Michael Burkhardt

Since Jony Ive’s departure from Apple in 2019, the company hasn’t had much of a true design lead. For a while, former COO Jeff Williams was in charge of design, until his departure last year. Since then, CEO John Ternus has taken a significant interest in both of Apple’s design teams: industrial design and human interface, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Apple’s major MacBook Pro overhaul is just around the corner, and should debut within a month or so. It’ll be the first touchscreen MacBook, as well as the first with Tandem OLED. Beyond that, though, the new MacBooks should be ‘significantly’ lighter than their predecessors, according to the latest issue of the Power On newsletter.

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

Everyone has issues with iPhone storage. Even if you use iCloud, Apple has a large gap between tiers, with it immediately jumping from 200GB at $3 to 2TB at $10. If you just want a little bit more than 200GB, it can be hard to justify that upgrade. HEVCut aims to fix this by optimizing your photo library, without needing to delete anything.

I’m someone who doesn’t often upgrade my Apple Watch right when a new one comes out. The Apple Watch Series 10 I owned prior was only purchased this January, despite initially coming out in September 2024. That said, Apple Watch Series 12 was a highly compelling purchase, despite the fact that the two largely share the same design language. Here’s why I took the leap.

Apple’s current iPad, the A16 model, has gone untouched for well over a year. It remains the only device in Apple’s core product lineup without support for Apple Intelligence. Rumors had swirled for quite some time about an A18 model coming this year. Now, it’s sounding like Apple has an even bigger plan.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Apple is working on a screenless fitness tracker, akin to a WHOOP or Fitbit Air. As someone who’s used the WHOOP for the past 6 months, I do think its a great concept, though there are a few things I’d like to see Apple do better.

For the past year, we’ve been looking forward to a new iPad mini refresh, and it’s sounding like its just around the corner. A new leak last week from Aaron Perris unveiled that the product should feature an A20 Pro chip and thinner bezels, and we already know it’ll feature OLED and a water resistant design.

While those upgrades are excellent, I have one major thing I want from the next iPad mini, and it has to do with software.

After the release of Vision Pro, everyone wanted to know how long it would be before the company could release a lighter version that isn’t so bulky on your face. For the longest time, we had been looking forward to a so-called Vision Air, codenamed N100. That project was shelved last year, though the company is working on a new project with similar aspirations, per Bloomberg.

In recent years, Macs had been getting more and more affordable. Cheaper starting points, more memory and storage per dollar, and the introduction of MacBook Neo. For the first time, Apple had started to become one of the best values on the market.

Unfortunately, Apple just drastically increased its prices because of the ongoing memory shortage. Macs aren’t as appealing as they were a few months ago, that said, there’s still some decent deals out there – and if you’re in need of a new computer, I’d still say todays Macs are a good value against the rest of the computing market.

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

iOS 27 debuted to the public almost two weeks ago, with the flagship feature being Siri AI. While Siri AI was revolutionary compared to what existed prior, it still has some shortcomings. QuillCue aims to close one of the gaps with Siri AI by providing a custom keyboard that lets you save prompts for later.

When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 12, two features stood out: the new Siri Recap feature, as well as the much improved heart rate monitor. While those two features were part of the reason I was compelled to buy the new Apple Watch, I’ve found myself delighted by much more than just those two things.

The highly anticipated Beats 360 are now available for purchase. After being teased prior to the World Cup, Apple’s latest pair of Beats headphones are now on the market. I got an early hands-on with them, and they’re quite an interesting product offering that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using – though they have one key flaw: no wired connectivity, which will bother some more than others.

Apple just released a new Mac mini late last month, equipped with the new M6 and M5 Pro chips. If you’re looking for a perfect Thunderbolt 5 dock to pair with your new Mac mini (or your current M4/M4 Pro model) – Satechi has a great offering for you.

Leading into the iPhone Duo launch, we heard from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that Apple was considering a new Apple Pencil for iPhone Duo, though it was unlikely that the company would go forward with it. Of course, the iPhone Duo keynote came, and Apple did announce support for the USB-C Apple Pencil. Here’s how that happened.

With the new iPhone Duo, Apple is taking a little bit of a software gamble. All apps, in order to take advantage of the larger inner display of iPhone Duo, will need to be recompiled for iOS 27.0 at a minimum. To use the Duo’s unique new tab bar and other UI components, you’ll need iOS 27.1.

Of course, this means a lot of developers will have to rebuild to support the Duo. On the flip side, it also means Apple is taking a risk of many apps on iPhone Duo being stuck in black bars.

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

In this day and age, gas prices fluctuate quite a lot. If you want to have a better idea of how things are flowing, GasPulse is a great tool – giving you trends, historical prices, and an outlook to follow on your iPhone.

Earlier this year, I picked up a WHOOP for the very first time. As a longtime Apple Watch user I was looking forward to having a new way of tracking my health stats in a cleaner interface that the Apple Watch wasn’t offering. Now, with Apple Watch Series 12, I’m very convinced to switch back to the Apple Watch. Here’s why.

After unveiling the design of its consumer-grade Spectacles back in June, Snap is now announcing that they’ll be available for pre-order starting today with a new 5G carrying case. The company also introduced a new proactive AI agent called Specs Intelligence, which despite being Specs branded, will be available on iPhone and Mac regardless of if you own a pair.

Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of testing out loads of chargers and MagSafe charging stands for Apple devices. If you just preordered a new iPhone 18 Pro and you’re looking for the best ways to take advantage of fast charging, these are my top picks.

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

Farwave takes an interesting new approach to audio player apps, by placing them around the globe. You can explore the world and find radio stations across the planet, with a nice 3D visual in the app. For podcasts and music you want to listen to, you can also explore them in the app with separate visuals.