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In addition to a bunch of much-needed bug fixes, iOS 26.1 brings plenty of new features. Tweaks to Liquid Glass improve its legibility without sacrificing its cool effects. iPad multitaskers can rejoice the return of Slide Over, which returns better than before.
More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:25 Liquid Glass
1:39 iPad multitasking
2:25 User interface tweaks
3:56 Miscellaneous
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
In addition to a bunch of muchneeded bug
0:02
fixes, iOS 26.1
0:06
brings tons of new features.
0:08
Improvements to liquid glass improve its
0:11
legibility without sacrificing its cool
0:13
look, and iPad multitaskers can rejoice
0:17
in the return of slide over. Here are
0:20
the 20 new features you can expect on
0:22
Monday.
0:25
Starting with liquid glass, there's a
0:27
new setting in settings, display and
0:30
brightness, liquid glass, that lets you
0:32
choose between two visual styles, clear
0:35
and tinted. Tinted doesn't disable
0:38
liquid glass, but it does improve
0:41
legibility and increase contrast. In
0:43
light mode, it makes liquid glass a
0:45
little whiter, and in dark mode, it
0:47
makes it a little blacker. Of course, if
0:50
you want to go even further, there's
0:52
still the option in settings,
0:54
accessibility, display and text size,
0:57
reduce transparency,
0:59
which makes all of the liquid glass
1:01
elements frosted and gray. There's a
1:03
more subtle glow effect when you tap a
1:05
liquid glass element, like a sheet or a
1:08
text field. It's no longer a really
1:10
bright flash. And in maps, it seems to
1:13
have been removed entirely. There's a
1:15
bouncier control center animation when
1:17
you swipe down from the top of the
1:18
screen. All of the controls have more
1:21
inertia, bouncing like jelly. New video
1:24
playback controls in the photos app are
1:26
inset within a liquid glass toolbar, so
1:29
they stand out more. And finally, liquid
1:31
glass keypad buttons in the phone app
1:34
have a reflective sheen to them, unlike
1:36
the basic drop shadow they had before.
1:39
Moving on to the iPad, slide over has
1:41
returned as part of its new free form
1:44
windowing mode. Tap and hold on the
1:46
green button and tap enter slide over to
1:49
make it float on top of everything else.
1:52
It's kind of like picture in picture for
1:54
your apps. You can still throw it off
1:57
the screen and swipe in from the edge to
1:59
bring it back. You can resize it as big
2:02
as you want. And unlike the old system,
2:05
you no longer have a separate slide over
2:07
multitasking switcher. Also, the hide,
2:10
hide others, and close all commands have
2:13
been added to the menu bar. More window
2:16
management tools copied from the Mac.
2:18
Even the same keyboard shortcuts work.
2:20
Command H, option command H, and option
2:23
command W. Moving on to some more user
2:26
interface tweaks. Swipe to skip track is
2:29
a new gesture you can perform in the
2:31
music app. You can swipe on the mini
2:33
player at the bottom of the screen or on
2:36
the song title from the now playing
2:38
screen. Swipe left to skip a track or
2:41
swipe right to rewind. There's a new
2:44
lock screen alarm interface that makes
2:46
it a little harder to turn off an alarm
2:48
or timer. You can tap the big orange
2:51
button to snooze, but to turn it off,
2:54
you have to swipe the stop button. A new
2:56
setting lets you disable the lock screen
2:59
swipe to open the camera. If you use the
3:02
camera control button to open the camera
3:04
like I do, then disabling this can
3:07
prevent your camera from accidentally
3:08
being opened through your pants pocket,
3:11
a recurring problem in my life. You can
3:14
find it in settings, camera all the way
3:16
towards the bottom. The new Apple TV
3:19
logo has a rainbow glow of color. This
3:23
coincides with the Apple TV Plus service
3:25
being renamed Apple TV. Labels and text
3:28
are now left aligned in home screen
3:31
folders, app library folders, and in
3:35
section headers in the settings app.
3:37
Context menus in the photos app have
3:39
been redesigned. When you tap and hold
3:41
on a photo, there are three prominent
3:44
buttons at the top to share, favorite,
3:46
and delete. When you select a group of
3:49
photos and tap the more button, there
3:51
are three buttons at the top to play as
3:53
slideshow, favorite, and hide. Some more
3:56
miscellaneous settings and features. You
3:58
have more options available when you go
4:00
to manually log a fitness workout. You
4:03
can set your workout type from the long
4:05
list of options available, duration and
4:08
start time, estimate your active
4:10
calories burned, and how much effort you
4:13
put in. When you plug in an external
4:15
microphone, you can now adjust the
4:17
microphone gain from control center. If
4:20
you have a really sensitive microphone,
4:22
this can prevent the audio from peaking
4:23
and sounding blown out. In settings,
4:26
general, local capture, you can now
4:28
choose where to save your local
4:30
recordings and whether to include video
4:32
or just audio. A new option in settings,
4:35
apps, phone, lets you disable the haptic
4:39
feedback when a phone call is answered
4:41
or dropped. Personally, I think this is
4:43
one of the best new additions in iOS 26.
4:46
So, I don't recommend disabling it, but
4:50
you can if you want to. In settings,
4:52
privacy, and security, you can now
4:54
automatically install security
4:56
improvements to help keep your phone a
4:58
little safer. Last, and definitely
4:59
least, Apple Intelligence now supports
5:02
all of these additional languages, as
5:05
does AirPods live translation. And those
5:08
are all the new features in iOS 26.1. If
5:12
you haven't yet updated to iOS 26, check
5:14
out my video on the 70 plus new features
5:18
there. I'm D. Griffin Jones with Cult of
5:20
Mac.
#Operating Systems
#Mobile Phones