At our 3rd October meeting, we talked about our first impressions of the new “26” operating systems and some of the new features. Members also discussed some other topics.
New OS First Impressions and features
We talked about the new OS versions, particularly iOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe. Robert highlighted some of the interesting new features:
iOS 26
- Making photos into Spacial Scenes in photos and on the home screen.
- Resizing and customsing the clock on the home screen.
- Remaining charge time in battery settings.
- In Podcasts, change playback speed in 0.1x increments and enhance dialogue.
- Option to keep audio in AirPods/bluetooth headphones in Settings/General/AirPlay.
macOS 26 Tahoe
- New theme options in Settings/Appearance.
- DaveK mentioned the options to customise individual folders with a chosen colour and icon/emoji.
- Restore the menu bar background in Settings/Menu Bar.
- Change the lock screen clock format in Settings/Wallpaper.
- Extensive Control Centre customisation including lots of available controls, muliple pages and the option to rearrange menu bar icons.
- Spotlight clipboard history and Apps in Spotlight replacing Launch Pad.
- FileVault is now on by default. A recovery key is saved to Passwords and available in Settings/Privacy & Security/FileVault.
Mac Rumors has some good articles on the macOS and iOS new features.
Member Topics
- Sue, DavidB and DaveK discussed the hearing aid features available with AirPods Pro 2 and 3.
- DavidB asked about activating Siri from his AirPods Pro without using the trigger word. DaveK found that you can customise the controls and gestures so this feature is available.
- Ben mentioned the active noise cancellation features of AirPods.
- Robert mentioned the free iOS racing game RidePods which uses AirPods motion sensors for control.