This year, Apple is apparently naming the new version of macOS — macOS 26 — after Lake Tahoe. A gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains, this place is home to resorts and is also a famous vacation spot for people in the U.S. And, Gurman was able to spot something really interesting.
Lake Tahoe is known for showing the reflection of the sky and the surrounding mountains on its surface. As Gurman notes, this is very likely a hint at the overall redesign that every Apple operating system is getting this year. These redesign will be inspired by the company’s visionOS, which powers the Apple Vision Pro headset.
The visionOS user interface. | Image credit — Apple
While WWDC 2025 will be a much more subdued affair compared to last year’s event, Apple is likely going to be announcing Apple Intelligence support for its developer tools. I wouldn’t be surprised if similar small-scale AI support for certain features in macOS gets expanded on with Tahoe.
Apple is saving its AI advancements for next year, when it hopes to catch up to Samsung and Google in that regard. This year’s software overhaul is the company’s way of getting the hype going without outright admitting that it has fallen behind in the tech industry’s newest craze.
Then again, given how most consumers feel about AI, Apple’s redesign might be the most interesting announcement we see this year.
