eXtensions - Tuesday 28 July 2026
By Graham K. Rogers
Apple Q3 2026 results out this week. Meta is having problems balancing technology with privacy. I looked at AntiZuck this week: an app that detects use of Bluetooth glasses nearby. With its focus on privacy, Apple will need to tiptoe round the pitfalls Meta is finding. I read a book this week: the first this year. I do have good reasons. One problem I find with AI writing is that words used, like "competencies" do not mean what the writer wants them to mean.
This week we are expecting quarterly results from Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft on Wednesday; followed by Alphabet (Google) and Apple on Thursday. With sales of the iPhone and other positives, Apple is expected to produce another good quarter. The first three, however, are under pressure because of spending on AI. Apple has dealt with this in its own way. Although advances have been slower (and less dramatic), the AI is better integrated into the devices, and costs are not penalizing the company. Several reports predict a rise for the share price after the results, and this could push Apple (currently valued at $4.948 trillion) over the $5 trillion mark. With Wall Street's usual "chicken-in-the-barrel" approach, much effort will be made to try and drag Apple down.
It is not uncommon for Apple to make product announcements soon after a quarterly figures are released, so that is also worth bearing in mind. I never like to predict what Apple is going to do, but some Macs have been on sale at lower prices and the iPad mini could do with an update. Although many dismiss this device, it is quite popular with younger people because of its size. This week Apple released the 26.6 updates to its operating systems. Several comments mention that, although there are the usual security updates and bug fixes, there is little that is exciting. The update for my iPhone was a hefty 13.14GB and those reports also suggest that this update is in part preparation for the coming OS 27 releases.
Meta has been forced to walk back another feature in the creepy ways it deals with interactions between technology and humans. Recently, it removed an AI feature in Instagram that allowed creation of images from user content. This week, it is reported by Jackson Chen (Engadget) that the Conversation Focus feature that "uses the glasses' speakers to amplify the voice of who you're talking to" is being dialed back. Although I would find that feature useful, I realize immediately that this could also be used to amplify the voices of those who you are not talking to.
One of the main features of these glasses (and those from other manufacturers) is the ability to film and photograph other people who may be unaware that they are being recorded. At least when I am taking photographs the camera is visible (in the case of my Hasselblad film camera, highly visible). I was intrigued to see a report about an app that detects such glasses, using the Bluetooth capabilities of the iPhone and the devices (AntiZuck.
I downloaded this (99 baht) and tried it out right away. There is no app for the Apple Watch: just iPhone and iPad. Unsurprisingly, where I live it shows plenty of Bluetooth devices around me, but no such glasses. I later tried in a central Bangkok mall. While there were even more Bluetooth devices, again, no such glasses were detected. A search online suggests they should be available here.
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After Mark Gurman's newsletter that arrives here Sunday evening, several source picked up on the point that Apple will have an uphill task to convince customers that its rumored glasses can be trusted. Meta has not done a good job generally with privacy: if it works, put it out. Then Meta has a deer in the headlights moment, followed by withdrawal, a mumbled apology, and a rethink. Apple tends to think these ideas through first, and will be acutely aware of the reactions to how Meta has rolled out features on its glasses. Benjamin Mayo (9to5Mac) for example suggests that Meta has poisoned the well with regard to public distrust.
I was scrolling through Facebook this weekend and spotted two video shorts that provided updates on AppleTV series. The second told me that Dark Materials Series 2 was on the way and would arrive on our screens on 28 August. The first one was a short teaser of only a few seconds on the final season of Silo. We are currently running through season 3 with 6 more episodes to go. The final episode is entitled, "Troy". Whether that concerns the residents of the silo or the subplot playing out in historic Washington (or both) started me thinking. After all, even without the current release of the Christopher Nolan movie, the mythology surrounding "Troy" is laden with meaning.
A number of sources report that filming for the 10-episode final season (4) of Silo has been completed, but there is (as yet) no date for its release. Post production work usually takes a few months, and Apple has also put out previews for Slow Horses at the end of a series. There is a tension between a quick follow on to a series, and a properly timed delay. Netflix sometimes falters on this with far too long between its seasons. An example is Three Body Problem, an unusual sci-fi series that I found riveting. This was originally released in March 2024 and ran for 10 episodes. The Netflix page for this series shows, "It's official, another season is coming" and sources have suggested a 2026 release - 2 years after Series 1. I have seen no other information.
This week I also watched Heartstopper Forever. After three seasons of the successful series, this movie (just under 2 hours) ties up events as the characters begin to move on. I was disappointed. It seemed to have lost the sharpness of the series and the dialogue was weak. Olivia Colman who had played Nick's Mother had been replaced by Anna Maxwell-Martin, who also plays the ruthless KGB colonel in Apple's Star City. This was due to scheduling: Colman was just not available (Daniel Welsh, Huffington Post).
