eXtensions - Wednesday 29 April 2026
By Graham K. Rogers
iOS and iPadOS had minor updates last week. iOS 26.5 is expected soon. Apple's Q2 2026 figures are out at the end of this week, with record results expected. There are expected to be questions on the succesion of John Ternus during the conference call. Another high-level use for Vision Pro: eye surgery. A reminder about the Daylight-tracking feature in Health: this records sunlight exposure. Ted Lasso series 4 will be with us in August; and there are several disaster dramas on Netflix based on real events.
Earlier this week, Apple released updates for iOS and iPadOS bringing them to versions 26.4.2 This provides bug fixes and security updates. Juli Clover (MacRumors) reports that one of the fixes is for a "vulnerability that the FBI recently used to extract Signal message previews from an iPhone even after the app was deleted". There are also several reports that GarageBand for Tahoe has been updated. I saw no updates for either the Mac or the Apple Watch.
Later this week we shall see the most recent figures from Apple when the Q2 2026 financial results are announced. In the main, analysts are expecting good figures. As well as the iPhone to bolster earnings, this time there is the surprising success of the MacBook Neo which is fast selling out in most markets. Apple is a victim of its own success as the binned A18 chips that were being used are rumored to be in short supply. Whether they make some more (uneconomic), end the sale of the device (unlikely), or produce an updated version with a different chip, has been under debate.
One analyst who is not convinced (again) is Martin Peers (The Briefing - paywall) at The Information, an online source that has done a lot to push AI to the fore. The phrase, "can't see the wood for the trees" springs to mind. While excited about other reports to come this week, his lack of enthusiasm about Apple is evident in this short paragraph, "Analysts expect Apple will deliver 15% revenue growth - similar to the previous quarter and a huge improvement on the single-digit growth (or declining) numbers we've been used to seeing from Apple in recent years. That will give retiring CEO Tim Cook one more chance to throw the word "record" around."
In Q2 2025 (last year), the revenue of $95.4 billion was up 5 percent year over year. Absorb that for a moment. Many companies would kill for such a quarterly revenue. The size, however, is the problem. As I understand it, to increase revenue of $1 million to $1.25 million (25%) is less difficult than adding on another $23.85 billion (25%), so as a company increases its size, reach and revenue, it is harder for it to grow in ways that Wall Street approve of. If Apple is to produce the 15% growth that some are predicting, that would be revenue of $110 billion, give or take a few cents. That is a lot of iPhones and MacBook Neo computers, although services and wearables would help too.
Also likely to feature in the Conference Call are questions on the announced succession of John Ternus to the CEO position, and Tim Cook's elevation to Chairman. Since that announcement, there has been a lot written, from warning scenarios, through advice for the new man, to relief. A reported change at Apple means that writers have a chance to garner thousands of hits sharing their opinions on the decision. The decision on Ternus, was fairly obvious months ago. Of all the candidates currently at Apple, Ternus is best suited to the CEO position. Apple might well have considered an outsider, but history suggests that carries several unknown risks. What is interesting to me is the behind-scenes reorganization, particularly with the hardware section. Jonny Srouji, who has been a main force behind the development of Apple silicon, takes charge of an enlarged hardware division, but this has already been split into five separate units.
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The Wall Street analysts entered the fray too, deciding how this will really affect the company and what Apple (and Ternus) must do. I think Apple has a fair idea of its own strategy. William Gallagher (AppleInsider) notes that over the next few months there are likely to be several more items on "what Apple must do" and reminds us that John Ternus is not Tim Cook. We should remember that Cook, whom Steve Jobs selected and clearly understood had a different approach, was frequently compared to Jobs when Jobs (who chose him for the position) recognised they were unalike.
In some cases Cook has never been forgiven for not being Steve Jobs and there are already a couple of hatchet jobs concerning problems Cook admits to. On the new CEO appointment, Gallagher writes that "It's just that some sources know for sure that Ternus is Steve Jobs reborn, while others know for a fact that he's going to be like Tim Cook never went away." He is John Ternus. His very training as engineer - as opposed to Cook's education as a supply chain expert - do not match. Gallagher's article is full of useful background to Apple and the personalities involved here. This is unlike some who are dredging the swamp to relate how bad (they always thought) Cook was. On the plus side, Ben Thompson (Stratechary) has a look at how Cook changed Apple in some needed ways.
While he is still CEO I would expect that Cook is working on some of the current supply issues that are affecting hardware companies, and users, worldwide: the shortages in chips and related products. Benjamin Mayo (9to5Mac) reports that customers who try to order the M4 Mac mini in the 256 GB configuration are being told this is out of stock. There are also "six week wait times for the 512 GB M4 Mac mini". Apple is apparently prioritizing the MacBook Pro; but the shortage of Mac mini devices is exacerbated by "the recent personal AI hype-train". I checked local online listings: "Currently unavailable".
