Touchscreen MacBook Pro: The Wrong Product at the Wrong Time?

Apple's new HomeView smart display and redesigned Apple TV promise AI-powered experiences, but at what cost? Marc and Mitchell dig into the HomeView's multi-user face recognition, the Apple TV's price jump from $129 to $299, and why Siri's on-device AI still can't make a phone call without a three-second delay.The HomeView, Apple's first dedicated smart home display, features a 7.5-inch square screen on a HomePod-style base with instant profile switching using facial recognition. Mitchell sees it as an accessibility product for shared household use — calendars, FaceTime, recipes — rather than an AI showpiece. Marc is less convinced, arguing Siri's persistent sluggishness makes the device hard to trust compared to competitors like Amazon Echo.The bigger concern is cost. Apple doubled the Apple TV's price to $299, citing AI-capable hardware. Mitchell challenges whether consumers should pay a premium for AI features that don't yet deliver on their promise, pointing out that basic Siri commands now run slower than they did before the AI update on iOS 27. The hosts question whether Apple's late entry into AI is costing consumers more than it's delivering.Is Apple's AI worth paying extra for, or should they get the basics right first? Drop your take in the comments. Subscribe for more Your Tech Report every week.Relevant Linkshttps://yourtechreport.comhttps://www.apple.com/homeviewhttps://www.apple.com/apple-tv-4k Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With Apple's Pro event expected next week, Marc and Mitchell debate whether a touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro is the product anyone actually asked for, or if consumers really want MacOS on an iPad. Plus, where Apple could expand next — from gaming consoles to bringing back the AirPort router.Apple is reportedly adding a touchscreen and OLED display to the MacBook Pro lineup. Marc argues this is the wrong approach: consumers overwhelmingly want a full MacOS experience on the iPad, not fingerprints on a laptop screen. Mitchell agrees, noting that Apple's own iPad lineup made touchscreen laptops feel unnecessary. Both hosts acknowledge Apple could surprise them, but neither can identify the unique selling proposition that would justify this direction.The conversation shifts to untapped product categories. Mitchell makes the case for Apple entering the gaming hardware space, arguing the Apple TV is already halfway there with streaming capabilities and Bluetooth controller support. Marc floats the return of Apple's discontinued AirPort routers, noting that Apple now builds its own modems and cellular connectivity features like number sharing across devices could tie into a home networking product. New iPads and potential cellular modems in MacBooks round out the discussion.Would you buy a touchscreen MacBook Pro, or do you want MacOS on an iPad? Tell us what Apple product you wish existed in the comments.Relevant Linkshttps://yourtechreport.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, hit the market this week starting at $2,000 and sold out within minutes. Marc Aflalo and Mitchell Whitfield break down the overwhelmingly positive reviews, the Apple Business ordering glitch that pushed delivery dates to late January, and what Marques Brownlee's endorsement signals about this device.The embargo lifted on Wednesday, and the consensus is clear: the iPhone Duo is one of the most polished first-generation devices Apple has ever released. Reviewers praised the industrial design and the new form factor, with the only consistent criticism being that some third-party apps haven't yet been optimized for the Duo's expanded screen, a familiar growing pain from the early iPad days.Behind the scenes, Apple Business customers experienced a significant ordering glitch. Business reps at local Apple Stores promised launch-day delivery, but orders were either delayed or deprioritized in favor of retail customers. Marc and Mitchell share their firsthand experience navigating the chaos and speculate on whether Apple deliberately prioritized retail stock over business accounts given overwhelming demand.Have you gotten your hands on the iPhone Duo, or are you still waiting? Share your delivery timeline and first impressions in the comments. Like and subscribe for weekly tech coverage.Relevant Linkshttps://yourtechreport.comhttps://www.apple.com/iphone-duo Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Zoho's Chandrasekar LSP joins Your Tech Report to explain what it means for Zoho to land on official Canadian government procurement lists, including Ottawa's AI source list across all three bands. He introduces the concept of "intelligence residency" — the idea that in the AI era, it's not just about where your data lives, but where your AI learns.Being on government procurement lists like Supply Ontario's Vendor of Record means government buyers can work with Zoho without running a full RFP process every time. Zoho qualified for all three bands of Ottawa's AI source list, covering projects up to $37 million, by providing verified references of deployed AI solutions from the private sector.Chandrasekar breaks down a critical evolution in data privacy: beyond data residency and legal jurisdiction, organizations now need to consider intelligence residency. He compares it to someone reading a book on your table and walking away with the knowledge — the data stays, but the inference leaves the country. Zoho's position is that they host all Canadian data and AI processing in Canada and do not use customer data to train their own models. The conversation also previews Zoho's upcoming Municipal Intelligence Hub, a proof of concept for helping fragmented municipal departments share data across a single platform, from 311 systems to building permits.If your business or municipality is evaluating tech platforms, search Zoho public sector to learn about their government solutions. Subscribe for more interviews with industry leaders on Your Tech Report.Relevant Linkshttps://yourtechreport.comhttps://www.zoho.