eXtensions - Monday 2 June 2025
By Graham K. Rogers
WWDC starts next week and, as ever, rumors abound. We shall see. An iPad version of What's App has finally appeared after, ummm, 15 years. Maybe an overdue Instagram app for the iPad will be next. Dictation on Apple devices may has improved, although I still prefer pen and paper. Adobe increases subscription prices again. There are alternatives. Another new film from Harman arrives.
With WWDC just around the corner (9-13 June), rumors are coming thick and fast. Of course once Mark Gurman puts anything out, it is repeated by the rest of the tech press as if it were Gospel truth. I do like one rumor, however, concerning the renaming of Apple operating systems to reflect the year if only for the reason that it will reduce confusion (currently, iOS 18, macOS 15 watchOS 11).
Currently we are on iOS 18.5, but iOS 26 is expected to be announced at WWDC, not iOS 19. This may also apply to other operating systems. MacOS 26 is rumored to be named Tahoe. There are plenty of other rumors about what may or may not be coming. Note that prices on some Macs are beginning to drop, so that is always a sign of a potential hardware release. These are sometimes just after WWDC.
I prefer to wait until ringmeister Cook appears and introduces the experts: Craig Federighi, John Ternus, Johny Srouji and their support teams; with maybe Deirdre O'Brien and Eddy Cue (long absent); plus Kevin M. Lynch for the Watch. But perhaps not John Giannandrea this year.
I always look forward to the post mortem on John Gruber's Talk Show Live. This is at the California Theater in San Jose. In the past there have been some lively discussions between John and Apple executives, but not this year. Apparently, for the first time since 2015, they declined. I wonder if this has anything to do with his comments earlier in the year in which he suggested Apple had lost the thread.
What's App has finally appeared on the iPad. Early in the week, Joe Rossignol (MacRumors) reported that an iPad version of the app which is widely used in Europe and elsewhere was apparently in development. It is also rumoured that Meta has hinted the long-overdue Instagram app may be on the way too. IG is hard to work with on the iPad with that iPhone-sized interface. The potential, if working with a larger screen, is far greater. Imagine looking at those photographs or videos on the iPad screen. LINE, which is more popular here than What's App is available in iPad size and I find this far better for my purposes, particularly when students send me files to edit, or even just blocks of text to look at. The larger screen, and LINE's file-handling capabilities (far better than Messenger or e-mail) show how What's App could benefit from some love and attention.
I had a head's up from Hartley Charlton (MacRumors) the next morning to tell us the iPad app had arrived. I went to the App Store and searched, but with delayed success. Search for What's App Messenger or other apps will appear first, or use the App Store link to What's App
I set it up in the evening and once I had linked it to the iPhone app, it worked just like the app on the smaller device, but (like LINE) it is now easier to handle and view larger messages. I have not yet tried the file-handling abilities (I have not tried that on the iPhone either as so few contacts here use it), but this is a start.
Let us hope that Meta will finally produce a proper iPad version of IG. That is long overdue (as was What's App). Christian Zibreg (iDownloadBlog) reminds us that it took some 15 years for the iPad version of What's App to appear. As an update on this, Joe Rossignol (MacRumors) further reports that an iPad version of Instagram is in active testing and may be available later this year.
I recently noticed how Dictation on iOS has improved, so had this in mind when I saw an article on Six Colors, by John Birmingham, a real writer, explaining the way he uses dictation tools on his Mac. I particularly noted his comment on older dictation software: "A lot of the time I saved not hunting and pecking at the keyboard, I lost fixing the errors the program introduced by misinterpreting spoken punctuation." That was exactly one of the reasons that previously stopped me from using dictation tools more. His article about Whisper made a convincing case for having another look.
I checked the App Store and was pleased to find that Whisper was available, not just for the Mac but for the iPad and iPhone too. I tried it on both mobile devices, but for me, there is little point in this app. A professional writer would benefit from the tools. As I remember from my mother transcribing Dictaphone tapes back in the 1960s or my own use of small tape recorders in the police for writing reports, the process of dictation needs a different approach from writing with paper or a keyboard.
Rather than using dictation as part of my workflow, I develop ideas about the subject area, with the occasional sentence mixed in. It is when the pen touches the paper, or my fingers hit the keys, that the sentences begin to form. The moving finger writes and then just keeps going.
