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glass

The Xbox Rog Ally, WWDC logo and Garmin watch
Gaming Gear

ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories from Apple’s beautiful Liquid Glass to the Xbox’s surprise handheld launch

by admin June 14, 2025



It’s been a massive week for tech news, with Apple’s WWDC taking place and a raft of big announcements in the gaming world.

Missed it all? Never fear – because you can catch up on it by scrolling down for our handy recaps of the week’s seven biggest tech news stories.

And once you’re all up to speed with that, be sure to also check out our picks for the 7 new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend.


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7. Xreal told us more about Project Aura

(Image credit: Xreal)

We already knew Xreal’s Project Aura glasses would bring Android XR features to Xreal’s lineup, but we didn’t know too much about the hardware itself. Now we do.

For a start, the device will apparently boast a 70-degree field of view – which is much larger than the FOV found on the 57-degree Xreal One Pro and which will give the Project Aura glasses a massive virtual screen.

It’ll also be tethered to a compute puck which will run Android XR using a Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, though the glasses themselves will still have a “modified” X1 processor.

The glasses won’t land until sometime in 2026, but when they do this pair of Android XR specs could be something special.

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6. Garmin found its Apple Watch Ultra 2 rival

(Image credit: Garmin)

Surprise! Garmin has revealed the Garmin Venu X1, an “ultrathin” smartwatch with a massive 2-inch AMOLED display and up to eight days of battery life.

The new model packs 32GB of internal memory, presumably for on-watch music, plus Garmin’s updated Elevate v5 heart-rate sensor, most recently used on the Garmin Forerunner 570 and 970.

Unfortunately the Garmin Venu X1 doesn’t come cheap, costing $799.99 / £679.99 / AU$1,499. We’ll be testing it as soon as possible to see if it justifies that price tag.

5. New Bose earbuds were cleared for launch

(Image credit: Bose)

The best noise-cancelling earbuds you can buy right now are made by Bose (which makes sense – the company created the first ever active noise cancelling headphones), and right now we’d suggest not buying them. Why? Because there’s a newer version incoming, and Bose says they’ll be even better.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen will launch later this summer with a price tag of $299 – which is around £220 or AU$460, although these are guesses since pricing and availability for these regions has yet to be officially announced.

What can we expect? AI algorithms for better filtering of sudden noise spikes via Bose’s ActiveSense system, plus improved voice pickup and call quality, The latter is particularly good news, because that was a weak spot compared to rival earbuds from Technics and Bowers & Wilkins.

Also, the new case will be able to charge wirelessly – the first-gen Ultra Earbuds needed a sleeve to pull off this feat, but it’ll be here by default now.

4. Summer Game Fest 2025 wrapped up

(Image credit: SUMMER GAME FEST)

Summer Game Fest 2025 has been and gone, and between PlayStation, Xbox and the event’s own showcase, there was plenty to be excited about.

Some of the most thrilling game announcements came in the form of world premieres such as Resident Evil Requiem, Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls, Scott Pilgrim EX, and Street Fighter 6’s Year 3 Character Pass.

We also got new looks at anticipated upcoming games like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Clockwork Revolution and The Outer Worlds 2.

There’s loads to look forward to, then, and that’s all before we’ve even had a chance to see what Nintendo is cooking up with a new Direct showcase that will likely happen soon.

3. Xbox announced a handheld

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Finally, after years of rumors, Microsoft has announced an Xbox handheld: the ROG Xbox Ally. In fact it gave us two.

Unlike Asus’ current ROG Ally and ROG Ally X, the Xbox version has a tweaked design with contoured grips that echo the shape of the current Xbox Wireless Controller. And as one would expect, both Xbox Allys sport the Xbox ‘ABXY’ button layout and a dedicated Xbox home button.

We don’t yet know when it will launch, nor how much it’ll cost, but we expect it’ll be about as pricey as the existing Ally.

2. Apple told us what went wrong with Apple Intelligence

What’s the deal with Liquid Glass, iOS 26 first impressions and iPadOS gets its biggest overhaul – YouTube

Watch On

Months after Apple admitted publicly that the Apple Intelligence-infused Siri was harder to deliver than they thought, the tech giant reiterated the statement during its WWDC 2025 keynote, adding almost cryptically that it’ll arrive “in the coming months”.

