Dec. 20 & 21, 2025 Show Notes
Last Weekend Before Christmas Edition
🎙️ Show airs live
Saturday: 10:05am-Noon PT
🔁 Rebroadcast
Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm on C-FAX
🎧 Podcast
Anytime
Your crew this weekend:
plus three of Ron and my international homestay students: Aoi from Tokyo in Japan, Sofía from Madrid in España (Spain), and Natsuki from Osaka in Japan, along with Cáit Caden from Ireland in the C-FAX Newsroom, and during our second hour, also my wife Suzanne, plus Gary Beyer from Tesseract Computers, and the Leo family from Pfaffenhofen in Germany!
2) If you see an online video or pitch for cryptocurrency, it's likely a scam, even if you see the Prime Minister or Elon Musk endorsing it
Canadians are being aggressively targeted by videos and images generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to invest in cryptocurrency, but virtually all of them are scams.
Some investors have lost their entire life savings by the time they realize it’s a scam.
There are many AI-generated cryptocurrency videos featuring former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, current PM Mark Carney, billionaire Elon Musk, as well as actors, celebrities, and news anchors. Criminals use AI-generated videos to make it appear as though someone is saying something they're not.
Tech Deals this weekend
Boxing Week isn't even here, and carriers have already started price wars!
Freedom Mobile last week launched Early Boxing Week discounts, and some other carriers reduced their rates to try to compete, so now Freedom has cut their rates and boosted data even more!
And for the first time, you can get a deal on an iPhone 17 — of which none of the carriers had enough to offer deals during Black Friday Week. Freedom is offering an iPhone 17 for $30, on a two-year $39/month plan which gives you 70GB/month of 5G Canada/USA/Mexico data, and unlimited calling in all three countries and back to Canada, and unlimited international texting.
(If your plans include multiple trips overseas, you can also get the iPhone 17 for free on a two-year $70/month plan which gives you 250GB data per month and also lets you use your phone at no extra cost in 120+ countries)
Freedom is also offering the iPhone 16 for free on a $65/month (new lower price) plan, along with a selection of other phones also for free, including the Pixel 10, the Samsung Galaxy S25FE, the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G, and the Moto G Play (2024) on two-year contracts that range from $34/month to $65/month.
If you already have a phone you're happy with, most of Freedom's "Early Boxing Week" service plans now include additional data as well as better prices…
And for the first time, Freedom is offering a $35/month Canada/USA plan with 100GB/month of 5G data good in Canada or the USA, plus unlimited calling to, in and from Canada/USA and unlimited international texting. This offer is only good till the end of business on Monday, Dec. 22nd.
By comparison, Telus-owned Koodo and Bell-owned Virgin are both offering early Boxing Week plans that not only cost more and include less data, but the plans are also Canada-only:
- $40/50GB unlimited Canada-wide talk, unlimited international SMS.
- $45/70GB unlimited Canada-wide talk, unlimited international SMS.
- $75/100GB unlimited Canada-wide talk, unlimited international SMS.
Laptop for $275: a great last-minute Christmas gift special
If you're down to the wire on Christmas shopping and are looking for a laptop for someone, Gary at Tesseract has just obtained a number of refurbished business-grade Lenovo Windows 11 ThinkPad T480 laptops.
Gary and Chris will have them on sale on Monday afternoon for just $275 at Tesseract Computers on Broughton near Douglas.
These laptops have a 14" screen, and are powered by 8th-gen Intel Core i5 processors, and come with a new 240GB SSD (a higher-capacity SSD is available for a nominal additional amount), 8GB of RAM and Windows 11 Pro. They won't be available until Monday afternoon, to give Gary and Chris time tio imnstall the new SSD's and Windows 11 Pro.
All records are on sale for 20% off at London Drugs till Dec. 26th
If you know someone who loves records, London Drugs has an extensive selection, and from now till close of business on Boxing Day, all records are 20% off, in store only.
High-power global travel power brick: $10 (save $30!) at London Drugs
They're usually $40, but they're on sale — while they last — on the London Drugs gadget wall for just $10!
If you know someone who's going to be travelling overseas, the Joby 20-watt USB-C travel charger is great because it comes with snap-on AC plus for different parts of the world.
If you don't yet have any USB-C cables (they're the new global standard, and charge much-faster than older USB-A cables), a bunch of those are on sale too on the cable wall.
