I’m betting that we will get whateverOS 26 beta 4 tomorrow, first public beta next week.
One simple thing that is missing from iPadOS 26: CMD-Q to quit an application. Other things that need work: the CMD-TAB switcher is not glassified and lacks contrats with the background view. Same comment goes for the Spotlight search field which can be really hard to see. Oh and here’s the thing: if you happen to work both on the Mac and an iPad: you kind expect that both platforms behave the same way. As an example, I want Spotlight on iPad to be the same as on the Mac by offering the four search modes.
On iPadOS 26, you can resize the Settings windows as you like. I wish we could do the same on the Mac!
Well, using iPadOS 26 beta3, it seems that I can’t use my iPad in «clamshell» mode while hooked to an external display… really?
Currently starting my week-end long experiment with an 2024 M4 iPad Pro running iPadOS 26 with an external display. This feels so different and yet familiar to the… Mac? The iPad? I’m not sure, just yet. Expect more posts in the coming days.
Here’s a thought: I would like to ask people of all ages, specifically those between 16 and 70, how they feel about Apple Liquid Glass. Do younger individuals prefer the original version, while older ones favor the toned-down version? I suspect this might be the case.
Next weekend when going to the chalet, I’ll bring my iPad, Magic Keyboard and my LG UltraFine 4K monitor so that I can experiment with iPadOS 26 with an external monitor. The last time I tried this was with iPadOS 18 with Stage Manager. It didn’t work well. Can’t wait to see the difference.
I see encouraging signs with today’s releases of “whateverOS beta3”1. But there is still much work to be done as shown in exhibit #9.
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iOS 26 beta3, iPadOS 26 beta3, macOS Tahoe beta 3. ↩︎
Maybe Apple could provide a Low, Medium and High settings for Liquid Glass and most people would probably be happy with it.
With the addition of the traffic lights buttons on iPadOS 26, it’s now easier to spot which window is active because inactive windows has their traffic light buttons grayed with three little dots as seen on this screenshot.