Or, you can subscribe to "Tech Talk with Alan Perry" (it's free) on any podcast app including these…

Take part on Saturday morning when we're live:

Legitimate polling companies will always include info on how to find them online, and will state that they are a member of CRIC, and you can always check that online as well, here:

Apple says it's planning to release iOS/iPadOS 27.0.1 early next week, which will fix a bunch of bugs, and once that's out, you should be fine to proceed with the big upgrade.

We think macOS Golden Gate 27.0.1 will also be released at that time.

Next weekend, our ShowNotes will include a list of the most-useful new features and how to use them, so you may wish to hold-off upgrading until then, so the changes don't frustrate you!

The scam emails look like this screenshot…

The emails are coming from a raft of different email addresses in Italy…

If you ignore this and tap or click on the Keep My Password (or 'Modify Password') button, you'll be take to a fake, but real-looking Microsoft account sign-in box which is pre-filled with your email address…

If you look at the address of that webpage, you'll see that it's not a Microsoft page, but a webpage hosted on a server in the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena (.sh), which is a small volcanic island 2000km off the southwestern coast of Africa, where Napoleon was exiled and died!

The Keep My Password button in some of these emails takes you to a slightly different fake Micrsosft webpage that looks like this screenshot…

This one is hosted on a website maintained by CloudFlare, which most browsers will flagus as being dangerous…

If you ignore the warnings and procced and give the scammers your Microsoft account password, you'd first be taken to a real-looking webpage advising that Microsoft is going to send you a code to confirm your identity, and ask you to input that code. The overseas scammers would then immediately trigger a password reset for your Microsoft account, which would prompt Microsoft to send you a real code.

If you were to type that code into the box on your screen, you'd have just given the scammers permission to change your password and lock you out of your own account!

They'd then proceed to steal first your identity, and then your money.

These emails traditionally includes lots of bold red text, and often also warning symbols — all designed to scare you so you'll override your common-sense — as shown in this screenshot…

These scam emails all have several things in common:

The one shown in the screenshot came from…

if you where to hover your mouse over the Upgrade Storage Now button in the actual email, or hold your finger on the button on a mobile device, you would get a pop up showing that clicking or tapping it would take you to...

This insecure webpage has since been deleted, but it's hosted on DailySelect.shop, which is ia website hosted on the CloudFlare platform, which is nothing but placeholder content…

Before it was shut down, the button took you to a fake webpage offering a subscription to a generic cloud service with 500GB of storage for $19 a year — and all you had to do was give them your credit card info.

If you did, within minutes, overseas scammers would be using that info to buy items online which they could turn around and quickly sell, and they'd keep doing that till your credit card got maxed out, or until your card company caught on and cancelled the card.

NEVER click or tap on buttons in emails like this!

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

We often get asked by parents or grandparents about a specific app they haven't heard of, wanting to know if it's OK for their child or grandchild to be using them.

It's not a complete list, but here are 23 potentially-risky mobile apps that every parent and grandparent should be aware-of…

We're big fans of Epson Eco-Tank all-in-one full colour printers because they use bottles (not cartridges) of ink, and the bottles that come in the box with the printers last literally two to three years. Plus, a replacement set of four ink bottles costs about the same as a set of four cartridges from other brands that contain only a fraction of the ink.

This weekend, Staples has the ET-2900 wired/wireless printer/copier/scanner on sale for $229 — a $100 saving…

Apple's new AirPods 5 with built-in ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) have just arrived at London Drugs stores. They're the same price as the AirPods 4 which they succeed, but now with ANC included.

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

In addition to asking Muse questions and asking it to create pictures, songs, articles, emails, reports and much more, you can also authorize the new version to take actions on your behalf, such as replying to emails, buying items online, making reservations, and the like.

Here are some screenshots from the Muse app…

This is called "Agentic AI", and you're going to be hearing a lot about it in the coming months, as AI tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, as well as now Meta each try to try to come up with the most useful and capable agentic AI.

The challenge is to ensure that agentic AI doesn't do bad things to accomplish what you want it to do, and doesn't 'go rogue' and do more than what you authorized it to do.

To overcome that, Meta says Muse will ask for the go-ahead before actually taking action, and also includes free coverage for damage, loss, price drops, and other issues up to $1,000 per claim.…

The other big issue is privacy — in order to allow Muse to do things on your behalf, it needs access to your emails, text messages, photos, and more — and a lot of people are understandably hesitant to give Meta that access, given the company's checkered privacy history.

To address that, Meta says it's implemented several additional security and privacy layers, to ensure it cannot access your data (see video #40 below)…

The Muse by Meta app is free for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Android devices…

Amazon is having none of third-party AI assistants shopping on its website or even browsing it on users' behalf. Meta’s Muse ban is just the most recent addition to a long list including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Grok.

