Zac Hall is a Senior Editor, covering Apple, AI, and the modern technology landscape.
He joined 9to5Mac in April 2013, originally as a writer and copy editor.
He later served as Lead Editor from May 2016 through December 2020, before shifting focus to creating the Space Explored website.
In 2015, Zac began co-hosting 9to5Mac Happy Hour, establishing the format of the site’s premier podcast, which he hosted for eight years.
In 2018, he created 9to5Mac Daily, providing audio recaps of Apple and technology news each weekday. He also created and hosted multiple seasons of the 9to5Mac Watch Time podcast, a health and fitness-focused interview series.
Zac currently focuses on writing for 9to5Mac. He is based in the lovely Gulf Coast town of Ocean Springs, MS, where he lives with his brilliant kids and Nova, his adventurous Cavachon rescue pup.
Contact: zac@9to5mac.com
Update: TikTok is back on the App Store.
Breaking news from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg: Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi has reportedly penned a letter to Apple that grants the company permission to restore TikTok in the App Store.
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Apple left the Mac in a bad place when it came to external displays between 2016 and 2022. After discontinuing the Thunderbolt Display, Apple relied on LG to sell a plasticky monitor with PC-maker build quality if you wanted a standalone 27-inch monitor with 5K Retina resolution. Apple eventually started selling an ultra premium (in Mac display terms) monitor with the 32-inch 6K Pro Display XDR, but it has always been priced the same as a small truck of Mac mini computers.
However, just three years after releasing the Apple Studio Display, it sounds like Apple may be planning a decent revision in the near future.
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Apple has been the target of an antitrust complaint in Germany for three years over its App Tracking Transparency feature. ATT allows iPhone users to request that apps not track their activity between other apps.
Now the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) in Germany has issued its “preliminary legal assessment” which alleges that ATT only applies to third-party apps and not Apple, violating antitrust policy. In turn, Apple has responded.
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Apple has officially partnered with Alibaba to bring Apple Intelligence AI features to the iPhone in China. Alibaba Group chairman Joe Tsai confirmed the deal on Thursday, sending the Chinese firm’s stock price to a three-year high.
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Welcome to Neural. AI moves fast. We help you keep up. Earlier this week, Elon Musk started a bid to buy OpenAI, prompting Sam Altman to informally decline, but poking back about buying Twitter. Entertaining as that was, the world of AI has started to calm down — WAIT, WHAT?! OpenAI just announced ChatGPT-5, and it will arrive this year?
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Apple is expected to brief the press on some sort of an Apple Vision Pro announcement on Friday. The most likely outcome now seems to be selling Apple Vision Pro through third-party retailers.
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President Trump has nominated an executive from Apple to run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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Apple is launching a holistic health study that aims to determine how Apple products “play a role in advancing and improving physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing.” Enrollment for the brand new Apple Health Study opens today in Apple’s Research app — version 6.0 is out today — for participants in the United States. Here’s more about Apple’s most ambitious health study to date.
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On the eve of potential Apple product announcements, an interesting possibility has crossed my mind—especially regarding Friday’s news.
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It sounds like a variety of new Apple products are preparing to launch. That’s according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, who has shared more details tonight about what to expect and when.
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In November, Pixelmator’s team announced an acquisition agreement with Apple. Three months later, Pixelmator has officially confirmed that it is now a part of Apple.
The confirmation is delivered through a software update for the Pixelmator and Photomator apps on iPhone and iPad.
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Welcome to Neural. AI moves fast. We help you keep up. Last week everyone drank a big glass of DeepSeek with a side of R1. Refreshing as that was, the world of AI has started to calm — WAIT, WHAT?! Elon Musk is trying to buy OpenAI? Here we go again…
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70-year-old Daniel Vallaire of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, credits Siri with helping save his life after he experienced a stroke and was left immobile and alone for nearly three days last July.
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Apple surprised almost everyone a week ago and launched a brand new app and service called Invites. The weird part? The launch has invited a ton of undue criticism over Apple’s app strategy — as though Apple were Google.
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Apple has released a new version of iOS, macOS, and other operating systems. First to drop today is macOS 15.3.1, an update to macOS Sequoia that presumably includes bug fixes and performance improvements. We’ll update with release notes as they appear.
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T-Mobile made news during the Super Bowl this year when it announced availability and pricing details for its T-Mobile Starlink service. It turns out the service won’t actually require being a T-Mobile customer.
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In this jam packed launch episode, Sophia Tung and Zac Hall dive deep into DeepSeek’s arrival to the AI race, how NVIDIA and OpenAI are responding, and the state of current AI tools; this week’s biggest tech surprises, what has us excited and what has us concerned, and much more.
Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles kicks off on Sunday evening at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Kendrick Lamar will lead the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, which means New Orleans is also host to several top executives from Apple this weekend.
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[Update: Now available with new models and on the Mac.]
Craft is a robust and beautiful documents app with AI integration primarily through ChatGPT. Now Craft has shipped an AI-focused update that actually shows off the power of on-device, offline AI…
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After years of rumors, Apple appears to finally be preparing to release the redesigned iPhone SE 4. Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg that the new entry level iPhone could be announced as early as next week:
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Apple has announced tax and price updates for the App Store and other digital storefronts in various markets, with some changes taking effect immediately. Some changes are scheduled to start in the coming weeks and months.
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Long before Sonos got in the business of shipping cursed apps, the connected audio company had dreams of releasing a MagSafe speaker for iPhone.
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If 27-inch 5K displays aren’t your thing, BenQ’s 32-inch 4K monitor is a fun option I’ve been testing and loving. The BenQ RD320UA 32-inch Ergo Arm Programming Monitor with MoonHalo is designed to maximize comfort during long coding (or writing) sessions.
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Apple officially launched Apple Invites on Tuesday, giving iPhone users a new way to create rich digital invitations for real events.
One day later, Apple released Apple Invites version 1.0.1 with some improvements to the original version of the app.
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