macOS Tahoe Public Beta 2: A Polished Glassy Facelift or Just More Apple Shine?
Hello everyone. Once again, Apple has descended from the silicon-studded heavens to bless us peasants with… wait for it… the second public beta of macOS Tahoe. Yes, another “revolutionary” installment of “things you didn’t ask for but will inevitably be told you need,” following just two weeks after the first public beta. It also lines up nicely with the fifth developer beta, because of course devs get to suffer early and often.
Liquid Glass Everywhere – Because Shiny Solves Everything
So here we are: Apple’s “Liquid Glass” aesthetic – a term that sounds like either a crafting material in a JRPG or a product you’d see shadily advertised at 2 a.m. It’s now smeared all over macOS Tahoe like high-gloss varnish on a piece of IKEA furniture. App icons? Glossy. Folders? Glossy. Dock? Glossy. Menu bar? Rough guess… glossy. I suspect if my MacBook fans spin too hard, I’ll get a reflection of my own disappointing life choices right back at me.
The Control Center and Menu Bar are customizable, so congratulations – you can now rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic while the OS decides randomly which app should beachball today. You can also tweak widgets and folder aesthetics, because clearly that’s the battle we’re fighting in 2025: winning more homescreen beauty contests.
Safari, Spotlight, and Other “Groundbreaking” Changes
Safari gets an updated tab design and a sidebar redux – because I’m sure that was the most pressing problem in your digital life. More importantly, the Phone app is finally coming to Mac. This means you can now make awkward Wi‑Fi calls on your laptop, complete with new toys like Call Screening and Hold Assist. Aka, “tech to avoid people without admitting it.”
Spotlight has been revamped with improved search and the ability to run “hundreds of actions” without opening an app. Essentially, Apple’s version of pretending it invented something your Linux friend has been banging on about since 2004. But sure, it’s “brand new innovation.”
The New Games App – And a Whisper of Metal 4
Yes, there’s a new Games app. Cue polite golf clap. It comes with a “Game Overlay,” a feature that sounds suspiciously like what PC gamers have been using via Steam, NVIDIA, Discord, and literally half the internet for decades. Apple’s also handing developers Metal 4, which – let’s be real – is just enough of an upgrade to make porting games almost possible, but not quite enough to stop people moaning about the lack of AAA releases on Mac. This is like adding a turbocharger to a shopping trolley – cool in theory, but pointless unless your aisle is an actual racetrack.
Under the Hood – Or Just Underwhelming?
From the marketing gloss, macOS Tahoe is less of a “new era” and more of a fresh coat of corporate-approved paint. Sure, customization is nice, Wi‑Fi calls could be useful, Spotlight shortcuts may save seconds in your day – but we’re not exactly talking about a giant leap for computing here. More like a careful sidestep in expensive shoes. The sort where you clap because you’ve been told it’s the future, not because you actually feel the difference.
Final Prognosis
Diagnosis? Cosmetic enhancement syndrome. The patient (macOS) presents with a shiny epidermis and a smattering of minor functional improvements, but the underlying system remains familiar, predictable, and occasionally frustrating. Think of it like a glamorous NPC in an MMO who looks amazing in the cutscene but bugs out during combat.
Will macOS Tahoe change your life? Absolutely not. Will it make your desktop look like it’s permanently been coated in artisanal, designer syrup? Oh yes. And as long as Apple keeps the frame rate consistent and doesn’t soft-lock us into yet another subscription to change the folder color, I suppose that’s something. My verdict: mildly interesting, heavily cosmetic, suspiciously timed. Install if you fancy a shinier status quo – otherwise, wait for the inevitable .1 update that fixes the real problems.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Source: Apple Seeds Second macOS Tahoe Public Beta, https://www.macrumors.com/2025/08/07/apple-releases-macos-tahoe-public-beta-2/
