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If there’s one constant in the lustrum-long Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit, it’s that Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, tends to… get creative when it comes to publicly interpreting and promoting the company’s legal wins.

Late last Friday, Epic once again tried to spin a limited courtroom victory into a public-relations campaign. Now, it has been granted a chance to make the antics fly in court.

At last year’s WWDC, Apple Intelligence certainly stole the show. I personally believe iOS 18 still would’ve been a very substantial software upgrade, even without a single AI upgrade.

One of the large non-AI upgrades in iOS 18, besides the fully redesigned Photos app, is actually a subtle yet massive win for user privacy. Here’s why.

Apple’s Sports app has evolved into a powerful way to track your favorite teams and leagues. In a new update this week, the app has added easier access to league standings, a new Sports Newsletter, and more.

The Ultra suffix is a relatively new addition to Apple’s lexicon but is becoming increasingly common. For years, there have been rumors and reports about Apple preparing to launch an iPhone Ultra, possibly replacing the Pro Max at the top of the lineup.

As of last week, that feels more likely than ever.

Here’s a little bit of positivity on Apple’s race to catch up to the competition in artificial intelligence. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is testing its own chatbot internally and has made significant progress in catching up with ChatGPT in the last six months.

I won’t reprise the sad story of how Apple went from being at the forefront of AI technology with the launch of Siri in 2011 to being hopelessly left behind in 2025.

The company’s current approach appears to be to retain the Siri branding for simpler tasks, while using Apple Intelligence for the shiny new things – but there’s now an obvious problem with this …

In the latest edition of the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman outlined some of his expectations for how Apple will remain competitive in the App Store payment processing market. Late last month, a judge ruled that Apple’s 27% commission on external payments was illegal. Many large developers have already begun implementing their own payment processing systems.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman continues his iOS 19 tidbits streak by revealing two upcoming new features in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, which was published today.

Gurman says that iOS 19 will include a major localization focus on supporting customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India. Specifically, that entails a new Arabic-English software keyboard for iPhone and a new calligraphy pen for Apple Pencil users.

Apple was instrumental in TSMC setting up chipmaking plants in the US – not just by offering to be the first customer, but also in lobbying for the CHIPS Act funding that persuaded the company to proceed.

The Taiwanese company takes extreme precautions to protect the secrecy of its chipmaking processes, even for the somewhat older chips made in Arizona, but BBC News was given a very rare tour of the facility …

A WSJ piece today suggests that big tech lawyers for Apple, Amazon, Google and other industry giants are not only failing to properly advise their clients, but are “actively encouraging” them to break the law.

The piece suggests that one reason Apple was rebuked by the judge in the Epic Games lawsuit was that its lawyers encouraged the company to abuse legal privilege …

OWC has just announced their new OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock, adding up to 11 ports of I/O expansion for your M4 MacBook Pro with M4 Pro or M4 Max, which was the first Apple laptop to feature the latest generation of Thunderbolt port. It joins the likes of the Anker Prime Docking Station and the CalDigit E5 in the market. The OWC dock is set to start shipping in July.

Thunderbolt 5 enables higher bandwidth, which allows the OWC dock to sport three daisy-chained Thunderbolt 5 ports, as well as power things like 2.5Gb/s Ethernet, and feed multiple high-res external displays.

In a new, lengthy report regarding Apple’s AI strategy, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has detailed a number of strategic failures for the launch of Apple Intelligence. As many of us have already believed, Apple was caught off-guard by the new generative AI trend.

Additionally, according to Gurman, Apple is ‘unlikely’ to spend a lot of time talking about Siri at this years WWDC. That includes future upgrades and the already announced (but since delayed) features from last years WWDC.

If the word Kaleidoscope means anything to you, you’re in for a treat. As spotted by Rob Beschizza (via BoingBoing), Mac Themes Garden features a collection of nearly 4,000 Classic Mac OS GUI customizations.

The site is a collection of pixelated bliss, and whether you’re already feeling fuzzy inside or have no idea what I’m talking about, you won’t want to miss out on this.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today tweeted that he does not forecast major updates to the AirPods lineup coming this year. Instead, he reiterates that new AirPods Pro with Infrared cameras are set to arrive in 2026.

This contradicts reporting from other publications that have suggested AirPods Pro 3 will launch in 2025, including new features such as improved active noise cancellation.

If you are a fan of Apple’s own-brand over-ear headphones, the AirPods Max, you may be wondering when to expect a new generation model. Apple revised the headphones last fall, adding a USB-C port, but the model was otherwise unchanged. Despite costing the most, AirPods Max lack features that are available in even the cheapest AirPods 4, and are driven by the outdated H1 chip.

And if you believe analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, you’ve still got a while to wait before Apple will be ready to release a next-generation model. In a tweet, Kuo reports that next-generation AirPods Max will not arrive until 2027.

I’ve tested a lot of gear over the years, from laptops to smart rings to the kind of random tech accessories that get buried in drawers. But out of all of it, there are just a few items I keep reaching for over and over again. There is no method to the madness in terms of the type of accessories, but just know that they work. These are non-Apple tech products I rely on every day.

Recently, multiple reports have claimed that Apple will be switching up its iPhone release schedule beginning in 2026. Starting with the iPhone 18 lineup, we’ll have a split launch, with the higher end models launching in the fall, and the entry-level models launching in the following spring.

While this does feel like a weird decision, it will have some noteworthy benefits for all iPhone users.

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.

Untold Novel is an app built to help fiction writers get their ideas down in a pinch. It has a number of useful features, a cool design, and is available on iPhone and iPad. It’ll launch on macOS in the near future as well.

In a new post on Naver, smartphone supply chain leaker yeux1122 has shared two new details regarding Apple’s upcoming iPhone 17 Air: its battery capacity and weight.