Apple does not completely escape the problem of extended gaps between seasons, as its magnificent Foundation took two years for Seasons 2 and 3 to arrive. Can we expect Season 4 in 2027? This has been tabled, but there is almost no information about production or arrival apart from information contained in the late 2025 Apple press release. Most sources guess a release in 2027 based on the previous releases, like I did. Apple has recently announced the imminent arrival of two series and a movie. I have already mentioned series 2 of Dark Matter, but an article outlining the releases by Malcolm Owen (AppleInsider) includes a trailer of Dark Matter, and the other two: Neuromancer, based on the Williams Gibson work; and the movie, Matchbox, "Loosely based on the brand of toy cars it follows a classic CIA agent and conspiracy plot."
It is reported by Anthony Ha (TechCrunch) that Netflix was served a cease and desist letter for a trailer about a documentary that arrived on Sunday: Instadocs: The Prediction Games. This focuses on prediction betting, which has had much publicity since the World Cup. I did not watch any of this as I have zero interest in soccer, although the events and politics surrounding it were entertaining. Ha reports that a couple of the clips shown in the trailer show potentially illegal events, although Kalshi denies this because of the alleged dates. I immediately had a look at Netflix and the trailer was still available. As Kalshi claims in the letter, the screen does show 16 May for when the bet was made (before such betting was illegal in Nevada). It is possible to turn the auto date and time off, however, and I note that the word Crop appears at top right of the screen. I pressed the Reminder button so may look at this soon unless it has been removed by then.
This year my reading has been curtailed somewhat. In the days after Christmas I read the most recent novel from Ian McEwan, What We Can Know which takes a delightful swipe at literary research: inconveniently, opinions may not line up with facts. Then I had my second hip replacement. Recovery took a while and my attention span was brief. I also picked up an infection that laid me low for a few weeks. I could manage reading information on the internet and short-form writing, but when I picked up a book (I tried a couple), within a few pages, my eyes began to close.
Work, writing, and photography have kept me fairly active, although wading through AI-generated content is hard work, especially when it has been returned from a journal for "writing improvements". There are reasons that such articles are returned, most of which could have (should have) been fixed before submission. When these rescue-me files are sent, it is usually at the end of the week and they are needed just after the weekend.
I looked at the pile of books that had been delivered at the beginning of the year and decided to try the most recent (and perhaps last) work from Julian Barnes: Departure(s). Just before I came to Thailand, I bought his first novel, Metroland. I even tried to teach this to Thai undergraduates in an English Literature course. Much of the first section of Departure(s) was alive to me as I had lived near the areas described and used the same Underground trains. A movie that was made, based on the book, was a disappointment.
Despite his accomplishments, I have read none of his other books. I read that Departure(s) had been published (Alex Clark, Guardian) and ordered it a few days after I came home following the hip operation. I read just over half of the novel on Sunday, and finished it Monday. As in Metroland I could identify events and locations, and was delighted to read mention of Genevieve, one of my favorite movies as a child. The narrator, who may or may not be Barnes - never trust a narrator - keeps inserting himself into the text, although not as much as I found in Nabokov's Pale Fire, and as Alex Clark writes, is "slippery", adding that "the ground keeps shifting", which makes this all the more pleasurable, but then I enjoy reading Thomas Pynchon.
One thing I noted about Departure(s) was the clarity of the language. After some of the convoluted AI content that I am forced to read in an effort to guide the writers to something better, this was a refreshing experience. It fully justifies the time I spend on reading. I have been concerned for a while about the unchecked use of AI in writing. The "unchecked" pun is deliberate. Much AI content is put out by those who may not be fully aware of the meanings of the words they are using. Critical, crucial and foster are prime examples.
Recently I have been disturbed by the use of "competencies" that has been creeping in to some of the content I check, particularly when it is used to describe students. This has been accepted without question because it is AI output (so it must be right), the word has 4 syllables, elevating its importance, and almost everyone else here seems to be using it. Of course it is right, eh?
It was first coined in 1959 as a management term for performance motivation. The meaning does not match how we should describe our students. The Latin source of the adjective from which this noun was formed means fit and proper. The usual meaning of "competent" is acceptable and satisfactory. It is sometimes used with an adverb, such as highly, to indicate a professional level of ability, such as a highly competent surgeon. A "competent surgeon" does not fill me with confidence. With no adverb, it is drab and basic, unlike the monosyllabic "skill" which indicates good abilities, simply and directly, while also expressing exactly the quality that young engineers should have: not competent, skilled.
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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