13 September 2026
By Graham K. Rogers
As had been expected, Apple had a barrel full of new products this week: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max; Apple Watch 12 and Ultra; AirPods 5; and one more thing. Despite my skepticism of such a format, the presentation, especially by Jonny Srouji, weakened my resolve about an Apple foldable device. AI will be more integrated into these new devices. Once again, I am disturbed by the pricing of new iPhones here when compared to those in the USA. Unlike the MacBook Neo, for example, there is a considerable loading for users here.
On Wednesday, Apple announced its latest products. Among these was a foldable phone: a concept I do not like. I looked at the presentation. I watched the videos (several times). I changed my mind. More below. There were many rumors in the weeks and months before the event. I ignore most of these. I prefer to wait for details from the horse's mouth: when Apple announces the products. One of these rumors was that Tim Cook would not make an appearance (although might well be in the audience), but there he was, larger than life in a video that opened the show - the changing of the guard William Gallagher (Apple Insider).
This week Apple released updates to iOS and iPadOS (26.6.2). There was no update for macOS which already is already at version 26.6.2. The rubric with the releases shows that it prevented some iPhones from updating software over a cellular connection. No other bug fixes were reported at the time. This may be a timely update for those who use cellular connections to download software (like me) in view of the expected release of the OS 27 versions, probably next week. I had not experienced any problems with downloads using cellular links.
In the last eXtensions comment, I looked at reports concerning some routers from Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics (ZBT) in China, and the way they were able to send data back to China from the device. This was intended for domestic use. The manufacturer specifically mentioned diagnostic purposes. It could still mean that routers from the same company could also send data from routers used in the USA and in other countries. I checked mine right away and it is also made in Shenzen, but although this is not one of those listed, I am always wary of such devices supplied by local internet providers.
The next day, there was a report that internet-connected televisions from LG, had similarly been found to phone home, although not in quite the same way as the Chinese-made routers were suspected of doing. The routers were thought to be some form of checking mechanism for those within the country, although this had all been totally denied and was claimed to be for maintenance access. The LG televisions had allegedly been found to send user data back to LG.
This included Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) - tracking what users watch - but included screenshots and audio of that content; recording and transcribing conversations; and more: outlined by Malcolm Owen (AppleInsider) who recommends immediately disconnecting such a television from the Internet and using something like an AppleTV with that device only linked to the internet. "You have to both disconnect the physical Ethernet connection if it's hooked up, and turn off the Wi-Fi through the TV's settings."
In a related article, Stephen Warwick (Tom's Hardware) includes a total denial from LG that the tracking and snooping claims are not true. They do confirm that "they scan local area networks for other devices, a feature common in smart TVs and media devices." The claims of the independent testers seem to be fairly solid including "the capturing of audio through TV microphones, even when the devices were off, with the report claiming the TVs stored data when offline for retrieval later on." The article includes the statement from LG. Also commenting on this, Jackson Chen (Engadget) notes some of the points, and reader comments are sceptical about LG. I expect we may well hear more about this.
Following the LG denials and statement, Andrew Orr (AppleInsider) explains what Apple does with its little black box. There is indeed some monitoring and precise viewing activity is checked. It is a paid service, after all. I would presume that when I watch AppleTV on the iPad (or even on the iPhone) that is noted too. Location data is also checked, which is why some movies are not available to me. Much as I regret this, there are probably copyright restrictions. There are some ways to limit what is collected, and Orr outlines 7 of these.
The first thing I did on Thursday morning after breakfast was to look at the online Apple Store for Thailand instead of examining news reports and other information. The first thing I saw on the opening page was the new folding iPhone, the iPhone Duo, priced starting at 79,900 baht. I compare the US price below. The next on the list was the iPhone 18 Pro, with the A20 chip, at 48,900 baht. This is the first 2 nm phone chip (Hartley Charlton, MacRumors). A note on the 48 mp camera from Jeremy Gray (PetaPixel) tells us that this has a variable aperture: "f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4". The article has more valuable details about the camera and apps. The iPhone 18 Pro is available in 4 colors: black, silver, glacier blue and burgundy. There is also the iPhone Pro Max starting at 52,900 baht. When these prices are converted from the US prices, and 7% VAT is included, as with the equivalent iPhone 17 models, they are overpriced by some 6,000 baht and more. Third on the list is the Apple Watch series 12 at 14,900 baht, and the Apple Watch Ultra four at 29,900 baht. The AirPods 5 with active noise cancellation start at 4,790 baht.
