I didn’t even know I had a visitor in the evenings, will have to put the longer lens on the camera.

Apple TV & tvOS 27

• Faster AirPlay connections to Apple TV
• Smart downloads on Apple TV
• AppleCare coverage details in Settings in tvOS
• More responsive Control Center in tvOS
• Redesigned Podcasts app for tvOS
• Larger text sizes in tvOS
• Smoother animations and app launches in tvOS

These are all things coming in the 27 OS, yup less than 10. It also got zero mentions in the keynote. To me it’s a product that can’t be bringing in many sales anymore with the Apple TV app available on most platforms you could argue why is it still a product. For me, it’s privacy and ease of use. I don’t want to enable Wi-Fi on my TV, I like keeping my viewing habits to myself.

But with the above evidence either Apple is legging it wither on the vine or replacing it with a new product category.

It’s a pretty simple test and I was surprised at the results. I took a quick picture of my hand holding my work-issued iPhone SE.

I wondered what would happen if I removed the entire phone.

So, it’s generated slop where my hand was. I’m not sure why I am surprised but seems over the top. I am on iOS 27 everywhere so I cannot test if this works on iOS 26.

Battery is definitely down as expected but it’s not too bad. I usually hold off due to going to the Air Tattoo but that’s been cancelled so I just went all in early this year. I do have some day trips but the battery isn’t bad enough for me to think about it. My phone has been indexing since its release and I don’t have access to Siri yet, all in all I’m about 15-20% down on what I’d normally get. I’m doing some actual testing though in normal use and I’ll report back. I’d expect battery to get better once indexing has completed.

Performance is great, better than iOS 26. I didn’t come into the beta expecting it being this good. Navigating is snappy, apps load quickly and iCloud sync seems rapid. I’m happy.

Liquid Glass improvements are great and I’m happy with what Apple has done. I’m using it with the slider all the way to the right, the least transparent option. I haven’t had the issue of not being able to read text on screen and I’m much more comfortable using iOS. The shimmer around app icons that were distracting and laggy are gone. Sidebars also don’t animate, a big win especially on iPad.

Stability has been good. No crashes or restarts. The only thing I wonder is if indexing has gotten stuck but I’ll leave it alone for now.

The app icons look crystal clear. Backed up with this post from Basic Apple Guy.

Overall if you had told me this was a beta I wouldn’t have believed you. Apple is delivering on the keynote promise so far, tweaks and improvements that make the experience better. Obviously make sure you’re backed up but if you’re beta curious I wouldn’t worry about it, just be ready to go back to a backup if you find it slow on your particular device. Like I say I’m testing on the latest device from Apple so your mileage may vary.

I quite liked this so I grabbed it for use as a wallpaper.

The Liquid Glass can now be toned down to your liking with a slider that improves how I feel about the whole design.

The icons on the Home Screen are less “shimmery” now so I can have a black wallpaper without being distracted by them.

The sidebars don’t react to touches so the bounce effect is gone as far as I can tell. This was really bugging me in iPadOS 26 so I’m glad to see it. It was annoying me across apps like Reminders so as a Reminders user it’s so much better.

Overall I’m happy with these iPadOS changes, it’s nice to use my iPad without constantly being annoyed by the over animating interface.

I was skeptical but Apple introduced a new way to customise the transparency of Liquid Glass in iOS 27. I’ll be using it with the slider all the way to the right.