Meta introduced Muse as the “first personal AI agent” that can browse, fill out forms, negotiate on the user's behalf, and make purchases, with free coverage for damage, loss, price drops, and other issues up to $1,000 per claim.

But not on Amazon. Amazon is now blocking Muse’s access to its website, with users reporting seeing an error message: "Continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed".

However, Amazon itself offers users its own AI models to help with purchases, including in other stores. The e-commerce giant originally introduced the Rufus chatbot as a shopping assistant built directly into the app and website, but that's since been axed and replaced with the Alexa for Shopping bot that can answer queries and take actions on users' behalf.

Having overcome the 'pervert glasses' stigma by ensuring the 'video recording' light on Meta AI glasses can't be disabled, Meta has now released several new versions of its smart glasses, including a camera-free audio-only model.

They have longer battery life, better voice comprehension, better sound, and all run the new Muse agentic AI model which Meta also released this week.

The Ray-Ban (3rd-gen) and Adventurer models now have a 12MP wide-angle camera that records a 100° field of view, and captures HDR video and photos, with video clips up to 3 minutes long and up to 3K video resolution at 30 FPS, and 60FPS at 1080p. They have 32GB flash storage, enough for 1000 photos or 60-70 videos, depending on clip length and how much video activity.)

All models can be ordered with prescription lenses, and later thsi year, people with hearing loss will be able to pay about $200 CAD to get Hearing Enhancement, which will provide clearer audio via six speakers built-into select models.

(Earlier models have come down a bit in price, with the cheapest 1st-gen model now $277 CAD.)

The audio-only model, called the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses pack Meta’s signature AI-powered wearable features into its lightest and slimmest spectacles to date. By ditching the camera, these weigh only 43 grams, compared to around 50g for other models, or even 70g for the Display glasses. Plus, there are customizable temple tips, nose pads, and overextension hinges.

The Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses support hands-free music and podcasts, call functionality and AI assistant conversations. They start at $429 CAD.

On average, the platform is now roughly three times faster across key daily interactions, saving users thousands of hours of collective wait time every single day.

What makes this speed sprint unusual is how the engineers pulled it off in just two weeks.

Instead of manually auditing thousands of lines of code, the team assigned Claude itself to manage performance bottlenecks, write benchmarks, draft pull requests, and monitor production deployments.

How does Signal work? Simply enter an address or city to explore nearby cellular infrastructure on an interactive map. You can view sites associated with Bell, Rogers, TELUS, Freedom Mobile, Videotron, SaskTel, Xplore, and Cogeco. Signal displays the number of nearby sites and the distance to the closest antenna. The app also uses your phone’s modem to measure received signal strength, expressed in decibel-milliwatts (dBm). It combines this info to calculate comparative scores and highlight the three providers offering the best network conditions at your selected location. This helps you compare available networks before choosing a mobile plan or moving to a new neighbourhood.

Last weekend, we told you about the new BC Time Zone — PCT — which will take effect when Daylight Savings Time ends on Nov. 1. The Mayor and Council in Golden in the BC Rockies recently voted to stay on Daylight Time, but this week they did an about-face and have voted now to switch to Alberta time, and stay there year-round.

Because there isn't enough time for US states and agencies to implement a similar charge — even if Congress approved such a move this fall which seems unlikely — starting November 1, here's how the North American Time Zone map will look (except for Golden & the East Kootenays)…

Microsoft has unveiled a new 12th-gen 12" Surface Pro tablet, and new 8th-gen 13" and 15" Surface Laptops, all powered by Qualcomm's fast new Snapdragon X2 Plus processor

According to Microsoft, the Snapdragon X2 Plus chipset is up to 17% faster in Office, 18% more efficient in battery performance, 60% faster in graphics performance, and 95% faster in local AI inferencing with the built-in dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) which supports AI workloads directly on the device, while more complex workloads can be handled through the cloud. This allows workflows to move seamlessly between local computing and cloud resources.

The 12" Surface Pro tablet has a touchscreen that’s 25% brighter than last year’s mode, and is made with 86% recycled materials. Prices start at $1700 here in Canada and will start being available October 13. Storage options include 256GB and 512GB, and it can have either 16GB or 24GB RAM.

The 13" Surface Laptop starts at $2300 and can be ordered now; a 15" model starts at $2500.

Microsoft has unveiled its long-promised Copilot “super app” — without officially calling it that — combining AI chat, coding and long-running agents into a unified app for business and personal use.

The new version of the Copilot app adds sections called Home, which combines chat with Microsoft’s Cowork agent; Code, which lets people build their own apps and tools by describing them; and Autopilot, where people can set up their own always-on AI agents.

It also brings full versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint inside Copilot, so people can create and edit documents with AI and their co-workers without switching apps.

