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.
Claims that WWDC will crash and burn because it won't launch a device like Apple Vision Pro annually, or refresh all the hardware Apple has are evergreen — but that is entirely missing the point of the conference.
At WWDC, Apple is rumored to bring a long-time Mac app to the iPhone and iPad — Preview.
As is traditional in the days before WWDC, compatibility lists leak out. This time, the HomePod Software 26 list is out, with a surprise.
A study supported by Apple shows how the App Store fueled a $1.3 trillion economy in 2024, which will likely be used as a primary talking point as governments worldwide make regulatory moves.
It's no surprise that the iPhone and iPad now form the backbone of Apple's ecosystem. New data confirms that the Mac, once the company's flagship, continues to play a supporting role for a smaller slice of customers.
A message about WWDC sent to retailers outside of Apple has been taken to mean there will new device launches, but it's most likely wishful thinking.
A leaker has broken from the pack, and is now saying that the core iPhone 17 will stick with the already released A18 chip, while the rest of the line gets chips derived from the A19.
Just hours after courts allowed the "liberation day" tariffs to continue pending appeal, President Donald Trump is claiming that China has violated a preliminary trade agreement with the US.
The fact that the AI cooking assistant is half-baked shouldn't stop you from using the iPhone connectivity with the otherwise excellent Brisk It Zelos-450 outdoor grill.
Elon Musk continues to try to stymie Apple's satellite ambitions three years after Tim Cook turned down an offer to use Starlink on the iPhone.
Recent regular media reporting about the newly publicized AirPlay "Airborne" vulnerability made it sound like your smart home and iPhones are wide open for attackers to rob you blind. They aren't.
If you need good coffee and want ultimate control over your brew, the xBloom Studio home coffee maker is an iPhone app-connected way to do the job very well — if you're willing to pay the entry price.
Hitting the streets at least five months late, Apple's next-generation CarPlay experience that it is calling "CarPlay Ultra" will start arriving in Aston Martin cars in the next few weeks.
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.
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William Gallagher and Mike Wuerthele
