August 9 & 10, 2025 Show Notes
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Saturday: 10:05am-Noon PT
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Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm on C-FAX
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Your guest co-hosts this weekend:
Ricky Winter
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Tech Experience Manager for London Drugs Victoria
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1) Watch out for scam calendar invites claiming to be notification of a hefty Paypal payment you made
This is a new twist on a long-running scam — a receipt for a big amount of money which you supposedly paid fior a product or service which ou did not order.
In this case, as shown in the screenshot, it's delivered via email (in thsi case from an address in Thailand) as a celendar event invite which you can't delete.
These scams all include a phone numbr for you to call if the receipt is an error.
If you call that number, you'll be connected to someone at an overseas call-centre who will claim to be with PayPal Customer Service.
They'll offer to refund you the purchase, but will then try to talk you into logging into your credit card or bank account online, and sharing the screen with them. They'll then make it look like they vastly over-refunded you and will pressure you into transferring them the difference. Or, thry'll distract you while setting-up automatic money transfers to an untraceable cryptocurrency account.
NEVER call phone numbers in emails like this.
If you think a receipt might be real, open your PayPal app or log into PayPal.com and check your transactions therre, and you'll see there's no sign of this fake one.
As for the annoying fake calendar entry, it'll usually disappar once Microsoft or Google traces the snder and blocks the email account from which it was sent.
2) Watch out for scam Microsoft "We've updated our Terms of Service" emails
The emails, as shown in the screenshot, are labelled as coming from "M!crosoft" (note the ! in the spelling), but if you tap on that label, you'll see that they're actually coming from a gibberish @gmail.com address.
They encourage you to click/tap on an "Update Now" button to accept the updated Terms of Service in order to keep your mailkbox active and secure.
If you do, you'll be taken to a fake Microsoft outlook.com account log-in page, where the overseas scammers are hoping you give them your email address and password.
If you do, they'll advise you that to confirm it's you, they're going to email you a security code which you're instructed to type in.
In fact, what they'll do is use your email address and password to trigger a password reset code from Microsoft, and if you give them that code, they'll use it to lock you out of your own account, and then quickly change your account recovery info to their info, so you can't get back in.
They'll then proceed to trigger password reset emails for any other accounts they can find, so they can steal your money as well as your identity. NEVER click on links in emails like this.
Companies like Microsoft do periodically send out updated Terms of Service emails, as required by the law, but they do NOT require you to do anthing, and certainly NOT to update your info.
Tech News Of The Week
Items start at #10, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more security items above!
Tip: if an item in these Show Notes has the icon on the right in the upper-right corner, you can click/tap on it to make the additional info open in a new tab.
10) Telus and Koodo are now making customers switch from credit card to bank debit payments in order to keep autopay discount
Telus and its budget brand Koodo are now forcing existing customers to stop using credit cards to keep their autopay discount.
Until now, you could use a pre-authorized debit card or a credit card to sign up for auto-pay discounts. But Telus and Koodo have now started eliminating the credit card option, presumably to avoid paying fees to credit card companies.
Telus is emailing customers who pay their bills by credit card to advise that the credit card discount is being scrapped this fall, and that they need to switch to pre-authorized bank debit payments to continue getting the discount…
11) Microsoft Copilot now gives you free access to the next generation of AI via GPT-5
Microsoft has announced that all users of its Copilot artificial intelligence service are being upgraded to access the new just-released version 5 of OpenAI's ChatGPT engine, at no charge.
GPT-5 brings powerful new AI reasoning capabilities to take on increasingly complex tasks – and still rely on fast and more creative responses for many everyday use cases – without having to think about which model is best for the job, thanks to a real-time router.
Source
Microsoft incorporates OpenAI’s GPT-5 into consumer, developer and enterprise offerings
Today Microsoft is incorporating GPT-5, OpenAI’s best AI system to date, into a wide variety of its products, to bring new reasoning capabilities and improvements to coding and chat across its platforms. GPT-5, which was trained on Azure, includes OpenAI’s latest reasoning models, along with a smart, efficient model, to provide users with the right tool for the task at hand, whether in a consumer, enterprise or developer context.
12) There are strong indications that Apple's next generation of iPhones will be unveiled a month from now on September 9
A new report citing internal cellphone carrier sources in Germany says that Apple will unveil the iPhone 17 family on Tuesday, Sep. 9, — a date that's been previously rumoured to host the event.
