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The update — iOS/iPadOS 26.6.2 — fixes a problem that was introduced for some iPhone and iPhone owners in 26.6.1, but the irony is that if you're one of the affected people and you don't have Wi-Fi, you'll have to go to some place with Wi-Fi in order to install the update!

Once done, you'll regain the option to install future updates via cellular, if you don't have Wi-Fi.

iOS/iPadOS 26.6.2 is about 450- to 700- MB in size, and only takes a couple minutes to install…

Get it by going to Settings, General, Software Update. As always, your iPhone or iPad will have to either have at least 50% battery, or be charging, in order to install the update.

The emails look like the screenshot below, and advise that you won't be able to access your email unless you agree to updated Terms of Service...

The emails, which are addressed to Dear User (not you by name), claim to be coming from support@outlook.com, which real emails from Microsoft would come from an address @microsoft.com.

More importantly, they want you to tap or click on the UPDATE YOUR TERMS OF SERVICE HERE link, which as you can see in the screenshot, will take you to a fake Microsoft account log-in page hosted at framer.app — which is a Dutch webpage building platform…

If you fill-in the info boxes and hit Next, AI-powered computers run by the scammers in Netherlands will trigger a password reset request to Microsoft for your account, and you'll be taken to a webpage asking for that security code, and if you supply it, the hackers will take over your account and lock you out of it so they can steal first your identity, and then your money.

NEVER click or tap on links in emails like this!

These scam Interac eTransfer emails are not new; they seem to come in waves, but a lot of people are reporting getting one this week, and it looks like this screenshot…

The emails are coming from the email account of a (now former) employee at olloum.com, which is a small, Malaysia‑based online clothing retailer focused on modest, urban Muslim fashion.

The emails, which are addressed to your email address instead of to you by name, and state that an Interac eTransfer could not be deposited into your bank account, without saying the amount or who the sender is. You're encouraged to hit the Select a different institution link, but as you can see in the screenshot, that would take you to an unusual webpage (hosted in Malaysia) where you'd be presented with a list of Canadian bank and credit unions and asked to choose yours…

If you do, it takes you to a real-looking log-in page for your bank or credit union (but with the wrong address at the top)…

They're hoping you'll give them your log-in info so they can start stealing your money.

NEVER tap or click on links in texts or emails about Interac.

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

If you're a Telus home internet/TV customer, you may have received a text and/or email advising that your customer info has been compromised. The start of the email looks like this…

The info which was stolen is now being used by scammers, who are calling Telus customers, posing as Rogers agents, and offering a much lower rate if you switch providers. It's a scam.

If you agree to switch providers, they'll get Telus to send you a security code by text or email, and if you give that code to the person on the phone, you're giving them permission to take over your Telus account so they can steal your identity and your money.

Do not interact with anyone who calls, offering a better deal on your internet, TV, or mobile service.

Telus says it has taken steps to mitigate the impact of this security breach:

TELUS has also retained Norton to provide two years of complimentary TELUS Guardian identity theft protection. Instructions on how to accept that offer are in the email from Telus, if you're one of the affected customers.

TELUS Guardian membership includes:

Telus is also urging affected customers to review their Telus account info and recent bills to ensure everything is as you expect. Contact them immediately if you notice any unexpected changes or have concerns.

Because of the significance (and quantity) of holes that these updates fix, we recommend you take the time to check to see that any computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10 with ESU, has been completely updated.

To do that, go to Settings> Windows Update> Check for updates> Download and install all

and also go to…

Settings> Windows Update> Advanced options> Optional updates> Driver updates> Download and install all.

Two years ago, Fodie Karim was cooped up in his one-bedroom apartment at View Towers, recovering from cancer surgery and chemotherapy, scrolling through social media.

He was on TikTok when he came across “this guy called Elon Musk,” who started messaging him using the site.

“He started asking me about what I do,” Karim said. “I started straight away, giving him my story, that I had just undergone an operation and now I’m doing the chemo.”