Most of us still had lots of questions. Fortunately, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and Apple Global VP of Marketing Greg Joswiak sat down with us (and Tom’s Guide) for a wide-ranging and revealing podcast that finally explains what happened with Siri development, why the smarter version was delayed, and what happens next.

There’s a lot to learn about over-promising and under-delivering and how to avoid similar mistakes, and the full podcast ranges far beyond to cover Liquid Glass, and that surprising iPadOS 26 reveal. Speaking of which…

1. WWDC 2025 unleashed Liquid Glass

Introducing Liquid Glass | Apple – YouTube

Watch On

Apple’s software event clued us into what’s in store for the next generation of software from the tech giant and a big change is that every OS will now be version 26 – with Apple explaining that this will simplicity and clarity to its somewhat confusing software lineup.

For iOS 26, and every Apple OS, the major update is Liquid Glass, a new foundational design philosophy inspired by visionOS – which is itself getting a slew of enhancements, such as mixed-reality widgets.

However, the real star of the show for many was iPadOS 26, which finally brings some of the Mac’s best features to the tablet – and it nearly made one of our writers cry with joy (that may be an exaggeration).

There was plenty more to dig into from Apple’s big event, so for the full details check out our guide to the 15 biggest stories from WWDC 2025.



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June 14, 2025 0 comments
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MacOS Tahoe 26 hands-on: Spotlight changes and Liquid Glass everywhere
Product Reviews

MacOS Tahoe 26 hands-on: Spotlight changes and Liquid Glass everywhere

by admin June 11, 2025


At WWDC, Apple announced its new Liquid Glass design language, which is coming to all of its devices, including Macs. I’ve been tinkering with the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta on the M4 MacBook Air for about a day. So far, the aesthetic changes range from slick to slightly overwrought, but the new Spotlight search features are nifty and useful.

There are new touches of glassy transparency all over macOS 26, including the Dock, Finder, widgets, and built-in apps. It’s more subtle than on the iPhone, mostly because the Mac’s much larger screen real estate makes the Liquid Glass elements more like accents than whatever this mess is supposed to be. I’m not very fond of it just yet, but maybe it will grow on me, like UI changes tend to.

The see-through dock can distort and refract what’s visible behind it. Screenshot: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The Dock now has a frosted background that’s more translucent than Sequoia’s flatter design. The hazy, frozen glass aesthetic also extends to widgets, like the calendar and weather, and drop-down menus — though the latter have much higher opacity. The pop-ups for volume and brightness now use this distorted glass look as well, though they’ve moved to the top-right corner of the screen instead of being centered above the dock. Frankly, they’re ugly, and I find their new elongated horizontal look strange and out of place.

Surprisingly, the Menu Bar at the top of the screen is now invisible, so it no longer masks the screen’s notch cutout with a dark gray bar. At first I found this slightly jarring, but I adjusted to it quickly, just as I did the first time I saw a notched MacBook. It became mostly innocuous with even a bright wallpaper showing its borders. (If you really hate it you can enable “Reduce transparency” in the accessibility menu, bringing back the filled-in Menu Bar and killing pretty much all of Tahoe’s other transparent effects.) The one cool thing the invisible Menu Bar enables is a new animation: when you three-finger swipe up for Mission Control, a glass pane descends from the top and distorts the view of the wallpaper underneath. It’s a kitschy flourish, but it’s one of the few effects in Tahoe that tickles me.

1/3The way this top pane in Mission Control distorts the wallpaper as it slides in is fun, I’ll give it that. Screenshot: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Widgets now live on the desktop instead of requiring a swipe-over of the Notification Center, allowing you to populate your desktop with lots of glanceable info like an iPad home screen if you choose. Open a Finder window and you see more of Tahoe’s rounded design, with the sidebar now looking like its own tall, oval-ish nested window. Dark mode and light mode show some differences here, with light mode flattening the Finder windows quite a bit more than its darker version, which looks more glassy to me.

The theme controls that launched with iOS 18 are now in macOS. Opening the Appearance menu lets you change Tahoe’s overall looks (light, dark, and auto), highlight colors, and icon and widget styles. The right (or wrong) combination of these settings can dramatically change macOS’s looks, from minimalist to garish.

