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Apple’s latest updates patch more than 225 security vulnerabilities across iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, and Vision Pro devices.

The updates are iOS 26.6, iPadOS 26.6, macOS Tahoe 26.6, (for older Macs: macOS Sequoia 15.7.8 and macOS Sonoma 14.8.8), tvOS 26.6, watchOS 26.6, and visionOS 26.6 and include:

Depending on your device and what you've installed, the updates can range in size from several GB up to 19GB…

How to Update

This is a new twist on scam texts designed to get you to give hackers access to your bank account. The texts look like this screenshot, and are coming from 263 area code numbers in Quebec…

The text purports to be from a bank (CIBC in this case) and includes someone's name (not yours) and claims to be a confirmation of your request to change your banking PIN code, and says to call a till-free number if you didn't request the change.

DON'T CALL - IT'S A SCAM!

If you call, you will be connected to an overseas scammer who will claim to be from your bank's security department, and they'll offer to secure your account, and to cancel the PIN change. To do that, they'll text or email you a security code to confirm it's you, and get you to give that code to them. But what they're actually doing is getting your bank to send you a password reset code, and if you give that to the scammer posing as someone from your bank, they'll use it to change your password, lock you out of your own bank account, and proceed to transfer money from your account to themselves!

The text claims their phone has been drowned, damged, or lost and urges you to text them back on a temporary number. If you do, they'll ask you to help them regain access to one or more of their accounts — it could be a carrier code from an eSIM, or a code from Facebook, WhatsApp, or from their email provider — by having a security code texted to you.

DON'T GIVE THEM ANY CODES!

They're overseas scammers who are trying to gain access to your accounts so they can steal your identity and/or money!

If you're ever asked for help from someone — whether by phone call, text, or email — ask them a question to which only they would know the answer.

Because of AI voice-cloning, it's important you do this even if you recognize the voice on a phone call from someone asking for help.

A new hacking threat attributed to Russian threat actors is targeting travelers worldwide for malware delivery and credential theft via hotel Wi-Fi networks.

“Organizations should assume that public and hospitality network infrastructure might not be trustworthy,” Microsoft is warning, marking a notable hardening of its security advice for business travelers.

The warning follows the discovery of CaptiveCrunch, a global campaign attributed by Microsoft to Storm-2945, a sub-cluster of Russia’s Midnight Blizzard. The campaign targets corporate travelers with credential theft and malware delivered through compromised guest networks.

Microsoft says the activity has been under way since early May, involving hospitality networks and other guest networks served by captive portals worldwide.

By manipulating network traffic, the attackers redirect guests to fake sign-in pages without first sending a phishing email or compromising the PC.

Bottom line: NEVER use hotel Wi-FI to sign in to any of your online accounts, especially email, financial, or travel accounts. Use cellular data and tether your laptop from your phone if needed.

Feel free to bookmark that page, as we'll keep updating it with screenshots of the latest scams!

EICAR — the German-based European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research — is known around the world for having created the EICAR test file, which is a harmless 68-byte string of computer code which is used to test antivirus and antimalware systems.

It's not malware or a virus — it just pretends to be one, so anyone can test to see if their antivirus/antimalware software will block it, as it should.

Because hackers are getting smarter, the EICAR crew have developed a raft of more-sophisticated variants of their test file, to see if those will also be blocked, as they all should be.

We encourage you to go to their test page at WICAR.org and find out!

We're giving away a collection of more than 75 brand-new unopened ink cartridges from people whose printers either died, or who decided they no longer need a printer…

When Tesseract Computers re-opens on Tuesday after the BC Day long weekend, you're welcome to help yourself to any of the 77 cartridges that fit your printer, in exchange for a donation of your choosing to C-FAX Santas Anonymous. Tesseract is at 720 Broughton Street near Douglas in downtown Victoria; Gary has compiled a list to help you determine if your printer uses any of the cartridges…

Public Mobile, which is a self-serve budget brand owned by Telus, is offering a couple really good deals this BC Day long weekend, provided you're okay dealing with them by chat message!