The new report fits in with previous rumors stating that the launch would be in the week beginning September 8, 2025. AppleInsider noted that out of respect for 9/11, Apple does not hold launches on September 11, nor does it hold them on Fridays, so September 12 was out.
According to German site iPhone Ticker, cellphone carriers in that country have been told that the event will be on Tuesday, September 9. The report claims to be based on info from multiple carriers, which may be to back up its likelihood of being correct, or may be to protect a source.
Either way, the only other information claimed is that pre-orders will start on the following Friday, so September 12, 2025. First deliveries will arrive for customers on September 19.
That date is also when the iPhone 17 will be available to buy in-store.
It's expected that Apple will launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. The previous Plus model is believed to have been dropped, and instead there will be a slim iPhone 17 Air.
13) Google's Pixel 6 Pro camera crashes when zooming in, and there is no fix in sight
A persistent bug causes the Pixel 6 Pro’s camera app to crash when switching from 1x to 4x during a 4K 30fps video recording.
Despite appearing as early as February and spanning multiple updates, there’s still no official fix.
Pixel 6 Pro owners with this problem who have contacted Google Customer Service say they're being told they'll have to pay for an out-of-warranty repair, even though the issue only surfaced after an operating system update earlier this year.
14) When travelling in a country whre you don't understand the language, use Google Translate to instantly display a translation of menus and signs
From Alan and Suzanne, here is a sign in Paris which they couldn't read, and what they saw when they tapped on the camera button in the Google Translate app…
If you don't have (much) data to use in a foreign country, you can use Wi-Fi to download an offline language pack for the places where you'll be going, so Google Translate will still work fine.
Another option is to take a picture with an iPhone, and then tap on the Select Text icon (red arrow) in the bottom-right, and then tap on Translate in the bottom-left, to see what the text means in your language…
This was a sign Alan saw at The Fuggerei in Augsburg, Germany — the world's first social housing project created more than 500 years ago…the sign notes that the great-grandfather of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived in The Fuggerei. (see more at the bottom of today's Notes)
16) Latest Instagram update adds repost feed and location map
Instagram is rolling out three major updates: Reposts, a Friends Feed in Reels, and a new interactive Map to enhance content-sharing, discovery, and real-time connection with friends.
After years of user requests and heavy borrowing from rivals, Instagram is finally adding a native repost option. Much like the retweet on X (formerly Twitter) or TikTok’s repost function, Instagram now lets users reshare Reels and Posts directly to their followers’ feeds.
The newly launched Instagram Map closely mirrors Snapchat’s location-sharing feature. Positioned at the top of the DM inbox, the Map lets users see friends’ locations if they’ve opted in to share them.
Location updates are triggered only when the app is open, and the setting defaults to off.
Users can manage visibility, choosing whether to share with everyone, close friends, or handpicked accounts. While the core function mimics Snap Map, Instagram is layering on extras.
17) Which Android phone takes the best pictures?
ZDnet's Prakhar Khanna took the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Oppo Find X8 Ultra on a trip to Sweden to find out.
After taking 500 pictures and comparing them, he says there's a clear winner…
18) To avert semiconductor tariffs, Apple is going to spend $100 billion to make all screens for iPhones and Apple Watch in the USA
Apple has agreed to an expanded partnership with Corning to manufacture all iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass in Kentucky. It will also work with Samsung at its chip fab in Austin, Texas, “to launch an innovative new technology for making chips, which has never been used before anywhere in the world,” according to Apple’s news release.
Apple’s Houston-based server factory will begin mass production starting in 2026, while Apple is also expanding its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Apple is also going to open a manufacturing academy in Michigan to help train American companies in “advanced manufacturing” techniques.
Apple has also created a one-of-a-kind 24-karat gold and glass statue for the US President, and is hoping all these moves will result in Trump scrapping plans to impose hefty tariffs on semiconductors imported into the USA.
19) Sony has sold its 80 millionth PlayStation 5 console
It's Sony's third best selling console of all time, rapidly catching up to the second best-selling PlayStation 2 (87.5 million). It is around half way to the total number of PlayStation 2 consoles ever sold, which also happens to be the best-selling console of all time.
The Verge
Sony sells its 80 millionth PS5.