It didn’t take long for the account he thought was operated by the world’s richest man to begin preying on his dream of building a six-bedroom house for his extended family in Sierra Leone — a goal that he had almost achieved before his cancer diagnosis set him back.

A new Tesla along with $3 million in cash was headed his way — and he would be able to know exactly when it would arrive, as long as he paid to keep the shipment tracker active with an Apple gift card.

That gift card, sent over WhatsApp in the fall of 2024, was the first of many money transfers Karim made after falling victim to an elaborate scam that has left the 61-year-old facing the prospect of living on the street.

Karim has been served with an eviction notice by his landlord, Westsea Construction Ltd., after he failed to pay about $3,600 in rent as he tried to meet the fraudster’s demands. Thankfully, they have come to an arrangement to give him time to pay back his rent and avoid eviction, but that isn't guaranteed in every situation.

Do you know someone that might be tricked into falling for a similar scam?

Please take the time to share Fodie's story with them.

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

Folding phones have been around for five years, but Apple watched and waited until it could deliver a product that beats the others, and now has released its much-anticipated iPhone Duo…

One of the small but brilliant details that sets it apart from other folding phones is Apple's decision to move the row of most your important apps from across the bottom, to the right edge…

To hide the seam between the two inner screens, and make it a durable as possible, the screen is actually made up of 10 ultrathin layers, with the top one being a matte nano-textured coating.

The iPhone Duo starts at $3000, which compares the Samsung's Galaxy Fold 8 which starts at 2400, and the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold which starts at $2500 (all prices $CAD).

In the USA, the iPhone Duo starts at $2000, which converts to $2773 CAD, so we're paying an extra $227. It's also being sold for higher prices in other countries; analysts think Apple has done that so non-USA buyers will, in effect, subsidize buyers in the USA.

Pre-orders will begin on the 16th, with the first units to appear in stores on the 23rd.

Apple has substantially boosted the specs in its new flagship iPhones, the iPhone 18 Pro and its larger brother iPhone 18 Pro Max, and has also added a variable-aperture lens, giving photo buffs pro-level control over how they capture images.

And in this new age of AI-created imagery, Apple has also included the ability to embed digital 'it's a real photo' certification into images.

The new models cost $150 more than the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models which they succeed; analysts have calculated that the component costs are actually closer to $400 higher, so Apple, just as Samsung and Google have done, has clearly chosen to absorb a sizable chunk of that to remain competitive util memory and RAM prices come back down.

Pre-orders will begin this Sunday, with the first units to appear in stores on the 18th.

Apple's new Series 12 and Ultra 4 watches include an all‑new Health Sensing System that delivers the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable, as well as other performance improvements. Apple Watch Series 12 measures HRV as often as every five minutes and takes background heart rate readings every five seconds — the most frequent sensing ever for Apple Watch.

But the new feature that's likely to be the biggest hit is Live Rewind, which catches what you missed. Did someone say something you couldn’t hear in a loud restaurant or share cooking instructions you didn’t quite catch? Just double‑click the Digital Crown, and Live Rewind transcribes what was said in the last 15 seconds and dsiplays it on the watch screen.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 was designed to be the ultimate running watch, with game-changing health and fitness tracking to help you elevate your performance, plus significantly extended battery life — up to 45 hours of use on a single charge.

The new Apple Watch models are $150 more than the Series 12 and Ultra models which they succeed. The Series 12 starts at $549 CAD, while the Ultra 4 starts at $1099 CAD and can be pre-ordered now, with in-store availability beginning next Friday, the 18th.

Likely to be the most-popular of all the new products which Apple unveiled this week are the AirPods 5, which will cost $179 CAD — the same as the AirPods 4 which they succeed, but now they not only include ANC — Automatic Noise Cancellation — at no extra cost, but its a new noticably-better ANC, which includes Auto-Transparency, which lets you hear what's being said if someone starts talking to you (even if they're trying to get your attention from behind you) or if there's an in-flight announcement, or an approaching siren.

