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iPhones and iPads:

For iPhones and iPads, iOS/iPadOS 27.2 includes another 150 security fixes, as well as bug fixes (Podcasts on CarPlay can now be paused again!), as well as enhancements to features that appeared with the release of the 27 family of operating systems:

if your iPhone or iPad is too old to be able to be upgraded to OS27, because of the significance of the security holes that are being patched, Apple has released iOS/iPadOS 18.7.11 — a special update to fix as many of the holes as the older devices (iPhone XS, iPhone XR and iPad 7th-gen) , can handle.

Get these updates by going to Settings → General → Software Update.

Mac computers and MacBooks:

For Mac owners, macOS Golden Gate 27.2 includes a whopping 263 security fixes, patching a wide range of flaws including potential arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation to root, access to sensitive user data, privacy bypasses, and kernel memory corruption vulnerabilities.

The update also includes the same feature upgrades listed above for iPhones and iPads.

if your Mac is too old to be able to be upgraded to OS27, because of the significance of some of the security holes that are being patched, Apple has released two special updates — macOS Tahoe 26.7.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.8.2 — to fix as many of the holes as the older Macs can handle. This should serve as a gentle reminder, though, that you should really start shopping for a newer Mac, to make sure you're fully protected — and not just partially protected.

To get these updates, click on the Apple logo in the upper-left of your screen, and then click on System Settings ➝ General ➝ Software Update.

Apple Watch:

For Apple Watch owners (Series 9 and later models), watchOS 27.2 includes 62 security fixes that span areas such as Accounts, App Intents, Bluetooth, AppleAVD, Audio, AVEVideoEncoder, and numerous other system components. The issues range from privacy bypasses and unauthorised data access to denial-of-service, memory corruption, and potential kernel-level problems.

In addition to the security fixes, watchOS 27.2 adds Siri AI improvements, including conversation memory, broader personal-context awareness, faster responses on Apple Watch, and support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

To get this Update, open the Watch app on your iPhone, and tap My Watch. Then, go to General → Software Update. If an update is available, tap Download and Install. Enter your iPhone passcode or Apple Watch passcode if prompted. Leave both devices near each other and connected to power until the update completes. The Apple Watch will restart during the installation process.

Apple TV:

For owners of an Apple TV 4K (2nd gen and later models), tvOS 27.2 includes 72 security fixes, as well as bug fixes and feature enhancements.

To get this update, use your Siri remote to navigate to Settings → System → Software Update. If an update is available, tap Download and Install.

How to learn about the best new iPhone and iPad features in 27.2

We've created a separate set of Notes, highlighting the best new features in iOS/iPadOS 27, including screenshots showing youb how to activate and use them.

Those Notes are on our Home Page, but you can also click or tap below to go there…

Those scam pop-up screenshots are all Notification boxes, which get delivered by a website or websites (like news or recipe sites) which you agreed to allow to send you Notifications.

Unfortunately, those websites (Global News is unfortunately, one of the worst offenders) have chosen to "rent" that ability to unscrupulous companies which send out fake virus warnings and other scams.

If you click or tap on the button, you'll be taken to a fake website where you'll be encouraged to either give them your credit card info for a fake (and pricey) anti-virus subscription, or to call a toll-free number which connects to an overseas call-centre where they'll pitch any one of a variety of scams.

Don't click, tap, or call! Instead, here's how to block these scam pop-ups…

On a Windows PC, open your Microsoft Edge web-browser, copy/paste the following into the address-bar… edge://settings/content/notifications

In the Notifications box, turn OFF the switch to the right of "Ask before sending"…

If you use the Chrome web-browser, copy-paste the following URL in the address bar of Chrome and hit Enter: chrome://settings/content/notifications.

The Notifications settings will open up, and you'll see the default setting Ask before sending.

Toggle the slider to select Blocked.

Then, below that, look for Allowed to send notifications, and if any websites are listed there, click on the three dots and remove them one-by-one.

