Not quite available here yet, other than Beta, many articles, reviews, here’s the basics on iOS26 from MacRumor…
Another on the OS…
My Mac Mini M2 says it’s downloading OS 15.7, so we’ll see if that flips to 26.. (4.3 Gb)
So what happened to 19, 20, 21, 22 . . ., 25? I just checked and I’m offered an update to 18.7 or I can choose “Upgrade to iOS26”.
JimA
Well, I expected to go to Tahoe, OS 26, but am now at 15.7… Not seeing the Tahoe option… WT…?? Maybe my Mini M2 isn’t on the list?
My iPhone 15 ProMax also went to a 18.7, not iOS26… Not in the notes I’ve been reading…
OK, now my iPhone asked to go to iOS26, so that is in process…
OK, now the Mac Mini is updating to Tahoe, OS26 (15,06 Gb)… Just had to settle in I guess…
Apple’s info:
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Apple is switching to OS versions based on the year. No, it’s not 2026 yet, but presumably Apple believes that version “26” will last it through most of 2026, and will release version 27 later in 2026.
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Well, I made it into OS26 & iOS26, I found OS26 blew up my admittedly messy desktop, insisted on desktop widgets, scattered all the stuff, so I’m spending a lot of time finding, putting the multiple alias folder where I had them, semi organized… And closing off those desktop widgets… Nothing lost or broke, just scattered… The only thing it left where I had them are the SSD/HD icons… So it will take a while to organize them so I know where they are again… Folder & file names have been greatly shortened, not wrapped, so they can be read, still have to work on that… I never used or liked Stacks, never could find things, and this is just as bad… Part of the price of progress, I guess…
Oh, and the desktop background photo, I gave up, went to a dark gray, Tahoe was too light, couldn’t read the icon info… Eventually maybe find one of my own photos…
Going for the Watch OS26 now…
Am not messing up DW’s iMac, or iPhone15 Pro until I sort my own out… Ackkk…
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I passed on 26. I read something about your phone will be a little slower with 26 because of the translucent screen and the new AI. I upgraded to the 18.something…doc
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Apparently CarPlay also is updated in iOS26, I haven’t tried it yet, but…
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Although I’m planning on upgrading my iPhone SE 2020 soon, I upgraded iOS on it. Since the phone is so old, I wasn’t actually expecting it to upgrade through to iOS 26. I was expecting some version of 18.2.whatever.
Instead, I’m confronted with the new Liquid Glass.
I’m not usually fond of changes to the interface, but I’ll admit that I find Liquid Glass pretty attractive. The icons seem more vivid, and when I swipe left and right, the iOS folders show that refraction effect when looking through the “glass” to the wallpaper/background. Very cool, and while my iPhone already seems pretty slow (it felt slow before the upgrade), it handles the visual effects of Liquid Glass with some vigor.
While the translucency is handled well, other things are definitely slow with this old iPhone, like the swipe-left-right is a bit jerky.
There’s a new Games app, and a Preview app.
And finally, one pet peeve of mine that was taken care of in this update: All my iOS icons are still where I left them. In the past – maybe three or more major updates ago – I used to find my icons scrambled after updates, and it would take me a while to reorganize to the way I liked it. This time, as in the past few that I can recall, my iCons are where I left them.
-awlabrador
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I updated my 11” M1 iPad Pro to iPadOS 26, and the interface experience is better than with my iPhone SE, as expected.
In addition to Games and Preview, there’s also a new Phone app and a Journal app. I never really liked the Journal app on my iPhone, so I’m glad it’s on my iPad, with which I have a keyboard. However, it looks like my (very few) journal entries from my iPhone aren’t synced to the iPad. I’ll have to find out how to do so, if it’s possible.
The Phone app seems to be tied into my iPhone, e.g. my voicemails from my iPhone are visible on my iPad. Since my iPad has cellular, I wonder if it’s possible to make calls through that phone number.
Performance is snappy.
Multitasking with windowed apps is a bit awkward, but I assume I’ll get used to it.
-awlabrador
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Apparently one can stay with OS 18.7, if not ready for 26, I did, but only momentatarily as 26 wasn’t showing up as an option at first on my Mini… Still shuffling desktop folders/aliases, as the names are shortened so badly, it’s not clear what is what, many wee, for example, named ‘Home Fan Info alias’, or ‘Home Window update alias’, but both show up as ‘Home…alias’ so I grumble..
