eXtensions - Saturday 4 October 2025
By Graham K. Rogers
Apple Q4 2025 earnings are on 30 October. The new iPhones are selling well, but that release will feature more in Q1 2026. There was a sense that new Macs and iPads were on the way, but a Russian vlogger appears to have acquired an impressive M5 iPad Pro, while the FCC in America has let slip details of several new Apple iPads and Macs. Unlike this unofficial USA open doors approach, the UK is taking another stab at forcing Apple to provide a back door to user accounts. The current government is also having another go at introducing ID cards, which went down like the proverbial lead Zeppelin.
Apple is to report its Q4 2025 earnings on 30 October, Marcus Mendes (9to5Mac) reports. As this will include some figures from the recent releases (higher figures will come in Q1 2026) this will be significant. The time is as usual, 5pm ET, 2 pm Cupertino time, which is about 4am here. Mendes notes that the report will indicate how tariffs are affecting the company which may cause some problems, although many analysts are suggesting investors "buy" with predictions that the stock price (currently $254) will rise.
That is not entirely a consensus as Andrew Orr & Mike Wuethele (AppleInsider) report that the always-bearish analyst Edison Lee of Jefferies, suggests that the good iPhone 17 figures, leave "little room for growth tied to future models". The article is generally critical of Jefferies' approach.
I had a look at the new iPhones in Siam Paragon last weekend and, as in previous years, the Pro model will be my choice when the time comes to make a purchase. According to Malcolm Owen I am not alone: demand for the iPhone 17 Pro has surged past launch orders for the iPhone 16 Pro.
One of my indicators for sensing when a new product is on the way is the way the previous model is sold at a reduced price. Justin Kahn (9to5Mac) writes that the current M4 iPad Pro is being sold in some outlets (not here of course) with $500 off. Among other reduced prices, he notes that the M4 Mac mini is now being sold for $499. We are fairly certain that new Macs and a new iPad Pro are coming soon, perhaps this month, but do these prices indicate that other devices will also be updated in the near future? Several sites are excited about an unboxing of the (alleged) 13" M5 iPad Pro by a Russian YouTuber. He set it up after unboxing, then went through the settings. As Ed Hardy (Cult of Mac) remarks, "Blistering benchmarks" and "a huge jump in graphics performance". Draw your own conclusions:
Part of me wanted this to be an unfounded hoax, but another part wants this new iPad Pro to be the real thing. Bearing in mind the care that Apple takes to ensure that products are not made public before Apple's own announcements, and remembering that Apple does not sell its products directly in Russia these days, where did this person acquire the device (if it is real)? The answer in short is probably Vietnam (and it is likely to be the real deal). Rajesh Pandey suggests that the iPhones were not leaked as they were manufactured in India and China where Apple runs a tight ship. The iPad Pro he suggests was from either Luxshare or Foxconn in Vietnam where things may not be so secure, and Vietnam does have long-term links with what is now Russia.
Hot on the heels of the leak of an Apple PDF document on the iPhone 16e by the FCC, the same organization appears to have leaked some of the specifications of the new Macs, Juli Clover (MacRumors) reports, "The FCC published documents that reference model numbers that do not correspond with existing devices." The list includes an unknown MacBook Pro (M5?); an 11-inch Wi-Fi iPad Pro; 11-inch Cellular iPad Pro models; a 13-inch Wi-Fi iPad Pro; and 13-inch Cellular iPad Pro models. This is as bad as seeing this in a Mark Gurman or Ming-Chi Kuo article.
On the other hand, the UK authorities appear to be much more security conscious. Earlier this year they had to back down when it came to asking for a backdoor to access all of Apple's iCloud accounts when the US authorities objected to UK access to their citizens, even if they were in the UK. Along the way Apple withdrew iCloud Advanced Data Protection in Britain, perhaps as a message to the authorities and to users there.
The authorities there do not seem to understand the concept of personal privacy and think that Apple can open the backdoor willy-nilly with no untoward effect. They always roll out the same reasons for needing such access: organized crime, child pornography, terrorism; but they never mention political enemies or people we don't like this month.
The UK government were forced to back down last time, but they have apparently returned with a revised requirement that only applies to British citizens. They haven't thought this through of course. I live halfway across the world, and there are British people who live in Singapore, China, Australia, and the USA. Would the governments of those countries (and others) give the UK carte blanche to access the data of people living in their territories? Methinks there could be a few lengthy court battles. Several sources are covering this, including. . .