While looking at Whisper and its pricing, I was reminded of a new trick in Notes by Ryan Christoffel (9to5Mac): after the amount, type the = character and a conversion appears. I tried with Pounds Sterling and the Baht amount was given. When I entered a Baht amount followed by = it gave me a US Dollar figure. Using $500 gave me the Baht equivalent.
One of the many reasons I will not use Adobe products is the move they made some years ago to subscription-only payments. That leaves the user at the mercy of the developer with changes to specifications as well as Terms & Conditions (as with other apps), and to the risk of losing access if there are payment difficulties: not always the user's fault. Subscribers who are locked into such software are also at risk when it comes to price rises. As Terry Sullivan (Imaging Resource), tells us, Adobe is putting up the price from $59.99 to $69.99 a month for the annual plan, which surely must mean many home users (and small businesses) will find difficulty justifying such an expense: $839.88 per year. The reason? Not tariffs, the price of milk, or the price of luxury cars, but Adobe's investment in AI.
As someone who takes a fair number of photographs, digital and film, I eschew the use of AI whenever possible. I stopped using one app because of its faux sunbeams. Sometimes AI is unavoidable for some tasks. Apple's CleanUp in Photos for example has no option so some users might be stuck with that. If I need to remove blemishes, dust or spots from scanned negatives, however, I switch to Photomator. I also have Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo, both of which have been cited as Photoshop substitutes. I have a number of other apps that for my non-professional use I may access from time to time depending on the task I need. I avoid subscriptions when I can. I expect a few more users might be thinking about alternatives for Adobe products.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Harman, the parent company of Ilford, had released another new film: Kentmere 200. They have done well in the last year or so with the Harman branded Phoenix, which is now available in 120 as well as 35mm rolls; and then Red (only in 35mm) which, as the name suggests, has a definite shift to one end of the spectrum. As well as Ilford films (which I used in the 1950s as well as now) Harman has also marketed black and white film (35mm, 100 and 400 ISO) under the name Kentmere for a number of years. They acquired the company in 2003 (Analogue Wonderland). In late 2022 these films also became available in 120 rolls. Although I tried Kentmere 100, I prefer the output of the 400 ISO film. The new film is the Kentmere-branded 200 ISO and it was made available on release in 35mm and 120 rolls.
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This week I saw a review of the new film by Jaron Schneider (PetaPixel) so had a look online. These were shown for 195 baht per roll at Camera, Film, Photo in Hong Kong. Recent purchases of films have cost me 400-550 baht a roll, depending on the type of film. Some are more. I ordered 5 rolls of the new film, and 5 rolls of Kentmere 400, which has produced good results when I have used it before. Messages and emails told me within hours that the package was on its way and would be delivered Friday. Other messages changed that to Thursday and the FedEx man phoned me late that afternoon. There was a Customs charge of about 340 baht. Some companies, like Apple, include this in the price. Amazon deducts a charge at the time of payment, and any excess is refunded.
With other films I bought recently, I now have plenty in the fridge (and my bag) for several days of photography. At the weekend I used up a roll of Phoenix (8 shots left) and then a roll of the new Kentmere 200. I dropped them both off at the shop I now use in Siam Square 2 and will collect the negatives next weekend. I also picked up developed negatives of a roll of Ilford HP5 400 that I dropped off last weekend. I scanned them after lunch. I find the process of watching the images revealed for the first time, then editing to bring out what I saw when I took the shots, to be relaxing: therapeutic, like writing on paper. It is not that I do not like AI - a couple of items I am working on right now about student projects should make that clear - but in my opinion, AI can never fully replace some processes.
When I wrote articles for the Bangkok Post on Apple products, I often had devices handed to me before the release date, but I would be given an embargo: no publication before the date and time given. I kept to that rigorously, sometimes with my finger hovering over the Upload button as the second hand ticked round. There have been mistakes. One online publication deliberately ignored an embargo and published information that others were waiting to release. They were not invited to Apple events any more.
This week there was a heartfelt mea culpa from Jaron Schneider (PetaPixel). He explained how, because of time differences and other factors, they "unintentionally showed an embargoed Sony product in a video review of a separate product". The confession recognised the potential harm towards other publications and apologized to them. This clear admission and apology sends a good signal when so many others deny responsibility for their actions.
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.
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