After three days with iOS 26, I'm amazed by Apple's Liquid Glass redesign, but I have concerns
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The biggest buzz at WWDC 2025 was around Apple's spanking new Liquid Glass interface. From a unified year-based naming scheme for its platforms to what might be the most extensive visual overhaul to iOS in years, iOS 26 marks a significant shift in Apple's software approach.
But is there substance beneath the divisive shiny sheen? I dove into the developer betas to give it a try.
Let me preface this by saying this first beta is very buggy, and I wouldn't recommend installing it on your primary phone. Still, if you're eager to explore it, just go to the 'Software Update' section under Settings and select 'Beta Updates.' That's all it takes. Since last year, Apple has dramatically simplified the beta sign-up process. Regardless, I'd highly recommend waiting for next month's public beta before installing the update. With that said, here are some of the most significant additions to iOS 26.
Liquid Glass: The most dramatic design overhaul since iOS 7
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Apple's biggest change this year is the introduction of a new design language called Liquid Glass. If you're a design enthusiast or have experience in web design, you're likely familiar with glassmorphism. Liquid Glass builds on that aesthetic and makes extensive use of transparency and floating elements. More importantly, this redesign spans every Apple platform from the iPhone to the iPad, Mac, Watch, TV, and even Vision Pro. It's Apple's first real attempt to unify the visual language across its entire ecosystem.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
In practice, Liquid Glass means layers of translucent color, soft reflections, and depth that shift as you interact with your device. It's playful, dramatic, and distinctly Apple — for better or worse. The Home Screen shows this off best. App icons appear like digital glass, glinting based on the background. You'll notice bubble-like UI elements across the Photos app, the Fitness App, and even the Camera. On the Lock Screen and in Control Center, most flat backgrounds are now translucent layers. It's a subtle but impactful shift that makes everything feel like it's floating rather than just sitting on top of your wallpaper.
Readability suffers under all that transparency — especially in Control Center.
In day-to-day use, not everything works perfectly yet. Transparency can hurt readability, especially in Control Center when it overlaps busy apps like the music player. The Lock Screen has similar issues. Some animations also feel inconsistent.
The interface tweaks continue on to the browser, where you now get a near-full-screen view of the webpage with glass-inspired elements that pop out. Similar to the rest of the interface, there is ample reason to be concerned about readability (especially for those with accessibility needs), and your experience is entirely dependent on the background. Still, this is early beta territory, and Apple typically refines this by the time of public release.
Despite the mixed public consensus, I quite like the general direction that Apple is taking here. The interface looks futuristic to a fault, like something straight out of an Apple TV science fiction show, and I'm personally here for it. But even at this early stage, it is clear that a lot of pain points need to be addressed before the public rollout this September.
The new camera experience
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The Camera app, too, has received a major, and much-needed, overhaul. In fact, this is the first time in years that Apple has rethought the camera UI from the ground up. While the basics remain the same, Apple has refined the layout to provide quicker access to controls. The refreshed interface makes it easy to swipe between modes like photos, videos, portrait, and more with a single swipe along the bottom edge. This feels intuitive and much more useful when composing shots.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Similarly, a subtle but welcome touch is how Apple now surfaces adjustments. In some ways, the Camera app has finally gained the 'Pro' mode users have been waiting for. Features such as switching between different recording settings, LOG video, and camera resolution are infinitely more straightforward to access.
While it's nowhere close to the level of Pro mode features in the best Android camera phones or dedicated third-party camera apps, it's a good compromise for casual enthusiasts who desire more control without sacrificing simplicity. A side effect of these changes is that the overwhelming amount of animations and floating elements makes the interface feel slower than it is, with everything taking just half a second too long. I can't say for sure if Apple will allow for toned-down animations, but as it stands, the floaty feeling of the UI wears you down pretty quickly.
Apple Intelligence everywhere
It's fair to say that Apple's initial AI push has been somewhat underwhelming. When Apple Intelligence was announced last year, well behind the competition, it distinguished itself with a strong promise of privacy. A year later, a large portion of last year's promised features are still unavailable, making it difficult to take Apple's 2025 claims entirely seriously. Regardless, among the newly announced features is deeper integration with the entire suite of on-device communication apps. Moreover, this year, Apple is opening up access to its on-device LLM to third-party developers. That is bound to open up some very interesting and innovative use cases.
In Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, Live Translation now enables real-time language translation of both text and audio. It functions within message threads and during calls, providing quick responses without requiring you to leave the app. I couldn't find a way to activate the feature in the beta.
Apple Intelligence still lags in effectiveness despite the interesting platter of system-wide integrations.
Similarly, Visual Intelligence now understands what's on your screen and can surface related results, links, or suggestions. For instance, if someone sends you a product image, you can ask the on-device intelligence to show you similar items from the web or pull up information about it without ever leaving the thread. Think of it as Apple's take on 'Circle to Search' but leveraging the power of Apple's on-device LLM and ChatGPT. This is one of iOS 26's more exciting features, but once again, it is not yet available in the developer beta.
Genmoji and Image Playground are also part of this AI layer. You can now combine emoji, photos, and descriptive phrases to generate custom stickers and images. While these tools feel like fun party tricks for now, their true power lies in deep system-wide integration. The feature works exactly as you'd imagine and lets you combine existing emojis, photos and text-based prompts to create custom emojis. The results are pretty good, as you can see in the screenshot above. It's not really something I'd use very often, but better on-device image and emoji generation is effectively table stakes, so an improved experience is very welcome.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The other feature that I found exciting was deeper integration of AI into Apple's on-device scripting service. Apple Intelligence is now available to the Shortcuts app, enabling you to create smarter automations. This means you can integrate Apple's on-device LLM or even ChatGPT into a shortcut and use it to parse data before passing it on to another app. I can envision use cases like instantly splitting a tab or summarizing any on-screen content, such as an Instagram post. In fact, it took me minutes to get a shortcut up and running to automatically create a note based on a shared Instagram post after passing it through the on-device LLM. That's very cool.
A smarter battery dashboard
Talking about everyday use features, Apple has finally overhauled the Battery section in Settings. The new interface replaces the 24-hour and 10-day views with a more digestible weekly breakdown. It then compares your average battery consumption to your daily usage, highlighting which apps are consuming power and why. Tapping into any given day reveals a split between active screen time and idle background use. It's very similar to the battery insights available to Android users and is a welcome addition.
Dig deeper, and you'll also find a new Adaptive Power Mode. Unlike the static Low Power Mode, Adaptive adjusts in real time based on how aggressively you're using your phone. It can dim the screen or scale back background tasks without requiring user input. You still get the manual 80% charge limiter and battery health metrics, but the focus here is on smarter defaults.
Settings, Keyboard, Messages, and other subtle improvements
In addition to the big hits, numerous smaller quality-of-life improvements are sprinkled throughout the OS. The keyboard feels chunkier and more precise, with better haptic feedback. There's a new preview app that lets you perform a wide range of file-based functions, including previewing files, of course. The Settings app has undergone minor restructuring. While not a radical shift, the app feels cleaner and faster to navigate with its revamped font sizing and kerning. In Messages, you can now set custom backgrounds per conversation, adding a bit more personality to threads. Apple has also added a polls feature for group chats, something that arguably should have existed years ago.
The Phone app has also received some attention. It now unifies the Recents, Favorites, and Voicemails tabs into a single, streamlined interface. The most significant addition is Call Screening. It screens unknown callers by gathering context and offering options to respond or dismiss them without ever answering. Hold Assist is another helpful tool. If you're stuck in a call queue with customer support, your iPhone can now wait on hold for you and alert you when a human finally joins the line.
iOS 26 also introduces a dedicated Apple Games app. It acts as a central hub for all things gaming on your device, effectively serving as a lightweight but genuinely useful Game Center replacement. The app pulls in your installed games, offers personalized recommendations, and allows you to see what your friends are playing. Achievements, leaderboards, and Game Center invites are now neatly tucked into this space. Apple is clearly trying to make iOS gaming feel more like a platform and less like a series of one-off downloads, but it remains to be seen if there's significant adoption.
So, is iOS 26 worth the hype?
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
It's hard to say definitively at this early stage. There's no doubt that Liquid Glass gives iOS a bold new face, and updated Apple Intelligence features feel like the beginning of something genuinely useful. But right now, it's mostly potential.
iOS 26 is playful, dramatic, and distinctly Apple — for better or worse.
