Michael Burkhardt

Apple’s had a very eventful fall, with a jam packed September event, an iPad mini 7 launch in mid October, followed up by an “exciting week of announcements” at the end of the month.

With all of those new product announcements, there were also a number of discontinuations of older products, meaning they’re no longer available to purchase from the Apple Store. However, there’s still good deals to find on last gen products from third parties.

Apple skipped updating their cheapest iPad this year (and last year as well), leaving it with the over four year old A14 chipset. They did lower the price earlier this year, from $449 to $349, but we should finally see a real refresh next spring. Here’s what to expect.

According to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is planning on supporting typical VR game controllers on Apple Vision Pro, and has apparently approached Sony to get going on this. This will hopefully make Apple Vision Pro more appealing for gaming, something that the product doesn’t currently do super well.

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.

Griply is an all-in-one app that brings together your goals, habits, and tasks – making them easier to accomplish, and keep track of. It helps people turn big goals into daily actions.

While the MacBook Pro is the place to go for the latest and greatest tech, I’ve always been drawn to the MacBook Air for one key reason: portability. There’s just something really nice about the thinness and lightness of the MacBook Air, one that makes me willing to compromise on miniLED, ProMotion, additional ports, and so on.

The MacBook Air isn’t a perfect computer by any means, but there are some simple upgrades that I’d like to see Apple make with the M4 MacBook Air early next year. Any of these upgrades would make it a much better package in my book.

Apple has been internally working towards developing new 5G modems for the longest time, and we’re finally expected to see them debut in the iPhone SE 4 next spring. However, a new report from Bloomberg yesterday provides a much more detailed roadmap on Apple’s modem plans, and it includes cellular coming to a couple new products, including Apple Vision Pro.

Rumors have long suggested that Apple will partner with other AI chatbot companies in the future to support Apple Intelligence features. Apple already partnered with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to iOS, and that integration is now here in iOS 18.2, which is expected to release to the public next week.

With Apple Intelligence requiring an M1 chip or newer, it’s never been a better time to buy your first MacBook, or upgrade an older MacBook you’re still holding on to. MacBooks are more affordable than ever in the Apple Silicon era, with the cheapest options starting below $600. Cyber Monday deals make it a better time than ever to buy a new MacBook without blowing your bank account.

Our friends over at 9to5Toys also have all the latest details on the best Cyber Monday deals.

Although Apple typically follows a two year cycle with process nodes, with the 7nm and 5nm processes lasting two years each – it seems highly likely that Apple is about to use the 3nm process for a third year in a row with the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. There are a number of reasons for this, which we’ll be delving into.

Apple just finished releasing the initial M4 Mac lineup, with M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max going into the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro. While those are likely the last announcements for the year, there’s still a lot in the pipeline for next spring. Here’s everything to look forward to.

Apple last updated the Apple TV in October 2022, introducing a new, smaller design, USB-C on the Siri remote, and a bump from the A12 chip to the A15 chip. As it’s approaching two years old, rumors are brewing about the next Apple TV model, although things are looking a bit bleak.

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.

Minizones is a sweet and simple Mac app that allows you to glance at varying timezones across the globe, right from your Mac’s menu bar. It’s a nice tool if you work remotely and have to communicate with coworkers across the globe, or regularly need to communicate with people in varying places.

According to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a second generation version of its popular and affordable item tracker, the AirTag, which initially debuted in 2021. Here’s everything what we’re expecting Apple to deliver with AirTag 2.

In recent past, Bluesky has been growing substantially. It quickly ballooned to over 20 million users, and at a point, the service was adding over a million users a day. Between the ban on X in Brazil earlier this year, as well as the results of the 2024 US presidential election – a large group of people have been choosing to leave X.

But, they’re not leaving for Meta’s Threads, the more popular X alternative at the time – they’re going for Bluesky instead.

It’s Black Friday season once again, meaning it’s the best time of year to save some money. We’ve gathered a list of our favorite indie app deals this holiday season – allowing you to try out something new on your iPhone, all while supporting small, independent app developers. There are 25 apps highlighted here, but there’s even more deals to find, linked at the bottom.

After releasing the HomePod 2 in early 2023, there have been a number of varying rumors about what’s next for HomePod. Some rumors suggest that Apple is taking a dive into smart home tabletop robotics, while others suggest that Apple is working on a more traditional smart display, one that provides Apple Intelligence for the home, while being cheaper than an iPad.

According to Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter, Apple has no ‘meaningful’ plans to refresh AirPods Max after the introduction of the USB-C model earlier this year. If you were waiting for a bigger refresh with a newer chip, improved noise cancellation, or anything else – you’re out of luck.

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.

Pestle is a recipe manager for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. It offers a number of unique features, including the ability to easily import recipes from anywhere, meal planning features, and more. It makes every recipe easily achievable.

With iOS 18.2, Apple introduced an all new Mail app. It introduced mail categorization, a fresh coat of paint, contact photos/business logos for conversations, a new system for grouping emails, and more. All of that sounded nice when it was unveiled back at WWDC, but now that I’ve actually spent some time using it, I’m having some doubts.