console instead of VGA to approximate the functionality of WSL.
Would be nice to have something more natively integrated.
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Hey, I'm one of those people. I'll be sticking with macOS Sequoia for the foreseeable.
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I really don't understand this. I've been using a 5k ultrawide with Tahoe/Sequoia on 2 different macs for over a year now, and things work great. What's there to add?
More generally, I've always been confused by the labelling of 'mac compatible' for monitors, or the question of "is this monitor supported by my mac?". I don't think I've ever plugged a monitor into a mac and have it do anything other than 'just work'.
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I never minded it so much on the phone, but I hate the liquid glass look on the Mac.
I think it's because with multiple windows it sort of looks like it all blends together. The separation between different apps, the dock, and the menu bar doesn't seem very distinct.
Whatever it is, I hate it. I imagine they'll dial it back shortly after release like they did with iOS.
I think it's because with multiple windows it sort of looks like it all blends together. The separation between different apps, the dock, and the menu bar doesn't seem very distinct.
Whatever it is, I hate it. I imagine they'll dial it back shortly after release like they did with iOS.
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https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/09/maco...er-resolution-support-for-ultrawide-displays/
It seems it's mostly two things: you probably aren't getting 120 hz if your display supports it, and your window layouts may not be remembered with those aspect ratios. Things you might not notice if it's a 60hz display and you leave your machine plugged in all the time.
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endorphinity
Seniorius Lurkius
It is not clear, which of the menubar items on the provided screenshot is for Ethernet, if any, and how one should enable it. I am unable to do so for my Ugreen USB-to-Ethernet adapter, is that due to too early version lacking support of major peripheral vendors?
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I really struggle with UX designs that have a lack of contrast and ill-defined borders. The changes I'm seeing in Golden Gate look like they're nowhere near sufficient to address my overall issues with Liquid Glass. I still have to really concentrate and focus to find the point where one widget ends and the next begins.
I also recognize is my issue, and many others don't have these problems at all (otherwise low-contrast, uniformly-coloured UIs with hidden borders wouldn't be a thing).
But, for me, I guess it's Sequoia for another year.
I also recognize is my issue, and many others don't have these problems at all (otherwise low-contrast, uniformly-coloured UIs with hidden borders wouldn't be a thing).
But, for me, I guess it's Sequoia for another year.
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I got all excited getting to the Sequioa window screenshot, then realized it was still just Sequioa... This is all heading in a much better direction but still not enough to voluntarily consider upgrading. At least it's lessening the existential dread of seriously considering Windows 11 to get some UI sanity back. I wonder if Quicklook still pointlessly crops images and pdfs?
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The corner radius on Tahoe was my single biggest gripe with Liquid Glass. I can’t stand it and it makes the whole interface seem cartoon and amateurish. (I loved most iterations of Aqua). I’m glad they’ve dialled it back to a level I think will blend away and not be noticeable. But I do wish they would take it all the way back to Sequoia
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The Liquid Glass improvements are very welcome, and address very real pain points.
The complaints about Liquid Glass are generally valid, but also overblown IMHO. It's usable, and occasionally attractive, although I'm still sore about the squirclization of the app icons.
Separately, I've been using HazeOver (https://hazeover.com/) to make it easier to focus on the active window and it's been useful.
The complaints about Liquid Glass are generally valid, but also overblown IMHO. It's usable, and occasionally attractive, although I'm still sore about the squirclization of the app icons.
Separately, I've been using HazeOver (https://hazeover.com/) to make it easier to focus on the active window and it's been useful.
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It's subjective, clearly (no pun intended). I tried using Tahoe for a couple of weeks on my desktop, but found the interface distracting, generally unpleasant to use, and getting in the way of work. I reverted back to Sequoia.
It doesn't bother me on the phone so much, probably because I'm only using it occasionally, and not for work.
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I was gonna say, when I went high frame rate it started to be some concern. I wasn't going to change my monitor to work with a Mac, but it was definitely a bit of "oh. I guess I'm not going to get the best of this monitor from this computer."
Unrelated to that in particular but I got very excited when I saw the Sequoia screenshot, think Liquid Glass had finally been walked back, until I saw it was Sequoia :/ I actually thought I had some kind of UI bug in Finder with the way the sidebar menu was showing up under other text.
Late catch: ha, @Evil Lair is on my wavelength
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MilanKraft
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
I did same (and remain so on my Intel Mac), but was forced to LG with the purchase of a new Mac. The process of reverting a new Mac backwards is still possible (I think) but too big a PITA from what I saw... and in any case the one positive of sticking with the current OS is the additional security fixes that are normally part of the picture. So I stuck with it on the new Mac. LG is definitely annoying in places, but at least somewhat manageable. iOS27 should resolve what remains of those UI snafus for me.
That said, I refuse to use the Music app in its current bass-akwards state. I generally listen to less music than I used to, but current incarnation is just stupid-bad / unusable IMO.
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Contrast is UX 101, and Liquid Glass is just stupid in that regard. Basically the previous UX guy (who has since gone to Meta) wanted to make a mark and thought it looked cool.
In general, accessibility is widely disregarded either because designers don't think accessible UIs look good or because devs and PMs don't want to spend the time/money to build it. It's incredibly frustrating.
Source: I'm a UX guy.
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I would very much like an Ars dive on the speedup technologies. If you watch platforms state of the union they mention rewriting a lot of the core system bits in on-the-metal Swift, including many microcontrollers and other ICs.
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e: and that's not what you asked.... i'm sure support for dongles will improve before it ships. have you filed a radr?
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yep, me too. But I have a feeling that the speedup tech involves a lot of (intelligent) caching at the OS level. They mentioned already loading up commonly used apps to speed up opening, IIRC. This would be much faster in day-to-day operation, sure, but will further bloat an already bloated macOS and System Data usage (on my 256GB MBP, this is already ~75GB on Tahoe... with AI and Siri turned off!)
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KoshcheiTheDeathless
Ars Praetorian
I get that Apple's gotta Apple, but I'd prefer simpler over flashy effects that are computationally expensive and also harder to read.
I've got a few older apps that I use a lot that depend on Rosetta's x86/x64 translation, so this one's on pause for me until the vendors issue updates to support this OS.
I've got a few older apps that I use a lot that depend on Rosetta's x86/x64 translation, so this one's on pause for me until the vendors issue updates to support this OS.
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I have a samsung Neo G9 5120x1440 ultrawide; it does 120 hz HDR just fine at full resolution in macOS Sequoia via DisplayPort on an M1 Mac Studio and M4 Max MBP, and that’s through a (cheap, no-name) KVM as well.
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On my M4 mini (Lenovo thunderbolt 5K2 screen) it's the incredibly limited scaling/resolution options that you have if you want to avoid blurry fuzz.
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Really wish they had fully reverted to pre-Tahoe window corners but hey, this is better than doing nothing so I'll gladly take it.
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internet2000
Ars Centurion
I like most changes except for the hard border for the Finder upper toolbar. I didn’t have an issue with the current version and thought it looked quite nice.
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Rosetta is still present in this version (but it's the final one with full support, before Apple scales it down to a vague level that they've yet to explain properly).
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I'm confused about this as well...I've been running the exact Dell ultrawide linked in the article for a couple of years now and have been getting full native resolution plus 120 Hz. We'll see I guess.
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Spaces/Mission Control performance has dropped off a cliff in the beta when using numerous full-screen apps.
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I saw a screenshot and got incredibly excited, even muttering "Yes!" Then I read the caption:
"A window in macOS 15 Sequoia, for reference."
D'oh.
"A window in macOS 15 Sequoia, for reference."
D'oh.
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