Apple’s Second macOS Tahoe Beta Lets You Test Out New AirPods Features

I'm pretty excited about macOS Tahoe. Apple's annual operating system upgrade is poised to introduce a number of exciting new features and changes, including a fresh design and an upgraded Spotlight Search.

Tahoe won't be available to the general public for a while, as the OS is still in beta testing as Apple irons out the kinks. To that end, the company dropped the second beta for macOS Tahoe this week, and it includes three key features I'm particularly interested in.

AirPods beta enrollment

Speaking of beta testing, did you know that Apple has a beta program for AirPods? If you didn't, that's probably by design, since up until now, only developers could enroll their AirPods in the beta.

That's now changing: With Apple's latest releases this fall, users will be able to opt-in to the AirPods beta firmware updates, too. If you want to test out new features on your AirPods, at the risk of glitches or bugs, you can.

On macOS Tahoe beta 2, that option is present in the settings for your AirPods. If you open System Settings > Bluetooth, then choose the (i). Here, you'll see "AirPods Beta Updates," which contains the opt-in toggle. Once you enroll your AirPods, they'll install beta updates when in their charging case and within range of your Mac.

The Finder icon has been "fixed"

Apple's new "Liquid Glass" design has been met with both praise and criticism. But ignoring the love/hate glassy effect itself, one change, at least on macOS, was particularly controversial: the Finder icon.

While Apple's Finder icon has gone through numerous design changes over the years, the overall concept has remained largely the same: The left side of Finder's face is dark blue, while the right side is lighter. Apple literally flipped the script with the first beta of macOS Tahoe, by making the entire logo light, and the right side dark blue. What's more, the right side was reduced, so you could see the light background behind it. It's was a big change, design-wise, and many were unhappy about it.

Luckily, macOS Tahoe is in beta, which means anything can change before the final release. The Finder icon is one such case: With beta 2, Apple has restored Finder logo's original color scheme. As you can see below, the left side of the face, as well as the background as a whole, are dark blue, while the right side is back to light:

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Classic Finder fans will likely prefer this change, though Apple is still sticking with the smaller right face. While that may still be controversial to some, I think it fits the new Liquid Glass theme while retaining the icon's original appeal. Truthfully, I don't actually hate the original attempt from the first beta, and I wouldn't be opposed to Apple offering multiple versions of its icons in future releases that you can change up depending on your personal style. That said, if I had to choose one design right now, I'm going with this one from beta 2.

You can bring back the menu bar's background

Another big design change for macOS Tahoe is the transparent menu bar. It's the first time Apple's menu bar icons will just float on top of your desktop, without a defined bar in place. It's a cool look, but as of beta 2, you don't need to live with it.

Apple has added a new "Show menu bar background" option in Settings, that brings back the menu bar's classic look. If you don't like the transparent look, or you find it difficult to differentiate between the menu bar and you desktop, this might be a good setting to change:

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