Pre-ordering for the iPhone Duo will be open in Thailand on 16th of October, while the iPhone 18 Pro can be ordered from 12 September, which means that Thailand will be one of the first countries this is available in. Ordering opens on Saturday instead of Friday to avoid clashing with 9/11 events. The new products seem to confirm much of the speculation that has been floating around in recent days and weeks. As for the iPhone Duo, I am not really a fan of such products (but see below), particularly in the light of the Samsung disasters. Perhaps Apple has found a way to fix the problems that folding screens have had, I thought. If not, most of the tech press and all of Wall Street is waiting for an egg-on-face moment. John Ternus insists they have, in an enthusiastically received "One more thing". I could hardly wait to watch this. At the weekend some BTS trains and the Siam station were awash with posters advertising the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and the Flip. Surely a coincidence?
It was hardly unexpected that Apple raised the prices on its iPhones, but like last year, the prices here seem to carry an extra price loading even after VAT of 7% is factored in. Also, like last year, I can see no reason for this, particularly as Apple does not do this for its other devices. I did some rough calculations using the current $ to Baht exchange rate, then adding VAT, and seeing the difference between that and the price in the Apple online store. Thai buyers will be paying a far higher price than those in the USA and tariffs should not apply, as other devices would be similarly affected. I would be interested in feedback on this particularly from Apple.
My MacBook Neo that arrived in late March was 22,900 baht here and $699 in the US (I wanted the extra storage). Taking the same approach (using current exchange rates) $699 = 22997 baht -> 24606 (inc VAT). The basic MacBook Neo here is now $699 in the USA and is priced at 24,900 baht which is a far more reasonable pricing difference. Apple has not explained the pricing difference for these iPhones last year or this.
I had expected that the new OS releases would arrive on 18 September, but the date was confirmed by Apple as 14 September: Monday. As ever, back up your devices and data. Apple sent out the Release Candidates of the operating systems to developers on Wednesday and I wondered if this would also be available for my MacBook Neo. I have been running the public beta versions of macOS 27. Sure, enough, I was able to download this on Thursday morning here. I note that it was shown as a download of 5.14GB. The update was easily effected. Howard Oakley (Eclectic Light Company) explains some of the things that users should consider before updating but notes this is all much easier than it used to be. Just back up the Mac (and the other devices), make sure the power is connected or the battery is well-charged, and all should be well. I remember with OS X 10.2 and 10.3, et al watching the blue progress bar as the installation crept across the screen (DVDs then and costing around 6,000 baht).
It is clear from the introductions to the iPhones that Apple has turned the screws on the ways it uses AI, but there are let outs: users do not have to use AI for everything. An example is in Photos. There are new tools that use AI. We have already been introduced to Cleap Up which I do not like - not just for the AI but the way the tool works when trying to edit an image. I switch to another app when I need to deal with the dust on my scanned negatives. There are now two additional tools, which have already been well-reported: Extend and Reframe. I have tried both, just to see how they work, but I have no intention of using either on my own photographs. They create something that is not recorded by the original image. However, other AI tools that are available to users on iPhones (and iPads) will be useful to some, so Apple is right to bring these in. Like the folding iPhone, Apple has not rushed into providing the features, but has taken a long time in trying to make sure it is right.
I am not in the market for the iPhone Duo but looking at the videos and the Johny Srouji introduction - which I ran three or four times to make sure I had all the details - I found myself wondering if I should at least consider this. That is how good this looks, and it is evident the amount of thought that has gone into this: hardware and software. Most of the comments online have been positive. Some note that there are only two cameras, but photography is not the design purpose of this device. That is communication combined with productivity. If you want photos, the iPhone 18 Pro is what you would buy. Jonny Evans (Apple Must) reports a number of comments from analysts. I was drawn to one by Francisco Jeronimo of IDC: "Apple showed up years after everyone else, yet it walks in and sets the rules."