The announcement is Microsoft’s answer to OpenAI and Anthropic, which have been combining chat, coding and agents in their own apps and selling them directly to businesses that have long been Microsoft’s core customers. Microsoft also uses models from both companies in Copilot, alongside its own.

If you've used Microsoft Publisher to create event programs, newsletters, posters, or other print projects, you only have a few days left to export your work before the program stops working…

Microsost Publisher was first released 35 years ago, in 1991, and for many years, it was a major player in software used for creating event programs, newsletters, and the like.

But, as other programs such as Microsoft Word gained new features, fewer and fewer people used it, and now, Microsoft has decided to retire it, just as they did with once-popular Skype.

If you have Publisher files which you'll want to access in the future, it's important you export them as PDF files before October 1, as you won't be able to access them after that…

How to prepare your files for Publisher's retirement by saving them in another format. 

If you're a Canadian travelling to the USA, a new court ruling has confirmed that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers can now conduct warrantless searches of travellers’ cellphones without probable cause or even reasonable suspicion.

Up to now, CBP policy was that officers previously needed reasonable suspicion of a law violation or a national security concern in order to conduct advanced searches.

The new decision, issued by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, reads in part, "under our precedents, no suspicion is required before the government searches a traveller’s property at the border".

While this doesn’t necessarily mean that every Canadian who enters the USA will have their phone searched, every individual should be aware it could be a possibility for them at the border.

CBP reported that phone searches are relatively uncommon. Latest stats show that of the 419 million international travellers who crossed the border in 2025, officers searched 55,424 devices.

Last year, CBP also proposed a new policy that would require Canadians and other travellers to share their social media profiles at the border. However, this proposal was never made official.

For Canadians crossing the border, the main takeaway is to be mindful of what you’re carrying on your phone (laptops and other devices, too) and to delete any sensitive messages, apps, or documents before your trip.

The full US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling is here…

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.

With the pricey new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models now appearing in strores, and the new folding iPhone Duo to be released in a few weeks, Apple has started offering interest-free financing on just those three new models.

The 0% financing over 24 months is being offered in partnership with Affirm, the company that offers financing on other Apple products at rates ranging from 5% over 12 months for an iPad or Apple Watch, to 8% over 24 months for a Mac or Vision Pro.

Affirm is a publicly-traded company based in San Francisco; here in Canada, they bought PayBright, Apple's previous financing partner, for $260 million five years ago and it now operates as Affirm PayBright.

Apple has expanded its AppleCare lineup in the USA with a new AppleCare One Family plan, giving families a way to cover multiple Apple devices under one monthly subscription. We here in Canada, however, still don’t have access to AppleCare One at all.

AppleCare One Family is available in the USA for $50 USD per month (about $69 CAD) and covers eligible devices belonging to as many as six people in an Apple Family Sharing group for one fixed monthly price.

The Family plan includes the usual AppleCare+ benefits, including accidental damage coverage, battery service and priority support. Theft and loss protection is also included for eligible iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch models. The plan allows up to six theft or loss claims per year across the family.

One of the bigger advantages is that eligible devices already owned by family members can be added to the plan. Apple says most devices less than four years old can qualify as long as they’re in good working condition. Newly purchased eligible products can also be automatically added without increasing the $49.99 monthly price.

Back in the summer, AppleCare One expanded to UK, France, Germany, and Australia, but still no love for Canada. What we got instead was a price hike for AppleCare+ here for the iPad and Mac.

Apple’s Canadian AppleCare pages continue to offer standard AppleCare+ plans on a product-by-product basis, while Apple’s USA pages now list AppleCare One Individual and the upcoming Family option. Apple’s Canadian legal pages also continue to list AppleCare+ terms without an AppleCare One plan.

Apple itself specifically says AppleCare One is available only “in available markets,” while its latest product announcements call out AppleCare One Family as a USA-only option.

Rogers has raised Sportsnet+ subscription prices across Canada, with the new rates taking effect on the next monthly billing cycle.

Sportsnet+ Premium now costs $45 CAD per month or $345 CAD per year, up $2/month from $43 CAD and up $20/year from $325 CAD. Sportsnet+ Standard has jumped to $35 CAD per month (an increase of $5/month) or $270 CAD per year (an increase of $20/year).

The increases also arrive as Rogers begins its new 12-year, $11 billion NHL broadcast agreement for the 2026-27 season, bringing some major changes to how Canadians watch hockey. After CBC and Rogers ended their Hockey Night in Canada sublicensing agreement in June, Sportsnet replaced the long-running Saturday brand with Saturday Night Hockey.

Monday nights are changing too. Monday Night Hockey is now exclusive to Sportsnet+, meaning fans who get Sportsnet through a traditional TV package need a $13 CAD per month add-on to watch those games unless they subscribe to Sportsnet+ directly.