These new AirPods 5 should also qualify to be used as Hearing Aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. That feature should be activated here in BC with the release of iOS 27 this coming week.

The AirPods 5 come in two flavours — the basic model with ANC which come in a cable-charge case for $179, or, for $40 more ($209 CAD) you can get AirPods 5 with ANC with a Wireless Charging Case which includes on-stem volume swipe and longer battery life. Both can be pre-ordered now, with in-store availability beginning next Friday, the 18th.

A new Apple TV, a HomePod with a swiveling screen, new iPads, and more, are expected…

Apple has announced that the new '27' versions of its iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV operating systems will be available for free downloads starting this Monday, September 14th.

iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and tvOS 27 will all include the much-anticipated new Apple Intelligence (on devices made in the last couple years), plus the new AI-powered Siri, including a stand-alone Siri app.

Apple says its focus in creating these new operating systems has been to make them work faster and better, and as a result, there are not a lot of big new features (other than Apple Intelligence, which is huge). As a result, any iPhone that can run iOS 26 will be able to run iOS 27, and in fact, it should run noticably faster.

Despite all that, we encourage you to hold-off upgrading your device to the new '27' versions, because new operating systems always include a raft of bugs, and sometimes ones that mess up apps that you really count on!

Apple usually releases updates to fix most of the bugs within a couple weeks of the initial release, and we urge you to wait till that happens before upgrading.

Because the new '27' operating systems will include a raft of security patches and bug fixes, Apple will also be releasing updates to the current '26' family of operating systems on Monday, and those 26.7 updates should be installed.

Here's a look at the new features coming in the new '27' family of operating systems…

Apple has increased Canadian prices for the iPhone 16, iPhone 17, iPhone Air and iPhone 17e, with buyers now paying between $100 and $450 more depending on the model and storage.

The iPhone 17 now starts at $1,299 CAD, while the iPhone Air starts at $1,599 CAD and the iPhone 17e starts at $999 CAD. The largest increase affects the 1TB iPhone Air, which has jumped nearly 22% to $2,499 CAD.

Here’s how the new prices compare with the previous pricing; all amounts are $CAD, before taxes…

You can blame these memory price hikes on the AI data-centre server boom, as consumer electronic memory production is in short supply.

Apple first introduced satellite connectivity on the iPhone with the iPhone 14 lineup, initially offering Emergency SOS via satellite and the ability to share your location through Find My via satellite. At launch, Apple said access would be free for two years.

Since then, Apple has expanded its satellite offering with additional features, including Roadside Assistance via satellite and Messages via satellite. The company now collectively refers to these as its satellite features.

In November 2023, Apple extended free access to Emergency SOS via satellite by another year for existing iPhone 14 users. Last year, Apple again extended free access, this time covering its satellite features for existing iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users.

This meant that without another extension, free access would have begun to expire for some users later this year. However, Apple has revealed in a footnote to this week's iPhone 18 Pro news release that it's extending free access for another year, and now including existing iPhone 16 users as well…

Since Apple gives buyers of new iPhones one year of free access to its satellite features, this means that users who buy the new iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo will get their own free year, while existing iPhone 14, iPhone 15, and iPhone 16 users covered by the extension will also get another year of free access.

To this day, Apple has not announced how much it plans to charge for its satellite features once the free access period ends. Given that these are potentially life-saving features, many speculate that Apple might ultimately keep at least some of them free, since charging users for access to emergency services could prove controversial.

Canada's communications regulator, the CRTC, is bringing in new rules that should make it much easier for us to compare internet plans and understand what we're actually paying for.

Under the new rules, Canadian internet providers will need to give us clearer and more consistent info when advertising their plans. That includes showing the internet speeds we can expect during the busiest times of day, instead of only advertising speeds listed as “up to.”

Providers will also need to clearly show the monthly price we'll pay after any promotional discount ends.

The CRTC says the changes will come into effect on March 10 of next year, and are designed to make it easier to compare plans and avoid unexpected price increases.

