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I am aware of after hours trading, but so should the article author.  In other words, I think the article should have waited more than 24 hours to see if the price would remain high, such that the article would have meaning.  It didn't stay high.  It quickly fell.  Therefore, the article has virtually no meaning at all.  That was my point.

EDIT:
But as of this writing, I see the AppleInsider AAPL ticker is now at the 183 level.  If I now Google AAPL, I see that when it rose above 180, it stayed there.  So it wasn't a case of after hours trading.  It seems the AppleInsider ticker simply had not been updated.  So because of that, I now can appreciate the article.  

Although some have contended such a lawsuit was brewing under President Trump, the fact remains it wasn't made official under the Biden administration.  What's rather amusing about this is that Apple has long been Left-leaning in its politics, and technically speaking, the current DOJ is a part of the current Left-leaning administration.  So I cannot  help but muse at this, with the Left battling the Left.  Even so, I love Tim Cook's fighting spirit because I too believe the lawsuit is misguided.  

It's like Merrick Garland has nothing better to do than randomly pick a high profile target and then dream up some litigation that he hopes will make himself and the DOJ look good, as per their thinking they are doing all this for "the American people" or "the greater good."  But what they really are doing is wasting taxpayer dollars for show.  With that said, most Americans are technically at fault for not showing more outrage over this DOJ lawsuit.  People just mindlessly go about their day, then suddenly complain when things get more expensive.  That's right, your tax dollars at work, making things more expensive for you in the end, which is the inverse opposite of what the DOJ claims this lawsuit is supposed to do (making prices of Apple stuff cheaper for the consumer).

AAPL has taken a huge hit recently, so it's common sense Apple should do its buyback now, in a major way.

And before anyone gets excited about that "4% increase in the cash dividend," we're talking about a 1 penny increase here, and that increase is no different than previous increases, as per Apple's Dividend History here:

https://investor.apple.com/dividend-history/default.aspx

$185.75?  When was this?  The article text says "at the time of writing."  I interpret that to mean the time the article was written.  The article is dated May 3, 2024.  It's May 3, 2024 at the time I am writing this.  The AAPL ticker on AppleInsider shows 173.16, which is not anywhere close to $185.75, so either the article is talking about some other "time of writing" or AAPL rose to 185 and then dropped back down to 173.  What the...?

At 155 Yen to the Dollar?

It was as recent as 2021 when the Yen was 105 Yen to the Dollar, and it has long been accepted that the right balance is about 110 Yen to the Dollar.  If you calculate the average exchange rate from 1993 to Oct. 2021, it works out to be 108 Yen to the Dollar, so it's been right about that 110 Yen to the Dollar balance for the last 30 years (about as long as I've lived in Japan).  

If you get paid in Yen and live in Japan like I do, your life is largely accustomed to that 110 Yen to the Dollar balance.  When the exchange rate quickly becomes 155 to the Dollar (what it is today in early May 2024), a good number of things suddenly become 41% more expensive, especially imports.  And Japan imports a lot from overseas, including most of its energy, and Apple products too.

So if you think people in the US aren't buying VISION PRO in droves due to the high cost primarily, imagine a VISION PRO that suddenly gets 41% more expensive, transforming that $3,499 into $4934.  How eager are you to pay $4934, even if you are someone with a fair amount of disposable income?  That is what Japan faces with a VISION PRO in 2024.  I'm surprised the article made no mention of this important fact.

We can talk all day about why the Yen is so weak, but there is substantial speculation that the Yen will weaken to 160 or more later in the Yen, especially if the Bank of Japan doesn't raise interest rates.  (It seems the BOJ has been taking action to boost the Yen by massive purchases of the Yen very recently, but it hasn't had a huge impact on strengthening the currency.)  If Japan does raise rates, national debt and corporate debt become issues.  Don't listen to all the talk about how exporters in Japan are in paradise right now.  

There are many issues that Japan faces, and new expensive items introduced to this market couldn't come at a worse time for consumers.