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macOS 26 Tahoe's Dead Canary Utility App Icons

(daringfireball.net)
405 points Bogdanp | 12 comments | 26 Aug 25 00:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.824s | source | bottom
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bapak ◴[26 Aug 25 01:38 UTC] No.45021304[source]▶
To me it's insane to pick on these 4 icons when it's obvious that they were just bolted on together in the previous version as well. Now suddenly a whole Mac Pro laid on top of 2 tools is supposed to be a "great icon by Apple"? Get outta here.
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lapcat ◴[26 Aug 25 01:43 UTC] No.45021329[source]▶
> Now suddenly a whole Mac Pro laid on top of 2 tools is supposed to be a "great icon by Apple"?

No, Gruber said, "I don’t think the old icons for these apps from MacOS 15 were particularly good"

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1. bapak ◴[26 Aug 25 02:08 UTC] No.45021496[source]▶
Correct, then why suddenly the replacements are "dead canary"? The post doesn't make sense. To me they're an improvement, even if a bit flat (flatness we've seen 12 years ago in iOS 7 already)

To me this post sounds like a typical "Steve Jobs wouldn't do this" nonsense.

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2. dijit ◴[26 Aug 25 02:56 UTC] No.45021789[source]▶
"This was not great, but this is worse: clearly nobody is paying attention" is, actually, valid criticism.
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3. lapcat ◴[26 Aug 25 03:05 UTC] No.45021832[source]▶
> The post doesn't make sense. To me they're an improvement

Obviously the post wouldn't make sense to you if you think the new icons are somehow an improvement.

4. MobiusHorizons ◴[26 Aug 25 04:38 UTC] No.45022334[source]▶
Would you mind sharing how you see the new ones as an improvement? I’m having trouble imagining how.

At least 3 of the 4 previous icons were pretty easy to recognize on sight (all but expansion slot utility). I would never guess 3/4 of the new ones (only wireless utility), and I probably would have a hard time recognizing them even after I knew what they were.

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5. bapak ◴[26 Aug 25 05:29 UTC] No.45022603[source]▶
Call me when macOS Tahoe is out of beta. Nobody is paying attention because the post is judging a beta product that literally has not completed the QA cycle.

By all means there are plenty of things to judge in macOS and there have been for a very long time. These for icons today are not it. The canary has left a very long time ago.

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6. wpm ◴[26 Aug 25 05:34 UTC] No.45022645{3}[source]▶
Tahoe will be out of beta in like 4 weeks.

Do you really think there are going to be significant UI design changes in that time? Beta 8 came out today and Beta 9 will probably be or be close to the RC.

7. jurip ◴[26 Aug 25 06:17 UTC] No.45022889{3}[source]▶
A public beta period is for receiving feedback from developers and customers.
8. troupo ◴[26 Aug 25 06:44 UTC] No.45023085{3}[source]▶
Beta is not an excuse for shoddy workmanship. Beta is to figure out the last outstanding issues and bugs before shipping to production, not to hastily fix a ton of obvious issues, or to redraw icons
9. bapak ◴[26 Aug 25 08:29 UTC] No.45023831[source]▶
Sure.

- Disk Utility: not an improvement but not a loss either. "Disks" haven't looked like that in a long time, so it makes sense that it's updated. "Disk" as intended now, it's an abstract concept, so I sort of see why the icon would be abstract.

- Expansion Slot Utility: if you looked at a Mac Pro's expansion slots, you'd see exactly why the new icon makes a lot more sense, it has 3 slots in it.

- Wireless Diagnostics: looks perfect to me.

- Apple Script Utility: both suck equally, I struggle to see why an editor/compiler share the same icon style as configuration/diagnostic apps.

So they're either just as bad or slightly better. Neither version shines for quality. The old one only looked slightly "better" because the individual pieces were in high quality, but once overlapped they just looked like slop.

All I'm saying is that these icons have obviously never mattered to anyone, you'd expect more from the author.

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10. lapcat ◴[26 Aug 25 12:03 UTC] No.45025358{3}[source]▶
macOS Sequoia was released Monday September 16, 2024. The likely release date of macOS Tahoe is Monday September 15, 2025. That's only 20 days from now. Those icons have already been redesigned in Tahoe. What do you expect to happen in the next 20 days? There will maybe be one final beta.
11. fartfeatures ◴[26 Aug 25 12:13 UTC] No.45025475{3}[source]▶
Re: Disk Utility - that old school disk still represents disks just as the old school floppy icon still represents save even though most of us haven't used floppy disks in decades now.
12. lapcat ◴[26 Aug 25 12:14 UTC] No.45025482{3}[source]▶
> All I'm saying is that these icons have obviously never mattered to anyone

That's not true. You can see the history of the Disk Utility icon here: https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/macos-icon-history

Look at the original 2001-2007 version, which was the nicest. It's only gotten worse over time, unfortunately. The 2020 version got an unnecessary rounded rect because macOS Big Sur introduced iOS rounded rects as a new style, and then the 2025 went completely rounded rect because Tahoe enforces it on every app.

I personally have Disk Utility in my Dock, by the way.