eXtensions - Tuesday 27 January 2026
By Graham K. Rogers
The Q1 2026 figures from Apple are out this week. With an "Apple Experience" in LA some sense that new Macs are round the corner. In the meantime, Apple released new AirTags and OS updates. With speculation on Tim Cook's retirement, many expect John Ternus will step into the CEO's shoes. The Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro is a good investment despite the relatively high price. Comments on new series and old movies from AppleTV and Netflix.
Apple's Q1 2026 financial report will be available in the next couple of days: perhaps one of the most significant in recent years. Although a strong quarter is expected, and several updates are imminent over the next couple of months, Wall Street always hedges its bets and there will probably be reports that are slanted negatively towards Apple. Martin Peers at The Information, for example, has a limited view of what Apple does, commenting, ". . . its results will be more an update about iPhone sales than anything else."" He does concede that the results should be upbeat, however (The Briefing - Paywall) The Apple announcements are on 29 January beginning at 14:00 Cupertino time and at 17:00 in New York, which means 05:00 Friday morning here (Apple Investor site).
Several sources reported on new AirTags which were announced by Apple early this week. These look similar to the originals, but technical specifications have been updated, most notably with updated Bluetooth and the new Ultra Wideband chip allowing for a wider range and improved precision finding (Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac). This is now also available on the Apple Watch. There is also an updated speaker - the AirTags are louder. The AirTags are available for ordering now and will ship later in the week in certain markets. They are shown in the Online Store here but are currently marked as unavailable.
The new AirTags also require an update to iOS 26, Joe Rossignol (MacRumors) tells us, but later reports showed this as available, so I updated my iPhone early Tuesday here. There is also an iPadOS 26.2.1 update available (but not macOS when I checked). With the updates, as well as software for the AirTags, there are bug fixes.
|
|
|
Tim Hardwick (MacRumors) reported that invitations have gone out to select creators to "for an "Apple Experience" in Los Angeles, California" on 27-29 January, just before the Financial Report. This is probably related to the new Apple Creator Suite when there will be some hands on experiences for those attending, but Hardwick suggests this could be a perfect time for new Macs.
John Ternus, Apple's Senior VP for Hardware appears increasingly to be coming to the fore. This is not unexpected. He has long been the favorite in the Apple CEO sweepstakes. It was revealed recently that near the end of the year, Tim Cook added responsibility for Design to John Ternus (Marcus Mendes, 9to5Mac). Does Bloomberg expect that the announcement of Tim Cook's retirement is coming sooner rather than later? I did not expect that any announcement would be made at the same time as the financial report, but if this does happen, Apple will have weighed the implications and fallout effects carefully. Perhaps with the current political climate, they want this out of the way as soon as possible. Maybe Tim Cook wants to be out of the firing line as soon as possible.
There is a lot of information in a report from Oliver Haslam (AppleInsider) regarding the updated position of Craig Federighi who is now in charge of AI at Apple. With him in control there are certain to be changes, particularly the use of Google Gemini, which has already been widely reported. There could be some fallout from this, such as reduced privacy, although much of the processing will still be done on-device. Haslam reports the input of The Information that calls Federighi a skeptic on AI; but it should not be forgotten that The Information is almost always skeptical on Apple.
Haslam also mentions Federighi's rumored frugality as the cost of engineers is expected to be high. He adds, "Federighi is reported as believing that such engineers would require a salary greater than his own. Given the revelation that Federighi is known to question how much his teams spend on snacks, that seems unlikely to happen." There is some interesting gap-filling here and mention of a rumored Apple Pin, but as that is also sourced from The Information I will hold off commenting for now. Devindra Hardawar (Engadget), however, thinks that this is beneath Apple. Using previously revealed information he describes the features (cameras, speaker, microphone, wireless charging) adding that this "just seems desperate". This appears to be just reinventing the wheel.
A number of reports in recent months have expressed dissatisfaction with the direction the iPad is taking, and the types of software (OS and apps) that are available for it. The last couple of versions of the iPad Pro (M1 and M4) have totally changed the way I work on a day to day basis. Of particular note were the Apple Pencil and the folio case for the M1 iPad Pro. When the M4 device became available here, I could not find the folio case for the new model, so (reluctantly) ordered the Magic Keyboard. That turned out to be a considerable improvement over the folio case. The higher price was a better investment than I had imagined.
