Michael Burkhardt

Apple Vision Pro has been one of the most perplexing Apple product launches in recent history. It’s meant to serve as the beginning of an all new product category for Apple – and more importantly – the next generation of computing. And yet, it feels like a complete afterthought to the company.

Under John Ternus, I’m slightly hopeful that we can start to see the product live up to its full potential – though there’s also reason to be skeptical.

It’s been well over a year since Apple debuted its last entry-level iPad, powered by the A16 chipset. The company will likely release a new version with an A18 chip in the coming months, but there’s a bigger question to be answered – what will they call it?

On Monday, Apple unexpectedly announced that Tim Cook would be stepping down from his role as CEO after a nearly 15 year tenure. Starting September 1, hardware SVP John Ternus will take over as the new Apple CEO – with Tim Cook becoming executive chairman.

According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, John Ternus is going to take more of a decisive approach as CEO, rather than leaving decisions up to a larger group of executives.

To put it simply: Apple Silicon is impressively optimized for running local AI models. And the data is clear: people care about this. Mac Studios are widely sold out, and Mac minis are impossible to find. There’s a variety of reasons for this – like OpenClaw and other computer-use agents. But there’s also a group of people buying up high-end Macs with swaths of unified memory, which are incredible for running local LLMs.

While I’m sure Apple appreciates the additional hardware sales, I think they could push this even further – by entering a segment they’ve thus far ignored.

WWDC26 is just under 2 months away, where Apple will unveil its next generation of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and so on. Rumors for iOS 27 have so far indicated that this year’s release will mostly be focused on stability, with limited new features beyond Apple finally delivering on its AI promises.

Even though iOS 27 won’t have anything major, there still will be a few light customization features – and one of them will let you quickly undo and redo changes on your home screen.

Apple has a chip problem. MacBook Neo is selling far better than the company had expected, and now it seems like there aren’t enough binned A18 Pro chips to keep the production run going for another 6-12 months before a new version is released.

Some have floated the idea of Apple axing the 256GB trim, and just using an unbinned A18 Pro chip in the 512GB trim. That’s certainly plausible. I do wonder though, how can Apple prevent this from happening with every forthcoming MacBook Neo?

Apple has already unveiled numerous products to date, including new versions of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the iPad Air, the all-new MacBook Neo, and more. Despite having a busy season thus far, there’s still much more in the pipeline worth waiting for.

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 live in a earthquake-prone climate, you might be interested in a tool to help monitor them. QuakeInfo is a long-standing app on the App Store, and it’s recently been updated with a Liquid Glass design and new features.

Earlier this year, Apple acquired a secretive startup: Q.ai, for over 2 billion dollars. It’s the companies second largest acquisition to date, and it leaves you wondering: what’s the end game here?

While smart glasses seem like an obvious play, there’s another Apple product in the pipeline that also seems quite fitting for this new technology.

If you’re trying to buy a new iPhone but don’t quite want an iPhone 17, it can often be hard to find something on a tighter budget. Sure, Apple offers the iPhone 17e at $599 – but not everyone finds that to be a compelling phone. Luckily, there’s plenty of great options if you want to buy used, and I’ll be diving into five great picks for varying needs.

Belkin has just released two excellent new Qi2.2 chargers – providing 25W MagSafe charging in an ultra-compact design. Normally, these products are centered around the Apple ecosystem, but Belkin’s new 3-in-1 actually embraces modularity and gives Android users an option to bring their own watch charger. Both are very slim, and work excellently no matter which ecosystem you’re in.

Apple has included excellent display panels on iMacs for years, but for the longest time, there hasn’t really been a way to use it for anything other than macOS. There used to be a feature called Target Display Mode, but it’s long been discontinued. This has been a shame, since plenty of iMacs have excellent displays that go to waste after the compute is outdated.

I’ve found a pretty good solution though, and it involves a 4K capture card and one nifty app available on the Mac App Store. Any HDMI input, whether that be a Switch 2, PS5, Xbox, or something else – can display on your iMac (or USB-C iPad!)

In the era of Apple Silicon, MacBooks are more affordable than ever. Nowadays, you can buy a MacBook Air with 512GB of storage and 16GB of memory for $1099 directly from Apple, when such a configuration would’ve cost $1599 just a few years ago. And on top of that, we have MacBook Neo bringing the entry-point down substantially.

Even with Apple’s prices coming down though, there’s still a number of deals to be found out there if you look just a little.

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.

Packing for trips can be stressful at times. PackGoat makes the process much easier, and utilizes Apple Intelligence to help make just the right list for your trip – even down to the weight.

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, now that I’ve actually given them a shot – I can genuinely say I was wrong about my pessimism.

Earlier this year, Apple introduced Apple Creator Studio – a new subscription bundle that provides users access to all Apple pro software on Mac and iPad, such as Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, and Pixelmator Pro.

With this launch, we got Pixelmator Pro on iPad for the first time – and a new Liquid Glass design on Mac. However, the latter is yet to be released for people who already paid for the app, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change.

The current 14-inch MacBook Pro design is nearing five years old. It’s also not at all a secret that Apple is working on a redesign for its MacBook Pro lineup.

Despite those facts though, there’s still one compelling argument to be made about buying one today – even with bigger changes right around the horizon.

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.

Juggling loads of alarms in the Clock app can be annoying. VariAlarm aims to fix this, by dynamically adjusting your alarms based on your schedule, rather than having fixed times.

Internal Mac storage upgrades are expensive, often causing users to resort to external media when possible. That also has its own problems of sometimes compromising on speed or reliability. HyperDrive Next aims to bridge that gap, by bringing incredible performance to external drives for your Mac.

Last month, Apple acquired a popular Final Cut Pro plugin maker: MotionVFX. It isn’t clear what this acquisition will turn into, but based on the fact that it quickly followed the launch of Apple Creator Studio, it’s highly plausible that Apple will integrate its templates, effects, and other offerings as a perk of Apple Creator Studio.

While that on its own is interesting, I think the implication behind it is far more worth talking about.

Now through April 13th, new Apple Card users can receive a boosted 5% cash back on groceries for their first 6 months of card membership. This is considerably higher value than the typical 1-2% cash back you’d receive on groceries.