After a mis-spent youth in the '80s as a service tech and salesperson at a now-closed Apple dealership, AppleInsider's Mike Wuerthele spent nearly a decade in the US Navy through the '90s as a submarine reactor chemist, where he routinely had to suffer through two Captains on the USS Hyman G Rickover (SSN-709) "borrowing" his MacWeek magazines before he got a chance to read them.
During his time in the Navy as a nuclear reactor water chemist, Mike was also instrumental in migrating the submarine fleet into the computer age, and assisted the US Army with its PowerMac G3 program. At the tail-end of his Navy service, he proposed a variant of the PowerMac G3 server program for the assorted military shipyards.
After his exit from the Navy, Mike spent 11 years in federal service as a commercial tech analyst, worked in an assortment of independent dealers, and supported a large swathe of Apple customers in the Washington DC area.
In 2012, he parlayed his experience discussing Apple and other tech companies with the federal government into a gig at MacNN and its sister site Electronista in 2012. Following the closure of those publications in July 2016, Mike moved over to AppleInsider as a content contributor. He is now the Managing Editor of AppleInsider.
The agreement by both the US and China to pause tariffs might make things easier in the very short term, and it may lead to a deal, but it hides that American consumers and firms will still have to deal with extreme expenses and other trade changes that do nothing but harm.
Apple has been rumored to be working on smart glasses for a long time, and a new report has narrowed down the debut of the platform to be as soon as the end of 2026.
The Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station is a portable battery that can keep off-grid campers happy for a weekend — and works great as a UPS for your Mac Studio too.
The Aiffro P30 3 in 1 Portable SSD is a drive designed for the iPhone that enables external ProRes recording, but the USB-C port allocation and locations are a little bit puzzling.
SanDisk's Extreme Pro SSD has been recently updated, adding USB4 connectivity. It's a good, but expensive, external option for Mac owners assuming you never need to connect it to Windows.
The Satechi Mac Mini M4 Hub & Stand is an elegant and compact way to expand a Mac mini's ports and storage, but there are three major problems with it.
Sonnet has maintained its excellent reputation for quality accessories for Mac users, with the new Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock offering tons of ports and even fast storage expansion too.
In a new Thunderbolt 5 world, the Minisforum TB4-1 12-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Dock is a reasonably inexpensive way to add legacy ports plus 2.5 gigabit Ethernet to any Mac made since 2016.
The Orico MiniDock Vertical Mac Mini Dock Stand offers more ports and storage for the new Mac mini, without frills. But, sometimes, that's all you need.
Apple will reportedly dramatically accelerate manufacturing efforts in India, and may try to import nearly every iPhone 18 sold in the US from the country by the end of 2026. There are reasons to be skeptical that this will happen.
While Apple may still be on the road to augmented reality glasses, a detour it is taking along the way is a future Apple Vision Pro that goes far beyond just mirroring a Mac's display.
In a surprise announcement extremely late on Friday night, President Trump has exempted smart phones, computers, and chips from the so-called reciprocal tariffs, sparing Apple and others billions in import fees.
The Twopan Portable SSD 2TB is a good external storage option intended for your iPhone and iPad, but its retail cost is prohibitive, so wait for a good sale.
A quote from the CEO of Luxshare is firing up speculation that AirPods production will move to the US, but the scaffolding of the statement is too flimsy to hold the weight of the guesswork.
Apple's stock will face another tumultuous day as markets fear China's and the European Union's reciprocal tariff increases could get another Trump reaction.
President Trump believes iPhone manufacturing could shift to the US very quickly. He's wrong — it won't happen during his term, if it happens at all.
President Donald Trump appearing to be more open to negotiations was initially enough to see Apple's shares rise fractionally overnight, only to see the fourth trading day since the tariff announcement deliver another big hit to the stock.
While markets fluctuated insanely on rumors, the third consecutive trading day after the blockbuster tariffs announcement has again ended very badly for Apple, with it seeing billions more bled off of valuation.
After a legal challenge by Apple, the hearing about blowing open Apple's iCloud encryption in the UK for the sake of national security won't be kept secret, but it's not clear when the details will be made public.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley has told investors that while Apple may have brought forward some iPhone 16 production ahead of Trump's new tariffs, there is little more it can do to mitigate a $33 billion cost increase it is about to incur.
President Trump's announcement of tariffs and retaliatory measures by China has seen Apple's shares drop to their lowest point since June 2024, as investors predict rising iPhone prices and falling sales.
Now that iOS 18.4 is out, we're looking to the future with iOS 18.5, a rumored AI update to Apple Health, and the first rumors about the M6 processor, all on the AppleInsider Podcast.
Apple's 2025 Mac Studio brings with it the latest Apple Silicon chips and a few more changes that power users will love. One model is a must-buy, and the other is still excellent — but very clearly not for everybody.
Apple has seeded a second release candidate for iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, with a full release of both expected the week of March 31.
Apple offering a Lumon Terminal Pro from the Apple TV+ hit "Severance" is the kind of 360-degree cross-promotion that all the other streamers — except one — could only wish for.
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William Gallagher and Mike Wuerthele