Needless to say the internet is full of comments about the new device, partly because it is late to the show: better to be late than under-performing. Ian Fuchs (Cult of Mac) has a run down of some of the comments he saw, including "the inevitable half-witted trolls." As above, I looked carefully at the ways Apple has engineered the iPhone Duo. Andrew O'Hara (AppleInsider) was at the event and like me was a skeptic. He is now less sure and wonders why the iPhone Duo had to be so good. The sensible Mike Wuerthele (AppleInsider) remains doubtful for solid engineering reasons and feels that, despite the design and materials work that has gone into the iPhone Duo, creasing is "inevitable as the tides, and a matter of physics and engineering." He adds that "The physics are [sic] immutable."
Like a number of those who use cameras, I have been concerned about the originality of images, and the proof. In my case it is for personal and ethical reasons; others have professional reasons for being able to prove they have not created or over-manipulated an image. I keep all of my RAW DSLR images, and all of my TIFF scans on external disks as a way to compare the original with the edited versions if there is ever a question. But not the iPhone images (although originnals are accessible). Sony cameras have a way to prove the originality with reference images with its Camera Authenticity Solution (CAS) (Jeremy Gray, Petapixel), and Apple is now bringing a similar feature to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
As the iPhone produces some high level output these days, and many images are used in professional environments (e.g. journalism), this combined hardware and software solution is welcome. Tim De Chant (TechCrunch) writes on the way the Apple Reference Image will be able prove the originality of the output and avoid AI slop. 3rd party apps will be able to use an API that Apple is developing. It does not appear to be backwards compatible with earlier models so presumably this is a chip addition.
There is a feature in the new Apple watch that has already spawned a number of hand-wringing comments. After a meeting, the Watch will be able to provide a text summary of content. It is unclear to me at this time if it is just the main points, the full text or something in between. Some fear that the watch will record everything in a meeting, although that is already possible with any smartphone, but Apple insists that this is not so. It sounds as if there is something akin to dictation that might then reduce the content down to salient points as an aide-mémoire.
As well as the latest episode of Ted Lasso, Apple released the first two episodes of a new Australian series on Wednesday: Last Seen. Marcus Mendes (9to5Mac) reports that not long after a body is found in the same area his daughter went missing 11 years before, Ian Ridley (Patrick Brammall), a former detective now a police dispatcher, hears her on an emergency call. These events of course set off a chain reaction. Mendes notes that this "kicks off Apple TV's fall lineup, which also includes the premieres of Slow Horses season six (16 Sep), Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson's Brothers, and Matchbox: The Movie, as well as the second season of Where's Wanda?. There is a trailer for Last Seen on Apple TV and this is also available on YouTube. Although Slow Horses has not arrived on our screens as yet (16 Sep), it has been circulated to selected reviewers. Ryan Christoffel (9to5Mac) reports that early reviews say season 6 is the best yet. The article includes a few of the review comments.
Online video speculation on the ending of Silo is a little wild, looking at the ending of series 3 and what might happen in series 4. There have been a couple of clips and a trailer from Apple on series 4, which is coming 27 July next year, suggesting that those from silo 18 do attack and overcome those inside silo 1. Much more will be revealed next July. One of those video clips also had an idea that I speculated on last week, that Juliet may actually be a descendent of Daniel Keene (or Troy as he's now known) and Helen, who was pregnant when she entered silo 18. Amber Neely (AppleInsider) airs the rumor that, with all the sets still in existence, and another book in the pipeline from Hugh Howey, there could be a spin-off series, although Howey denies this. Well, he would, wouldn't he?
This week I viewed The Gentlemen on Netflix. There was a lot of stretching credibility, but that is a hallmark of several of Guy Ritchie's movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and the even better Snatch, with its brilliant, yet outrageous performance by Brad Pitt. I would love to see more series like this rather than some of the sterile output offered by many TV providers who should all be capable of better. The final scene of the last episode of The Gentlemen was one of the most gruesome I could imagine. Mercifully the killing was done within the confines of a large van, but no one viewing this or listening would have any doubt as to what was supposedly going on within its confines. Not seeing the monster is always far better than when it is revealed.
One of the better Netflix series is the surprising The Diplomat. When this first appeared, I wondered what might attract me to it, but quite soon into my first look I was hooked. Series 1 and Series two left me wanting more and I am pleased to see (from a Facebook clip) that the next series will be arriving on 15 October. We heard recently that Apple had picked up a BBC series that was just finishing its first series in the UK. Hartley Charlton (MacRumors) now reports that following the deal, this has been renewed for series 2. I was also pleased to see a teaser for Neuromancer, this time on Instagram instead of facebook. According to the clip it is due on 22 January.
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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