1/5Open a Finder window and you see more of Tahoe’s rounded design, with the sidebar now looking like its own tall, oval-ish nested window. Screenshot: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

More exciting for power users are the changes to Spotlight that make it much easier to operate your Mac by keyboard alone. Spotlight search now gives you shortcuts to finding files, launching apps, performing actions, and accessing clipboard history. Pressing Command and Space calls up Spotlight as it always has, but now if you hover over the search bar with the mouse you’re shown four icons for those new functions, with each offering a handy keyboard shortcut.

Now this is spotlighting: by pressing Command and either number 1, 2, 3, or 4 keys you can get quick access to Apps, Files, Shortcuts, and Clipboard. Then, you can type out whatever you’re searching for or trying to do. The Apps drawer can act as a mini categorized launcher. Files puts suggestions and recents at the top. Shortcuts allows you to type out functions you’d like your Mac to do via compatible apps. Clipboard is a reverse chronological history of the most recent stuff you copied.

Typing actions into Spotlight. You can see some of the quick keys I set up are suggested right at the top. Screenshot: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

I really like the ability to set custom quick key commands. For example, I set “M” to be the quick key for a message, and “TM” to set a timer. Each of those actions requires typing out some part of the prompt, like the number of minutes in your timer or the contents of a message and the recipient. But if you like to use lots of hotkeys and navigating around an app with the Tab and Alt keys you’re likely to feel right at home.

Several readers were quick to comment that this is Apple “sherlocking” Raycast. Raycast is a much more customizable and expansive Spotlight alternative. It can do math and unit conversions, set timers, has its own appendable clipboard history, and a bunch more, and it also supports third-party extensions. While the changes in macOS Tahoe let Spotlight encroach on some of the things Raycast can do, it’s not quite as expansive. At least, not yet. Raycast is a power-user tool, and it could take Apple some time and a lot more development to win over those users.

I’ve been using the first Tahoe developer beta for about a day. There will be plenty more to learn about macOS Tahoe as developers continue using it in its current beta form and Apple delivers more updates. The public beta isn’t coming until sometime next month, and it’s possible that Apple will push out some sizable changes and UI tweaks even before then.





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June 11, 2025 0 comments
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Apple’s Liquid Glass was a wild change to my iPhone
Product Reviews

Apple’s Liquid Glass was a wild change to my iPhone

by admin June 10, 2025


After staring at, scrolling through, and puzzling over Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language on my iPhone for the better part of an afternoon, I don’t hate it. But I also think it needs a little more time in the kiln.

Apple announced Liquid Glass on Monday for all of its devices at WWDC 2025. Perhaps the most noticeable thing about it is that app icons, tab bars, and even the text magnifier you’ll see when you hover over words feel, well, liquid-y and glassy.

The idea seems to be that because they’re “floating” a layer over things like your lockscreen wallpaper or text, the “glass” can be translucent to give you a sense of what’s under them. It makes sense. The initial implementation in the iOS 26 developer beta has many of Apple’s signature flourishes and attention to detail.

But boy are the changes jarring when you first see them.

Let me show you just how dramatically it changes things. Below, on the left is a picture of my iOS 18 lockscreen I shared with David Pierce for the Installer newsletter just last month, and on the right is my lockscreen today, on my iPhone 16 Pro with the iOS 26 developer beta (out now) installed.

iOS 18 on the left, iOS 26 on the right.

Even in my intentionally grayscale homescreen, I hope you can see that the differences are immediately apparent. Everything is transparent and shiny.

Here’s my homescreen with the color added back in, if you want a different way to look at it. Many icons are familiar, but they’re all… bubblier.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Here’s the Control Center, which is frankly a mess right now. The transparency of Liquid Glass makes it look cluttered, and that’s even with my gray homescreen. I hope Apple makes everything under the Control Center a little more opaque so that it’s easier to read at a glance.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

The Clock app shows a good example of the finer details that have changed. The bottom tab bar is rounded, and when you tap different tabs, the selector shifts over in an animation that I can best describe as a water droplet moving across the tab. (Pressing and holding the droplet allows you to drag it across the tab bar, which is an admittedly cool effect.) You might also notice that the button to turn the alarm on and off is more oval than circular.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

And here are a few other tidbits that I thought would be worth sharing. The iOS keyboard has an all-new look:

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

The Settings app has way too much space between each setting category (which is a problem I’ve also noticed in the messages list in Messages):

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Things under the URL bar in Safari will “bend” due to the Liquid Glass design:

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

And system prompts look different:

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

At first, I hated the big changes. That surprised me. I’m usually fine with UI tweaks. Back in the day, I was on board with even the earliest and worst versions of iOS 7. But after a couple of hours with the iOS 26 developer beta, Liquid Glass is growing on me.

