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.

Keeping up with the news can often be exhausting. Headlines offers a clean experience that puts your favorite writers and publications front and center. It’s available on iPhone, iPad, and has a web app.

With iOS 26 this year, Apple announced an incredibly promising improvement to the order tracking feature in the Wallet app. With on-device Apple Intelligence models, the company planned to identify orders in your email to provide tracking updates, eliminating the need for retailers to need to support their proprietary feature.

I was really optimistic about this improvement, but after using it for the past couple months, it honestly feels a dull band-aid solution that never should’ve been implemented. Here’s why.

With iPadOS 26.2, Apple is bringing two major upgrades to the iPad: Split View has returned, and Slide Over has a new gesture. Now, you can just drag and drop apps from your dock, and they’ll snap into place – there’ll no longer be a need to manually resize your windows in the manner you need them.

This was already how things worked in iPadOS 18 and prior, and now it’s finally back.

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.

Spotlight on the Mac has been far from perfect, especially in recent years. If you want a great, drop-in replacement that offers speedy app launches, file searches, a clipboard manager, and much, much more – you should check out Vector.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple’s hardware technologies SVP Johny Srouji is ‘seriously’ considering leaving the company. He’s most known for leading the charge on Apple Silicon. If he does end up leaving, he’ll reportedly take his talents to another company.

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.

There’s lots of weather apps out there, but Dumb Weather goes against the grain. Rather than overwhelming you with information, it focuses on the bare essentials and the key insights that you truly need to have a good overview of your day ahead.

Belkin’s always been a top accessory maker when it comes to MagSafe and Qi2 products for iPhone users, and these accessories are no different. For Cyber Monday, Belkin is offering some pretty compelling discounts on some of its leading charging accessories. I’ll be sharing my impressions here.

Apple started selling the M1 MacBook Air for $699 through Walmart last year, and at the time, it was a great deal. I’ve personally been a big advocate for the M1 MacBook Air, especially as its slowly come down in price. In more recent history, it’s gone on sale for $599, and this week for Black Friday – you can grab one for $549.

While that’s still certainly an appealing price point, I’d recommend you think twice about that purchase before you make that jump. Here’s why.

iPads are pretty commonly gifted during the holidays, with 9% of iPad owners M5 iPad Pro to its recently released M3 iPad Air.

If you’re a Mac user looking for a solid external display that pairs nicely with your MacBook’s crisp retina display, you’ll know that finding one can be a challenge. Apple offers its Studio Display with a 27″ 5K retina display, but that costs $1599 just for the cheapest version with a basic stand. If you want a more versatile stand, the Studio Display will cost you $1999.

Luckily, a number of 27″ 5K monitors have been launching lately, many of which have been at more affordable price points than Apple’s Studio Display, while offering an incredibly comparable experience. One of them is the ViewSonic VP2788-5K, which I’ll be reviewing here today.

Next year, Apple will be introducing an even more affordable MacBook model to better compete with Chromebooks. It’s expected to come in around $699, offer an A18 Pro chip, and a 13-inch LCD display. While that’s likely going to be an excellent offering, there’s the simple fact that a lot of people buying Chromebooks are targeting even cheaper price points than that.

Luckily, Apple already has an excellent solution for some of these potential: the iPad, in pairing with a keyboard setup of your choosing.

Recently, the Financial Times reported that efforts to set up a succession plan for Apple CEO Tim Cook have ‘recently intensified’, and that the transition could happen as ‘early as next year,’ potentially even happening sometime in the spring.

Today, in his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claimed this story to likely be “simply false,” and that the moment is “not at hand.”

This past year, Apple overhauled its design language across all of its major software platforms with the introduction of Liquid Glass. That dramatic redesign, coupled with a number of jam-packed feature releases over the past couple years, has resulted in many Apple users complaining about the overall quality of Apple software.

According to today’s Power On newsletter, Apple might be stepping back from new features, and instead focusing on underlying performance improvements. Let’s discuss.

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’re a massive Pokémon trading card came enthusiast, you might found yourself with thousands of cards in your collection. Mint aims to make things easier for collectors, by giving yourself an easy way to track your whole collection, its value, and more. It’s also designed for iOS 26 and Liquid Glass, and will look right at home on your iPhone.

If you’re in the market for an excellent 3-in-1 charging stand ahead of the holiday season, Anker’s new 3-in-1 Prime MagSafe charger could be an excellent pick. It offers 25W MagSafe charging with Qi2.2 support, as well as support for Apple Watch and AirPods – making it an excellent pick for Apple users.

Next year, Apple is reportedly going to debut a new MacBook model beneath the MacBook Air. It’ll be the first MacBook to utilize iPhone silicon, and it’ll be the first MacBook that sells far beneath the $999 price point. It sounds like a winning formula – but will it actually be one?

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.

Budgeting apps are certainly plentiful on the App Store, but if you want one that’s simple, good looking, and easy to use – Dimewise might be a good choice for you.

Apple unveiled the new M5 iPad Pro last month, kicking off a new iPad lineup. While it didn’t bring any headlining upgrades, it does provide us some clues as to what’s coming next for the iPad lineup. Plus, there are many rumors to follow, which we’ll be diving into.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has a plethora of new innovations in the pipeline for satellite connectivity on iPhone. Apple has had an interest in satellite technology on iPhone for over a decade, and that effort finally came to fruition in 2022 with the launch of Emergency SOS. That’s not all, though, and the company would like to push further.

In today’s edition of the Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported a new key detail for the launch of the redesigned MacBook Pro model, slated to launch between late 2026 and early 2027.