Michael Burkhardt

In case the continuously evolving tariff news hasn’t been confusing enough, there’s now another twist to the story. According to the Trump administration, the exemption from the 125% reciprocal tariff is only temporary, and a tariff will apply to smartphones, laptops, and more in “a month or two.”

Tim Cook really wants Apple to make true AR glasses. He “cares about nothing else”, according to an Apple engineer. That said, building true AR glasses will take a lot of time.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman though, Apple is developing “its own glasses with cameras and microphones” in the meanwhile, similar to Meta Ray-Bans. Despite this interim product, AR glasses are Tim Cook’s “top priority.”

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is going full steam ahead on a lighter and cheaper version of Apple Vision Pro, addressing some of the biggest pain points with the first generation headset. There’s also a second headset in the works, which aims to reduce latency concerns with real world applications.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to make its upcoming iPadOS 19 overhaul “more like macOS.” This comes after many, many years of complaints about the capability of the iPad’s operating system.

This morning, Bloomberg reported that tech imports would be excluded from the Trump administrations 125% “reciprocal” China tariff. To be specific, this includes “smartphones, laptop computers, hard drives and computer processors and memory chips.” In short, Apple doesn’t really have something to worry about anymore – at least for now. The initial 20% tariff for the “fentanyl crisis” is still in place, however.

While we are safe from imminent price hikes for now, an additional 125% tariff on China would’ve been extremely damaging. Here’s a quick overview bullet we just dodged.

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.

VoicePen is a native app for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro that transcribes your lectures, meetings, and any sort of speech into clear notes. All of the transcriptions run through OpenAI’s Whisper model, making it accurate and fast. It also offers more than just meeting transcriptions, and can be used for YouTube videos and other online content.

Some of you may not know this, but during a brief period from summer 2021 to fall 2023 – Apple made a battery bank.

Of course, since it’s Apple, it was MagSafe. This MagSafe battery pack had a number of interesting features and quirks, and ultimately it only stuck around for two years. However, thanks to an interesting new Apple trend, I think it’s plausible that it comes back – but not as an Apple product.

President Trump may have announced a 90-day tariff pause on most countries earlier today, but China isn’t one of them. In fact, the China tariff increased from 104% to 125%, effective immediately.

In case you haven’t been keeping track, the China tariff started off at 20%. Then, in a matter of a week, it became 54%, then 104%, and now 125%.

Update 4/10: The tariff on imports from China is now 145%.

Last week, the Trump administration announced an extreme tariff plan on essentially every other nation in the world. This would make imports far more costly, and as a result, Apple’s stock fell nearly 10% on the news. Given the fact that everything about Apple’s supply chain relies on strategic overseas manufacturing, this is awful news for the company.

However, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman lays out some ideas on how Apple could mitigate these tariffs.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is preparing a ‘major shake-up’ for the 20th anniversary of the iPhone next year. One of the changes includes introducing a foldable iPhone for the first time, but the company is reportedly planning a ‘bold new Pro model.’

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will no longer be launching its rumored smart home hub this year. This is due to all of the delays with Apple Intelligence Siri, and Apple reportedly is considering delaying the launch until sometime in 2026 until some of the engineering challenges are figured out.

According to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, the iPhone 17 Pro design might not necessarily be a gigantic year over year leap. Early iPhone 17 Pro rumors suggested the possibility of a more drastic design change, whereas now it’ll be far more similar to last years design, apparently.

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.

Sofa is an easy-to-use app that helps keep you organized when you don’t have something to do. Everyone has some level of downtime, but often don’t plan things out. Social media doomscrolling is often an option, but Sofa helps you plan out other leisure activities. In its new update, it also added a built-in podcast player.

Last month, Apple introduced a number of new products, including a new iPad Air with M3 chip for $599. While that iPad wasn’t exactly remarkable, it did bring something new to the table – another variant of Magic Keyboard.

This new Magic Keyboard brings function keys to the iPad Air for the first time, which is a pretty big win, but it also includes a number of head-scratching compromises. Let’s discuss.

Apple is reportedly implementing vapor chamber cooling on some iPhone 17 models. That may sound like a rather insignificant upgrade, but with Apple wanting to squeeze more and more performance out of its iPhone chips in the era of Apple Intelligence, vapor chamber cooling will be meaningful.

According to a report from The New York Times, Amazon has just submitted an offer to acquire TikTok. TikTok will potentially face another U.S. ban as soon as April 5th, if ByteDance does not divest the platform to an American entity by then.

Apple introduced the Pro Display XDR in 2019 with its $4999 price tag, no included stand, and an optional Pro Stand for $999. Since then, despite all of the advancements in display technology, Apple has left it untouched. While there isn’t a ton to go off of, there are a couple of rumors going around for Apple’s next generation high-end monitor, which might not necessarily be a Pro Display XDR 2.

Apple is reportedly working on a new M5 MacBook Pro refresh, which is set to debut ‘later this year.’ While this update will just be a small chip upgrade, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reaffirms that we’ll see a larger MacBook Pro overhaul in 2026.

Apple is cooking up a fully revamped Health app, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. This project, codenamed Mulberry, will feature a new health coach. It’s set to debut next spring in iOS 19.4.