Emrge LED Solar Lantern with carry-handle: $20 (save $15) at London Drugs
These lightweight portable lanterns are great for use in the backyard or on camping trips.
You can charge it up quickly via USB, and it'll run for hours on a charge.
It has an LED flashliught to guide your way, and a 360° soft glow LED lamp, and it has a hanging hook as well as a carry handle.
They're usually $35, but while they last, they're just $20 at London Drugs on their in-store gadget wall.
Anker pocket power-bank with built-in USB-C cable & charging plug
Anker's newest power-bank is a high-speed 10,000MaH model (enough to charge a smartphone 2-3x) that has a built-in USB-C charge cable, as well as both USB-C and USB-A charge ports, and can charge two devices at the same time.
It has a digital readout to indicate how much of a charge is left, and it also has a snap-out AC plug, so you don't need a separate cable to charge it!
Coscto has them in-stock for $40.
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) Rogers has launched satellite phone service here in Canada, including WhatsApp audio and video calls when beyond cell service
For $15 a month, no matter which carrier you're with, you can now try Rogers new Starlink-powered satellite-to-mobile service, which brings data, voice, video, and messaging to Canadians in areas where traditional networks simply don’t reach.
The commercial debut follows the company’s beta test earlier this year, which first enabled Starlink text messaging — including text-to-911 — starting in July.
Rogers Satellite now supports several must-have apps over Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell network, including WhatsApp for voice and video calls, Google Maps, AccuWeather, X, and CalTopo.
As developers update their apps to support satellite connectivity, Rogers says the list will expand.
The offering is available at no additional cost to Rogers customers on select plans during promotional periods, while all Canadians can subscribe for $15 CAD per month. Rogers says its plans to expand the service next to support full data and voice coverage, including 911 calling, for everyone in the country.
But Starlink may do an end-run around that…
Elon Musk's company has trademarked "Starlink Mobile" and starting late next year, plans to begin testing its own Direct-To-Cell service, using $17 billion worth of wireless spectrum it recently bought from EchoStar.
11) Updated: if you use Gmail or Google Drive (including @telus.net users), we urge you to change new switches ASAP, to limit Google's AI scanning of your emails and content
Google has long been known to scan Gmail (and @telus.net) emails (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 and @telus.net emaI 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 (go to gmail.com or email.telus.net).
- Click the gear icon in the upper-right and click on See all settings (desktop) or Menu → Settings (mobile).
- Scroll down and decide which of these features you want to turn off…
- Here's the first of two new important Settings to change: the section called Smart Features
- Uncheck this option. You'll get a pop-up to Turn off and Reload…
Confirm that, and when the page reloads, once again, click the gear icon in the upper-right and then click on See all settings.
Step 2: Turn off Google Workspace Smart Features
- Still in Settings, scroll down to the Google Workspace smart features section.
- 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 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.
12) TikTok has made a deal with investors and the Trump administration that will allow it to keep operating in the USA
TikTok has signed a deal to sell its half its USA business to three American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in that country.
Canadians will continue to use the international version of the app that’s owned and influenced by Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd. Canadian users’ data will continue to be stored in Singapore, Malaysia and to some degree, in the USA, while its algorithm will continue to be influenced by the Chinese firm.
Data of TikTok users in the USA will be stored in the USA in a system run by Oracle, and TikTok's algorithm — the secret sauce that powers its addictive video feed— will be retrained on USA user data to "ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation", and the American jointg venture group will also oversee content moderation and policies within the USA.
The deal, which is expected to close on Jan. 22, 2026, marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the USA.
Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX will each hold a 15% share of the new TikTok USA joint venture, while another 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9%will be retained by China-based ByteDance.
13) TV makers are being sued for secretly taking screenshots of what we're watching so they can target us with ads
If you have a TV made by Sony, Samsung, LG, TCL or HiSense, software inside the TV is likely secretly taking screenshots of what you're watching and sending them back to the TV manufacturer so that info can be sold to advertising companies.
The state of Texas is suing the five TV makers, saying that's a grossly illegal invasion of privacy.
“These companies have been unlawfully collecting personal data through Automated Content Recognition (‘ACR’) technology,” Texas A-G Ken Paxton’s office alleges in a news release that contains links to all five lawsuits. “ACR in its simplest terms is an uninvited, invisible digital invader. This software can capture screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds, monitor viewing activity in real time, and transmit that information back to the company without the user’s knowledge or consent. The companies then sell that consumer info to target ads across platforms for a profit.
