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:

But 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 click on links in texts or emails like this!

Jack in Saanich recieved a phone call this week from someone claiming to be a technician with Shaw, advising that they were doing some work in his area, and wanted to make sure his internet was working okay. The caller had Jack test his internet speed, which was about 280Mbps, and was told it should be much faster than that.

The supposed Shaw tech asked Jack to hold down the Windows logo key on his keyboard and tap R, and then type in the following, so they could check his connection…

NEVER do that for someone you don't know and trust!

WIndows+R is the Run command shortcut, and the characters Jack was given are a shortcut to a webpage that auto-downloads the installer for UltraViewer remote access software.

"Tech Talk" listener Doreen says she almost fell for this email scam…

Doreen says she failed to notice the email address of the sender (which I've highlighted in yellow) which is a gibberish @gmail.com address.

She also didn't notice that the sentence structure (for example, "Greetings. User") is poor.

And she didn't check to see where the "Click here" link would take her; in this case, to…

…which is a website hosted in (.me) the Baltic republic of Montenegro!

Clicking on it takes you to a fake Microsoft webpage that looks like this…

…and clicking on the "CLICK HERE" link takes you to…

…where you're presented with a fake identity-stealing Microsoft account log-in screen…

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

Canada’s major banks and wireless carriers, including Bell, Rogers, and Telus, are now sharing fraud info through a new system designed to catch scammers faster.

The Cross-Sector Anti-Fraud Exchange (CSAFE) launched on October 14, allowing banks and telecom companies to share information about confirmed fraud cases.

The system was developed by EnStream, a joint venture between Bell, Rogers and Telus, following a pilot involving CIBC and Rogers. The nine founding participants are Bell, BMO, CIBC, Desjardins, National Bank, RBC, Rogers, Scotiabank, and Telus.

Previously, banks and carriers largely handled fraud information separately. With CSAFE, participating companies can share confirmed cases through one platform and use that information to improve their own fraud detection systems.

That could help companies spot suspicious activity when someone opens an account, verifies their identity or makes a transaction. For Canadians, the hope is that scammers will have a harder time moving between banks and mobile providers without getting caught.

EnStream plans to expand CSAFE with AI and machine learning as more organizations join. Other banks, technology companies and businesses are also being invited to participate.

If you're a memeber of the More Rewards program used by Save-On Foods, Buy-Low Foods, Quality Foods, Nesters Market, Urban Fare, and PriceSmart Foods, you'll be getting an email advising that hackers have stolen some of your info.

The email (shared by Tech Talk listener Byron), reads, in part…

Our team discovered unauthorized activity occurring on one of our servers on October 13 and took immediate action that day to shut down the server and launch an investigation with a third-party cybersecurity expert. The incident was quickly contained, and we are in the process of notifying the appropriate authorities and privacy regulators.

We have today confirmed that your name, and, if provided, address, phone number, email addresses and date of birth on the More Rewards database were accessed during this incident.

Based on the info available to us, no other personal info (e.g., passwords, credit card data, or transaction history) was accessed, and your More Rewards account remains secure.

Because of this breach, you should be very suspicious of any emails or text you get that ask you to take any action regarding your More Rewards account, as the hackers may use the info they've stolen to urge you to click on a link or tap on a button to try to get money or even more info out of you.

When uploading photos and videos to Facebook, Instagram, X, and any other social media site, if you don't want anyone to know where a picture was taken, remove that 'EXIF metadata' before you upload it. (See below on how to do that.)

This is really important if you're worried that someone might be able to find out, for example, where you live or work, or if it's pictures of a child, where they go to school.

You can also be careful to make sure uploaded pics and videos don't include any store signs or street signs or any recognizable landmarks.

However, AI assistants have now become so good at recognizing even partial landmarks and settings, that they can often 'guess' very accurately where a picture was taken.

Here are a few of examples where I used some of my photos to illustrate this…

Bottom line: to ensure someone can't tell where content uploaded to social media were taken, not only should you remove EXIF metadata, but also make sure the photo(s) and video(s) don't include any backdrop that an AI assistant could recognize. If you're not sure, upload the photo to AI assistants like Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, Copilot, and ask if they can tell where it was taken.

TIP: If you use Portrait Mode to blur the background, this makes it much harder for AI assistants to identify landmarks and backgrounds.

If you want more storage, you can get a 256GB SSD for $50 more, or a 500GB SSD for $100 more.

Gary will have them for just $299 while they last when Tesseract re-opens on Monday at 720 Broughton Street in downtown Victoria.

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 printer last literally two to three years. Plus, a replacement set of four ink bottles costs only $80 — about the same as a set of four cartridges from other brands that contain only a fraction of the ink.

