28 September 2026
By Graham K. Rogers
Heavy rain in recent days flooded several parts of the city which has affected operations all over. OS 27 Updates are still revealing new tricks on the various devices we use. A strong rumor suggests a new AppleTV is on its way, with an iPad mini and a HomePad. Apple lost a patent case on technology in the Taptic engine: $5.7 billion awarded.
Many will have read of the extensive flooding in parts of Bangkok and surrounding areas following unusual rainfall of some 300mm in a couple of days. The volume overwhelmed the drainage systems (canals, pumps) although it now seems to have stopped. I experienced a larger flood some 15 years ago and had to abandon my home. The water stayed for several months then. This time, the area I am in west of the city has been hardly affected at all although I stayed home partly because of the rain, but also why add to the situation? Many people I know who live in other areas are affected, and the university has closed for a couple of days while the problems are reduced. Food in affected areas was a problem initially, as shelves were cleared in some shops, and vendors had their own problems.
By Sunday, the food stalls and restaurants in some of the affected areas were reappearing. As ever, the kids played in the water, and in the streets some people caught fish from overflowing canals. Carp from flooded ornamental ponds were also swimming free. Some main line rail links were cut due to flooding and subsidence. Metro systems were mainly unaffected, although Red Line services were suspended on Saturday evening after a failure in the electrical system. It is not known if this was related to water. Diesel buses continued to run. The two main airports were affected in different ways: Don Muang (DMK) was flooded as were surrounding areas; at Suvarnabhumi (BKK) many staff were unable to work as they lived in affected areas and were unable to travel to the airport causing problems with services. Some roads in the city are reportedly still flooded Monday morning. People in residential areas with larger vehicles that can navigate deeper water, went shopping for others who were unable to go out.
A story with a sting in the tail from the crime desk. Many who work in technology are aware of the rising prices of computer-related devices: supply and demand. One of the companies that is seeing rising prices (and massive profits) is NVidia. Like other manufacturers, their products need to be delivered to the customer, which may well mean aircraft, but at some point in the delivery process, road transport will inevitably be involved. A company named PlusAI partners with NVidia to move the products using shipping containers. These are clearly marked with the PlusAI and NVidia logos. This was an open invitation to some thieves who removed two of the trailers (and the containers) from the premises of PlusAI perhaps hoping for a silicon windfall.
Unfortunately for the criminals, these containers were part of a test process. The trucks with AI equipment for testing purposes were locked inside the premises, but the trailers were outside and relatively easy to hitch up to a drawing unit. The thieves only moved the units a few hundred metres and they were left abandoned not far from the company's premises. The 2 test loads of 20,000 pounds (just over 9,000 Kg) of sand remained in the trailers (Jowi Morales, Tom's Hardware).
Apple released an update (27.0.1) to watchOS this week that was for the latest models only, although it is reported that 27.0.1 updates are in the pipeline for other operating systems (Joe Rossignol, MacRumors). There are always minor bugs in any release so an update soon after the initial OS 27 versions were made available should not be a surprise. Some of these bugs are found through careful analysis, and some are found when users have problems (as with the new Watch rebooting in some cases). Apple is fairly quick to deal with the more serious of these as Benjamin Mayo reports, with regard to a similar reboot problem that afflicts some iPhone 18 Pro devices.
As users go through the new OS versions, new features are also discovered. I was pleased last week when I discovered that, finally, it was possible to enter and read keywords in Photos. That was long overdue. I am not totally on board with the way Apple thinks users should organize their files and folders. A recent addition to the iPhone and iPad Photos app is a section marked, "Captured by Me" which contains all photos taken on by the Camera app Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac). On the iPhone, this is accessed through the Collections button, then scrolling down to Utilities. This section is 6 columns wide so to see all options, users must scroll sideways. On the iPad, this is found in the the sidebar, close to the bottom, again in Utilities. At the bottom of the screen is a button marked, Reorder which lists all sections. I used this to push the Utilities section higher up the screen for easier access. On the iPad, the same function is provided by the more normal Edit button (at the top left on my iPad Pro).
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I prefer it if the rumors I read about have some solid evidence to back up the claims, particularly regarding new devices. One of the products that Apple is expected to update, particularly following new features in OS 27 releases, is the Apple TV box. My own device is so old that it will not take tvOS 27 so I am keen for the new one to be released. Joe Rossignol (MacRumors) reports that a contributor has found an image file (there are scores of high quality images embedded in operating systems) that appears to be for an as-yet unreleased AppleTV. It looks much the same as the current design so changes will be internal (no surprise there) with a possible upgrade to the A17 chip and more RAM. And maybe a higher price. The current 4k Apple TV is 7,500 baht here and recently saw an increase in the USA to $199. My older model cost $149 when it was released.