Using ACR, each company “secretly monitors what consumers watch across streaming apps, cable, and even connected devices like gaming consoles or Blu-ray players,” and harvests the data to build profiles of consumer behavior and sell the data for profit, the complaints say.
If you want to turn off this hidden monitoring, it can take more than 15 clicks!
For example, on my Samsung TV, I hade to open Settings and then go to Additional Settings, General Privacy, Terms & Privacy, Viewing Information Services, and, finally, “Disable". I also had to find and turn off additional toggles for Interest-Based Ads, Ad Personalization, and Privacy Choices.
The process is different, but just a complicated for the other brands.
(You can use an AI agent like CoPilot, ChatGPT, or Gemini to find out how to turn off Automated Content Recognition technology on your brand of TV.)
The TV makers are refusing to commentg now that the legal action has been filed.
14) iPhone tip: how to restore missing Phone app Favourite numbers
If you have an iPhone and have updated it to iOS 26, you'll see that your Favourites and Voicemail buttons at the bottom of the phone app has disappeared…
This is because Apple has rolled-out a cleaner 'unified' look for the app, which now just show Calls, Contacts, Keypad, and Search.
If you want your Favourites and Voicemail buttons back, it's fortunately easy to get them back!
- Tap on the Calls button
- In the upper-right, tap on the three cascading lines
- Tap on Classic
Your Favourites and Voicemail buttons will reappear!
15) Please replace surge-protecting power bars after three years!
Many people are unaware that most surge protector power-bars only provide protection for two to three years, on average. (see below for ones with lifetime protection.)
This is why we recommend you use a felt pen to write the month and year on the bottom of almost any power bar you buy, and after three years (two, if you live in an area where there's lots of construction), replace it with a new one, and use the old one for lamps and other inexpensive gear.
If you have really valuable tech gear, or just don't want to replace your power bars every few years, check out PowerQuest audiophile-grade power bars by AudioQuest. They have special technology built-in that filters out power surges before they get to the surge protector, so they'll last for decades.
PowerQuest power bars by AudioQuest start at $329 for a three-outlet model and run up to $8900 for their most-expensive unit! They're available at Atlas AVU or SoundHounds here in Victoria, from Spinners Sound Centre in Vernon, or online from AudioQuest.com
16) Cockroaches are having micro-cameras and microphones glued on them to turn them into cyborg spies
In a Berlin lab, a team at SWARM Biotactics is turning insects into living robots.
The German startup is developing microelectronic backpacks that can transform Madagascar hissing cockroaches into mobile reconnaissance units capable of carrying cameras, microphones, and Doppler radar through confined or hazardous environments.
CEO Stefan Wilhelm says the choice of insect was deliberate. The Madagascar hissing cockroach is large enough to carry small payloads, resilient under extreme conditions, and well studied in biology labs. "Millions of years of evolution actually produced a very resilient, a very mobile and a very capable insect," Wilhelm said. "That is, for what we want to do, a perfect, perfect animal, actually."
SWARM's biology, electronics, and robotics system weighs up to 15 grams. Engineers are working to bring that figure down to 10 grams to reduce strain on the insect. Each unit can hold sensors such as optical cameras or radar modules, turning the insect into a low-profile reconnaissance device.
According to Wilhelm, cockroaches can survive exposure to chemicals, heat, and radiation – all of which make them suitable for environments that conventional robots or humans cannot safely enter.
SWARM has also begun evaluating other potential species, including locusts and grasshoppers, for future development.
17) Feeling down? Call a free recorded pep-talk hotline created by elementary school kids in California
West Side Elementary School in Healdsburg, California, is offering all the inspiration you'll ever need. With help from two art teachers, its students have created a free telephone hotline where callers get unscripted, motivational messages.
"Hi, welcome to Peptoc, a public art project by West Side school. If you're feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, press 1," the hotline says. Among the joyful suggestions: "If you're nervous, go get your wallet and spend it on ice cream and shoes!"
Whatever your worry, they have a solution.
"If you need words of encouragement, press 2," another message says. "Be grateful for yourself."
Whatever your insecurity, they'll restore your confidence.
"If you need a pep talk from kindergarteners, press 3," the hotline says. "You can do it!"
So if you could use a little inspiration, call the free hotline at +1 707-873-7862.
