Nov. 22 & 23, 2025 Show Notes
Early Black Friday Weekend Edition
🎙️ Show airs live
Saturday: 10:05am-Noon PT
🔁 Rebroadcast
Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm on C-FAX
🎧 Podcast
Anytime
Your crew this weekend:
Ricky Winter
Co-Host
Tech Experience Manager at London Drugs Tillicum
store +1 250-360-2753
The Podcast
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Tech Talk- Nov 22 2025 by Tech Talk with Alan Perry
This week on Tech Talk, your host and technology tutor Alan Perry is joined by Ricky Winter, Tech Experience Manager at London Drugs Tillicum. They break down the latest in consumer tech. They cover this week’s standout updates across phones, computers, and smart devices, including new software features, security changes, and practical tips for everyday users. Plus, we take your tech questions live on air, helping listeners troubleshoot real-world issues and stay ahead of what’s new.
Or, you can subscribe to "Tech Talk with Alan Perry" (it's free) on any podcast app including these…
1) Watch out for fake Shaw account or email upgrade emails, which lead to ID theft and Amazon Gift Card scams
This scam is not new, but it causes huge amounts of stress and financial losses, and is one of the main reasons we've long been encouraging people to migrate off @shaw.ca email service.
It begins when you get an email like the one below, which Darlene in Cordova Bay recently got…
Darlene clicked on the link, which took her to a (fake) Shaw log-in page, where she put in her password. Because there is no Two-Factor Authentication on @shaw.ca email service, within minutes, overseas scammers had logged-into her email account via webmail, and had started emailing every one of her contacts, posing as her, and asking if they bought things from Amazon…
Darlene's well-intentioned friend Neetu went online and bought four $100 Uber Eats gift cards on Amazon and emailed then to the scammer, who was using a different hacked @shaw.ca email account…
The scammer then redeemed those gift cards into their Uber Eats account.
The scammers also put a filter on Darlene's incoming emails, sending them all to a new folder they'd created, so when Darlene's friends started emailing her, asking if she'd been hacked, she never saw any of those messages. When Darlene got a call from a friend and realized she'd been scammed, she contacted Rogers, and after waiting for three hours to get through, they helped her change her email password. When I got there, I spotted the hidden emails including the ones from her friend Neetu, and Darlene called Neetu and had her contact Amazon to try to reverse the gift card purchases.
I helped Darlene migrate away from @shaw.ca onto @outlook.com, and change her Rogers account password as well.
Two important takeaways from this stressful incident:
1) if anyone emails or texts you and asks you to buy gift cards from them, it's a scam. If unsure, ask the person something only they would know about you, and you'll never hear from them again.
2) if you're still using @shaw.ca for your emails, please get migrated off onto another provider before your account gets hacked — and before Rogers pulls the plus on that service. Rogers has already stopped letting you create new @shaw.ca email accounts, and have also started shutting-down Shaw email service for business customers.
2) If you use Gmail or Google Drive, we recommend you change new switches, to limit Google's AI scanning of your emails and content
Google has long been known to scan Gmail messages (along with Google photos, Android texts, and Chrome web-searches) to gather data on users which gets sold to data-scrapers.
But the extent of that data-scraping is now ramping-up dramatically, as Google is giving its Gemini AI system access to all your Gmail messages and Google Drive content, so it can 'learn' from them, and use that info to answer queries — unless you take action.
Google encourages users not to input confidential data into Gemini — but that can be easier said than done if the assistant is plugged into your entire Google life.
The good news is, you have control — provided you know where to look.
To fully opt out, you must turn off Gmail’s “Smart features” in two separate locations in your settings. Miss one, and AI training may continue.
Step 1: Turn off Smart Features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet settings
- Open Gmail on your desktop or mobile app.
- Click the gear icon → See all settings (desktop) or Menu → Settings (mobile).
- Find the section called Smart Features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet. (Scroll down quite a bit to find it.)
- Uncheck this option.
- Scroll down and hit Save changes if on desktop.
Step 2: Turn off Google Workspace Smart Features
- Still in Settings, locate Google Workspace smart features.
- Click on Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
- You’ll see two options: Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products…
- Toggle both off.
- Save again in this screen.
Step 3: Verify if both are off
- Make sure both toggles remain off.
