SALTZMAN: Tech news you can use

Welcome to shopping in 2026, where your grocery receipt reads like a luxury car invoice and your cereal box looks like a travel-size sample.

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How wonderful to be blessed with both higher prices and shrinkflation, simultaneously.

This is also true for many tech items because of the global chip shortage – often referred to as “RAMageddon” – which is boosting prices of laptops and many other items, even on the models with little memory.

Fortunately, there is some good news from one of our biggest retailers.

A free extended warranty program launched by Walmart Canada, automatically protects select electronics – like laptops, desktops and televisions – whether they’re purchased in-store or online.

Called Walmart Extended Care, it provides an additional year of defect coverage that kicks in immediately after the manufacturer’s standard warranty ends. There isn’t anything you need to do, such as sign up for this program.

And so, should a problem occur within the two years of purchasing, shoppers can file a digital claim through Walmart’s partner on this program, Asurion, via a website portal, to get your device repaired, replaced or reimbursed.

“Essentially, this program adds some extra peace of mind to our customers purchasing these electronics items,” Walmart Canada’s Vice President of Entertainment Mallory Craigmile says. “One thing I’d like to highlight, as well, is our Onn-branded TVs already offer a two-year manufacturer warranty, and so you would have an additional year on top of those, too.”

Included on Walmart Extended Care is bilingual 24/7 troubleshooting and setup assistance during this coverage period – but note, it’s powered by an AI assistant. Should you prefer a plan that includes direct access to live, human “expert tech support,” you would need to upgrade to a paid, premium tier called the Walmart Protection Plan (also managed by Asurion).

Two other caveats: Walmart Extended Care is not available on third-party marketplace items sold through Walmart.ca, nor is this program available to residents of Quebec after Sept. 28 (but yes, the warranty will be honoured throughout the coverage period if purchased before then).

It’s great to see Walmart Canada (joining Costco) in adding a second year of warranty care – at no additional cost.

We're not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure: https://t.co/E2I0Ezd57W(tag us so we can see your work 🙂) pic.twitter.com/x8lIAMt6ab

Defiance pays off: MapQuest just landed the no. 1 free app spot on Apple’s App Store – in both Canada and the U.S. – after refusing to participate in President Donald Trump’s renaming effort.

Following the administration’s executive order directing U.S. agencies to rebrand Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” MapQuest made its stance clear on X, posting simply, “We’re not changing it.”

While the White House gave federal mapping boards 30 days to adopt the title amid trade tensions with Canada, MapQuest doubled down, telling users the body of water would retain its historical name on their maps.

Google and Apple, however, updated their respective mapping platforms to reflect “Lake America” if viewed in the United States, but show as “Lake Ontario” to Canadians.

For users in the rest of the world, both names are displayed.

We’re not changing it. pic.twitter.com/NdeE9v2BNO

While all eyes are on Cupertino, Calif., for Wednesday’s “Surprise and shine” event, social media is bursting from fresh rumours and (alleged) leaks of Apple’s first foldable iPhone.

Supposedly named iPhone Ultra, it appears to look like a passport-shaped phone, with a 5.6-inch outer display that opens like a book to reveal a 7.8-inch inner display – like an iPad mini, of sorts.

Much like we’ve seen on other foldable devices from Samsung, Google and Motorola, this would allow for better multitasking, as you can have multiple apps open at once, and a more conducive entertainment experience whether you’re watching videos, playing games, or reading ebooks.

Next week’s column will be solely devoted to my hands-on time with the new devices at the event.

Google just launched a new family of Pixel 11 smartphones and if you haven’t had a chance to play around with them, there are two standout features I think are unique and newsworthy.

One is called Live Translate for video content you’re consuming. Instead of just providing text subtitles on your screen when you’re watching something in another language, it now offers real-time AI voice dubbing.

For example, boot up a Spanish-speaking YouTuber walking you through her abuela’s famous paella recipe. Simply tap the “Translate to English” button, and within a couple of seconds it replaces the spoken audio into English.

It’s wild. My TikTok video about this feature has more than 300K views.

The Live Translate feature on Google Pixel 11 is a game-changer because it eliminates language barriers, allowing you to consume global content without stopping to read subtitles.

The second cool feature is hardware related and tied to the three new Google Pixel 11 Pro devices.

Called HiLight, it’s a glowing, multi-coloured LED built directly around the camera flash on the rear camera bar.

If your phone is face down – say, on your office desk or a table at a restaurant – it will notify you when someone (that you deem as important) is trying to contact you. Go to the Contacts app of your phone and you can assign one of the available colours (green, yellow, pink, purple or white) to select people. You can also select it to shine for Calls only, or Texts, Emails, WhatsApp, and so on.

The idea of main goal of HiLight is to minimize screen distractions while still letting you see crucial updates out of the corner of your eye.

A secondary feature is when you interact with the Google Gemini AI assistant, hands-free. The HiLight ring pulses with soft visual patterns to let you know when the AI is listening, thinking, or responding.

– Marc Saltzman is the host of the Tech It Out podcast and is the author of the book, Apple Watch For Dummies (Wiley)