Some are already speculating on what Ternus will do as CEO, firm in the belief that their imaginative speculation has the answers. I try to ignore these as much as I can. Asking the man is different. Ryan Christoffel (9to5Mac) reports on an interview in Tom's Hardware with Ternus and Senior VP for Marketing, Greg Joswiak. He includes the video in the article. Christoffel highlights some of the comments made and includes, "people are continuing to find exciting new use cases for it" and includes medicine in this. It was reported this week by David Snow (Cult of Mac) that a doctor in New York uses the Vision Pro to perform cataract surgery. He began this in 2025 and has repeated the surgery several times since. Dr. Eric Rosenberg uses software that he developed to integrate with 3D digital microscopes. There is more detail in Davis Snow's report.
We have already seen a number of other examples of ways that this expensive device, for example, has saved money: fewer high quality monitors needed; and less neck strain for surgeons. Like the iPad before it, users find ways to make use of a device that Apple had never thought of. Christoffel adds, "Apple's new CEO sees a bright future ahead for Vision Pro and spatial computing overall." His final comments include a wise note for Apple watchers: "it does reinforce that Apple is playing the long game with head-mounted wearables."
On that note about finding new uses, Zac Hall (9to5Mac) writes on a hidden feature of the Apple Watch that I expect to find useful. The Watch (and the Health app) has a feature that tracks the amount of time spent in daylight. As Hall points out, Apple refers to this as the amount of time spent in sunlight. While a lot of westerners still spend time on beaches trying to darken their pale skins, some of us now run from the sun. A few years ago when my sister came here on a visit, she asked me why I was so white.
It is easy to spot the Australian visitors here with their wide-brimmed hats. They have been educated about the risks of exposure to the sun for many years. In the countryside here, agricultural workers may not wear helmets when they ride motorcycles, but they always cover their heads and other exposed parts when they are in the sun. I added this feature to my list of pinned checks in the Health app and graphs that go back to September 2023 were available. Some days I stay home (zero exposure), but when I do venture out, I tend to wear a hat these days. My daily average is just over an hour, with peak days being Saturdays when I go into Bangkok and walk about a bit.
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An update to start comments on TV viewing: Daniel Cooper (EnGadget) reports that the fourth season of Ted Lasso will be available on 5 August.
Of all the movie and TV genres, I prefer science fiction the most, with historic, and some crime following. Recently, I particularly enjoyed two Netflix series Lead Children and Radioactive Emergency. These deal with real life disaster events and the way the ordinary people involved are affected. I followed those series with another from Netflix: The Days. I almost missed this Japanese tale of the events surrounding the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the the Tōhoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. I was not attracted by the title initially, although the reason for that became clear as the events were portrayed. The series centers mainly on the workers who remained at the power plant and at great personal risk, tried to check and control the damaged reactors.
The event, like the attack on, and collapse of the World Trade Center towers, is etched in memory, by the newsreel images that appeared and are still available online. We have seen many people trying to escape the approaching flood and the damage it caused to homes, factories, schools and to the people. Some of the damage was made worse by the muddy terrain which did more damage than water. All of the clips I have seen are of daylight events. What makes, The Days more tense is that most of the attempts to check and fix the damaged structures in the reactor buildings, were taken in darkness.
The earliest scenes had me thinking I was watching a documentary, but it soon became clear that we would look back at a dramatization of the events at the power plant. Apart from the films of Kurosawa, I have not seen much Japanese movie or television output. I found the actors somewhat understated as they portrayed officials under stress, but under control, particularly Yakusho Koji who played the Plant Manager, and the Control Room Head, played by Takenouchi Yutaka. That was not true for the Prime Minister who was certainly under stress, but considerably frustrated by the supposed expert advisors who were unable to give him any of the necessary information so he could make important decisions. The PM at the time was Naoto Kan Naoto Kan and he seems to have been unlike the fictional counterpart.
I often become interested in finding movies after looking through shorts on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. My usual approach is to then check Netflix and Apple TV. Sometimes I am successful. This week I saw an intriguing clip. Running through the comments it was identified as Scarpetta. I was not familiar with this title so checked first with Apple TV. To my surprise it was listed and beside the listing was the comment "TV series". I have never seen any TV series listed in Apple TV before in Thailand. On the main screen, for this series was a button marked "Open In. . . ." When I pressed this, there was a note that this was from Prime Video. If I were to press the button, I was informed that Apple TV would connect with Prime Video and this service would share what I watch with Apple TV using my account (the email was shown). This appears to open up a new source for series, some of which have never previously been available here. A quick search showed a list of series that I had wanted to see for a while, including Game of Thrones and The Sopranos.
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. After 3 years writing a column in the Life supplement, he is now no longer associated with the Bangkok Post. He can be followed on X (@extensions_th). The RSS feed for the articles is http://www.extensions.in.th/ext_link.xml - copy and paste into your feed reader. No AI was used in writing this item.
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