Through the 29th of this month, Staples has the ET-2900 wired/wireless printer/copier/scanner on sale for $229 — a $100 saving…

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

Apple this week officially unveiled its new HomeView smart display, which features a square display and comes in two versions: one with a speaker base and another for wall mounting.

You can pre-order HomeView today for $429 CAD; it'll start arriving in stores on November 13.

HomeView features a 7" Liquid Retina display that’s connected to a domed speaker base with a stainless steel hinge with tilt support.

There’s also a separate wall-mounted version of HomeView, but for that, you need to buy an $80 or $180 Schneider wall-mount which you can either install yourself or have professionally installed.

HomeView comes with just 15 apps at launch, and lets you access others, including Apple TV, via your iPhone. Most notably, while HomeView can make and receive FaceTime calls, HomeView cannot play any videos without it being wirelessly tethered to an iPhone, although that's expected to change in coming months as Apple potentially makes deals with third-party developers like YouTube and Facebook.

The HomeView interface will intelligently adjust based on how far away you are; it'll show “simpler info that’s viewable from across the room, as well as richer detail as you step closer.

HomeView can also recognize up to six different people by their faces, and deliver a “personalized experience” for each one. This includes a personalized Home Screen with apps and widgets. Personal content stays private from others, while shared photo albums and music can be easily enjoyed by everyone in a household, including guests.

HomeView supports Siri AI. Apple says that users with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad can tap into personal context. Users without an Apple Intelligence-capable device can still use Siri AI on HomeView for world knowledge and music discovery.

For audio quality, Apple says HomeView has a “custom-engineered acoustic system” with two full-range drivers in the display, plus a down-firing woofer and two force-canceling passive radiators.

Along with the HomeView unit itself, Apple has also partnered with companies like LG and Schneider Electric to release a set of (pricey) "Home Collection" accessories including video doorbells, interior and exterior security cameras, smart locks, and thermostats…

Here's a table comparing Apple's HomeView with Amazon's Echo Show and Google's Home Hub…

11a) Apple has finally released an upgraded 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K — but the price has jumped to from $249 to $429 CAD!

The new model is powered by an A19 chip, which makes in noticably faster than the previous medel, as well as giving it new capabilities, including hands-free Siri AI. Spatial Audio immerses you in Dolby Atmos surround sound that feels like it’s coming from every direction. Enhance Dialogue pulls spoken words forward, so even whispers come through clearly. And subtitles appear at just the right times to help you track every word.

Apple TV 4K has three far-field microphones built in, which means you can talk to Siri and control Apple TV 4K using just your voice: start a show, play music, or dim the lights, all without reaching for the remote. And your privacy is protected at every step.

You can also use Homepods and Homepod mini's for surround sound, and you can use Siri to make the remote chirp if you misplace it.

11b) Apple has released the Homepod mini 2, which has higher-quality sound, and which can be joined for surround or multi-room sound, but now at $199

Apple says the Homepod mini 2, which costs $50 more than the Homepod mini which it replaces, has significantly better sound rivalling that of much larger speakers.

It also now can run Siri AI, so you can draw on the same world knowledge as an iPhone or iPad running Siri AI.

HomePod mini can also now act as a smart home hub, making it easy to control your smart home accessories hands-free from anywhere.

If you’re listening on your iPhone and walk into a room with HomePod mini, you can keep the music going without missing a beat; just bring your iPhone close to HomePod mini to hand off.

The new model also now comes with Sound Glow — a light experience featuring colours that match your album artwork and pulse in tune with the music.

Apple has started sending invitations to media for an all day event in Los Angeles on Wednesday October 28, where we expect Apple to unveil three more new products:

The touchscreen MacBook Pro will of course grab the headlines, although recent reporting has suggested we should tone down our expectations of a much slimmer design. We are, however, still expecting it to be “significantly lighter” than the current models. The new machines will have a Dynamic Island replacing the notch, and are expected to be powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.

The new iPad mini is believed to have the FaceTime camera relocated for landscape rather than portrait use, as well as a revamped speaker system.

Finally, the new iMac and entry-level MacBook Pro models are expected to have an unchanged design and simply be a chip update.

It'll be interesting to see how much higher the prices of these models will be compared to the models they replace; Apple already raised the price of current models this past summer.

If you missed out on pre-ordering Apple's new folding iPhone Duo on Friday morning, you won't see yours show up until early 2027. At least is isn't getting worse anymore.

Announced in September, the buzz following the iPhone Duo event left little doubt that it'd be an immediate hit — and that certainly seems to be the case. The iPhone Duo sold out almost immediately, with dates slipping into late November and early December within moments of preorders opening.

