Join us for the April VMUG meeting at 7pm this coming Wednesday, April 10th on Zoom.

Non-members are welcome to join as our guest, using the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82260140526?pwd=K2ozYUpYaStKWFk3Ym9vdnJ6dm1XZz09

Or, you can subscribe to "Tech Talk with Alan Perry" (it's free) on any podcast app including these…

Take part on Saturday morning when we're live:

The link takes you to a fake "PayBC Online" web-page where you're instructed to provide your name, address, and credit card or bank account info. If you give the scammers that info, within minutes, they'll rack up scam charges on your credit card or drain your bank account. If you think we're exaggerating, North Vancouver RCMP posted this…

Google is suing two alleged crypto-scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer scam cryptocurrency trading apps and investment platforms that instead simply took users’ money. These apps were used in a type of romance scam commonly called “pig butchering” in reference to fattening a pig before it’s slaughtered.

The accused scammers — two app developers based in China and Hong Kong — allegedly uploaded 87 different fraudulent apps to enable their schemes, luring in more than 100,000 people who downloaded them. Based on user complaints, Google alleges that users lost anywhere from $100 to tens of thousands of dollars each.

The settlement — which is scheduled to go before a US federal judge for approval at the end of June — will also see Google purge billions of files of personal info gathered over the years from users of its Chrome web-browser.

The deal is either a big win for privacy, or a largely meaningless agreement, depending on to whom you listen.

If you get an email or a text about a problem with an account or service, or about a package that can't be delivered, or an invoice/receipt for an item or service you didn't order, or about a refund owed to you, or about a prize you've won, assume it's a scam, especially if it urges you do something right away.

Malwarebytes Premium Anti-Malware is on sale this weekend at both London Drugs and Staples for $35 — a $15 saving — for a three-device Licence Key which is good for one year on any three Windows, Mac and Android devices.

If you use Malwarebytes Premium as we do, (which we highly reccomend), and your subscription isn't up till later in the year, buy a new Licence Key while they're on sale and then use it when the time comes instead of renewing online for much more! If you want to shop online to get this sale price, here are links for both London Drugs and Staples…

Epson's ET-2800 All-In-One Eco-Tank wired/wireless printer/copier/scanner is on sale for just $230 (save $100) at London Drugs stores and online. The printer comes with bottles of ink good for literally two years of average printing — and a replacement set of #522 ink bottles is only about $80.

Items start at #10, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more security items above!

The class action website — SmartphonePerformanceSettlement.ca — has been updated to provide a link to submit a claim, with a submission deadline of September 2 of this year. The claim link is below…

https://www.smartphoneperformancesettlement.ca/en/claim

Lawyers who launched the class action claiming Apple slowed down those phones to keep them from crashing when running newer more power-hungry operating systems, say claimants will be eligible to get between $17.50 and $150, depending on how many people apply.

To get a share of the $14.4 million, the Claim Form requires you to provide, among other things, your name, mailing address, iPhone serial number, and to declare under oath that you had an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7 7 Plus or original SE, and that you experienced diminished performance on that device after you updated it to the latest operating system. Here's a screenshot of one part of the claim form…

Around nine million of the affected models were sold here in Canada, but most will not be able to provide the serial number needed to get compensation.

If you bought one of the covered iPhone models directly from Apple, you can use their free Apple Support app to speak with someone from Apple to obtain the serial number.

The eclipse will begin at 10:40am Victoria-time and last until 12:20pm, but even if the skies are clear, we'll only see about 15% of the sun be obscured.

The path of totality will only be visible be in a narrow band arcing from Mexico's Pacific coast to eastern Canada.

Your best bet is to watch it online; NASA will be providing live coverage starting at 7am (see item #40 below).

Canadian mobile service providers are taking steps to make sure their networks can handle an expected massive surge in internet traffic during the eclipse…

If you have a picture that has an object or person in it that you wish wasn't there, you can now use Adobe's "Firefly" photo tool to remove it, or to change the background, or to add other objects — for free.

Here's an example…a picture of me with our German international student Emma, and her boyfriend Jax, atop Mt. Finlayson, last Sunday. Note my backpack on the rocks, and the three people sitting off to the right…

Now, here's that same picture after I used Adobe Firefly to remove the backpack and the people…

Zoom in on where the backpack and people were, and see if you can spot Firefly's AI-powered generative fill!

Try it for yourself…you'll have to have (or create) a free Adobe account in order to use it. (Try to log-in first before creating an account as you may already have an account dating back to the days of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.)

 You can remove the Adobe Firefly watermark that appears in the lower left of the free version, and get more features, for $7/month.

Because it produces results that are so high-quality, any image created or modified with Adobe Firefly will include undeletable metadata called "Content Credentials"…

Andy Betts at MakeUseOf.com has written an excellent article outlining the best ways to not accidentally shorten the life of a laptop battery…

Rogers has set next March 31 as the sunset for its 3G network across Canada.

3G is the slowest existing cell service in Canada; it's 1/10th the speed of 4G, 20x slower than LTE, and up to 50x slower than 5G. The only phones still on 3G are flip-phones on Rogers, and its budget brands, Fido and Chatr.

Those phones will stop working next April when Rogers turns off its 3G network so it can redeploy the towers as part of its expansion of 5G service.

In the coming months, Rogers, Fido and Chatr will reach out to 3G customers to offer deals on newer phones, but this will likely be the end of flip phones.

Telus (like Rogers and Bell) had discontinued its Canada/USA plan and only offered USA calling and data roaming as part of its pricey $110/month Canada/USA/Mexico plan. But now, Telus has reduced the price of that plan by $10/month to $100, and brought back and Canada/USA plan at $95/month. Both come with 150GB of 5G data a month — way more than virtually any person would ever need!

