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Michael Burkhardt

mbrkhrdt

Michael is 9to5Mac’s Associate Editor, leading all of our Apple news coverage on Saturday and Sunday, and contributing to reporting from Monday to Wednesday. He got started in the world of Apple news during the pandemic, and it became a growing hobby. He’s also an indie iOS developer in his free time, and started the weekly Indie App Spotlight series, which has covered dozens of indie apps since it launched.

Connect with Michael

Connect with Michael Burkhardt

Here’s why the current AirPods Pro 2 are still a good buy, even today

AirPods Pro

We’re possibly going to see yet another version of AirPods Pro next month, alongside the launch of the iPhone 17 lineup. Despite the current set of AirPods Pro coming up on nearly three years old, I don’t think that those in the market to buy new AirPods should necessarily waste their time waiting for a potentially upcoming model.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘OnlyFlights’ is a simple flight tracker for your iPhone

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.


Last year, I checked out an indie app called Time2Pack – an all-in-one trip planner. Now, the developers have a new app called OnlyFlights – a simple yet robust flight tracker for iPhone users.

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Will the iPhone 17 lineup see a price hike? Here’s what the rumors say

In the many years that’ve passed since the introduction of the $999 iPhone X, there have almost always been rumors of an iPhone price hike – and we’re still yet to see a major one come to fruition. Granted, there have been other minor price hikes over time. In the midst of tariffs, it seems more likely than ever that there’ll be a price hike of some sorts this year – and we’ll be discussing those rumors here today.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Scout’ is a powerful tool for monitoring Facebook Marketplace

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 likes saving money when making a big purchase, and a lot of people would like to consider used goods. That said, the hassle can often be too much to deal with, so buying something new just feels easier.

Scout is a new app that makes searching Facebook Marketplace much easier, and can hopefully help you score some deals.

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Review: ShiftCam’s Fisheye lens is a fun way to capture wider shots on your iPhone

The iPhone is capable of capturing plenty of varying scenes, and has been for many years. Ever since iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve had a triple camera array, allowing for ultrawide, wide, and telephoto shots. Despite this, many companies still offer third party lens solutions for your iPhone, allowing you to capture even more with your iPhone.

ShiftCam is one of those companies, and today I’ll be reviewing their LensUltra Fisheye lens. It’s like an Ultrawide, but with a bit more perspective.

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iPhone 17 Pro: Here’s what we’re expecting out of this year’s new camera system

This fall, Apple will debut the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. While camera upgrades have almost always been the star of the show when it comes to iPhone Pro models, this year in particular is a bit special. We’ll be delving into everything currently rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro camera, and what that’ll mean for your photos.

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This special Mail app toggle helps protect you from sketchy emails

9to5Mac is brought to you by Incogni: Protect your personal info from prying eyes. With Incogni, you can scrub your deeply sensitive information from data brokers across the web, including people search sites. Incogni limits your phone number, address, email, SSN, and more from circulating. Fight back against unwanted data brokers with a 30-day money back guarantee.

A couple years ago, Apple introduced a new feature for Apple Mail users called Mail Privacy Protection. It isn’t on by default, though you might’ve seen a prompt to enable it upon launching the Mail app for the first time. That said, you might not know what it actually does. We’ll be breaking down Mail Privacy Protection and its benefits right here.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Pics2PDF’ turns your best photos into a quick document, and more

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.


As the name suggests, Pics2PDF lets you select a bunch of photos from your photos library, and convert it into a PDF. This can be great if you want to quickly print out photos from your photos library in one swift process, or if you’re otherwise trying to share multiple photos at once in a more formal manner.

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Here’s how Apple Intelligence keeps privacy in mind versus the competition

Apple Intelligence logo

Artificial intelligence has obviously been the industry craze for the past couple years. While large language models are incredibly capable, they’ve always come with a bit of a compromise: privacy. Ultimately, you’re still using a model hosted in the cloud, and all of your conversations are stored on some server.

Apple’s always had privacy at the core of its products – so in the months leading up to the debut of Apple’s AI features, many people wondered: how would Apple handle it? Today, we delve into exactly how.

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Renewed iPad Pros pair nicely with iPadOS 26, and they’re quite affordable right now

A short while ago, I was browsing Apple deals on Amazon (as one does) – and something stuck out to me. High-end iPad Pros, particularly 12.9-inch models, are surprisingly cheap. I saw M1 models with 1TB and cellular for nearly $600.

Given the recent iPadOS 26 overhaul that makes the iPad much more Mac-like, I figured these deals would be worth a share. While renewed iPad deals are the focus here because of their affordability, new iPad deals are also mentioned at the end.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Nunch’ is an elegantly designed calorie and macro tracker

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.


Many people want to do a better job monitoring their diet and eating habits, but don’t exactly know where to start. Nunch is a fantastic new app to make the process a lot more seamless.

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This upcoming iOS feature will make spam phone calls an issue of the past

At WWDC25 this year, Apple announced a pair of new features to vastly improve the phone calling experience for iPhone users. Hold Assist does exactly what it says on the tin, and manages calls for you while you’re placed on hold – getting rid of the need to listen to dreaded hold music.

The other feature, Call Screening, has much larger implications, and dealing with spam phone calls may become an issue of the past.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Timescape’ is a big-picture calendar for year-round planning

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.


Planning things accordingly can be hard. Timescape aims to make that easier by providing you a big picture look at your entire year, making it easy for you to see what long-term events you may already have booked.

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iPhone 17e is reportedly launching next year, here’s what we know so far

Apple’s been toying around with the idea of a cheaper iPhone in the lineup for quite some time, though it’s never been a consistent thing. Obviously, there was the iPhone 5c back in 2013 as a cheaper offering compared to the iPhone 5s. It didn’t sell too well, but it was certainly its first venture into this market.

Afterwards, there was the iPhone SE lineup, which had an average of 3 years between each refresh. Now, it’s looking like the ‘cheaper’ iPhone will become a regular part of the iPhone lineup, per recent reports.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Sequel’ helps you keep track of your favorite movies and shows

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.


Sequel is an all in one app that makes it easy to keep track of all of the movies, TV shows, books, games, and more that you’d like to follow. It packs an intuitive interface and a number of delightful features to make it the ultimate media manager for your iPhone or iPad.

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Review: XREAL One’s are incredibly versatile, and they really come to life with the iPad Pro

I’ve been reviewing one of XREAL’s more recent releases of AR glasses: the XREAL One’s. These are certainly the most versatile pair of AR glasses I’ve tried out so far, and they actually really come to life somewhere you wouldn’t expect: the M4 iPad Pro running iPadOS 26. XREAL One come in at just under 3 ounces (84 grams), making them easy to just carry around.

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