Before we get into Canadian carrier pricing, it’s worth highlighting Apple’s prices, since Bell, Telus, and Rogers are all inflating the cost of the Duo by about $85 plus they're charging other junk fees…

Bell: $77.12/month financing with device return, on a two-year plan starting at $105/month. That's $177/month, but then you have to give it back at the end of two years, or pay $1233 more to keep it.

Telus: $91/month financing with device return, on a two-year plan starting at $95/month. That's $186/month, but then you have to give it back at the end of two years, or pay $1233 more to keep it!

Rogers: $98.77/month financing with device return, on a two-year plan starting at $85/month. That's $184/month, but then you have to give it back at the end of two years, or pay $714 more to keep it. (This is the lowest payout of the big three.)

Best deal we can find: Freedom Mobile: $109.96/month financing (NO device return) on a two-year $70/month plan. That's $187/month for 24 months, and it's yours to keep. That works out to $361 less than the price if you buy it outright.

By the way, if you're buying an iPhone Duo anywhere, we strongly recommend paying for AppleCare+ protection, as repairs are insanely expensive otherwise:

According to Apple’s Canadian support website, replacing the inner folding display costs an estimated $1,499 CAD without warranty coverage. That’s the most expensive individual repair listed for the device.

Damage to the outer display is considerably cheaper to fix at $499 CAD, while repairing the outer display and back glass together costs $669 CAD.

Apple has also published estimated prices for several other repairs, including $69 CAD for damage to the replaceable cover layer, $269 CAD for back glass damage, $309 CAD for the rear camera and $319 CAD for battery service.

Then there’s the dreaded “other damage” category, which costs a whopping $2,249 CAD. That’s just $750 CAD less than buying a brand-new iPhone Duo.

Google has introduced the Fitbit Air, a minimalist, screenless fitness tracker designed for distraction‑free health monitoring…

At a price of $130 CAD, it offers 24/7 heart‑rate monitoring, AFib alerts, SpO₂ monitoring, sleep tracking, and up to seven days of battery life. Fast charging provides a full day’s power in about five minutes.

The data from the FitBit Air is all sent to the Google Health app on your smartphone.

Spotify and Apple Music both let you turn on automatic transitions between songs, but Spotify has now gone a big step further, allowing Premium subscribers to tweak the tranitions in advance.

Here's a screenshot from John showing the transition called Melt which he's chosen to segue from "Barracuda" by Heart into "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC…

In addition to choosing between different types of transitions — Auto, Fade, Rise, Blend, Wave, Melt, Slam, Dissolve, Surge, and Afterglow — you can also tweak how slowly or quickly the transition will last, as well as where in the songs it starts and where it ends.

Using the Camelot wheel above use song that are on the opposite side as they are complimentary.

Instructions on how to take advantage of this Transitions feature are here…

John has made a playlist of transition demos and if you're a Spotify Premium subscriber, you can listen to them all here…

If you use Apple Music, with iOS 27.2, you can now choose, if you want, between Crossfade and Automix. Find that in Settings> Apps> Music and scroll down to Song Transitions

A cheap phone charger is at the centre of a Manitoba lawsuit after a couple’s SUV caught fire and their insurance claim was denied.

Jason and Christine Philion of Garson are suing Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) and several companies connected to the charger. The fire destroyed their 2017 Chevrolet Traverse in Beausejour, east of Winnipeg, on February 17.

Jason had parked outside a restaurant around 6 p.m. and walked his son across the street to a boxing class. A phone charger purchased from Dollar Tree was still plugged into a rear power outlet. About 15 minutes later, a restaurant employee rushed into the gym to report a vehicle fire, which turned out to be their SUV.

MPI later denied the couple’s insurance claim, concluding the fire was purposely set. Investigators pointed to burn patterns suggesting an accelerant was used, while lab tests detected gasoline in the carpet.

The Philions disagree, as their lawsuit alleges the charger “overheated, short-circuited, melted and/or ignited” while plugged in. They also claim its packaging failed to warn that leaving it connected could cause a fire.

The lawsuit names Dollar Tree, a distributor and the unidentified manufacturer. The couple wants compensation for their SUV, valued at approximately $43,000, plus rental and towing costs. They’re also asking the court to declare they didn’t deliberately start the fire.

None of the allegations have been proven in court, and no statements of defence have been filed.

Facebook is the latest social media platform to give users greater control over the algorithm that determines what appears in their feeds. 

Meta has announced the launch of its new AI-powered feature, Your Algorithm, a feature it first launched on Instagram. The new tool allows Facebook users to influence the content they see in Feed and Reels by describing their preferences in their own words using natural language. Rather than relying entirely on automated recommendations, you can now communicate directly with the platform about the topics and content you want to see more or less frequently.