Note also that at the end of last month the current UK government announced that it had plans to introduce digital IDs, a plan that had been put forward before, followed by a great outcry, when Tony Blair was in power. No one trusts him with much these days following the "Dodgy Dossier" and some of the friends he hangs around with. That document convinced Bush to go to war against the Iraqis: something we are still regretting. Blair is also being put forward as a potential head of Gaza, presumably once all the Palestinians are cleared out of the prime real estate. And who is likely to benefit from the digital IDs? Blair and his son we are informed.
Almost as soon as the ID plan was announced by the current Prime Minister, support for the idea collapsed, which may say something about the PM's dynamic personality as much as it does about objections to IDs (Eleni Courea, Guardian).
I had email from Affinity this week offering me an early look at a new product or service. Of course I signed up although I am not into buying much new software these days (and certainly not signing up for subscriptions). But I am interested in anything that Affinity does, even if they are now part of Canva. I visited their premises in Nottingham a few years back and found the whole team likable. An article on AppleInsider, by William Gallagher & Mike Wuerthle pointed out that currently all Affinity apps on the iPad - Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher, and Affinity Designer - are currently free. This is unlikely to last for long, they suggest. The article also confirms that the announcement for the new product, or whatever it is, will be on 30 October. I sense that this will be an internet-based service, and subscription only.
Also commenting on this announcement, Jaron Schneider (PetaPixel) mentions that Affinity have now stopped all sales of software online, which is unusual. Schneider also comments, "One of the factors that makes Affinity so appealing to its users is that it doesn't operate on a subscription model. Canva does." This was one of the fears about the sale to Canva. The Affinity lineup was well-liked, partly because of this. I refuse to subscribe to any major software unless there is some real advantage. Adobe, for example, has lost many customers because of its approach. Although the developers of Pixelmator and Photomator offer subscriptions, they also have one-time purchase plans. It is not known how that will change now that Apple bought that developer.
A further note on Adobe comes from Jaron Schneider (PetaPixel) who reports that the company shares have been downgraded as there is "a perceived inability to stand out amidst the rise of generative AI" adding that it has failed to live up to the promises. Petapixel and others have reported on Adobe's fading star, and comments that it is "not wholly beloved by its customers" - hardly a good situation to be in. From earlier reporting this comes from a dissatisfaction with the way the company deals with AI and customer images; and the annoyance at too frequent subscription increases.
In my more recent ownership of film cameras - when I was a kid, that was all we had - I have experimented with a number of different types of film. My main choice has been black and white films, from a 35mm Lomography film with an ISO rating of 8 (Fantôme Kino 8) to Ilford Delta 3200, which may be great for low light conditions or sports action, but was not really for me. Most of the films I use are in the range between 100 and 400 ISO, although I also tried Ilford Ortho Plus 80 and Pan F Plus with an ISO of 50. The last two need some care, but with the frequent sunny days here, they are fairly usable.
While few new analog cameras are being made, although that has begun to change slightly. Prices in the second hand market have increased as there is a new popularity for film cameras. Since I returned to film, manufacturers have developed several new films, with Harman, the parent company of Ilford, expanding its line of the lower-priced Kentmere and adding more 120 films. Harman has also begun to produce color film: Phoenix. It claims that Phoenix is a work in progress as they experiment with emulsions. After the redder hues of Phoenix, Phoenix 2 shifted to blue a little. Although this is rated at 200, I find better results with exposure (EL) at 125 or even 100. Harman also make a color film named, Red, but this is only available in 35mm rolls.
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Kodak, who were always at the forefront of film technology, failed to capitalize on the arrival of digital technology. This was doubly ironic as it was Kodak that invented the technology.The failure to respond to digital damaged the company pushing it to bankruptcy. With the machinery for film production still in place and a continuing market, which has recently begun to grow again, Jeremy Gray (PetaPixel) reports on a new film from Kodak: 35mm Kodacolor available in 100 and 200 ISO. This may be a reworked version of an older film that had ceased to be available. As yet there is no news about any medium format (120) version of this, but this is more good news for those of us who are still interested in film. Of all the films that Kodak still produces, I would love to try its Ektachrome 100 (slide film) in my medium format cameras.
A day after that appeared in my time-line, I saw a report from Jeremy Gray (PetaPixel) on the release of a new film from Lomography: LomoChrome Classicolor ISO 200. As the article notes, Lomography have released a whole series of new films in the last few years. As well as the Fantôme 8 I mention above, I have had some interesting results from its Purple film.
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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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