If you don't need to make phone calls outside Canada or travel outside Canada, they're offering a 50GB/month Canada-only calling, texting and 5G data plan for just $35/month. If you want to call and/or travel to the USA and/or Mexico, they're also offering a $35/month plan that includes that, plus 1000 minutes of overseas phoning, but only half the data — 25GB/month…

If you want more data, and/or if you're going traveling overseas, you'll get a better deal from full-service Quebec-based Freedom Mobile.

Public Mobile and Freedom are both offering the same amounts of data this long weekend for their $40/month and $50/month plans, but Freedom also includes 126-country "Roam Beyond" coverage, and lets you roam at no extra cost onto Rogers, Telus, or Bell if you're beyond the range of the rapidly-growing network of Freedom 5G towers …

If you want more data here in Canada, and/or when overseas, Freedom has far and away the best rates of any carrier this long weekend…

As for phone deals, here are some of the best offers:

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

Canada's communications regulator, the CRTC, had given the major carriers — Bell, Rogers, and Telus — until July 30 to respond to the Commission's claims that the carriers had invented illegal new fees to replace the Activation Fees which were banned back in June.

But earlier this week, the CRTC suspended that deadline for responses, saying it was at the request of both the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Telus to delay these proceedings, and it will decide a new deadline once it’s reviewed their case.

The CRTC had said the carriers could face fines of up to $10 million for violating this ban but gave them a window to inquire further. That was originally until July 30, but now, it remains to be seen how much more time will be granted.

Li Zheng lost $69,000 in one phone call. A caller posing as a Chinese consulate official told her she was under investigation and had to transfer funds to Hong Kong or face arrest. In May 2018, she walked into a Bank of China Canada branch in Richmond, BC, and made the transfer. A month later, she learned it was a scam. Zheng alleged that the bank was aware of that type of fraud circulating in the local community — and said nothing.

The BC Court of Appeal has issued a ruling in Zheng v. Bank of China (Canada) Vancouver Richmond Branch, 2023 BCCA 43, that allowed her fraud claim to proceed to trial. The court found there was a genuine issue for trial as to whether the bank had a duty to warn her about the known fraud — and whether its failure to do so before the transfer was processed could amount to a legal breach.

The ruling has not changed Canadian banking law nationally. But it has given fraud victims — and their lawyers — a potentially usable legal roadmap.

The court did not find the bank liable. Instead, it found that whether the bank had a duty to warn — and whether it breached that duty — is a genuine issue that must go to trial rather than be dismissed on a summary basis.

Specifically, the court identified two conditions under which a bank may have a duty to warn a customer about fraud: first, the financial institution had knowledge of a particular fraudulent scheme occurring in the community; and second, a customer arrived with instructions to make a transfer that matched the profile of that fraud.

The court also found the bank’s exclusion-of-liability clause — the waiver Zheng signed on the day of the transfer — did not automatically end the case. Because the bank’s alleged failure occurred before she signed the paperwork, the waiver may not cover the misconduct.

As one legal analysis noted, the ruling provides “...a roadmap to plaintiff-side counsel to plead a sustainable duty to inquire/duty to warn case” which may lead to more claims of this type.

Meta-owned WhatsApp keep rolling-out useful new features to keep people from switching to competitors such as FaceTime, Signal, FB Messenger, and other communication apps.

Last month, they started allowing people who don't have a smartphone to use WhatsApp on an iPad or Android tablet, and now, they're rolling-out the ability to make WhatsApp calls using a web-browser on a computer, no app needed.

They're also adding the ability to start a call on one device, and then transfer it to another device which might be more convenient, such as if you're on your phone and then come home and would prefer to continue the call on a tablet or computer with a bigger screen.

For when you want more control of who joins your group calls and when, WhatsApp is also adding a Waiting Room. When you create a WhatsApp call link with "Require approval to join" enabled, participants will enter a waiting room until you're ready to let them in.

Also coming very soon, noise suppression to remove the background noise around you so your voice comes through clearly to the person you’re calling – even in loud or busy environments. It can be managed at any time in your in-call settings.

These features are rolling out gradually and will be available to everyone soon.