If you use the Safari web-browser on a Mac…

Click on the Apple logo in the top-left and click on Safari Preferences. Click on the Websites tab and then scroll down to Notifications. Now, uncheck the Allow websites to ask box highlighted in yellow...

The Canada Revenue Agency is warning us about a new scam that begins with an email advising that your tax return has errors.

You're instructed to download a revised notice of assessment to verify amounts which appear to be incorrect, incomplete, or inconsistent with your records. The email advises that the revised notice is not available through My Account or the CRA website, and you only have a short time limit to download and save it using the link in the email.

This phishing scam uses tactics to pressure you into clicking on a link or button to provide personal info that scammers could then misuse to try to steal first your identity, and then your money.

The link also downloads malicious software, giving scammers unauthorized access to your device.

NEVER click or tap on a link in a text or email claiming to be from the CRA.

While the CRA may email you to advise that you have a new message waiting in your account, the email will deliberately not include a link to your account. Go directly to the CRA website to access your account.

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

The hack, which has largely been attributed to North Korea, is believed to have originated from a developer's laptop that was compromised with malware. The hack, which took only roughly 20 minutes from start to finish, is the world's largest single hack to date.

Thankfully, the company was able to freeze roughly half the funds, which will presumably make their way back to the rightful owners.

Binance has issued a statement that user funds are safe, though deposits and withdrawals have been temporarily paused while they check their systems.

The company has over $150 billion in assets under management and will be covering any user losses as a result of the breach. The remaining little over $3 billion reportedly only accounts for about 2% of their assets under management and public reserves.

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

When large parts of North America "fall back" to Standard Time on Saturday night, this year, BC (and Manitoba) will not, and will stay on Daylight Time, under a new time zone called PCT — Pacific Time.

Pacific Time is seven hours behind Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC-7) — previously known as Greenwich Mean Time GMT — matching the current offset used during Daylight Saving Time.

Not only is this going to throw us out of sync with our neighbours to the south, (who'll be one hour behind us starting on Sunday), but not all of BC is going to be on Pacific Time, either. Communities in the Kootenays and southeastern BC (such as Creston, Kimberley, and Cranbrook) will remain aligned with Alberta and will be on ABT — Alberta Time — which is UCT-6.

This will make the time in BC the same as in Yukon, two hours behind eastern cities like Toronto and Montreal, and three hours behind Atlantic Canada (3-&-1/2 behind Newfoundland and Labrador)! [Quebec's new Premier says they'll likely follow our lead in the new year, after wrestling with whether to stay on Standard Time or Daylight Time year round.)

Here's what the Canadian Time Zone Map will look like starting on Sunday (with stripes indicating areas that have decided this year to stop chnaging clocks twice a year)…

Canadian ISP's (Internet Service Providers) and Mobile Carriers have tried to program their systems to take all of these changes into account, but because mobile devices rely on global software databases to display time zone names, and some of those names (like ours) are new, they're urging us to take our devices off Automatic Time Zone this weekend, and chose Set By Time Zone (instead of Choose by City) and then manually set the time zone to UTC-7…

On some Android phones, you may initially see the wrong Time Zone name, even though the time is correct. Manufacturers will push out software updates to fix that in the coming days.

However, even if you do this, it's important that you carefully check your calendar to make sure events scheduled in the coming days have not had their start-times messed up!

To fix this, open your Calendar software (Microsoft, Google, Apple) and manually set your time zone…

11a) Apple has unveiled a powerful new OLED iPad mini — but it's $949!

The new OLED iPad mini is noticably lighter and thinner than the current model, and also a lot faster, because its powered by Apple's A20 Pro chip, similar to what’s in the iPhone 18 Pro series, so it can finally run all Apple Intelligence features.

Because the edges (bezels) are thinner, you get a larger screen 8.5" instead of 8.3", and the front-facing Centre Stage camera is now on the landscape side of the device rather than portrait.

Perhaps an equally significant change is that the display is OLED, a big upgrade from the LCD technology used before. Apple says this provides a brighter display with much deeper blacks and more vivid and accurate colours.