- Refresh your Gmail app or sign out and back in to confirm changes.
Why two places?
Google separates “Workspace” smart features (email, chat, meet) from smart features used across other Google apps. To fully opt out of feeding your data into AI training, both must be disabled.
4) Logitech confirms data-breach after CLOP extortion attack
Hardware accessory giant Logitech has confirmed it suffered a data breach in a cyberattack claimed by the CLOP extortion gang, which conducted Oracle E-Business Suite data theft attacks in July.
Logitech is a Swiss multinational electronics company that sells hardware and software solutions, including computer peripherals, gaming, video collaboration, music, and smart home products.
Logitech says the data likely includes limited info about employees and consumers, as well as data relating to customers and suppliers, but the company does not believe hackers gained access to sensitive information such as national ID numbers or credit card info, as that data was not stored in the breached systems.
Logitech says that the breach occurred through a third-party zero-day vulnerability that was patched as soon as a fix was available.
Numerous companies have received emails from the Clop ransomware operation claiming that sensitive data had been stolen from their Oracle E-Business Suite systems. These emails warned that the stolen data would be leaked if a ransom demand was not paid…
Other organizations impacted by the 2025 Oracle E-Business Suite data theft attacks include Harvard, Envoy Air, and The Washington Post.
Tech Deals This Weekend
Because Black Friday is so late in the month this year (Nov. 28th), many stores have already started offering Black Friday prices.
We're listing the best deals as we find them, in a separate Black Friday 2025 Deals notes page, which we'll update regularly.
The link to those Notes is on our Home Page, and also below…
tech-talk.ca
2025 Black Friday sales
Black Friday week brings the lowest tech gear prices of the year — even lower than Boxing Day sales, which used to see the best prices. Black Friday is the day after US Thanksgiving, so that'll be Nov. 28 this year. It's called Black Friday because in years past, that's the date when most stores
Huge savings on the last few of last year's TV's at London Drugs — Tillicum Centre store only
Ricky managed to get approval to offer huge discounts (up to $1300 off!) on the last few 2024 Sony, LG, and Samsung smart TVs in stock at the Tillicum Centre store.
- Sony 65" X77L 4K smart TV: $600 (save $330)
- Sony 55" Bravia 7 miniLED 4K smart TV: $1000 (save $1300)
- Sony 55" 4K OLED smart TV: $1300 (that's half price)
- LG 55" G4 OLED 4K smart TV: $1300 (that's half price)
- Samsung 55" S85D OLED 4K smart TV: $1000 (save $1200)
- Samsung 55" Q60D QLED 4K smart TV: $600 (save $400)
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) Google Pixel 10 phones are now compatible with Apple AirDrop
For the first time since Apple invented their AirDrop system to allow iPhone, iPad and Mac users to equickly and easily exchange photos, videos, songs, notes, contacts and other conttent with each other, there's now a way to do that between some Android and Apple devices.
For now, it's limited to Google's Pixel 10 series, but Google says they plan to expand the compatibility to other recently-released Android phones.
It's done using Android’s Quick Share service.
On Google Pixel 10 phones, Apple devices will now appear in the fullscreen Quick Share interface and be selectable as sharing targets once an Apple device owner changes their AirDrop setting to "Everyone for 10 minutes". Similarly, Pixel 10 devices will appear on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac AirDrop screen when sharing is activated.
Google did not partner with Apple on this interoperability, and is leveraging its “own implementation”.
Here's a short no-sound video showing Qiuck Share to AirDrop content-sharing in action…
11) Amazon’s Alexa+ digital assistant is now available here in Canada
Alexa+ is an upgrade to the regular Alexa which is free if you have an Amazon Prime Membership, or $28/month if you don't.
If you buy some of the new Amazon hardware, like the new Echo Show 8 or 11, you’ll get access to the new Alexa immediately. However, people with older hardware will need to wait, though Amazon says that tens of thousands of people will gain access each week.
To improve the assistant, Amazon says it has tuned the new AI to sound distinctly Canadian, which includes various stereotypes like mentioning hockey often, mispronouncing Zamboni and saying its favourite Timbit is one that isn’t even sold in Canada anymore.