If you're aged 16 or older, and have a Canadian passport that was issued within the past 15 years, you can now renew it online within six months of it expiring, and get it within 20 days.

If it takes longer than 30 days, your renewal fee will be refunded!

Previously a maximum of 2,000 people per day could submit their applications online. That cap has now been removed, so eligible Canadians will no longer have to wait for an online application spot to become available.

Canadians can only apply online from within Canada and will need to upload a digital passport photo from a commercial photographer. Applicants can also digitally upload their supporting documentation.

There are now more than 40 of them, and they're in a separate Travel Tech Tips notes, which you can find on our Home Page, or on the toolbar at the top of any of our Notes.

Bell has introduced an AI-powered model to detect and protect against spoofed calls.

The company says it’s the first carrier in Canada to offer this functionality. Spoofed calls are a common technique employed by scammers in which VoIP (Voice over IP) is used to change caller ID info, helping them pose as representatives from organizations, business and others.

With its new AI model, Bell says its network can identify suspicious spoofing activity in real time.

This builds on the company’s existing Suspicious Call Detection tech, which it says has already analyzed 4.4 billion calls and blocked or labelled over 540 million suspicious or fraudulent calls. Now, it expects the AI-powered tool to help prevent millions of additional deceptive calls from reaching customers.

AI Suspicious Call Detection is rolling out now to customers on iOS and Android across Bell, Virgin Plus, Lucky Mobile, PC Mobile, No Name and Maxi. Bell says this change will happen automatically with no opt-in required.

It should be noted that other Canadian carriers offer similar tools. Rogers’ equivalent is called Spam Call Detect, while Telus has Call Control. However, Bell says it’s the first Canadian carrier to use AI identify and flag spoofed calls.

Amazon's Prime Video will exclusively broadcast Wednesday night national NHL regular-season games in Canada in English and French beginning next season, as part of a new 12-year sub-licensing agreement with Rogers Communications Inc.

The streaming service will also carry select Stanley Cup playoff series, including two first-round series and one second-round matchup annually.

A Rogers spokesperson said the playoff allocation will follow a draft format. Prime Video will receive the fourth and fifth selections among the eight first-round series and the third choice among the four second-round matchups.

Prime Video's lineup will include at least 26 national regular-season games, starting Sept. 30, and will be available to Prime members in Canada at no additional cost, while Rogers-owned Sportsnet retains the majority of national NHL games.

RTX Spark laptops represent a major leap in portable computing, merging AI, gaming, and creative performance in a single ARM-based platform. With high-end specs, and a Fall 2026 launch, these laptops will be positioned as premium alternatives to MacBook Pro and traditional Windows laptops, offering both AI and gaming capabilities in a slim form factor.

RTX Spark laptops are NVIDIA’s next-generation AI and gaming laptops, combining a 20-core Grace CPU, Blackwell RTX GPU, and up to 128GB unified memory, and will be released initially by ASUS and MSI this fall, and then next year by Acer, GIGABYTE, HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Microsoft Surface. NVIDIA plans to release more than 30 laptop models and 10 compact desktops across these brands.

NVIDIA’s RTX Spark platform is a revolutionary system-on-chip (SoC) designed for Windows PCs, integrating AI capabilities, RTX graphics, and high-performance computing in a slim laptop form factor. It delivers up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, supports up to 6,144 CUDA cores, and is optimized for gaming, content creation, and AI workflows. The platform is ARM-based, co-developed with MediaTek, and runs Windows 11 on ARM.

Confirmed Laptop Models

Current estimates suggest entry-level RTX Spark laptops may start around $2500 CAD, while high-end N1X models could reach $4100 CAD or more, depending on RAM, storage, and display options. Premium configurations with maximum memory and storage will likely exceed these figures.

A new car will carry 278 gigabytes of memory by the end of this year and the screen-heavy ones run 2 terabytes, more than most laptops hold, and the AI assistant in the dashboard eats 256 of those gigabytes on its own!

Back in January, insiders warned that the memory crunch would eventually hit the auto industry, as a tangled mess of chip supply problems collided with AI’s bottomless appetite for RAM. Same as with gaming, the warning was that scarce memory would push vehicle prices up.

