Michael Burkhardt

In the latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman outlined that Apple retail employees are being asked to prepare for an overnight refresh on the evening of November 11th, signaling potential store changes on November 12th – though they might be minor ones.

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.

Dropla is an iPad app that serves as a shelf of sorts for your files. You can also think of it as a universal clipboard for just files. In essence, it takes advantage of multi-tasking features on the iPad, to allow you to have a universal spot to temporarily drop your files when you want to deal with them in multiple apps across your iPad.

With the launch of the iPhone 17 lineup this fall, Apple debuted a new accessory – the crossbody strap. It certainly received lukewarm reception, but after trying one out, I actually think it’s a rather nifty concept. At least, if you’re the right person for it.

Apple is considering bringing advertising to Apple Maps search beginning in 2026, according to the Power On newsletter from Mark Gurman. This is part of a larger effort for the company to bring more advertising to iOS.

According to today’s Power On newsletter, the next generation iPad Pro is set to gain a subtle, yet important upgrade: vapor chamber cooling. This should help future iPad Pro models stay performant whilst still being fanless and incredibly thin.

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.

Everyone, at least in the United States, likely feels a need to improve their fitness and health – but doesn’t quite know how to. Or, if they have, they end up losing motivation and then give up because they don’t want to feel bad. I’m sure we’ve all heard the stat that most New Years resolutions are to go to the gym more, and most people give up after just a couple weeks. FitWoody flips the script.

With the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro lineup, Apple shipped a major upgrade alongside the A19 Pro chip – 12GB of unified memory. That’s 50% more than the iPhones that directly preceded it, and double what iPhones offered just a couple years ago.

However, the base iPhone 17 with its A19 chip missed out on this upgrade – still sticking with 8GB of unified memory. According to one report from The Bell (via MacRumors), though, that might change with the next model.

Last month, Anker debuted a handful of new charging products for the launch of the iPhone 17. Today, I’ll be reviewing two of them: their new 35W Nano charger with a built in retractable cable, as well as the 70W highly compact Nano charger. I’ve been testing them out for a handful of weeks now, and they’ve proven to be quite useful.

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 16e 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 delving into five great picks for varying needs.

Earlier this year, Apple confirmed that it’d be supporting end-to-end encryption with RCS in a future software update. At the time, iOS 18 was still the latest version of iOS – thus implying that the upgrade would come as part of the next round of software – iOS 26.

So far, end-to-end encryption is yet to ship. That’s not the only thing though. The upgrade to end-to-end encryption would’ve also necessitated other major upgrades to the RCS protocol, and as of iOS 26.1 beta, it’s all still missing.

Early next year, Apple is set to debut its new AI-infused Siri as part of iOS 26.4 – after well over a year of delays. However, despite all of the additional time the company had to rethink its approach, some Apple engineers testing the software reportedly have concerns as it stands today.

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.

Auvio is a neat audio engine for your iPhone. It offers everything you’d need to create your own immersive and personal soundscapes, whether you want them to fall asleep to, for focusing, or for studying.

With iOS 26, Apple introduced a new app on iPhone and iPad: Preview. This app has been on the Mac for a long time, and as the name suggests, it serves as a system-wide file preview of sorts, that way you don’t need an app to view every file.

While this app may be intuitive on the iPad, I’ve found it rather cumbersome on the iPhone. Luckily, there’s a rather simple fix for it.

Late last month, Logitech unveiled the latest generation of its much loved productivity mouse – the MX Master 4. I’ve been testing it out for well over a month at this point, and it’s certainly a compelling offering for everyone, whether you’re a casual or professional.

With the launch of AirPods Pro 3 last month, one detail about them surprised many people – they still utilized the H2 chip from 2022. This meant that most of AirPods Pro 3‘s upgrades came from better hardware, whether that be larger batteries or foam-infused ear tips, rather than Apple silicon magic. Despite that, Apple is hard at work on future AirPods silicon.

With Apple’s iPhone launch event out of the way, many enthusiasts have been looking forward to what’s next. The company generally does a product launch in October with some more minor product announcements, and according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we may see that in just a few days.

After releasing iOS 26 to the general public around a month ago, Apple is now preparing its second bug fix update for its new software release.