Google's new flagship AI weather forecasting model, WeatherNext3, now includes real-time satellite data, hourly refreshes, higher resolution, precise precipitation forecasting, and clean energy variables.

WeatherNext3 is now integrated at no cost across Google Search, Gemini, Maps, Google Maps Platform, and Google Cloud.

In recent years, AI has revolutionized weather forecasting, using historical records to make faster and more accurate predictions than traditional methods. Yet predicting highly local and rapidly changing weather has remained a challenge. Previous models often lacked sufficient spatial resolution, and struggled to incorporate real-time weather data from sources like satellites.

Now, Google DeepMind and Google Research have rolled-out WeatherNext 3, which they say is the most advanced and accurate global weather model to date. WeatherNext 3 learns directly from real-time observations, enabling it to provide timely and more localized predictions for the weather events that impact people the most. By using raw satellite data to produce a forecast every hour in high resolution, it makes reliable forecasts accessible across Google products worldwide.

There's a familiar joke that older generations often struggle with technology, unable to open a PDF, find Wi-Fi settings, or stop referring to every gaming console as "the Nintendo." This resonates with many families, each having their own story involving a frozen laptop, a stubborn printer, or a password reset that ends up consuming an entire afternoon. The common punchline suggests that older adults simply don't understand technology. However, a more insightful perspective is that many of them know enough to choose to avoid certain aspects.

What is often labeled as tech illiteracy may actually be better described as tech exhaustion.

The notion that Baby Boomers are primarily offline has long been outdated. The CRTC says 95% of Canadian adults use the internet, the same percentage either own, or share, a smartphone, and 82% have a high-speed internet subscription at home. While there are still noticeable age gaps in internet usage, the stereotype that older individuals are disconnected from technology long ago lost its validity.

The difference often lies in how different generations use technology. Many Baby Boomers text family members, stream shows, check their bank balances, video call their grandkids, and play a few games without wanting to navigate platforms like Discord, Twitch, cloud saves, or the latest console dashboards. This doesn't mean they are incapable of using technology; rather, they choose to focus on the aspects of the digital world that they find most useful.

Rogers has unveiled "Saturday Night Hockey" with familiar faces on Sportsnet as being its replacement for CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada", but the tandem announcement which is actually generating more feedback is that Monday night NHL games this season will only be available on the subscription-based Sportsnet+ app.

This comes on the heels of the announcement that Wednesday night NHL games will only be watchable on Amazon's Prime Video app.

Sportsnet+ is free to anyone who subscribes to Sportsnet via their TV provider, but you'll need a $13/month subscription to unlock Monday Night Hockey.

LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even when offline or on standby mode, according to a new report from YouTube channel Gamers Nexus.

LG TV's scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you’re watching from across the TV inputs.

Gamers Nexus partnered with fellow YouTubers Level1Techs and independent security researchers for the investigation, which involved testing retail LG OLEDs. Packet captures showed the TVs scanning the local area network for nearby hardware like phones or smartwatches, as well as logging location data and details of nearby Wi-Fi networks, and feeding the information back to LG Ad Solutions. Perhaps more concerningly, the TVs were capable of recording microphone audio when in standby; this continued even after the TV was disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection was restored.

The usual advice for smart devices, unplug it from the network, doesn’t fully work here. When the team pulled the Ethernet cable, the TV kept transcribing voice prompts and queuing network scans, writing everything to its internal flash storage. When they reconnected the cable, whether minutes or days later, it uploaded the full queued dataset to LG’s servers.

So the collection runs continuously regardless of connectivity. Going offline doesn’t pause it, it just delays the upload. Someone who unplugs their TV overnight and reconnects it in the morning has still had it logging audio, scanning the network, and fingerprinting content the whole time, and all of it goes out the moment the connection returns.

The research team’s only fully effective mitigation is disconnecting the LG television from any network permanently and using an external streaming device, an Apple TV, Chromecast, or similar box, for smart functionality. That removes the TV from the network entirely and leaves it as a pure display, driven by the external device’s HDMI output.