Apple now lets you optionally choose a nano-texture display on 256GB models and up.

All this comes at a cost; the new OLED iPad mini starts at $949, compared to the $679 price for the previous model, but Apple is upping that prioce by $100 as well to offset the skyrocketing coist of storage and memory.

Pre-orders for the new iPad mini opened this Wednesday, and stores should start getting units next Friday, November 6.

11b) Apple has released new iMac models, but the largest is still 24"

If you have an aging iMac, Apple has unveiled popwerful new models powered by its impressive M6 chip, but still with a 24" display, so if you want a larger screen, you're best to go witha Mac mini and a larger display.

The new iMacs are a significant upgrade from the current models, skipping the M5 processor…

The new 2026 iMacs start at $2099 for the model with an M6 chip with two Thunderbolt ports and a 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, and Dual 16‑core Neural Engine.

If you want a more-powerful version, you can get one with an M6 chip with four Thunderbolt ports, a 12‑core CPU, 12‑core GPU, and Dual 16‑core Neural Engine, which starts at $2299.

They come with 16GB of RAM, but you can pay an extra $600 to double that to 32BG; they come with a 512GB SSD, But you can double that for an extra $450, or get a 1TB SSD for $1200 more, which boost the price to $4699 CAD.

Pre-orders are being taken now; they'll be available in stores starting November 6th.

11c) Apple has unveiled its new M6-powered entry-level MacBook Pro, but even it now start at $2799

Unlike the recently introduced OLED/touch-enabled MacBook Pro models that use M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the new M6-powered model keeps the traditional design and Liquid Retina XDR display while focusing on performance and AI improvements…

The boosted performance comes at a price; the 14" new MacBook Pro starts at $2799, which gets you 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. u can boost that to 32GB of RAM for an extra $600, and boost the SSD to 2TB for $750 more, or to 4TB for 'just' $2250 more, pushing the total price to $5649.

Pre-orders are being taken now; they'll be available in stores starting November 6th.

11d) After years of insisting touch on a Mac makes no sense, Apple has just unveiled its first-ever touch-enabled MacBook Pro, but it starts at $3999

The new MacBrook Pro with ProOLED XDR display represents a major redesign focused on display technology and touch input (and includes the return of the glowing Apple logo on the lid!). It comes in 14" and 16" screen sizes, and features include:

The 14" MacBook Pro with ProOLED XDR Display starts at $3999 CAD with an M5 Pro chip, or $6299 with an M5 Pro Max chip! A matte nano-texture screen is $225 more.

The larger 16" MacBook Pro with PRoOLED starts at $4799 CAD with an M5 Pro chip, or $6599 with an M5 Pro Max chip! A matte nano-texture screen is $225 more, and if you want to jump from a 32-core GPU to a 40-core, that adds an extra $550. It comes with 48GB of RAM, but if you want 128GB, you get that for an extra $3000! It comes with a 2TB SSD, but if you want, you can get up to a 16TB SSD, which merely adds another $10,500 to the pricetag, for a total of…

Pre-orders are being taken now; they'll be available in stores starting November 6th.

Amazon has unveiled three new Echo devices powered by Alexa+ — a revamped Echo Dot, an Echo Studio with visual intelligence, and a smart clock with Alexa.

Echo Time is the first-ever alarm clock with Alexa for your nightstand. The circular touchscreen offers hundreds of clock faces. It uses a feature called Ominsense and ultrasound sleep sensing to wake you during lighter sleep within a 10-60 minute period before the alarm time, and it’s paired with a sunrise-inspired brightness display. And during the night, the clock face dims, and blue light is reduced. The Echo Time costs $347 CAD.

The Echo Dot is now also a smart home hub. The AZ3 chip powers more on-device AI and can cancel background noise, so Alexa can hear you even in a busy room.

Additionally, it has a redesigned driver that offers 50 per cent more bass than the previous generation. It also connects to hundreds of devices and sports a built-in eero Wi-Fi extender to offer up to 1,000 sq ft of coverage in the eero network. The new Echo Dot costs $145. 

