Stories by Austin Blake

If you pre-ordered an iPhone 17 or iPhone Air last Friday, you may want to check the status of your order, as those that ordered first thing are starting to see their phones ‘preparing to ship’. This next phase comes after the order placed and ‘processing’ stages, with ‘shipped’ being next and that usually updates...

At this year’s Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMAs), Spotify highlighted new data showing Canadian country music is gaining traction both at home and abroad—with French-Canadian country leading much of the momentum. According to Spotify, streams of Canadian country music have risen 64% globally over the past five years, while French-Canadian country music has jumped 280%...

Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons will connect their loyalty programs starting in late 2026, giving customers the chance to earn and redeem rewards across both brands. The agreement will let members link their Triangle Rewards and Tims Rewards accounts. Once connected, customers can earn Canadian Tire Money on purchases at Tim Hortons while continuing to...

Canadians need about five full workdays to afford Apple’s new iPhone 17 Pro, ranking 13th out of 33 countries, according to Tenscope’s 2025 iPhone Affordability Index. The study, published by UX design agency Tenscope, found Canadians pay $1,154 US for the iPhone 17 Pro (256 GB), compared to the U.S. price of $1,099 — a...

SpaceX’s Starlink appears to be suffering another outage and it’s affecting users in Canada, the U.S. and beyond, with many stating the outage occured around 9:30pm PT on Sunday evening (12:30am ET on Monday). In Canada, we’re seeing reports of Starlink being down in Alberta, with over 8,000 reports of outages in the past hour...

A $200 million fibre-to-the-home internet project is now underway in Newfoundland, with nearly half the cost covered by taxpayers. Ottawa and the provincial government are contributing a combined $92 million through the Universal Broadband Fund, while Xplore is paying the rest. The initiative will extend gigabit-speed internet to about 24,000 rural households by laying 6,000...

Apple’s artificial intelligence group is bracing for another shake-up. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that Robby Walker—a long-time executive tied to the company’s AI strategy—is preparing to leave in the coming weeks. Walker has worn several hats at Apple. He previously led the Siri team, but that role was reassigned...

Apple is holding back shipments of its new iPhone Air in mainland China while it works with regulators on approval for eSIM. The company updated its Chinese website on Friday, replacing the original September 19 release date with the note “release information to be updated later,” according to the SCMP. Pre-orders had been scheduled to...

This morning’s iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air pre-orders were set to start at 5am PT/8am ET, but the Apple Store didn’t go back online until 5-6 minutes after. Apple did have some humour to say, “we love that early energy” on its waiting screen, and then “excited? So are we,” asking people to stay...

The federal government is looking at whether to scrap heavy tariffs on electric cars from China as EV sales in Canada continue to slide, reports CTV News. A Nanos survey for CTV News found 62 per cent of Canadians either support or somewhat support removing the current 100 per cent tax on Chinese-made EVs. Some...

Telus is accusing Rogers of using its control over Canadian media to keep rival ads off the air and off the ice. In a filing with the CRTC in early June and posted to the Commission’s website on Tuesday, Telus claims Rogers and its subsidiaries "have refused to allow Telus to advertise on Rogers’ media...

Apple’s new iPhone Air is thinner than three stacked American quarters, and company executives say that’s no accident. In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, Apple design leaders explained why they pushed for such a dramatic new look. “It’s something that we dreamed about for a long time, to make just an incredibly, shockingly thin...