Important update: LG has strongly denied the central privacy and surveillance claims raised by the Gamers Nexus investigation. LG notes that its existing privacy language says its televisions “do not collect, record, or store ambient conversations.”

However, the evidence gathered in the Gamers Nexus investigation, including plain-text transcriptions stored in on-device logs, microphone captures during apparent standby, and a 10-to-15-second post-speech capture window, directly contradict that.

More info on the investigation,and on LG's response, is below…

Regardless of who you believe, we urge you to go into your TV's settings and turn off the ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) settings. More on that, along with instructionson how to turn off ACR, are in these notes…

Amazon has found a way to get an affordable and guaranteed supply of powerful computing chips for its rapidly-growing network of AI data-centres: it's going to buy $4 billion worth of shares of chip-marker Qualcomm, and Qualcomm will use that money to build custom AI chips for Amazon.

This multi-generational collaboration will allow Qualcomm to get a much bigger toe-hold into the AI chip market which is currently dominated by NVidia and TSMC.

The deal has made shares in both companies jump in value.

We’ve heard warnings about the risks of artificial intelligence before — with some predicting that the machines could rise up and wipe out humanity, like something out of a movie. But the latest warnings have grabbed people’s attention in a way the others haven’t.

U.S. lawmakers this week called for new rules to govern AI, after an Anthropic researcher went public with his concerns about the technology escaping human control.

The reaction was broader than after previous statements from OpenAI and Anthropic staffers about safety concerns, drawing input from lawmakers who do not often forcefully engage in debates over how to govern AI.

The lawmakers’ statements came in response to concerns raised this week by Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, ​who accused OpenAI and Anthropic of ⁠racing toward AI advancements without acting responsibly. Coxon said he was leaving the AI industry, and his allegations spread rapidly on the social media platform X, with Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger later chiming in on X, saying Coxon was “correct.”

It’s that time of year again, when we learn which lucky scientists are among the winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes. This year, the prizes honour research on designing the perfect splash-free urinal; using mosquito proboscises to “necroprint” tiny nozzles; studying composition rates of buried cotton underwear; and the aerodynamics of a healthy nose-blow, among other highlights.

Established in 1991, the Ig Nobels are a good-natured parody of the Nobel Prizes; they honour “achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.” The unapologetically campy awards ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and “24/7 lectures,” whereby experts must explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds and the second in just seven words.

And as the motto implies, the research being honored might seem ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of scientific merit. In the weeks following the ceremony, the winners will also give free public talks, which will be posted on the Improbable Research website.

By a 164-to-1 vote, the United Nations has adopted a resolution for the world to formally phase-out the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Eckert IV Equal Earth design — a change that makes Africa look noticably larger, and North America noticably smaller…

Here's a comparison, with the new map overlaid on the old Mercator version…

The USA cast the sole vote against, dismissing the initiative as part of a “radical ideological project", while six countries – Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine – abstained.

The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection or impose a replacement. Instead, it encourages governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection and other so-called equal-area maps when relative size matters, and to teach the limitations of any flat map in representing a spherical planet.

Behind that seemingly technical debate lies a larger argument about history and power: whether a map designed for European sailors in the 16th century has, over generations, distorted not only geography but perceptions of a whole, vast and complex continent.

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.

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.

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 Apple's full event unveiling the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Aple Watch 12 and Ultra 4, and AirPods 5…

…or skip to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max segment…

…or skip to the AirPods 5 unveiling…

…or skip to the segment on the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4…

…or skip to the iPhone Duo unveiling…

41) Watch Apple's 75-minute event compressed into just 24 minutes, here…

42) Watch a three-minute showcase of Apple's new iPhone Duo…

43) Watch YouTube comedian Ryan George wonder why restaurant menus are so complicated…

44) Watch the highlights of the Gamers Nexus investigation which found that LG TV's spy on us, even when they're offline or on standby…

45) Watch low-bass singer-extrordinaire Geoff Castellucci perform an impressive version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"…

Their choice for best ribs was the local crew from Grizzly BBQ…