The new $330 Echo Studio with Home Camera features three custom drivers with a high-excursion woofer and Dolby Atmos with immersive 3D sound. It also offers advanced room adaptation and adaptive volume, so it sounds better depending on the room it’s in. It also has a built-in camera system called Sightwise Live, which allows Alexa+ to understand what it’s looking at, such as explaining the rules of a board game or re-ordering food when the shelf is empty.

We had lots of calls this week about Rogers outages in the Greater Victoria area, and also some about both Telus and Bell.

Our go-to place to find out what's happening is IsTheServiceDownCanada.com, which shows you with spikes below logos on their home page, which carriers have had, or are having, issues…

If you tap or click on a provider, you'll get the option to view current outages on a map; this was Rogers on Thursday…

You can also change the view to show you outages by that company in the last 24 hours...

The free service has recently expanded its abilities to also check for outages in YouTube and Prime Video, as well as Facebook, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, and Gmail.

It's a great free site, well worth bookmarking!

We're big fans of Microsoft's Copilot digital assistant, and it just got better and faster again.

Because the new version runs on different architecture, Microsoft is emailing users advising that you must sign-in on the new version in order to have it retain the history of what you had the old version do for you…and some of you have been asking if it's a scam…

This is not a scam.

Notice that there's no button or link in the email that you're urged to tap or click, which is the hallmark of scams.

Just open your Copilot app, and if asked to sign in again, do so, using your Face, fingerprint or device PIN if asked, or your Microsoft account password if not.

Apple’s AirPods Pro Hearing Aid feature is now available in five provinces here in Canada, including in British Columbia.

If you have mild to moderate hearing loss and have a pair of the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Pro 2, you can now activate the Hearing Aid feature in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and PEI, and a legal change to authorize it in Quebec is expected to be introduced this winter.

To use the feature, you’ll first need to pair your AirPods with your iPhone or iPad, and your iPhone or iPad must now be running iOS/iPadOS 27.2 (so update it first if not)…

(Full instructions are linked below)

When you start the Hearing Test, it plays a series of tones that you respond to by tapping the screen. There will be animations, tap-back effects, and progress indicators to take you through the 5-minute experience. Following the test, you’ll get a personalized profile with easy-to-understand results and information about your hearing.  And if you have perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, you’ll be prompted to set up the Hearing Aid feature.

There’s a quick setup process, and then the Hearing Aid functionality will kick in, and you’ll start hearing better. You can customize the settings as well. Apple says you can use the Hearing Aid feature for up to 10 hours at a time. And the Hearing Test data is stored privately and securely in your Health app.

Some Fido customers are seeing a second plan price increase within a few months, and October bills are where the higher total shows up. If you are still on an older Fido plan, check the monthly plan charge before the next pre-authorized payment clears.

One long-time customer shared that their monthly plan went up by almost $6 CAD about three months ago, then jumped again by more than $11 CAD on the latest bill, so their bill is now about 38% higher than four months ago.

Rate hike or not, now's a good time to check out what you're paying and what you're getting, so you can be ready to switch if better offers become available in the final week of November for Black Friday Week.

The current best rates — epecially if you have any travel plans — continue to be offered by Quebec-based Freedom Mobile, whose plans all include Canada/USA/Mexico coverage…

In what would be one of the largest consolidations in the rapidly growing food and grocery delivery sector, DoorDash is offering $65 a share to buy InstaCart in both Canada and the USA, in a deal that would likely take a year to complete.

Here in Canada, DoorDash has about 49% market share, ahead of Uber Eats at roughly 45%, with SkipTheDishes trailing.

In the USA, recent estimates put DoorDash at roughly 60% of the restaurant-delivery market, ahead of: Uber Eats at 26% and Grubhub: at 6%.

On the grocery side in the USA, Instacart is estimated to control about 58% of the USA's online grocery-delivery market, and about 21.6% of total USA online grocery spending, ahead of many individual competitors such as Amazon Fresh and Walmart's online grocery operations.

