Here it’s accessible by way of an icon in the menu bar, but every element here screams touchscreen. As with iOS, it’s a translucent drop-down menu that offers quick access to settings. Joining other elements like Notification Center and Launchpad is Control Center. Perhaps the biggest update to Finder is also the most blatant lift from iOS. Not sure how I feel about that one, if I’m being honest. I only discovered that while taking a screenshot for this review - the familiar camera shutter sound having been swapped out for a bit of a plunk. Default sound updates might take me the longest to get used to. The dock, meanwhile, hovers ever so slightly above the bottom of the screen. That includes the new Finder windows, which also adopt more translucent elements and rounded corners. Spacing in general is a big thing throughout the update. Those are larger, meanwhile, and offer a bit more room to breathe.

There are fun little touches throughout, like this address on the Mail icon envelope:Īnother iOS influence comes in the form of the push toward more translucence throughout the UI, most notably in the form of the menu bar, which is a closer match to the drop-down menus themselves. Right now, my app folder is a mix of circles and rounded squares. As ever, it’s up to third-party developers to decide if they want to join in on the fun. The familiar circle icons are gone, making way for the squircle variety you’ll find on the iPhone. Big Sur borrows liberally from the iOS design language. For those of us who basically spend all day, every day staring at the operating system, they’re unavoidable. The second and arguably more symbolic is one of the more radical design changes in the operating system’s recent memory.įor those less familiar with the operating system, the design changes likely feel subtle. Those first systems are set to arrive toward the end of the year, likely in the form of new iMac and MacBooks. The first and arguably most important is the aforementioned hardware update. What we can say for sure is that Big Sur does, indeed, represent a big step forward in macOS’ evolution in a couple of ways. It certainly seems worth mentioning the first primary number upgrade in 20 years, but who can ultimately say why Apple does the things it does? The fact was never explicitly mentioned during the keynote, though the number was flashed on screen during a demo. One of the more unsung instances was the surprise reveal that the next version of macOS would be 11.0. There are a million reasons why this year’s WWDC was a strange one. Apple unveils macOS 11.0 Big Sur, featuring a new aesthetic and redesigned apps

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