Alexa+ can also extract info from your emails and photos, including dates and context. But, to do that, you'll have to forward your emails to a custom Alexa+ email address that you'll find in the Alexa app. The new assistant can also remember your preferences, such as what foods you like and don't like.
Amazon says that in the USA, customers are using Alexa+ twice as much as regular Alexa. However, time will tell if that holds up to be true here in Canada. The company says Canada is a huge market for music streaming on Echo hardware, with 50 million hours of music being listened to each month. With Alexa+, you can ask for lyrics or describe a song, and it will do a better job at playing the song you want.
If you already own certain Echo devices, you can sign up to try Alexa+ Early Access by visiting Amazon.ca/newalexa.
12) If your vision is limited, try Microsoft's free Seeing AI app, which superbly narrates the world around you
A lot of people are worried about the bad things they think AI can do, but here's a superb example of what a huge positive difference it can make in the life of people with limited or no vision.
Microsoft's free Seeing AI app (suggested by Tech Talk listener Esther in Brentwood Bay who is unfortunately losing her vision quickly) can do two main things: it can read out any text your phone or tablet camera can see, or, it can describe what it sees in impressive detail. If someone sends you a picture, it can audibly describe in great detail what's in the picture.
It also has buttons for id'ing money, for describing the colours of objects, for scanning barcodes and telling you out loud what the product is and listing its ingredients and calorie info, and you can have it scan your surroundings and tell you how many people or animals are near you and where they are.
Here's a picture from my iPhone, and a screen-capture of the description which it read out aloud…
If you couldn't clearly see the picture, I think you'd have to agree that that's a pretty impressive AI-generated description!
13) Amazon's new Rufus AI agent will buy stuff for you at the price you want — if you let it
Amazon is turning its AI agent Rufus into a persistent AI shopping companion that remembers your preferences, watches prices, and can even buy products on your behalf.
Rufus can search for products based on activity, event, purpose, and other use cases, and automatically add items to your cart, tell you if you’re getting the best price, find top deals every day of the year, auto-buy items at a set price, and take a handwritten grocery list and add the items to your cart.
Amazon plans to extend this memory beyond retail, so Rufus can eventually consider what you watch on Prime Video or read on Kindle when it suggests products, while still letting you manage what is stored.
Under the hood, Rufus routes each query across multiple large language models hosted on Amazon Bedrock. It blends Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet, Amazon Nova, and a custom model trained on Amazon’s catalog, reviews, Q&A, and other store knowledge, choosing the right mix based on the task.
A real time router decides whether a question needs broad general knowledge, deep product detail, or fast search, balancing capability, latency, and answer quality for hundreds of millions of users.
Prime members can set price alerts, and if you give it permission, Rufus can automatically buy items when they hit a chosen price, using default payment and address details, with a 24-hour cancellation window. Early users are saving around 20%on average when they use auto-buy.
www.aboutamazon.com
Amazon’s next-gen AI assistant for shopping is now even smarter, more capable, and more helpful
Rufus can search for products based on activity, event, purpose, and other use cases, and automatically add items to your cart, tell you if you’re getting the best price, find top deals every day of the year, auto-buy items at a set price, and take a handwritten grocery list and add the items to…
15) Parasocial is Cambridge Dictionary's 2025 "Word Of The Year"
Interest in one-sided parasocial relationships that people form with celebrities, influencers, and AI chatbots has driven Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2025.
Millions of fans related to Taylor Swift’s confessional lyrics about dating, heartbreak and desire, leading to what psychologists describe as "parasocial" bonds with stars. When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, many fans felt a deep connection to the singer and American footballer, even though most had never met them.
Colin McIntosh of the Cambridge Dictionary said: “Parasocial captures the 2025 zeitgeist. It's a great example of how language changes. What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream. “Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise. The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionary website seeing spikes in lookups for ‘parasocial’.
The term dates back to 1956, when University of Chicago sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl observed TV viewers engaged in “para-social” relationships with on-screen personalities, resembling those they formed with “real” family and friends. They noted how the rapidly expanding medium of television brought the faces of actors directly into viewers’ homes, making them fixtures in people’s lives.
Runners-up (words which have been added-top or updated in the Cambridge Dictionary this year):
- Slop: content on the internet that is of very low quality, especially when it is created by artificial intelligence.