Many features are buggy or half-baked, and even improvements like those in the camera app require further polish. To be fair, this is a developer beta. I'll reserve judgment until the final release rolls out later this year, but what is undeniable is that this is the most ambitious update Apple has shipped in years.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump and TSMC pitched $1 trillion AI complex — SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son wants to turn Arizona into the next Shenzhen
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group, is working on plans to develop a giant AI and manufacturing industrial hub in Arizona, potentially costing up to $1 trillion if it reaches full scale, reports Bloomberg. The concept of what is internally called Project Crystal Land involves creating a complex for building artificial intelligence systems and robotics. Son has talked to TSMC, Samsung, and the Trump administration about the project. Masayoshi Son's Project Crystal Land aims to replicate the scale and integration of China's Shenzhen by establishing a high-tech hub focused on manufacturing AI-powered industrial robots and advancing artificial intelligence technologies. The site would host factories operated by SoftBank-backed startups specializing in automation and robotics, Vision Fund portfolio companies (such as Agile Robots SE), and potentially involve major tech partners like TSMC and Samsung. If fully realized, the project could cost up to $1 trillion and is intended to position the U.S. as a leading center for AI and high-tech manufacturing. SoftBank is looking to include TSMC in the initiative, given its role in fabricating Nvidia's AI processors. However, a Bloomberg source familiar with TSMC's internal thinking indicated that the company's current plan to invest $165 billion in total in its U.S. projects has no relation to SoftBank's projects. Samsung Electronics has also been approached about participating, the report says. Talks have been held with government officials to explore tax incentives for companies investing in the manufacturing hub. This includes communication with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to Bloomberg. SoftBank is reportedly seeking support at both the federal and state levels, which could be crucial to the success of the project. The development is still in the early stages, and feasibility will depend on private sector interest and political support, sources familiar with SoftBank's plans told Bloomberg. To finance its Project Crystal Land, SoftBank is considering project-based financing structures typically used in large infrastructure developments like pipelines. This approach would enable fundraising on a per-project basis and reduce the amount of upfront capital required from SoftBank itself. A similar model is being explored for the Stargate AI data center initiative, which SoftBank is jointly pursuing with OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's MGX. Melissa Otto of Visible Alpha suggested in a Bloomberg interview that rather than spending heavily, Son might more efficiently support his AI project by fostering partnerships between manufacturers, AI engineers, and specialists in fields like medicine and robotics, and by backing smaller startups. However, she notes that investing in data centers could also reduce AI development costs and drive wider adoption, which would be good for the long term for AI in general and Crystal Land specifically. Nonetheless, it is still too early to judge the outcome. The rumor about the Crystal Land project has emerged as SoftBank is expanding its investments in AI on an already large scale. The company is preparing a $30 billion investment in OpenAI and a $6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing, a cloud-native CPU company. While these initiatives are actively developing, the pace of fundraising for the Stargate infrastructure has been slower than initially expected. SoftBank's liquidity at the end of March stood at approximately ¥3.4 trillion ($23 billion). To increase available funds, the company recently sold about a quarter of its T-Mobile U.S. stake, raising $4.8 billion. It also holds ¥25.7 trillion ($176.46 billion) in net assets, the largest portion of which is in chip designer Arm Holdings. Such vast resources provide SoftBank with room to secure additional financing if necessary, Bloomberg notes Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Investors should consider this growth stock… it's SpaceX's competition
Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) is a US-listed growth stock that gives investors rare access to the commercial space sector. As a vertically integrated launch and space systems provider, Rocket Lab is often compared to SpaceX in its ambition and capabilities. But there's one crucial difference: you can actually buy shares in Rocket Lab, while SpaceX remains private. Rocket Lab delivers launch services, builds small and medium-class rockets, and manufactures spacecraft components for a range of commercial, government, and defense customers. With rapid revenue growth, an impressive order book, and expansion into new markets, Rocket Lab offers public market investors a way to participate in the booming space economy. It targets many of the same opportunities as its more famous, privately held peer. Rocket Lab and SpaceX operate in the same commercial space sector but differ significantly in scale, maturity, and valuation. Rocket Lab's market cap is currently $12.85bn, with trailing 12 months (TTM) revenue of approximately $460m. Despite