The first day of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) was light on artificial intelligence updates, heavy on people talking with their hands, and yielded the company’s biggest visual overhaul of its operating systems since 2013 with a new software makeover called Liquid Glass.
- Liquid Glass is a redesign inspired by Apple’s visionOS software that features a translucent visual interface that dynamically reacts to movement, adjusts to light and dark, and essentially lets users see through everything, including buttons and switches.
- It’s the biggest shift in look since iOS 7, when Apple first introduced skeuomorphism (i.e., making app icons look like their real-world counterparts).
And just like an insecure guy embellishing his height, Apple confirmed at the conference it’s pumping its iOS numbers. It’s departing from sequential numbering for its operating systems so they are unified and and correspond to the year after their release—for example, the update to last year’s iOS 18 is named iOS 26, macOS 15 is now macOS 26, and so on.
As for Apple Intelligence…
Apple software chief Craig Federighi did little to quell grumblings that Apple is still chasing its competitors in the AI space. He broke the bad news at the top of the presentation by saying the AI upgrade to improve Siri still isn’t ready. But there was some good AI news:
- Live translation: Apple’s tech can now translate conversations between two people speaking different languages in real time over text and phone calls. Arguments during World Cup 2026 are about to get a whole lot more fun.
- Third-party developers: A new framework called Foundational Models lets third-party developers integrate AI into their apps. Because it’s run locally on your phone, it can be accessed offline and doesn’t come with cloud computing costs.
Big picture: Shareholders seemed downright disappointed during the keynote. Not long after Federighi’s Siri update, which was six minutes into the show, Apple’s stock dropped more than 2.5%. However, Apple shares rebounded somewhat and finished the day down just 1.2%.—DL