By comparison, Freedom Mobile is offering Canada/USA calling and data roaming plans that start at $34/month…

Freedom's Canada/USA/Mexico plan is $55/month, half the cost of similar plans from Telus, Bell and Rogers.

This is a promised follow-up to the solution from last week's show for a listener who didn't know how to stop her iPhone from "speaking" the keys she tapped when typing a text message. Several of you with poor vision said that'd be a really useful feature to have.

When you use Apple Pay instead of pulling-out your credit card or debit card, the merchant does not get your card number. They get, in effect, a phantom card number that's only good for one transaction. That way, if there's a skimmer in the payment terminal at the store or restautant or gas station, the skimmed info is useless to a scammer.

You can add multiple cards to Apple Pay (and Android Pay) and it costs you nothing to use, and only you can use it, because it requires your face or fingerprint to complete a purchase. So if someone steals your phone, even if it's unlocked, they can't use it to buy anything.

StoCard stores your loyalty cards, rec centre and attraction membership cards, library cards — any card that has a barcode. When you tap the card in StoCard, the screen goes to full brightness so it can be scanned and used, and then dims the screen as soon as you go away from the card.

If a card has your picture on it, like an IMAX card, you can take a picture of the card and add it to the StoCard so you can show it if requested.

StoCard is free, but will regularly display offers. When it asks to send Notifications, tap on Do Not Allow. When offers appear, tap on Dismiss. StoCard is available for both iPhones and Android phones.

We were expecting new iPads to be announced this month, but reports now suggest they won't be unveiled till early May, as it'll take till then to manufacture enough OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens, which the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models are expected to have.

New base-model iPads and iPad mini models are not expected to get OLED screens, but it's thought that Apple will announce them all at the same time.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who has an excellent track-record on Apple scoops, is reportinbg that Apple has teams investigating a push into personal robotics…

Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores which used "Just Walk Out" technology to track what you'd put in your cart or basket, and then charged your account when you left.

Instead of that system, which was supported by more than 1,000 staff in India monitoring store cameras, Amazon is moving towards Dash Carts, a scanner and screen that’s embedded in your shopping cart, allowing you to checkout as you shop. These offer a more reliable and lower cost solution than Just Walk Out. Amazon Fresh stores will also feature self check out counters from now on, for people who aren’t Amazon members.

Google’s Find My Device network is set to leverage the massive population of Android devices to help locate missing phones, headphones, and trackers. However, the network was delayed while Google and Apple worked together on an industry standard that would help ensure this location technology isn’t used to maliciously track someone else’s movements, something that was an issue for Android users following Apple’s launch of AirTag in 2021.

Google has now sent out an email blast to employees say that new standard is baked into Apple's iOS 17.5, and will be released "within days".

If everything works as intended, Android users will be notified if an unknown tracker like an AirTag is nearby and following them around. The same goes for iPhone users, who would be notified if a Tile or other product is nearby and not connected to the user's device.

Plans for an updated budget iPhone SE have been on and off over the past two years (the last model was released in 2022) but there are growing indications a new Se 4 model is coming this fall or next spring, and that it'll ditch the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in favour of Face ID which will enable a larger useable screen area.

Google has decided to shut down its Google Podcasts app and instead integrate podcasts into YouTube Music.

The move is part of a strategy to simplify the podcast listening experience by combining it with music streaming, creating a one-stop audio destination on YouTube Music.

Google believes this change will improve podcast discovery, encourage more community interaction, and make switching between audio podcasts and video content easier - an area where Spotify is also making strides.

With 23% of weekly podcast users in the USA preferring YouTube over Google Podcasts' meager 4%, Google sees this transition as a necessary step to cater to user needs and habits.

The change will happen within a couple of months.

To facilitate a smooth transition for its users, Google is set to introduce a migration tool allowing Google Podcast listeners to effortlessly transfer their subscriptions to YouTube Music.

Microsoft has published a new patent for a device called the Eye-Gaze, which would allow users to communicate and interact with electronic devices without the use of hands and fingers for typing. This could potentially be a great technology for accessibility purposes.

It uses what’s referred to as ‘dwell-free’ technology, which means that typing is done by using eye movements with keys on a screen. The ‘dwell-free’ name comes from the fact that the user wouldn’t have to maintain or 'dwell' eye contact with a key for a prolonged time, reducing eye strain, as the technology would use the dwell-free system to make sense of the user’s gaze accurately and come up with solutions.

Employed in an operating system, such as Windows, this technology could let users control various settings such as audio volume, or brightness by moving their eyes. It wouldn't be limited to just certain applications, as it can be extended to become a new way to interact with devices.

Videos start at #40, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more tech news items above!

40) Watch NASA's live coverage of the total solar eclipse on Monday morning…

41) Watch how Volkswagen Australia is working on a sonic "RooBadge" system designed to prevent collisions with kangaroos, which make up 95% of animal crashes down under…

You can read more about Volkswagen Australia's ground-breaking RooBadge technology here…

42) Watch Noah Forbes demonstrate what the Star Wars "Cantina Band" song would sound like if it'd instead been written by composers like Bach, Chopin…and Oscar Peterson…

43) Watch (and listen) to the mesmerizing musical pendulum pattern that emerges as Jeremie Carrier plays 15 different marimba notes at 0.2 beats-per-minute differences…

44) Watch Matteo Brenci, Emanuele Grafitti, Enrico Milanesi, and Andrea Vittori — the four classically trained guitarists who call themselves "40 Fingers" — perform ABBA's classic "Mamma Mia", live at Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, Slovenia…