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
Apple introduced Emergency SOS via satellite as a free-for-two-years safety feature enabled by the iPhone 14 last year. The two years free deal is sticking around with the new iPhone 15. Apple also announced that the total number of supported countries will expand to 16 before the end of 2023.
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Presenting yourself on a video call with a device that has a front-facing camera is easy. Doing that on a mixed reality headset? Not so much. Apple’s solution for FaceTime is a virtual representation of yourself called a Persona. Unlike Memoji characters, your Persona is meant to realistically portray you.
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Apple announced this week that it will no longer sell leather accessories including iPhone 15 cases. The company has a new material in its place that Apple calls FineWoven. Starting today, customers are starting to receive the first FineWoven iPhone 15 cases and share close-up shots including the images above from @tech_instigator.
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In an environment where so much information leaks, it’s always nice to actually learn something new from an Apple event. Last year, the whole software aspect of the Dynamic Island was one of those things. This year, the surprises are all about the iPhone 15 Pro camera system.
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With Apple’s “Wonderlust” event behind us, let’s take a look at the 2023-2024 iPhone lineup in full. The four new models in the iPhone 15 line are the stars of the show, but the changes that happen down the line are also worth mentioning.
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As Apple was unveiling the iPhone 15 yesterday, parties in the EU were working to have the iPhone 12 banned.
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Premiere Apple TV+ series For All Mankind will return for its fourth season later this year. The 10-episode run of the alternate history sci-fi drama will begin on November 10. A new teaser clip and first look images from season four dropped today.
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Apple doesn’t talk much about Apple Watch on-device storage, but the new Series 9 and Ultra 2 have an awful lot of it. In fact, the new Apple Watches double the already high amount from the previous versions.
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Apple has been rumored to be planning a price increase for its Pro models for years now. Several analysts expected iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max to cost $100-$200 more without changing storage options. Here’s what actually happened.
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Apple has officially announced the iPhone 15 lineup, and with the new hardware comes the first charging port change since the iPhone 5 in 2012. To help ease the transition from Lightning to USB-C for iPhone accessories, Apple is selling a $29 adapter.
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Apple has announced the official release date for watchOS 10. The major software update for Apple Watch will be available starting Monday, September 18.
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Apple has officially announced the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max during its “Wonderlust” fall event. The new Pro models use a brushed titanium case in place of stainless steel.
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The decision to upgrade to the new iPhone each year can feel torturous. Replacing a perfectly fine iPhone with one that’s better in one or two ways can feel like some kind of moral failure.
To be clear, it’s not that any one person or force makes me feel bad about upgrading. Nevertheless, I question whether or not I’ll upgrade each year before buying the new thing as soon as it can be physically obtained.
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Some say it’s too soon, others say it can’t happen soon enough. When Apple announces the iPhone 15 lineup tomorrow, a notable part of the news will be switching from a Lightning port to a USB-C port for charging. The iPhone certainly isn’t the first Apple product to adopt USB-C, and it won’t be the last.
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iPhone 15 rumor season is almost over. Apple will officially announce the new iPhone and Apple Watch lineup on Tuesday, and we believe there are some exciting updates to come. Based on what we know so far, what are you most excited to see at the “Wonderlust” Apple event this week? Let us know in our poll below!
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Bad news for anyone planning on taking out a second home mortgage to buy a 2TB iPhone 15 Pro Max this week: 1TB appears to remain the highest capacity option yet again.
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One of the late rumors heading into tomorrow’s Apple event is that the Hermès Apple Watch could be discontinued. If true, that could be more interesting for a few reasons.
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Apple has opened applications for its next Entrepreneur Camp for underrepresented founders and developers. The company is expanding its outreach to include developers from Indigenous backgrounds this year.
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Threads keyword search is “rolling out to most English and Spanish speaking countries today,” according to Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg. Basic search functionality brings Threads one step closer being a fully featured social network.
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On the eve of the iPhone 15 launch, analysts are making last minute predictions over price increases and port change impacts. Other factors at play include the recently reported iPhone ban looming over Chinese government employees and competition from rival Huawei.
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The best solution for full home smart lighting is out with an even better light switch remote today. Lutron is launching the Pico paddle remote, a paddle style remote to match its traditional style smart wall switch and dimmer.
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There’s a reason why Apple shells out mountains of money for 5G modem technology used in iPhones. Smartphones are nothing without network connections, and building reliable modems to make those connections is hard.
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Ace reporter Wayne Ma has a new scoop about a feature likely coming to Siri in iOS 18. The upcoming feature is revealed in a new report that details Apple’s ongoing efforts to invest in conversational AI.
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Cultured Code is adding a highly requested feature to its task management app Things: adjustable text size. Starting with version 3.18, Things is specifically designed to react to a range of text sizes without compromising how information is presented.
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