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Zac Hall

apollozac

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

Connect with Zac Hall

iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma automatically generate Apple ID passkeys

Passkeys

Now that iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma are available, you can forgo entering your password on icloud.com and apple.com domains thanks to newly added passkey support. Any Apple site on the web can rely instead on Face ID or Touch ID to authenticate your login. As part of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma, your Apple ID is automatically assigned a passkey that can be used for iCloud and Apple sites.

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Apple Vision Pro mixed reality will make you feel bad for the Meta Quest 3

Meta Vision Pro competitor

Mixed reality headset makers seem to face a choice: do it well, or do it cheap. Priced from $3500, Apple Vision Pro sure ain’t doing it cheap. The consensus from those who have tried Vision Pro, though, seems to be that the experience is technologically impressive.

Can the same be said for Meta’s new Quest 3 mixed reality headset? The $500 XR headset is only loosely defined as cheap, of course, because of Apple’s hard-to-fathom price tag. Nevertheless, is it possible to sell mixed reality for a literal fraction of Vision Pro’s price and still make the experience compelling?

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Ming-Chi Kuo reaffirms tetraprism iPhone 16 Pro prediction, no comment on titanium heat claim

Apple extended optical zoom to 5x on the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera system thanks to an advanced tetraprism design. Customers opting for the standard-sized iPhone 15 Pro, on the other hand, maintain 3x optical zoom from prior models. The good news for 5x zoom fans is that both iPhone 16 Pro sizes next year could have tetraprism designs.

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iPhone or iPad ‘too close’ alert interrupting you? Here’s how to turn off iOS 17 feature

Apple introduced a clever new Screen Distance feature in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. iPhones and iPads with Face ID are now able to notify you when you may be using the device too close to your eyes. The idea is to detect and prevent eye strain for everyone while lowering the risk of nearsightedness in kids. But what if the feature is actually disrupting how you use your device?

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Apple has a next-gen search engine called Pegasus, but don’t expect a Google Search competitor yet

app store prices

Will Apple ever compete with Google on building a search engine for the web? Never say never, but Google pays Apple $15 billion per year to not think too hard about it. That’s something the government hopes it can disrupt. If the incentives for Apple were different someday, would Apple have the tools to go to bat against Google?

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Tim Cook says Vision Pro is one of life’s ‘aha’ moments, Apple ‘very serious’ about gaming

vision pro pre-orders

Following the iPhone 15 launch, Tim Cook has embarked on an international tour. While in London, the Apple CEO gave an interview to The Independent to talk Apple gaming and Vision Pro. And while we’ve not yet seen Cook don the Apple headset in public, using it has apparently become part of his evening ritual.

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