According to Meta, the feature is designed to make content recommendations more relevant. You can adjust your preferences and interact with the algorithms responsible for ranking and recommending posts, with changes reflected in their recommendations in real time.

The company has also updated Facebook’s three-dot menu, making it easier for you to manage your content preferences directly from individual posts. By opening the menu, you can access “Your Algorithm” or select the “Interested” and “Not interested” options to indicate whether particular content aligns with your preferences…

Meta says the platform may ask follow-up questions to better understand what you liked or disliked, allowing them to provide more detailed feedback. You can explain what you want to see more or less of, helping Facebook refine its recommendations based on your responses.

Telus has filed documents with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) seeking changes that would make filing complaints with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) more difficult for Canadians.

The CRTC has an ongoing consultation on ways to improve awareness of the CCTS when customers have unresolved complaints, and to ensure their telecom provider informs them in a timely manner. In this consultation, the CRTC put forward a preliminary view that telecom companies should be required to inform customers about the CCTS earlier than is currently done; specifically, right after the service provider offers a solution to the customer.

Currently, service providers must notify customers about the CCTS after the second escalation of an unresolved problem.

With this in mind, an intervention filed by Telus proposes keeping the notice at the second level of escalation, but goes on to request no “wasteful general awareness campaigns,” and wants to establish a CCTS intake screening protocol that would force customers to prove they reached a second level of escalation.

Telus noted within the proposal that “there is an urgent need for the CCTS to implement an objective, mandatory verification protocol within its online complaint intake portal.” Telus also added that under this new protocol, the intake system must refuse to accept or register any complaint unless the individual filing the complaint provides verifiable documentary evidence demonstrating that the dispute was formally escalated to second-level customer support.

OpenAI allows anyone to insert ads into ChatGPT users’ sessions based on their personal data, according to a new report from 404 Media.

The publication, which ran a series of tests, concluded that the chatbot leverages users’ email addresses, phone numbers and unique phone identifiers for targeted ads. While 404 Media acknowledges that this is standard practice in the advertising business, there are undoubtedly many among ChatGPT’s monthly user base of one billion who aren’t aware of this.

To test how this all works, 404 Media says it ran two ads in ChatGPT that, amusingly, promoted the fact that the service isn’t private because humans are hired to read chats. From there, the outlet was instructed to provide “context hints” for conversations, topics or keywords to allow the ad to better target people. To that point, 404 Media added “people searching for topics that discuss privacy, or the privacy of ChatGPT chats themselves, or people who are asking about current technology and AI topics.”

But to make matters worse, OpenAI allows advertisers to target specific people by inputting “raw” email addresses and phone numbers. OpenAI will check if this data corresponds to a real ChatGPT user who can then be targeted by advertisers. 

OpenAI says this info is deleted after 24 hours and says ChatGPT also provides the ability to opt out of “ads personalization,” but this setting explicitly states that “ads may still be based on your current chat.”

An emotional scene of an elephant carrying a deceased calf has earned Italian photographer Federico Veronesi the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026.

See all the winners and read about their entries below…

Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster powered with rocket-style thrusters and says it'll start production in 2028, more than a decade after it first ‌showed a next-generation version of its electric sports car.

The white two-seater vehicle, developed in collaboration with CEO Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX, drove upside down on a ramp using a suction system, turned in the air and landed using built-in thrusters. Later in the event, it used the thrusters to jump over a truck and other vehicles, twisting in the air during the manoeuvre.

These kinds of cars aren't flinging themselves in the air over highways and streets just yet. There are ample regulatory hurdles for flying vehicles overall. The fine print of the Roadster's "rocket" feature on Tesla's website notes: "Not approved for public road use".

The reveal ​gives Tesla a showpiece car after years of missed Roadster deadlines, but it comes as the company shifts its focus to self-driving technology and robotics, and days before third-quarter results that analysts say matter more to investors.

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 video showcasing the abilities of its new HomeView smart display in real life…

41) Watch Apple's video showing what new in the 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K…

42) Watch Tom Scott show why robots still can't pick strawberries as well as humans — although they're getting close…

43) Watch an update on the construction of the world's largest telescope — called the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) in Chile…

44) Watch the trailer for Bill Murray's magical "A Course Called Ireland", which will start streaming on Paramount+ on October 25…

45) Watch Taylor Swift explain the making of her hit new music video, "Patient Zero" in which she's joined by Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson…

46) Watch 1000 people join "Choir! Choir" Choir!" to sing "Jolene" in honour of the late Dolly Parton…

47) Watch the highlights of Elon Musk unveiling Tesla's long-awaited 'flying' roadster, which can go from 0-100kph in one second…