Rogers has also moved some rights elsewhere, with its exclusive Wednesday night NHL games shiftingexclusively to Amazon Prime Video as the new broadcast deal gets underway.

A dopamine site is a fake online store you visit on purpose — you browse real-looking products, fill a cart, and "check out" for exactly $0.00, because nothing actually ships.

The whole point is to experience the pleasurable ritual of shopping without spending any money or accumulating any stuff.

If that sounds like a strange solution to a very real problem, it is — and it's catching on fast.

Two of the biggest ones are Dopamine-Shop.com based in South Korea, and DopamineShop.co…

A more recent arrival, for people who enjoy ordering food delivery online but can't justify the high cost of doing that regularly, is FoodNeverComes.com…

You may have heard that Americans who had iPhones affected by the so-called “Batterygate” issue years ago are this month being invited to submit their claims to get $95 in compensation.

That may have you asking, "Wait, what happened to the Canadian compensation I applied for two years ago?"

The answer is, we're still waiting for the Canadian lawyers to sort out people who made a claim and got rejected and have appealed.

Asked for an update, the iPhone Power Management Class Action Settlement Claims Administrator has advised that “st this time, we are still waiting for Class Counsel to complete their review. Once this is completed we will be able to proceed with finalising the claims".

That means the file has not visibly moved since May, when the administrator told us it was working through claim contestations with Class Counsel. Back in December, the same office said payments were expected in early 2026. That window has come and gone with nothing paid out.

Consider how long this has dragged on. The settlement was approved in March 2024, with Apple agreeing to pay between $11.1 million and $14.4 million CAD. Two and a half years later, claimants still do not know what they are owed or when they will see a dollar of it.

The lawsuit alleged Apple quietly throttled performance on aging iPhones through software updates. It covered Canadian owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7 and 7 Plus running specific iOS versions before December 21, 2017.

The next iPad mini, HomePod mini, and Apple TV 4K models have all leaked, just a few weeks before the devices are expected to be announced.

MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris discovered a few of Apple's official images of the devices, confirming their existence and some new features that are planned.

The most notable iPad mini details revealed in this leak include an A20 Pro chip, a new speaker design, and a landscape front camera, while images have revealed that the next HomePod mini will be available in new colors like green and pink.

There is also evidence of an upcoming "Apple TV 4K (4th gen)" model, so it appears that a new Apple TV is finally coming soon after a four-year wait.

MacRumors coverage is linked below:

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.

If you're going to be visiting Montréal for more than a few days, Alan recommends getting an STM transit pass, which gives you unlimited rides on STM busses andthe excellent Métro subway.

If you like riding a bike, take your bike helmet and use BIXI bikes, Montréal's extensive bike-share system, which is an excellent, easy-to-use, and affordable way to get around.

There are literally hundreds of Bixi bike stations throughout the Montréal area; the app tells you how many classic and elecric bikes are available at each station, as well as how many open bike-docks are open for returning a bike. You scan the QR code on a bike, it unlocks, and off you go. Get where you're going, push the bike into any open dock and you're done. You can ride à la carte, which is 26 cents a minute for a classic bike or 44 cents a minute for an electric bike, or you can buy a pass that lets you ride for up to an hour each time for free, and then pay 19 cents a minute after that foir a classic bike, or 26 cents a minute for an electric bike.

Alan and his friend Rick got a pass and rode all over Montréal for several days while Suzanne had, and recovered from, her hip replacement surgery, and loved it…

Three fantastic (and deservedly legendary) places to eat Montréal smoked meat and poutine:

Sally Wilson Smith died in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 13 of this year at the age of 68.

Her life and how she lived it until the very end was — in a word — amazing, and her obituary brilliantly portrayed that, and is an excellent and uplifting read…

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 Joanna Stern ask Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg why we should trust their new AI glasses and Muse app with our info…

41) Watch journalists uncover a brilliant secret social media campaign designed to lure young people to the Polymarket prediction market platform…

Read more about how this scam worked at the Wall Street Journal, here, and at Politico, here.

42) Watch the highlights of the first week of Celine Dion's comeback concerts at Le Plenitude Arena in Paris…

43) Watch a behind-the-scenes look at the largest buffet in the USA which often serves more than 10,000 people a day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania…

44) Watch the official lyric video for Taylor Swift's new song "Cleveland", one of four she released on Friday, here…

45) Watch Secret Garden, the London Philharmonic, and the Holst Choir record an impressive one-take Lyndhurst Hall version of "You Raise Me Up"…

46) Watch the Australian barbershop quartet Lemon Squeezy perform a four-part acapella version of "You'll Be Back" from the musical "Hamilton"…

47) Watch a one-hour walk around the huge main Oktoberfest site in München (Munich) in Bayern, Bavaria…