Despite the sometimes negative opinions about the iPad from MacWorld contributors (I am not a fan of the Photos interface for sure), Mahmoud Itani has written an interesting opinion piece on the Magic Keyboard and claims that, despite its high price, it is good value. I have been saying this for a while: the iPad Pro with an integrated keyboard has had a major effect on the way I work. As Mahmoud and other writers note, without such an accessory, half the screen is lost when the software keyboard is used.
With the Apple keyboards I use many of the key commands that are available to me on the Mac can also be used - a real time-saver. This one also has a trackpad which reduces effort, although for some tasks I do use the touch screen. There is an additional USB-C port for charging, not for data transfers as Mahmoud implies. Nonetheless, this is a good overview of what is (for me) an essential accessory.
I had to check my calendar (it is still January and not April) for this news item from Joe Rossignol (Mac Rumors) who reports that a politician in Utah, wants Android to be the state's official mobile operating system, along with the official bird, fruit, song, and flower. They clearly have different priorities in the Beehive State. William Gallagher (AppleInsider) also picked up on this. He includes some interesting comments from the senator and others.
I watched the first two episodes of Hijack with Idris Elba. The first was fairly predictable in terms of tension buildup, except for the end. There was a complete twist which I did not expect at all. The first series of Hijack with its mix of physical and intellectual conflict was a good story. This somewhat different approach concerning location and protagonist, is a good switch and I look forward to the next few episodes as this is all played out.
Also returning to AppleTV last week was Drops of God. I really enjoyed the first season of this. Its unusual subject matter and the original source (Manga) coupled with the changes of scenery, made this an unusual piece of television and I was pleased to see its return. Episode One was a little slow. A challenge has been set, resurrecting some old demons that the main characters had thought they had laid to rest. Despite the detective work by Issei Tomine this was a little slow, but Camille finally took an interest after initially rejecting the whole idea. That interest is partly out of a concern for Issei who has been seeing visions, leading me to worry about the direction this may take. Nonetheless, I am hooked.
Less promising was the Netflix offering of Seven Dials, based on a 1929 Agatha Christie novel. Like Dickens, Christie is so embedded into the British psyche that (particularly) with TV there have been so many productions while other worthy sources are less well used. This production of Seven Dials is limited by the period of course, so unlikely ideas like secret societies play a larger part than may be realistic. The script was weak, leaving an actor of the class of Martin Freeman limited when he normally excels. Helena Bonham Carter was the saviour here, bringing all her acting experience to the part. The tousled hair and a raise of an eyebrow saying enough. This is entertaining, but not the best drama Netflix has shown.
At the weekend, I chose a movie at random on Netflix more from its length than any other consideration. It was called The Bricklayer and it was fairly clear within a few minutes, this was not a high-quality production. There was plenty of action, but a few too many hero-beats-mob-singlehandedly events. I also began to wonder how many times a dozen or so assailants armed to the teeth with firearms could miss the hero again and again. Aaron Eckhart is in the title role as a former CIA agent who is the only one with the knowledge to defeat an assassin who was thought to be dead. Despite having seen Eckhart doing a good job in other roles, he was let down by the script, the directing and the production as a whole. Another familiar face was Tim Blake Nelson, underperforming as the CIA boss whose background and motives are questionable. He was superb in the title role of the Coen Brothers' Buster Scruggs, but was less convincing here.
If you have been reading my comments for a while, you will know I get upset about poor writing and in The Bricklayer a CIA agent was reading a document with the word "Privileged" in the title. This was written, PRIVLEDGED. I later saw another document marked "Confidential Information" - Informatiion had 3 I's: INFORMATIION. Like I say about writing out here, you would have thought that they could have made the effort to check something as basic as this. How many people saw that and missed it or ignored the errors before the movie was sent out? This was the final nail in the coffin of this movie for me.
I also watched Cover-Up: the Netflix documentary on Seymour Hersh who has been revealing stories about what the US government does when it thinks it isn't being watched. As the documentary unfolded, interspersing newsreel, interviews and commentary, I was reminded of some of the stories Hersh had reported on: My Lai; Abu Ghraib; Allende, Chile, Pinochet; Watergate (later background); and several other events that I remembered.
This covered the story of Hersh better than the flawed, The Stringer which also appeared on Netflix recently, and was not sparing of some of his less positive points: frustration, anger, occasional errors, all of which he accepted. His notebooks were more illegible than mine. I thought this was a timely exposure to real journalism as it examined things that a society should not do, particularly in the light of current events within the USA.
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.
For further information, e-mail to
Back to
eXtensions
Back to
Home Page