My iPhone still functions like it used to. I have a lot of small complaints, especially with the spacing of settings functions and Control Center. But I expect Apple will tweak and fix a lot of the bigger issues ahead of the official launch of iOS 26 this fall.





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June 10, 2025 0 comments
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macOS 26 Tahoe
Gaming Gear

Apple debuts macOS 26 Tahoe at WWDC with ‘liquid glass’ redesign

by admin June 10, 2025



The next version of macOS will see a dramatic aesthetic change. This fall, Apple will release macOS 26 “Tahoe” (named after Lake Tahoe in California), featuring a new “liquid glass” look that’s coming to all of Apple’s operating systems. There’s also a new Games app, along with updates to Spotlight and new features coming from the iPhone.

The new design features changes to the Dock, as well as toolbars and sidebars. This includes a transparent menu bar, which Apple says makes the display feel enlarged. The liquid glass will have more rounded corners, feature dynamic sizing for windows, apps, and toolbars, and feature clear accents that Apple’s human interface design head says blur the line between hardware and software.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Apple)(Image credit: Apple)(Image credit: Apple)

Mac Gaming

(Image credit: Apple)

As Apple continues to try to push the Mac forward as a platform for video games, it’s adding a new dedicated app, Apple Games, for macOS Tahoe. The new app lets you launch your games, find new ones, and play with friends. Versions of this app will also show up on iOS and iPadOS.


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(Image credit: Apple)

There’s a new Game Overlay in macOS, which will let you quickly change system settings, chat with friends, and enable low power mode when on battery, all without leaving games.

Developers bringing games to macOS will be able to use Metal 4, an update to Apple’s graphics API, with new technologies like MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising, which Apple says will lead to faster frame rates and smoother gameplay.

Spotlight and Apple Intelligence

(Image credit: Apple)

Spotlight, the go-to search on macOS, will use new relevance-based sorting to show files, folders, events, and more results to you. The company also says that filtering options will narrow searches faster than ever. You can also do a ton more in Spotlight, including sending emails, playing podcasts, and whatever developers build into their own apps. You’ll also be able to reach your clipboard history and use new “quick keys” to use brief character strings to get to actions quickly.

While Apple Intelligence isn’t seeing huge features, Shortcuts will be able to connect to Apple’s models to handle more elaborate tasks than before.

Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.

The existing Genmoji and Image Playground are becoming more intricate, and Reminders will be able to see emails, websites, or other information on your Mac to search for what you need to do.

New Features

There are a slew of new features, including the addition of the iPhone’s Phone app and Live Activities. New iOS features like call screening and hold assist are also included, which keep your spot in line and let you know when an agent is ready.

The same updates coming to Messages on iOS will show up in macOS, including polls and backgrounds, as well as the Journal app. Notes will let you import or export notes into markdown files, while FaceTime will offer a new landing page that lets you launch into conversations using your contact posters.

(Image credit: Apple)

There are also new accessibility features, including a Magnifier that lets you use Continuity Camera with an iPhone or plug in a USB camera to zoom in, change angles, or add filters to content. A new Accessibility Reader is designed to make reading easier, while Braile Access has a new interface for users with braille displays. Vehicle Motion Cues is coming from iPhone, which puts up a pattern to help reduce motion sickness while using your Mac in a car.

Numbering and availability

The jump from macOS 15 (Sequoia) to macOS 26 (Tahoe) is a big skip in version numbering, but one that allows Apple to keep its various operating systems (iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, VisionOS) on the same version number, matching the year ahead — similar to the way cars are sold. To be fair, Mac OS X maintained the version number at 10 for 14 years, skewing the actual version number if it had received a new update number every year, as it does now.

Apple will release macOS 26 widely this fall. A developer beta will start today, and a general beta will launch next month.

