One Story Ends and Another Begins
When I wrote my macOS 26 Tahoe review last year, I felt like I’d just left the beach for the summer with a book that was promising but that I hadn’t had time to finish. Tahoe added a bunch of great productivity features, but Apple Intelligence was barely out of the gate, and Liquid Glass felt unfinished.
Fast forward one summer, and the vibe is different. This summer, macOS 27 Golden Gate gave Apple the chance to tie up loose ends, delivering a satisfying conclusion to the book I’d started the year before by refining Liquid Glass, improving OS performance, and making Apple Intelligence feel more at home on the Mac. But Golden Gate also feels like the beginning of another story, arriving alongside a change in Apple’s leadership.
John Ternus is often described as a hardware guy, and that tracks with his career at Apple. But during the Surprise and Shine event, what stood out to me was his emphasis on what hardware enables. Introducing iPhone Duo, he explained that Apple started with the experience it wanted to deliver and worked toward the hardware that could make it possible. That’s an encouraging perspective for someone overseeing the future of the Mac.
Apple’s leadership transition comes at a chaotic moment in tech that will shape how people use the Mac. Golden Gate’s priorities are clear. The update makes existing hardware more useful, gives users more control over background activity, and integrates AI in a way that honors the company’s privacy philosophy.
What encourages me is that Apple has begun translating its approach to AI into useful everyday features. Keeping control of my data matters, but so does having useful tools. Golden Gate brings both closer together.
Make no mistake, Apple has a long way to go. It’s not clear at all that this story will have a happy ending for Apple or any other tech company. Apple’s emphasis on privacy and security should be celebrated, but it doesn’t resolve the broader questions AI raises about society, the environment, and our culture.
Siri still needs to be more reliable, and I’d like the Siri app to do more, but I’m rooting for Apple on this one. As much as I get out of tools like Codex and Claude Code for building automations and apps and ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork for running MacStories with Federico, there’s still a lot of data I’d prefer to process on my Mac or through Private Cloud Compute.
As an opening chapter, Golden Gate is a good one. I’m hooked. I want to see what comes next. There are hints of good things to come, from a more capable Siri to touchscreen Macs and other gadgets. It’s going to be messy and chaotic, and I’m eager to see what comes of it.
2027 is going to be a page-turner.
