eXtensions - Monday 10 August 2026
By Graham K. Rogers
Giving an engineering student suggestions about a suitable Mac. The value of Apple Vision Pro in the operating room. History repeats itself: Sony and its attitude towards customers. Ted Lasso arrives, Apple drops Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Odyssey box office take.
This week there was an update to macOS but not Apple's other operating systems. I checked them all and thought initially that I was experiencing one of those delayed-releases that Apple engineers sometimes to spread the load worldwide. That was not the case. Updates to iOS are apparently being tested now so may be with us in a few days.
Information about some of the new features users can expect from the next versions of Apple's operating systems (OS 27) have been appearing as the beta versions are examined. A minor, but interesting feature - not from beta sources was outlined by Juli Clover in MacRumors a few days ago. As a result of the EU interoperability regulations, Microsoft has asked that a cross-platform copy-and-paste feature be added so that data can be copied "between iOS devices and Windows PCs" . . . "and vice versa" (no mention of Macs). The specifications being developed appear to incude more than the simple transfer, and include clipboard synchronization. This is under development and may not appear until next year sometime. It may also be limited to devices available in the EU, which I think is a shame. At work, I would have found this useful many times when dealing with students and others at the Faculty.
I was talking to a student at the end of last week. After advising him on vocabulary points that he had come across in a test, he noticed I had a MacBook Neo and asked for a look. I obliged and explained some of the limitations, like the non-back lit keyboard. I told him that it handles my photos (now over 33,000), and the image files are often quite large. I also compared it to my M1 MacBook Pro, which still pulls its weight after some 5 years use. The MacBook Neo performs just as well, showing how far chip development has come. I mentioned the M4 iPad Pro, and compared that with the M4 MacBook mini, also on my desk, The Mac mini has always been somewhat underrated, and just does what I ask with no complaint. I have had several and rate them highly. These have been used for years in server racks, and now the AI crowd have found them useful for their purposes.
The student is wondering whether he should buy the Mac Book Neo, MacBook Pro, or the MacBook Air. I do not have any recent experience of the latter, although I picked one up as a standby device a few years ago when I had the screen replaced on my last Intel MacBook Pro, and that was more than adequate. We looked at current pricing of the MacBook Pro with the M5 chip (starting at 69,900 baht) and I mentioned that there are rumors that Apple will skip the M6 and jump straight to the M7 for its next update of the device. A note from Bloomberg this week, as reported by Michael Burkhardt (AppleInsider) repeated the idea that the M7 is headed for the MacBook Pro, but notes that the basic M6 will be available. This is feasible with the timeline, but I am not totally convinced.
One point the student brought up concerned some of the engineering software that runs only on Windows. The interoperability feature above would be a help, but there are options such as Parallels Desktop, although students have financial pressures and the standard price of $219.99 (7,270.67 Baht) would be beyond most of them. The $54.99 yearly subscription might also be a problem as most students here do not have credit cards. There is also the alternative of CodeWeavers CrossOver which I have used before. I spoke to the team at MacWorld 2007. Crossover for Mac was released the day after the iPhone was announced and I tried it some time later. This is cheaper (than Parallels Desktop) at $54 (1783.08 baht) but it used to be a little fiddly. The site does have a search facility to see if specific applications run in the software, and there is a "Try before you buy" option.
Several sources are waking up to a new potential for the Apple Vision Pro after an academic article was put out recently covering the use of the device in eye operations. An academic paper, (Apple Vision Pro as a wearable display for endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy: Surgical experience, efficiency, and cost) has caught the eye of several tech sources, including Michael Simon (MacWorld). In part this may be due to one of the co-authors: the highly-regarded Horace Dediu (of ASYMCO) who has produced a background article in which he also explains that his participation "was to assess the cost and space impacts of the Apple Vision Pro in the constrained environments of ophthalmology operating rooms."
I commented on the Vision Pro in October 2014 when William Gallagher (AppleInsider) put out information on robotically assisted gastric-bypass surgery, and highlighted the Center for the Future of Surgery at UC San Diego: the same university as the new journal article reports on.
At that time (2014) I was particularly intrigued by the way the Apple technology was able to replace expensive 4K monitors which, in turn, also reduced the (perhaps career-limiting) neck strain that surgeons had been experiencing: musculoskeletal strain, chronic fatigue, and long-term cervical spine injury. Dediu reports that there was a single monitor in the operating room, but this was for backup purposes: redundancy is important. Compared with 4K TV screens, the Vision Pro ($3699) was considered about the same or a modestly higher initial investment, but the "economic value lies in operational efficiency rather than capital cost reduction."
Many have been critical of Apple's Vision Pro in terms of its costs and usability, regarding it as a vanity project, while forgetting the research that has gone into it (and patents filed) as well as future value. There are those, however, who are making good use of them. Like the previous (2014) use in UC San Diego, there was a significant reduction in surgeon workload and an improvement in ergonomics that helped the surgeons (less neck strain from looking at the 4k monitors). The article also notes the reduced operating times, which itself is an economic benefit considering the cost of each minute in an operating theater. An interesting point I noticed (Results) was that "surgeons use[d] sterile hand gestures to reposition, resize, or adjust the virtual display without disrupting the operative field."
Reports from several sources, including Nick Heer (Pixel Envy), are critical of Sony who recently announced the "end of PlayStation discs for new games starting in 2028". Despite the faux sympathy that Sony expressed for their users, they are still going forward with the move. Heer cites Timothy Geigner (TechDirt) who comments that Sony has no concern for the affected customers or retailers. In future this move, which is described by Geigner as "a giant middle finger", means that customers "can only acquire new games through downloading them and agreeing to some onerous digital rights restrictions."
There is precedent. In 2005, Sony put out several million music CDs. Each installed software (or malware depending on your point of view) that altered the OS to prevent copying. Macs were not affected. The rootkit also introduced vulnerabilities, and the privacy of some users was invaded. The installation itself included software that infringed copyright. Sony denied it all initially but was penalized in the courts. There was also political criticism, and much adverse publicity (Wikipedia). I vowed not to buy anything more from Sony. I have been able to keep to that, apart from an essential card and card reader for my Nikon D850 as Sony was the only company that made these when I bought the camera (although I can also use the slower SD card in the camera).
I saw the first episode of the latest Ted Lasso release this weekend. I kept AppleTV open after Sugar and it segued into the new series. Sudekis still has the same seemingly wide-eyed innocent approach as he works his way through the world. I was surprised to see that the management team from A.F.C Richmond turned up in Kansas in a private jet. I had wondered if the 4th series could match the others This first episode suggests that it will.
Apple had been reported to be looking at a series based on Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities which I read when it first appeared in the late 1980s. The movie was reported to be something of a disaster despite the cast, and Wolfe washed his hands of the whole thing. When asked about it in an interview (David Lat, Above the Law) he said "The movie was . . . very different.".
It is reported by William Gallgher (AppleInsider) that Apple has now dropped the series, "because of creative differences" adding that "sources say that Apple TV and Warner Bros were not creatively aligned over the project." We note that Warner had made the earlier, unsuccessful movie. Apple has worked with Warner on other series, so this is something of a surprise. Warner is said to be shopping the series around to other possible buyers. Maybe we will see this on Netflix.
There was an interesting item of news from The Guardian this week concerning Christopher Nolan's movie, The Odyssey that was released on 17 July. Its gross takings have now reached $1.104 billion. To put that in some context, the Guardian reports that the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises earned $1.085 billion, the 2008 movie, The Dark Knight grossed $1.005 billion dollars. The report adds that with Tenet, Dunkirk and Interstellar, Nolan's movies have now grossed more than US$7 billion.
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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