Tahoe will be available on these devices:

  • MacBook Air with Apple Silicon (2020 and later)
  • MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon (2020 and later)
  • MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
  • iMac (2020 and later)
  • Mac Mini (2020 and later)
  • Mac Studio (2022 and later)
  • Mac Pro (2019 and later)

While these are mostly Apple Silicon devices, some, like the Mac Pro, 2019 MacBook Pro, and 2020 MacBook Pro with. four Thunderbolt 3 ports, maintain support for Intel processors.



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June 10, 2025 0 comments
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‘Beautiful’ and ‘Hard to Read’: Designers React to Apple’s Liquid Glass Update
Gaming Gear

‘Beautiful’ and ‘Hard to Read’: Designers React to Apple’s Liquid Glass Update

by admin June 10, 2025


Apple’s translucent design update for iOS 26, called Liquid Glass, is now available to developers, with a public beta scheduled for next month. The refresh—Apple’s first major interface overhaul in 10 years—makes app icons, buttons, menus, and pop-ups look like they are made of frosted glass, with blurred background colors peeking through.

The sweeping software changes are not just for iPhones. This glassy look—inspired by the operating system in the Vision Pro headset—will eventually roll out to the entire suite of Apple devices, from smartwatches to iPads.

Courtesy of Apple

After the WWDC 2025 keynote concluded on Monday, many design-focused developers WIRED spoke with were impressed by the major update but had lingering questions about how this translucent look could impact readability for users.

“It’s hard to read some of it,” says Allan Yu, a product designer currently building the workplace messaging app Output. “Mainly because I think they made it too transparent.” Yu suggests bumping up the blurring or adjusting the backgrounds to make onscreen designs more readable.

“Similar to the first beta for iOS 7, what we’ve seen so far is rough on the edges and potentially veers into distracting or challenging to read, especially for users with visual impairments,” says Josh Puckett, cofounder of Iteration, which helps startups with designs. Still, Puckett is optimistic, based on Apple’s past accessibility features, that readability will improve over time.

Controls and navigation transform as you interact with the user interface.

Courtesy of Apple

Serhii Popov, a design-first software engineer at MacPaw, the company behind the CleanMyMac app, is curious to see how the new operating system will look on Macs in bright light situations, where glare already impacts visibility. But overall, Popov is enamored with this “really fresh” look from Apple. “I think it will make everything look bigger and allow you to read or interact with the UI with more comfort,” says Popov. For him, the new design and updates look especially sleek on iPads.

Beyond readability concerns, the first impression from some designers is that this new look could be unnecessarily distracting for users.

“From a technical perspective, it’s a very impressive effect. I applaud the time and effort it must have taken to mimic refraction and dispersion of light to such a high degree,” says Adam Whitcroft, a designer at Owner.com, which makes apps and websites for restaurants. “But, sadly I haven’t seen a single example of where it’s pulled off in a way that’s complementary to the broader context it’s presented in.” Whitcroft points to the dispersion and refraction of layers beneath the apps as visually distracting, especially as the user interface is changing layouts. “If you’ve designed a UI that draws the attention of the eye away from the wider context, you’ve gone down the wrong path,” he says.



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June 10, 2025 0 comments
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Etsy co-founder's new startup is making what really looks like a mixed reality magnifying glass
Gaming Gear

Etsy co-founder’s new startup is making what really looks like a mixed reality magnifying glass

by admin June 5, 2025


Virtual and augmented reality are still pretty new frontiers with a lot of potentially cool ideas yet to be developed. The latest product in the mixed reality space could be coming from a startup called Dopple Works. Lowpass reported that the secrecy-shrouded business from Etsy co-founder and former CEO Robert Kalin is working on a new device called Loop.

Dopple Works has submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission. Many of the details are not publicly available, but that filing indicates that Loop is battery-powered and will use both WiFi and Bluetooth networks. Lowpass also unearthed a patent application that dubs Loop a “dedicated hand-held spatial computing device.” The application comes with images that show a camera, speaker and tracking sensor that could capture details on an environment, along with a screen for viewing the mixed reality content.

At this stage, there’s not enough information available to speculate on what Loop’s purpose will be. But the photos from the government filings do spark some entertaining mental images of a future where people wandering about doing their best Sherlock Holmes imitations with mixed reality magnifying glasses.



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June 5, 2025 0 comments
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