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
Command-line interfaces are having a moment, and the great MacWhisper transcription app is here for it. MacWhisper CLI has arrived, giving Mac users a new way to run AI transcription workflows from the Terminal.
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Apple’s upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max is expected to be thicker than the iPhone 17 Pro Max due to increased depth around the camera plateau. YouTuber Vadir Yuryev behind the Max Tech channel shared numbers based on iPhone 18 Pro Max dummy units. Yuryev also compares an iPhone Ultra dummy unit to iPhone 17 Pro Max.
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Pioneer was first to bring Apple CarPlay to existing cars in 2014, and now the company is pulling off another CarPlay first. The new Pioneer Sphera is the first system with aftermarket Dolby Atmos support, and it’s now shipping.
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OpenAI launch week continues today with the introduction of workspace agents in ChatGPT.
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Apple has released a new version of GarageBand for Mac. The new version finally includes an app icon optimized for macOS Tahoe.
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Apple’s upcoming Siri overhaul got a moment of stage time during Google’s Cloud Next ’26 opening keynote today.
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When SpaceX isn’t landing rockets, it’s apparently landing AI company deals. Two months ago, the firm behind Starlink absorbed xAI, which includes Twitter-turned-X. Now SpaceX is eyeing Cursor, a competitor to Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.
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OpenAI is announcing its upgraded ChatGPT image generation model with ChatGPT Images 2. The company is also scaling up Codex for enterprise with a new Codex Labs initiative.
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Apple has released the third iOS 26.5 public beta. The previous public beta introduced a new splash screen that signaled the upcoming arrival of ads in Apple Maps.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook is giving up the title and passing the torch to John Ternus on September 1.
Unsurprisingly, Cook is taking on the role of board executive chairman, a position in which Cook is expected to remain very active as Apple’s chief global diplomat. Retiring as CEO? Yes. But retiring into the sunset? Hardly. You can take Tim at his word when he says he can’t imagine life without Apple.
As Apple’s CEO transition shifts into the public-facing phase, I couldn’t help but revisit some of the official press material from the previous changing of the guard.
That happened under very different circumstances, of course, with Steve Jobs at the end of his life. It’s incredibly touching to revisit now. There are also echoes of Steve’s endorsement of Tim Cook in Tim’s endorsement of the next Apple CEO, John Ternus.
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OpenAI has teased its next AI software product announcement happening later today. The teaser gives us a good idea of what to expect.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and John Ternus is taking over. The CEO transition has quietly been underway for some time now. Starting today, the transition is happening publicly and will be complete this fall.
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Last week, OpenAI released an all-new version of Codex for Mac that includes the best example of AI-driven computer use yet.
Today, Codex for Mac is taking its recently gained memory feature further with a feature OpenAI calls Chronicle.
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Apple has released the third iOS 26.5 beta for developers. The previous beta introduced a new splash screen that signaled the upcoming arrival of ads in Apple Maps.
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Good news for sports fans: Apple has updated its Sports app for iPhone, adding new support for CarPlay alongside more F1 race-tracking features.
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Apple and Star Wars share a history of collaboration, and that continues with the newest film premiering in May. The Mandalorian & Grogu director Jon Favreau recently described how he used Apple Vision Pro to help bring Grogu to the biggest of big screens.
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Using the iPad Pro with the nano-texture display reaffirmed my preference for anti-glare displays. Naturally, this made me want to nano-texture all the things. While not all Apple products have nano-texture display options, you can get a lot of the way there with quality anti-glare matte screen protectors for any iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.
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After two previous design-related updates this week, Anthropic is out with a new product today: Claude Design. The new Claude Design joins an existing suite of Mac tools, including Claude Cowork and Claude Code.
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Starting with iOS 26.4, Apple supports using AI chatbot apps on the iPhone through CarPlay.
ChatGPT was the first AI app to arrive shortly after iOS 26.4’s release. Now a second AI chatbot has added support: Perplexity.
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After botching its Apple TV app with an inferior custom video player, Netflix is updating its iPhone app with a vertical video feed.
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Apple has sold through its MacBook Neo inventory for April. The earliest deliveries for new MacBook Neo orders from Apple now quote delivery dates in May.
MacBook Neo’s launch has resembled a flagship iPhone launch more than a typical Mac release. After more than a month since its release, customers continue to purchase the $599 laptop faster than Apple can produce them.
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OpenAI is releasing a new version of its Codex desktop app today. The latest Codex update adds three key features that expand its use beyond agentic coding.
Today’s release signals the start of a shift for Codex. The app is going from strictly developer-focused to having more general utility as an AI tool on the Mac.
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Last month, Perplexity announced Personal Computer, a Mac-based personal AI assistant. Today, the Mac-specific version of the company’s Perplexity Computer system, inspired by OpenClaw, is launching.
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Anthropic has announced its latest AI model with Claude Opus 4.7. The new version arrives two months after the previous model upgrade, matching Anthropic’s previous upgrade cadence.
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