A few months later, it’s happening, with automakers raising prices on 2027 models, blaming "chipflation".

Why does a car need so much RAM?

The average car in 2023 used about 90GB of combined DRAM and NAND memory. By the end of 2026, that’s expected to hit 278GB, with high-end, screen-everywhere models needing up to 2TB.

Two terabytes. In a car. That’s more storage than most people’s laptops.

Modern cars have quietly turned into supercomputers on wheels. All that memory feeds the infotainment screens, the digital cockpit, the safety and driver-assistance systems, and increasingly the in-car AI assistants that every automaker is now racing to install. A car with Level 4 autonomy will need at least 300GB on its own.

And those AI assistants are a big part of why this is biting now. An in-car assistant can demand 256GB of memory all by itself. So the same feature everyone’s cramming into new cars to feel cutting-edge is also helping drain the exact chip supply those cars are fighting over. Neat little loop.

How bad is this actually going to get?

Before you panic-buy a 2024 model, some perspective. The scary GM number, $1.5 to $2 billion in extra costs this year, has been getting tossed around as if it’s all memory. It isn’t. GM’s CFO Paul Jacobson framed it as a combined headwind from commodity inflation, logistics, and DRAM together, with the memory pain loaded into the back half of the year. GM hasn’t actually announced a memory-driven price bump on any specific vehicle.

DRAM itself, though, is genuinely brutal right now. The chips cost roughly six times what they did a year ago, and analysts at UBS estimate automotive DRAM jumped 180% in just three months.

But there’s a reason your next car isn’t about to jump thousands of dollars. The link between individual part prices and final sticker prices is actually pretty weak. Even doubling the memory cost of an average Canadian car, from about $75 to $150, adds only around 0.2% to the total bill of materials.

The exception is exactly where you’d expect: premium, software-heavy, screen-everywhere vehicles, where memory is a much bigger slice of the cost. And Chinese EVs, which pack in more chips than most Western rivals. One analysis pegged memory costs in Chinese-built cars at over $100 CAD per vehicle late last year, against roughly $50 CAD for Japanese ones. That’s why BYD moved first and hardest.

Following price hikes across the rest of Apple's product lineup, one analyst believes that the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro could be hit with a massive $400 CAD increase, a bump that might not be out of the question considering other recent price changes.

Apple increased the price of its Macs, iPads, and other products in June 2025 as a result of increasing RAM and storage costs. Some Mac models saw four-digit price hikes, although the iPhone lineup was left unscathed.

That has long been rumoured to change when the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro models launch this fall. A report from July 2026 hinted that a price increase of up to 10% was in the cards.

But analyst Jeff Pu has blown that prediction out of the water. According to a post on the X social network, Pu believes iPhone 18 Pro buyers could pay $350 CAD to $400 CAD more than the iPhone 17 Pro price at debut in 2026.

If Pu turns out to be right, the iPhone 18 Pro could start at $1949 CAD. Buyers of the iPhone 18 Pro Max could expect to fork out at least $2100 CAD for their new handset.

You may have heard that Apple has launched a new ‘Upgrade’ program that gives customers new leasing options for the company’s products. However, those of us living here in Canada don’t have access to the new program.

The new Apple Upgrade program gives customers access to new leasing options through Swedish fintech company Klarna. American customers can lease iPhones and Apple Watches over 12 or 24 months, or Mac and iPad products over 24 or 36 months, at rates starting at $18/month.

Notably, the program is a lease program, which means customers don’t own the device at the end of the lease period. Apple’s website notes that “customers can upgrade their device to the latest generation, purchase it with a one-time payment, or simply return it and exit the program” at the end of the lease.

While Apple Upgrade isn’t available in Canada, there are other purchase options available for Canadians. Apple itself offers both direct purchases and financing options, allowing customers to split the cost of an iPhone over 24 months.

In a similar vein, most Canadian carriers offer 24-month device financing programs for smartphones, as well as lease-like device return programs where Canadians can choose to return the phone after 24 months, or pay to keep it.