- Pseudonymization: a process in which info that relates to a particular person, for example a name or email address, is changed to a number or name that has no meaning, so it's impossible to realize to whom the info relates.
- Memeify: to turn an event, image, person etc. into a meme (= an idea, joke, image, video, etc. that is spread very quickly on the internet.).
16) The popular online kids game Roblox is rolling-out visual age regognition to confirm the age of players to better protect them
Roblox, the online gaming platform that has been under fire due to child safety concerns, has introduced age-verification software that uses facial scanning to estimate the age of players.
The system is currently voluntary, but by the first week of December it'll be a requirement in Australia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand in order for players to chat with others online. By early January, players in all Roblox markets, including here in Canada, will be required to use the software if they want to engage in chats with other players.
Roblox says the age-verification system is being put in place to limit contact between adults and children, which has been a chief concern among child-safety advocates.
How it works
Roblox's new age-verification feature takes a 3D scan of a player's face, using a webcam or a mobile device's camera, to estimate the person's age. Based on that estimate, a player can use online chat with other players in their age group. Roblox says it immediately deletes captured images or video after the age check is complete. The age check is performed by a vendor of Roblox called Persona.
Once they complete the check, players are grouped into the following age categories: under 9, 9–12, 13–15, 16–17, 18–20, or 21 and over. The company said that those under 9 won't be allowed to chat without parental permission. The chats won't be strictly limited to those age groups, necessarily. Roblox said players "can chat only with peers in their group or similar groups, as appropriate."
17) A passenger's smartphone video leads to scathing ruling by a judge against Air Transat
(repeating, because we didn't get to it last week, and it's important) An Ontario couple’s decision to record video of their negative interaction with Air Transat check-in staff has been applauded in a scathing decision by an Ontario judge, who ordered the airline to pay the couple $7000 for not allowing them to board their flight home from the Dominican Republic.
When they were sent to the wrong check-in lines because the wife has a Canadian passport and the husband has an Indian passport and a Canadian work permit, an Air Transat check-in person at the Punta Cana airport refused to let them board because they were in the wrong line.
At that point, the wife began recording what was happening on her smartphone. An Air Transat check-in supervisor can be seen yelling at the couple that they would not be allowed to board unless they stopped recording and deleted any video and pictures of their interaction.
They refused, and were not allowed to board, and ended-up pay for new tickets home to Toronto on an Air Canad flight. When they sued Air Transat in Ontario Small Claims court, the airline claimed it nenied them boarding because they were a security risk.
But in a scathing ruling, the judge pointed-out that the supervisor can be clearly seen and heard telling the couple they would be allowed to board if they deleted their footage. Justice Marcel Mongeon added, “Thank goodness” the wife recorded the video, “so that I can actually see how terrible the customer service that he received at the hands of the defendant corporation was.”
He ordered AirTransat to pay the couple $7000 to make-up for their mistreatment.
Two takeaways here: one, if things go south in your interactions with staff, record video. And two, if you end up out-of-pocket with an airline, instead of filing a complating with the (CTA) Canadian Transport Association, which can take years to get resolved, consider taking the airline to Small Claims Court, which usually takes only a few months.
20) 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.
Our two Grade 10 international homestay students — Natsuki from Osaka in Japan and Sofía from Madrid in España (Spain) —are getting their first tastes of a Canadian Christmas…
They got to meet Santa (for their first time ever) at Sidney's Christmas Kickoff Celebration…
…and we introduced them to Panettone (Christmas fruit bread from Italy), which is now flying off the shelves at Costco…
They tried both the traditional Chef Panettone baked in Milano, and the new Dubai-Chocolate style which was baked in Saronno; they beamed as soon as they opened the bags and sniffed the aromas…
Natsuki says if she had to choose, she'd pick the Dubai Chocolate style with pistachio filling and shredded filo atop the chocolate icing; Sofia, Suzanne, and I all prefer the traditional…
Lots of other types of Panettone are now in stock (while they last) at Victoria's Italian Deli, at London Drugs stores, at Thrifty Foods and other supermarkets, and even at WalMart stores.
See video #45 above to learn why it takes three days to make authentic Italian Panettone!
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
And so it goes…