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I upgraded both my M1 MBP and my Intel 19” Retina 5K 27” iMac (2019) last night. The MBP is now running Tahoe 26.0, while the iMac is running Sequoia 15.7. Since I’m not likely to upgrade my iMac any time soon (unless Apple surprisingly releases a large screen iMac Pro), I’m going to be stuck with the different interfaces for a while.
The very first thing I noticed is that there are now widgets on my MBP desktop. I’ve done without widgets and, in fact, have actively avoided anything like them for decades. I think they mess up my desktop metaphor. I wanted that space in the upper left for placement of files and folders (or their icons, or aliases, whatever the case may be).
It took me a while to figure out how to turn them off: System Preferences > Desktop & Dock, then deselect Show Widgets.
However, that upper left space turned out to be reserved for the widgets that were no longer visible. Any time I tried to drag an icon to the upper left area, it snapped to the right side of my Desktop.
Eventually, I figured out to edit the widgets by clicking on the Notification Center at upper right. Then, click the Edit Widgets button. From here, you can add or remove widgets, and they no longer reserve space on the desktop. I could have also right-clicked the original four widgets and then selected Remove Widget, but it’s useful to know that, if I change my mind, I can click on the Notification Center or even just right-click the Desktop to bring up Edit Widgets.
[Edit: I guess widgets have been part of macOS for quite a while, but I’ve kept them relegated to the Notification Center. Somewhere along the way, I must have forgotten that they could be on the Desktop. So, the Tahoe upgrade simply seems to have put a few on my Desktop where they weren’t before…]
The next thing I noticed is that, apart from the Liquid Glass effects, one big difference is that the rounded corners of windows in Tahoe are much more rounded, or have much larger radii, than the corners in earlier MacOS versions. I’m not sure why that particular change is justified.
-awlabrador
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As I noted earlier, like you, that widget space threw me for a loop until I could clear them, but I’still at a loss to find, rearrange all my desktop folders with their now shortened names… “Home…alias” is not helping… I gave up for now, use an open Desktop Folder to see the whole names…
Otherwise, Safari changed, too.. different tabs mean the tabs change colors, have to sort out how to make them behave the way I want… Calendar didn’t improve, or yet save the Print settings…
It will take time to sort things out again… Not sure I want to update my wife’s iMac… iPhone, Watch seem fine on 26…
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Well, my recklessness in upgrading my M1 MBP – my work machine – rose up to bite me: Some of my widget-based code in IDL (the data analysis program from NV5 Geospatial that I use for my work) broke with Tahoe, and I’m under some time pressure to get things out through that environment.
After e-mailing frantic queries to NV5’s tech support, I started searching the web for the error messages I was seeing, and searching for “failure to acquire window rendering context” led me to a page at umich.edu, which happened to have the resolution.
I was lulled by the relative ease of most recent, annual upgrades to macOS, I think. I got lucky, this time, that I was able to find a resolution, but I’ll not forget.
-awlabrador
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That changed today! Solved! Had to play with the icon size & spacing, but that allowed the full folder names to expand to 2 lines. bingo! So a desktop cleanup, manually, got me back to my semi-ordered layout I’d had before OS 26… Stubborness works!!
Still dealing with a bit of confusing tabs in Safari, but there is hope… 
weco
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And now that we’re in OS 26, no going back…
The only headache I see so far in OS26, is actually in Safari 26.0, its Tabs are messing me up.. I have a set of Tabs saved, one click and a dozen or so Tab open various favorite sites/ Prior Safari’s just divided the space, if I added or deleted, they’d adjust but all were still visible.. Not if I add something, opening a link, whatever, it shoves everything to the left, no longer showing several tabs, and no way to get to them, other than reloading the whole set, or going to ‘View/Show Tab Overview’, but not back to where all the tabs are showing.. I haven’t tried other browsers, still hooked on Safari, but…
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I use Safari* on Windows and it’s great. [ *Woops: I meant that I use Vivaldi on Windows, not Safari! ] Great on MacOS too from what I read:
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