Apple captured 49% of global smartphone revenue in the second quarter despite accounting for only 23% of shipments, showing how much more money the iPhone generates per device than competing smartphones.

The company's iPhone revenue climbed 22% year over year in the second quarter, the fastest increase among the five largest brands. Its share of global smartphone revenue reached a second-quarter record of 49%, up from 44% a year earlier.

Apple has reported its third-quarter financials for 2026, posting revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16% year-over-year in the last full quarter under the control of departing CEO Tim Cook.

Saskatchewan artist Heather Cline flies with her husband on a small four-seater plane; while he’s piloting, she’s taking photos and videos as references for aerial paintings. On one “great day for flying,” the couple was flying for about 30 minutes at an altitude of 1.1km at speeds of more than 100km/h when an airstream sucked her phone right out of the case.

They travelled 100km on grids roads, trails and, eventually, in a canola field on foot, following the iPhone's "Find My" signal. It was there they found the phone undamaged, still capable of recording videos and photographs.

Cline said she doesn't plan to stop her flights, but may take more drastic measures to ensure it's secure. "Maybe we'll cable-tie it to my hand," Cline said.

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.

An ancient marine ‘crime scene’ discovered in Australia captures the world first evidence of a flying reptile being eaten by a sea monster…before that predator became dinner itself.

Forget Jurassic Park – beneath the ancient waters that once covered Outback Queensland, life was every bit as dramatic, brutal and unpredictable as any Hollywood blockbuster.

Now, an extraordinary fossil discovered near Richmond has revealed one of the most remarkable prehistoric “crime scenes” ever uncovered, providing the world’s first definitive evidence that an ancient marine reptile ate a flying reptile… before becoming prey itself to one of the largest predators ever to patrol Australia’s inland sea.

Published today in the international scientific journal Gondwana Research, the discovery rewrites what scientists know about life beneath Queensland’s prehistoric Eromanga Sea more than 100 million years ago.

At the centre of the discovery is a six-to-seven-metre-long ichthyosaur, a dolphin-shaped marine reptile, whose fossil preserves an astonishing sequence of events never before documented anywhere in the world.

Using cutting-edge 3D imaging technology, scientists discovered fragments of a pterosaur, a flying reptile, preserved inside what are believed to be the ichthyosaur’s fossilised stomach contents. It is the first definitive evidence anywhere in the world that an ichthyosaur consumed a pterosaur.

The ichthyosaur’s own skeleton bears enormous crushing bite marks, shattered bones and missing sections consistent with an attack – or scavenging event – by Kronosaurus queenslandicus, the giant apex predator that ruled Queensland’s ancient inland sea. Together, the fossil preserves an extraordinary prehistoric food chain frozen in time: PTEROSAUR → ICHTHYOSAUR → KRONOSAURUS

Check out our new YouTube Favourites playlist #2:

YouTube.com/playlist?list=PLOKnlVLuXE5URgg0ou8uGg4CnHXcou1UA

Our original Favourites playlist maxxed-out at 5000 videos; it's here…

YouTube.com/playlist?list=FLPPpa_PY8rxt-z1RoYZ7QJ

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

40) Watch Eric "The Tech Explainer" detail the performance boosts we got in all nine generations of Wi-Fi, including the new Wi-Fi 7 standard…

41) Watch Jack Morrison detail seven free Canadian airport perks which seniors 60+ just have to ask for to get…

42) Watch how they're going to spend €800 to dig under The Louvre next to the Seine to create new galleries including a room just for the Mona Lisa…

43) Watch tech guro Joanna Stern show how to make a custom sound that you'll hear whenever you start charging your iPhone…

44) Watch Listen to the "There, I Ruined It" gang use AI to brilliantly turn Adele's hit into "Rolling In The Deep-Fried" (Adele regrets Taco Bell)…

45) Watch Joe Jenkins and 30 other musicians perform a Coldplay "Fix You" flashmob in El Ateneo Grand Splendid library in Buenos Aires, Argentina…

46) Watch (and I defy you to not laugh) as Brazil's Fabrício Vinheteiro plays the Wedding March on his chickens…