Further to the discoveries made by the MacRumors contributor, Harltey Charlton writes about the rumored iPad mini which is expected to "feature the A20 Pro chip, a rearranged front-facing camera, and a new speaker system". Ryan Christoffel () also reports on these two rumored updates, and adds the long-rumored "Home Pad" - a HomePod with a display. He reports that this is expected to have an OS like iOS, tvOS and watchOS, adding that "Siri AI is expected to be central to the product, which will also feature a camera, customizable widgets, and built-in Apple apps"
The A20 rumored to be in that iPad mini is the same chip found in the iPhone 18 Pro. It is apparently more powerful than the M4 chip that I have in my Mac mini and iPad Pro. Jason Cross (MacWorld) looks at benchmarks from Geekbench 6 and 7 which compare the iPhone with a Mac mini with the full 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. The A20 has 6 cores, but these are larger. In most cases, the iPhone really is putting out desktop performance. This bodes well for the future of the MacBook Neo.
A couple of years ago, after a long time relying on Qualcomm chips for communications in its mobile devices, Apple produced the C-chip and despite the usual doubts from Wall Street and others, these have worked well. There have been problems with litigation between the two companies, and - not putting all its eggs in one basked, perhaps - Apple has continued to buy chips from Qualcomm. Dan Moren (6 Colors) reports that Apple has renewed the patent deal it has with the company. The announcement from Qualcomm (but not Apple) was brief - terse, almost - which has led to some speculation as to reasons and what goes on behind the scenes.
I use several cameras on a regular basis, digital and film: iPhone, Rolleiflex, Hasselblad 500C/M, and a Nikon D850. My first DSLR was a Nikon D70, chosen because it felt right in the hand, especially after I tried the equivalent Canon camera. I have had other Nikon cameras (including a couple that use film). Nikon has lost sales in recent years, as the whole industry adjusts to the way people take photographs. Smartphones had a major effect, especially with the quality of image that some can produce, although in a side by side comparison, no smartphone can beat the best of Fuji, Sony, Canon, Hasselblad or Nikon. That matters less to those who post on social media sites.
Social media has also affected video output. Several movies have been made using the iPhone, although stalwarts still want high quality output, such as Imax that is not possible with a handheld mobile device. There are several movie cameras still made that produce high quality video output: 4k or 8k. Among these is the RED Camera range. Although Nikon bought RED a short while ago, RED still operates as a separate company, while Nikon has access to its video technology such as the RED Imaging Recipe color profiles available for some of the Nikon mirrorless cameras.
Here there is a problem, and I have written about this before. Although I have access to video capabilities in the D850, I have not used this, apart from a couple of test clips. It is easier for me to take video on the iPhone, and even that is a rare event. I use my cameras to take photographs. The video features are lost on me. I wish Nikon would produce a camera that was aimed at those like me who just want to take photographs. Leica do, and there is also the Hasselblad X2D II 100C, which I lust after . . . but not Nikon.
This week Simon Burn (FStoppers) wrote an article entitled "Nikon has Forgotten the Photographer" about just this subject. Burn seems to be similar to me with his ownership of Nikon cameras, old and new, but just like me, he writes, " I don't necessarily want my stills camera to do everything. Sometimes I just want it to be a really good camera for taking photographs". He also owns a Leica M10 - a digital camera that does not take video. Leica still make film cameras too. He does not mention Hasselblad. They no longer make film cameras but their products are so long-lasting that my camera (made in 1979) still produces excellent images (depending on operator error). Hasselblad also produces a digital back that would fit on my 1979 camera and produce 100mp images. Burn closes with a plea: " It needs a camera that remembers what made so many of us love Nikon in the first place."
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Apple was sued in 2021 by a company called Taction for the technology used in its Taptic engine that provides haptic feedback to a device user. It was claimed that Apple infringed on two patents. In 2023 a San Diego court decided in Apple's favor. The case was later revived on appeal and a jury has now decided against Apple. They decided that "Apple had infringed on two claims in one patent, and one in the other", but not that Apple did so knowingly. It wasn't necessarily an intentional infringement by Apple. The jury also decided that Apple's claims were invalid and awarded Taction $5.7 billion (Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider). Apple will appeal. Jackson Chen (Engadget) notes that "If the decision holds, it would be one of the largest patent infringement case payouts in the US". Chen also adds information about other litigation on the Taptic engine, and on blood-oxygen level tracking. If the jury decided that the infringement was not intentional, there may be room for a reduction in the level of damages on appeal.
I recently looked at allegations (strongly denied) that routers made in China, and televisions made by LG, were sending user data back to the respective companies. It is now reported that
Samsung fridges have been bricked after a firmware update. Scharon Harding (Ars Technica) reports that the problem mainly affected a Bespoke AI line of fridges" and that these were "four-door fridges from 2024 or later" with this only happening in Korea (so far). Some of those affected reported spoiled food. It is all very well to use the internet for communication and research, but some users are sold on the slavish idea of smart devices controlled by AI. It sometimes turns out, however, that they are not so smart after all. I occasionally worry about spoiled food when there is a power outage here: the longest I have experienced being 8 hours, but even then most of the food was OK and I have a strict policy: if in doubt throw it out. The trick is not to open the door as that immediately allows warming.
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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