strong growth — revenue nearly doubled from $240m in 2023 — Rocket Lab remains a smaller, earlier-stage player focused on small to medium launch vehicles and spacecraft manufacturing. Its valuation multiples are extremely high, with a forward price-to-sales ratio of 22.3 times, reflecting investor optimism. SpaceX, by contrast, is a far more mature private company valued at about $350bn. It's projected to generate $15.5bn in revenue in 2025. This is driven by its dominant Falcon 9 launch services and rapidly growing Starlink satellite internet business. SpaceX's valuation implies roughly a 22.5 times multiple on forward revenue. This is broadly in line with Rocket Lab. Focusing on Rocket Lab, the company is projected to deliver rapid revenue growth over the next several years, with estimates rising from $573m in 2025 to $889 in 2026, $1.2bn in 2027, and $1.69bn in 2028. This represents annual growth rates consistently above 30%, and even a jump of nearly 77% in 2030. However, the number of analysts providing forecasts declines sharply after 2027, dropping from 11–14 analysts in the near term to just two or one by 2028 and 2030. The one analyst projecting as far as 2030 sees $4bn in revenue for the year. I had the chance to buy Rocket Lab shares at $15 just two months ago. I missed out as unfortunately my attention had been diverted elsewhere. However, I found another entry point. And personally, I see this as an investment to hold for a very long period. The space industry is still in its early innings, with enormous potential as satellite launches, lunar missions, and in-orbit services become increasingly mainstream. And like any investment, there are risks. Rocket Lab remains loss-making. It's expected to turn a profit in 2026, when it will trade at 620 times earnings. And while this moderates to 140 times in 2027, it's still expensive and introduces plenty of execution risk. However, I certainly believe UK investors should consider this one. It could be a real winner going forward. The post Investors should consider this growth stock… it's SpaceX's competition appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool James Fox has positions in Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025 Sign in to access your portfolio
Tom's Guide
27 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Pro: How big will the gap be this year for new iPhones?
Apple has spent the past few years giving its iPhone Pro models that extra little push with features not available on the standard iPhone. But that wasn't the case with the iPhone 16, which added enough new capabilities to dash nearly any FOMO you may have felt by not paying up for the iPhone 16 Pro. Will that trend continue this year with an iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Pro comparison? Initial rumors about Apple's iPhone 17 plans paint a mixed picture. While the standard iPhone is set to gain a long-awaited display improvement that will match what the Pro models have delivered for years, the iPhone 17 Pro is set to see the more significant changes, chiefly to its design and cameras. And Apple could be planning a processor surprise, too, that may affect how you weigh the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. We're a few months away from the iPhone 17 release, since Apple typically rolls out new phones in September. But enough rumors about all the new models in the works have emerged to give us a good sense of how the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro might compare. Here's how a potential iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Pro face-off is shaping up, with a special focus on the biggest differences as well as key similarities. Save for the number of camera lenses on the back of each model and the screen size, every iPhone in Apple's lineup tends to look the same. That may be changing with the iPhone 17. Based on leaked renders and CAD drawings, the iPhone 17 will look a lot like past models, though it may have a more prominent camera array than the current iPhone 16. The two rear cameras will still be stacked vertically, though. Apple seems to be taking a different approach with the iPhone 17 Pro, stretching the camera array horizontally across the back of the phone. The three rear cameras will continue to be arranged in a triangular array on the right side of the phone, but other sensors and the flash will be moved to the left. Currently, Pro models come with a titanium frame, and there's some talk of Apple dropping that feature with the iPhone 17 Pro. I'm not sure I totally believe that at this point, given how prominently titanium figures into the branding of Apple's Pro phones. The standard iPhone features a main camera and an ultrawide lens on the back, while the Pro handsets add a telephoto lens to that setup. That isn't changing with the iPhone 17 lineup, though it sounds like the iPhone 17 Pro is in line to get a much bigger improvement to its camera setup. Along with the 48MP Fusion Camera that serves as the main shooter and a 48MP ultrawide camera, rumors tip the iPhone 17 Pro to adopt a 48MP telephoto lens. That's a higher resolution than the 12MP zoom lens on the iPhone 16 Pro, though the trade-off for that higher resolution may be a shorter zoom. The iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera will reportedly only offer a 3.5x optical zoom compared to 5x on the current model, which doesn't make sense. Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 will still have to rely on its 48MP main camera to approximate a 2x optical zoom, as there's no zoom lens slated for that phone. In fact, it's widely assumed the rear camera setup on the iPhone 17 will be the same as what the iPhone 16 offers. The iPhone 17 Pro is also expected to pick up a new feature not available on the standard iPhone 17. A rumor claims Pro phones will support dual-video capture, allowing you to record video from both the front and back cameras simultaneously. One other camera change could impact both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. All new iPhones are in line to get a 24MP selfie camera, replacing the current 12MP shooter. You'd expect Apple to maintain a minor difference between the standard iPhone and the Pro model this fall by giving those phones slightly different chipsets. If Apple sticks to its pattern from the past couple iPhone releases, the iPhone 17 would get an A19 system-on-chip while the iPhone 17 Pro would benefit from an A19 Pro that offers a little more processing power particularly when it comes to graphics. The differences could be even more stark with the iPhone 17, though. One analyst believes the standard iPhone 17 will continue to use an A18 processor, repeating what Apple did with the iPhone 14. If that's the case, the performance difference between an A18-powered iPhone 17 and an iPhone 17 Pro with an A19 Pro chip could be rather stark. Like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 is expected to feature 8GB of RAM to help with all that on-device computing that Apple Intelligence features require. But the iPhone 17 Pro could get a boost in that area. Specifically, multiple analysts are forecasting that the Pro models will get a bump to 12GB of memory, as Apple looks to give the iPhone 17 Pro a performance edge. iPhone 17 pricing is up in the air, given the ever-fluctuating policies about tariffs coming out of Washington. Even before tariffs threatened to raise the cost on devices manufactured in China like iPhones. However, there has been talk of some iPhome 17 models costing more than their predecessors. Regardless of how iPhone pricing shakes out in the fall, it's a safe bet that the iPhone 17 will cost less than the iPhone 17 Pro. Currently, the iPhone 16 starts at $799 while the iPhone 16 Pro has a $999 asking price. That gap in pricing is a pretty good guide, though there is a chance it might widen if the Pro model sees a price hike and the standard phone doesn't. After years of keeping its standard iPhones with refresh rates locked at 60Hz, Apple sounds like it's finally going to deliver a feature that's pretty standard on flagship phones these days — a fast-refreshing display. Multiple reports have the iPhone 17 adopting an LTPO panel for its display, a switch that would enable the phone to offer refresh speeds of up to i20Hz. That means smoother scrolling and more immersive graphics, and it would match a feature the iPhone Pro models have offered since the iPhone 13 Pro. The iPhone 17's fast-refreshing display may not be completely on par with what the iPhone 17 Pro offers, as some reports suggest the refresh rate on the standard model may not be able to scale all the way down to 1Hz. Still, this is one area where the gap between the regular iPhone and the Pro model may close considerably. The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro displays may have something else in common. Some are expecting Apple to increase the panel on the iPhone 17 to 6.3 inches, matching a boost in screen size introduced with the iPhone 16 Pro last year. However, one new difference in displays could emerge. The iPhone 17 Pro may shrink the size of the Dynamic Island feature, freeing up more screen real estate. It's unclear if that change is coming to the regular iPhone 17. Then again, a more recent report claims all models will shrink the Dynamic Island. The iPhone 17 Pro models are thought to be adopting a vapor cooling chamber as a replacement for the standard heatsinks found in current iPhones. The ideal is that the new chamber would keep the iPhone running smoothly while preventing overheating during processor-intensive tasks — a problem that's flared up with some recent releases. Opinion is divided among rumor mongers as to whether this feature is exclusive to the Pro phones or whether all iPhone 17 models will benefit from the switch. We'll list this feature here for now, though it could shift over to the differences column as we get more information ahead of the iPhone 17 launch. All iPhone 17 models debuting in the fall will ship with the same software on board. And now that Apple has held its WWDC 2025 conference, we have a pretty good idea as to what that software will deliver. iOS 26 largely focuses on introducing a new Liquid Glass interface to Apple's phones, unifying the look of Apple's software across its phones, Macs and other devices. But there are Apple Intelligence updates included with iOS 26, too, such as a more capable Visual Intelligence feature and new additions to Genmoji and Image Playground. While Apple could always surprise us at the iPhone 17 launch with some Pro-specific software capabilities, the same iOS 26 features should work equally well on the iPhone 17 as they do on the Pro. Make no mistake — the iPhone 17 Pro is going to continue to offer more premium features than the iPhone 17, even if the fast-refreshing display coming to Apple's entry-level flagship ticks off a big box that had been separating the two phones. The Pro still figures to have the better camera setup, with more video capture features at your disposal. And if the rumored differences in chipsets pan out, there could be a notable performance gap between the two models as well.
