
Apple brings together its operating system names to simply 26
Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Apple is changing the style of its names of operating systems for all of its devices.
To reflect the majority of the year when these software updates will be available to customers, the company will release iOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, macOS 26, visionOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said at WWDC.
The unification will address the difference in operating system names that has persisted for years. Today, Apple provides iOS 18 to the iPhone, iPadOS 18 to the iPad, watchOS 11 to its wrist wearable, tvOS 18 for the Apple TV, macOS Sequoia for the Mac computers and visionOS 2 for the first-generation Vision Pro. —Jordan Novet
Apple announces first new iPhone operating system redesign since 2013
Apple just announced a new operating system that features its first major iOS redesign since 2013.
Alan Dye, Apple’s vice president of human interface, said the new operating system is inspired by the Vision Pro. The company is calling the new look “Liquid Glass”
— Samantha Subin
Planned software updates draw a crowd
Over 225,000 people were waiting to join Apple’s livestream of its WWDC event on YouTube.
That makes the conference a smaller draw than the iPhone maker’s September hardware events in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
After the stream began and CEO Tim Cook stopped talking, the audience surged past the 600,000 mark. —Jordan Novet
We’re here at Apple Park
We’re here at Apple Park, the company’s campus, alongside thousands of developers, to see what Apple is planning for its next operating systems.
The rainbow-colored stage inside Apple’s campus.
Kif Leswing
The campus is set up like it has been for the past few years: Big movie screens are set up in one of the company’s four-story atriums. This means that the presentation will likely be pre-recorded, as it has been since the pandemic. Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to give some remarks before the video starts. — Kif Leswing