Its 80.3 millionth, to be exact, half the lifetime sales of the PS2, the best-selling console of all time, and closing on the 87.4 million PS3 sales. Sony sold 2.5 million consoles over April-June, about the same as last year, but doubled its gaming profit thanks to game sales and subscriptions. It lowered its forecast for the tariff hit, but that likely didn’t factor in Trump’s new threat of a 100 percent rate on chips. [Link: Sony Financial Results for the First Quarter Ended June 30, 2025 | h
20) WestJet and Delta airlines are among several airlines starting to use artificial intelligence to determine ticket prices
Delta has been experimenting with the technology since last year and currently credits AI with influencing 3 percent of ticket prices. The airline hopes to use AI to influence 20 percent of ticket prices by the end of the year. The move in general isn't unique to Delta, but they've been unusually candid about the practice. Privacy advocates and consumer watchdog groups are concerned.
21) College students are using Google Calendar to schedule everything, including dates.
While some students are pleased that their calendars can track schedules so well that they don't "have to think about it" and can just go where Google Calendar tells them, others have used it as a new dating strategy. Why ask someone out in person when you could just send them a calendar invite? (Some students also are uncomfortable with how far calendar usage among their peers has gone.)
22) True to its name, OpenAI has open-sourced two new AI models
For the first time since 2019, OpenAI has released two open-source AI models. The models, called called gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, are not as powerful as the company's in-house closed source models but still rank among the world's leading models. gpt-oss-20b is designed to be runnable on your average modern laptop whereas gpt-oss-120b requires specialized graphics cards.
24) We've also started compiling a list of our favourite phone apps
The "Our Favourite Apps" list — which will have a lot more added in the coming weeks — is on our home page, and you can also get to it by going to Tech-Talk.ca/apps.
Homework videos (a.k.a. "time well wasted"!)
Check out our YouTube Favourites playlist, which has more than 4800 videos:
Videos start at #40, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more tech news items above!
40) Watch: YouTube comedian Ryan George play out the obsession with looking at others' faces when they cut you off
41) Watch: Alec Watson of Technology Connections discuss how the "standard" electric car charger is usually overkill…
43) Watch: One for the baseball fans…the insane logistics of pro baseball.
44) Watch: the YouTube channel Neo explain how a Formula 1 pit stop happens so darn fast…
45) Watch: Alan Perry walking through the "House of 1000 Clocks" in Triberg, Germany. They now have ones that are quartz-powered, so you don’t have to pull down the pendulum ropes every day or every eight days to keep them running!
"Guten Morgen" from Alan and Suzanne,who, along with their former international homestay student Majo from Mexico, are touring Germany with Emma, their former homestay student from near Munich, and Emma's family…
This is one of the bakeries in Pfaffenhofen, where Emma and her family live…
In Augsburg, which was once the biggest textile centre in Europe, they visited The Fuggerei — the world's first social housing complex, which opened in 1521, giving people there who were struggling financially, a safe, modest, and comfortable place to live. More than 500 years later, about 140 residents still pay less than €1 (about 85 cents CAD) a year to live there, they pray three times a day to the memory of the founder, and contribute meaningfully to the community spirit at The Fuggerei…
Because The Fuggerei opened long before streetlamps were invented, the architect made the design of each doorbell-ringer unique, so residents could feel to ensure they had reached the right door at night — a method still in use today! Here are Alan's pictures of just three of them…
They also visited a huge outdoor 'living museum' in Großweil depicting rural life in previous centuries, and got to play "Kegelbahn" — 18th-century bowling using wooden balls and pins which they had to reset themselves after each person bowled…
Alan, Majo, Emma, and her younger sister Viktoria and brother Vincent went swimming in the alpine Walchensee at Kochel an See…
In Hohenschwangau, this was the view from their guest house room of the world-famous Schloss Neuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for Disney's Magic Kingdom castle)…
Leaving Bavaria, they headed to the Black Forest in Baden-Württemburg state, riding an alpine coaster and visiting cuckoo-clock factories including this one, which has more than 1000 on display…
They stayed at Rommelehof — this historic Bollenhut farmhouse in Gutach built in 1665 (yes, 1665!) — where Markus Müllerleile runs a hobby farm with cows, pigs, and six adorable kittens…
If you're going to Germany's Black Forest, check out Rommelehof.de — Alan says the hospitality and German home-cooking of Markus and his staff is wonderful (and the kittens are irresistable)!
Before heading to Heidelburg, they hopped across the border to Eguisheim in France, a beautiful small UNESCO World Heritage town with narrow circular streets that date back to the 14th century…
Suzanne, Alan, and Majo say they're having an eye-opening and memorable time seeing the real Germany, and will be eternally grateful to the Leo family for hosting them!
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
submitted by "Tech Talk" listener Ryan in Portland, Oregon:
And so it goes…