Canada’s Competition Bureau has ordered Rogers to pay a $15 million penalty related to how the company marketed its ‘Infinite’ wireless plans.

The bureau began probing Rogers over those plans back in 2023, raising issues with how the company positioned the plans as having unlimited data when the plans also apply speed reductions — known as throttling — after a certain amount of use.

The Competition Bureau initially sought a $15 million penalty along with customer refunds, or a $135 million penalty with no refunds. However, the Tribunal seems to have settled on the $15 million penalty with no customer refunds; full reasons for that are expected in the coming days.

Along with the fine, the Tribunal has ordered Rogers to publish a corrective notice and pay the Bureau’s legal costs.

Microsoft is making a new buyout offer to a much broader group of employees, this time including some executives — signaling that it’s not done shrinking its workforce despite thousands of layoffs and retirements this year.

The Voluntary Exit Offer, announced Monday in a memo to employees, is open to about 60,000 people in participating teams in the USA, here in Canada, the UK. and India — that’s about a quarter of its workforce, which numbered 223,000 people at last count.

Microsoft didn’t provide a projection for how many employees will accept, but says it anticipates a much smaller share than the roughly 30% who took its earlier voluntary retirement offer, which went to longtime employees more likely to take the deal.

Employees have until the first week of December to decide.

The new offer does not come with any age or tenure requirement, and performance isn’t a factor, the company said. It goes up to level 70 on Microsoft’s internal scale, which includes general managers and some employees with vice president titles, but not corporate vice presidents.

That’s a big change from the voluntary retirement program that Microsoft offered this spring, which was the first in its history. That program was limited to U.S. employees at the senior director level (level 67) and below whose age plus years at the company reached a minimum threshold. The company described that as a one-time initiative.

Among the other changes this time, Microsoft is leaving it to business leaders to decide whether their groups participate, the company said. The company’s sales organization is not participating, nor are some engineering groups and corporate functions.

She said Microsoft will keep helping employees build new skills and, where it makes sense, move into other jobs inside the company. Microsoft said in July that it had redeployed more than 4,000 employees into new roles over the previous year.

Air Canada’s mobile app has been named Best Airline App at the 2026 World Aviation Festival in Lisbon on October 22. The other finalists were SAS and Virgin Australia.

The win in the Battle of the Airline Apps comes months after features such as Bag Buddy started putting more of the trip on passengers’ phones.

Judges compared three airline finalists in a live showcase and picked Air Canada’s for bringing the full travel journey into one experience, from booking through arrival with personalized, contextual information along the way.

Enhancements rolled out to the Air Canada app this year include:

On iPhone, the app also makes good use of iOS features. Flight updates show up in the Dynamic Island, boarding passes go straight into Apple Wallet, and Air Canada supports sharing an AirTag’s location to help track down a delayed bag.

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.

Some might find it decidedly incommodious to be dumped on by Donald Trump as a “shithouse country”. Not the Norwegian tourist board, which chose instead to lift the lid on some of the nation’s loveliest lavatories.

“Are these the world’s best shit houses?” asked Visit Norway on its website, days after the US president vented his fury once more over failing to win the Nobel peace prize by describing Norway as a “shithouse country” at a rally last Sunday.

“Norway makes shit houses great again!” the agency continued above pictures of some of the country’s most striking public conveniences, adding: “These toilets are worth a visit, both when you really have to go – and when you don’t.”

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 short video introducing the new OLED iPad mini…

41) Watch AppleInsider.com review the new 2026 iMac's out this week…

42) Watch Apple unveil their new 14” MacBook Pro with M6…

43) Watch Apple introduce its first-ever touch-enabled MacBook Pro…

44) Watch: Investigative journalist Coffeezilla explain the largest ever hack in history — the $6.3 billion Binance crypto hack…

45) Watch the five finalists to represent Canada at the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest and vote for your favourite before November 5…

46a) Watch the late legendary Sir Patrick Stewart share his Shakespeare skills with a younger generation with "A Soliloquy on B" of Sesame Street…

46b) …and watch him help the Count get one of the numbers in order…