18) iPhone/iPad tip: how to blank-out sensitive info in screenshots or photos
If you want to share a picture of a document, passport, plane ticket, or other image that has sensitive info you want to keep private, you can use the Markup feature in the Photos app. Here's how…
- In the iPhone or iPad Photos app, open the screenshot or photo you want to censor. (To take a screenshot, just say, "Siri, take a screenshot".)
- Tap Edit icon (three lines with dots, at the bottom, circled in red in screenshot below)
- In the upper right corner, tap the Markup icon — it looks like a pen tip
- In the lower left corner, tap the + button
- Tap the Square icon, next to the circle
- In the lower left corner, tap the Square/Circle Shape icon
- Tap the left-most Filled-In Square
- Using the blue toggles, move and stretch the square over the sensitive info you want to hide
- When finished, tap Done
On iPhone 16 and 17 models (and also iPhone 15 Pro), you could also use the "CleanUp" tool (circled in yellow in screenshot below) to erase the sensitive info…
19) The Oscars are moving from ABC to YouTube — in 2029
In a(nother) seismic shift from broadcast TV to streaming, the Academy Awards have found a new home, with the red carpet pre-awards, all the awards that aren't generally broadcast, the Oscars certemony and the Governors Ball afterwards all moving exclusively to YouTube starting in 2029.
Until then, they'll continue to be broadcast on ABC, up to and including the 100th Ocscars in 2028.
This isn't the first time the long-time awards show has moved from one home to another. The Oscars were initially televised in 1953 by NBC, but then switched to ABC for a number of years. NBC briefly took over in the early 70s, before reverting back to ABC.
21) "Operation Bluebird" wants to relaunch “Twitter”, claiming Elon Musk has abandoned the name and logo, but X is fighting-back
A Virginia startup calling itself “Operation Bluebird" has filed a formal petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office, asking the federal agency to cancel X Corporation’s trademarks of the words “Twitter” and “tweet” since X has allegedly abandoned them. But Elon Musk is fighting-back, launching legal action agains the Virginia startup, accusing the group of trademark infringement.
“The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.’s products, services, and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark,” the petition states. “The TWITTER bird was grounded.”
If successful, two leaders of the group say Operation Bluebird would launch a social network under the name Twitter.new, possibly as early as late next year.
(Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting users to reserve handles.)
In a 43-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Delaware, X Corporation is fighting the move, alleging trademark infringement, adding that despite Bluebird’s “purported plan, it cannot bring Twitter ‘back’—Twitter never left and continues to be exclusively owned by X Corp.” Undaunted, Operation Bluebird says it was “fully expecting” a lawsuit from X Corporation and that “we planned for it".
23) Roomba robot vacuum maker iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after increased competition & tariff woes
Roomba maker iRobot has filed for bankruptcy protection and will change its ownership, but your robot vacuum cleaners will probably be fine.
After warning that its cash balance was running close to empty, it inevitably ran out, and iRobot commenced a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection process to fight for its survival.
The plan under the pre-packaged process will see it taken on by new owners. This includes entering into a court-supervised "Restructuring Support Agreement" with Shenzhen Picea Robotics Inc and Santrum Hong Kong co. limited, Ltd., collectively referred to as Picea.
Under the agreement, Picea will gain 100% of the equity interests in iRobot, taking complete ownership. It is expected that the Chapter 11 process will be completed by February 2026, if there isn't any outside or court interference.
While Picea isn't really a household name in the West, it is closely linked to iRobot. It has served as the main manufacturer for the company's robot vacuum lines. Picea has more than 7,000 employees around the world, including research and development and production facilities in China and Vietnam.
On its own, Picea has sold more than 20 million robot vacuum cleaners.
Gary Cohen, CEO of iRobot, called the announcement a "pivotal milestone" in securing the company's future. The move will strengthen its financial position and ensure continuity for consumers and its partners.
26) 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.
Last Sunday, we, along with friends Rick and Zack, braved the rain and took our Grade 10 homestay students Natsuki from Osaka in Japan and Sofía from Madrid in España (Spain) to Vancouver, first to the German Christmas Market at Jack Poole Plaza…
…and then to the Capilano Canyon Lights, which were spectacular, with more than two million lights. Natsuki does not like heights, so we were really proud to see her overcome her fears and make her way across the suspension bridge and, holding on tightly, through the Treetops Adventure!
On Thursday night, we took in Daniel Lapp's brilliant and uplifting "Home For Christmas" concert, which featured more than 200 young fiddlers plus a raft of other talented performers…
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
From all of us behind these microphones, Merry Christmas!
And so it goes…