Author

Avatar for Michael Burkhardt

Michael Burkhardt

mbrkhrdt

Michael is 9to5Mac’s Associate Editor, leading all of our Apple news coverage on Saturday and Sunday, and contributing to reporting from Monday to Wednesday. He got started in the world of Apple news during the pandemic, and it became a growing hobby. He’s also an indie iOS developer in his free time, and started the weekly Indie App Spotlight series, which has covered dozens of indie apps since it launched.

Connect with Michael

Connect with Michael Burkhardt

Apple believes low-cost MacBook will be an ‘incredible value,’ tempting switchers: report

Would any of the reported MacBook compromises be a deal-breaker for you? | Concept render shown

As early as tomorrow, Apple will be unveiling its highly anticipated low-cost MacBook. It’ll be powered by an A18 Pro chip, offer a slightly smaller display, but still hit on all of the core Mac features people know and love.

The biggest point of debate has been the price point. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple believes it’ll be an ‘incredible value,’ and may even convince a lot of Windows and Chromebook users to switch.

Expand Expanding Close

Indie App Spotlight: ‘Itsyhome’ adds smart home controls to your Mac’s menu bar

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.


If you’re someone who spends a lot of time on their Mac, you might often find yourself wanting to control one of your lights, thermostats, or just check on your camera. At the same time, you might not love Apple’s Home app.

Itsyhome adds all of the home controls you’ll need to your Mac’s menu bar – and it isn’t even HomeKit exclusive. It also supports Home Assistant, and has loads of useful features under the hood.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple testing ‘deep red’ color for iPhone 18 Pro, but iPhone Fold may skip the fun: report

iPhone 18 Pro is still well over half a year away. Nonetheless, we have some interesting new color rumors for the upcoming new iPhone model, and Apple may finally be doing something users have wanted for ages – a red ‘Pro’ iPhone. iPhone Fold, on the other hand, might not have any flashy color choices.

Expand Expanding Close

Indie App Spotlight: ‘Summit’ is an all-in-one portfolio tracker for iPhone and iPad

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.


If you’re a heavy investor, you might find yourself having accounts across various brokerages. Or, perhaps, you only invest with one brokerage but you find their app interface very ugly. Summit solves both of these problems, providing a clean all-in-one interface for tracking all of your investments across Apple devices.

Expand Expanding Close

Apple’s upcoming AI smart glasses are starting to sound a lot more exciting

Apple Glasses light

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Apple will be “accelerating” the development of three upcoming AI wearables: smart glasses, a pendant, and AirPods with cameras. These three products are all meant to integrate Siri deeper into our everyday lives, and I’ll be focusing on the glasses aspect of it.

Expand Expanding Close

AirPods Pro 3 vs AirPods Pro 2: There’s more to the upgrade than you might expect

When AirPods Pro 3 initially debuted, I was a little bit hesitant about upgrading. I felt that AirPods Pro 2 were still excellent. On top of that, one of the key features of AirPods Pro 3, Live Translation, was also coming to AirPods Pro 2. However, after giving them plenty of usage, I can definitely say they’re worth an upgrade for a lot of people.

Expand Expanding Close

Indie App Spotlight: ‘Peaks’ uses Apple Health data to help you manage your energy

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.


If you’re an Apple Watch user, the Apple Health app has loads of useful data based on what it can collect from the watch. However, it’s not always easy to analyze that data and turn it into actionable health advice. Peaks solves one part of the problem, by utilizing your sleep data to help you plan your circadian rhythm.

Expand Expanding Close

These rumored iPhone 18 Pro features might tempt you to upgrade later this year

Apple about to test iPhone 18 production ready for new split-launch plan | Render shown

Later this year, Apple will once again unveil a full set of flagship iPhones. It may feel like iPhone 17 Pro is still pretty recent, but actually – it’s already been five months. Out of everything in the rumor mill, iPhone Fold certainly sounds the most interesting – but there’s still a few interesting upgrades coming to the iPhone 18 Pro.

Expand Expanding Close

Report: M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro could launch ‘as early as’ March 2nd

M5 MacBook Pro

There’s been loads of speculation as to when the next generation MacBook Pros with high-end Apple Silicon would launch. Many thought January, then January came and went. All we knew is that they’d launch alongside macOS 26.3 – which should go out to the public in the coming days.

However, that only means that the MacBook Pros have to launch sometime before macOS 26.4 launches to the public. Despite the imminent launch of macOS 26.3, the MacBook Pro launch isn’t quite as imminent, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Expand Expanding Close

M5 MacBook Air will just be a spec bump, but there’s one upgrade I really want to see

In many of its most recent hardware launches, including iPad Pro and iPhone 17 Pro, Apple has prioritized one thing heavily: thermals. With how powerful Apple Silicon can be, having sufficient passive cooling is important on fanless devices.

There’s one key product line that’s so far missed out on this treatment: the MacBook Air.

Expand Expanding Close