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apple's September 2026 event delivered the expected iPhone 18 Pro upgrades, new Apple Watches, and AirPods 5—but the real story is the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone. Marc and Mitchell break down every announcement, the Canadian pricing shock, what the Duo's camera system is missing, and whether a $1,999 luxury device is worth the leap.Mitchell kicks things off with a rapid-fire recap of the "iterative" announcements: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max with longer battery life, faster processors, and better cameras (up $100 over last year); Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 with a new S11 chip and enhanced health sensing; and AirPods 5 at $149 with active noise cancellation, adaptive audio, live translation, and Siri interactions that previously lived only on the Pro line.Then the conversation shifts entirely to the iPhone Duo—Apple's foldable phone and the product that has Mitchell more excited than he's been about Apple hardware in years. Starting at $1,999 US for 256GB of storage, the Duo came in several hundred dollars below pre-event predictions. In Canada, it's a different story: $2,999 CAD, which is roughly $300 more than a straight currency conversion would suggest, likely due to tariffs.Marc and Mitchell dig into the form factor—wider than expected when closed, opening into a tablet-sized display with a cinematic aspect ratio. The front screen uses squared-off edges on the hinge side rather than the rounded corners seen in pre-event renders. Apple Pencil support, dual batteries for all-day life, and smooth open-close transitions where the front screen appears to "window" into the inner display all stand out. The visible crease? Seemingly nonexistent in the keynote footage, though both hosts agree hands-on reviews will tell the real story.The camera system is a trade-off. The Duo carries a fusion camera and 2x optical zoom—more than the iPhone Air's single camera, but missing the dedicated telephoto lens found on the Pro line. Mitchell points out that most users don't consciously track which lens their phone selects, so the real test will come with daily use.On the Apple Watch front, the Series 12's standout feature is audio intelligence—the ability to rewind and read a transcript of conversations you may have missed, which Marc compares to Doctor Strange's Time Stone. New health features include heart rate checks every five seconds, 24x more frequent heart rate variability measurements, and a redesigned Readiness app that combines activity, training data, and even Quest Labs blood work results into a single wellness score. Side-by-side with the Series 11, though, the hardware differences are slim. The Ultra 4 received notably less stage time this year, with Apple combining both watches into a single presentation segment for the first time.Relevant LinksApple iPhone Duo: https://www.apple.com/iphone-duo/Apple iPhone 18 Pro: https://www.apple.com/iphone-18-pro/Apple Watch Series 12: https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-12/ Apple Watch Ultra 4: https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-ultra-4/Apple AirPods 5: https://www.apple.com/airpods/If you like what you see, feel free to hit that like button; if you really like what you see, make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell!!All the products we talk about are available, for the most part, on Amazon. Click here to view https://amzn.to/3oQuQkhSubscribe to @YourTechReport on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y7gcftlvFollow YourTechReport:Twitter https://www.twitter.com/YourTechReportInstagram https://www.instagram.com/yourtechreportFacebook at https://www.facebook.com/YourTechReportEmail [email protected] YourTechReport on SiriusXM:#yourtechreport on SiriusXM: https://goo.gl/FCaXzNListen to YourTechReport Podcasts:#yourtechreport on Spotify https://bit.ly/4cJwGYc#yourtechreport on iTunes: https://goo.gl/mdFBqO#yourtechreport on Player.FM: https://goo.gl/zAtNYx#yourtechreport on TuneIn: https://goo.gl/nijyot#yourtechreport on Castbox https://goo.gl/T4w6Dc#yourtechreport on Spotify https://goo.gl/r5LDVy#yourtechreport on Stitcher: https://goo.gl/ZeSWnU Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apple's September event lands Wednesday, September 9, and Marc Aflalo and Mitchell Whitfield break down what to expect: the first foldable iPhone, a rumored home hub with a square display, and the big question hanging over both. Can Siri keep up with hardware that depends on voice control?Two brand new devices are expected. The foldable iPhone enters a category Samsung already owns, and the hosts compare notes on how the existing folding form factors feel in hand, what the rounded corners on the renders might mean for the design, and whether losing a telephoto camera matters. The home hub is the wild card: a display and speaker combo that reportedly recognizes each member of the household and pulls up their own calendar and contacts.That's where Siri becomes the problem. Marc explains why he still reaches for his Amazon Echo for basic tasks, even after running iOS 27 betas for months. Mitchell argues that Apple's wait-and-see approach on AI is no longer a harmless quirk. When an entire ecosystem is built to be controlled by voice, a weak assistant hurts the case for buying the hardware.Price rounds out the conversation. Memory and storage costs are pushing everything higher, and the hosts expect the foldable to land around $2,500 US before tax, with Pro models likely starting higher than last year. Would you pay gaming-PC money for a phone? Marc and Mitchell land on different answers.If you like what you see, feel free to hit that like button; if you really like what you see, make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell!!All the products we talk about are available, for the most part, on Amazon. Click here to view https://amzn.to/3oQuQkhSubscribe to @YourTechReport on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y7gcftlvFollow YourTechReport:Twitter https://www.twitter.com/YourTechReportInstagram https://www.instagram.com/yourtechreportFacebook at https://www.facebook.com/YourTechReportEmail [email protected] YourTechReport on SiriusXM:#yourtechreport on SiriusXM: https://goo.gl/FCaXzNListen to YourTechReport Podcasts:#yourtechreport on Spotify https://bit.ly/4cJwGYc#yourtechreport on iTunes: https://goo.gl/mdFBqO#yourtechreport on Player.FM: https://goo.gl/zAtNYx#yourtechreport on TuneIn: https://goo.gl/nijyot#yourtechreport on Castbox https://goo.gl/T4w6Dc#yourtechreport on Spotify https://goo.gl/r5LDVy#yourtechreport on Stitcher: https://goo.gl/ZeSWnU Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X puts an Xbox in your hands. Mitchell Whitfield spent weeks with the handheld and breaks down the controls, the 7-inch 120Hz display, real battery life, and whether the $599 base model is the smarter buy.Both the ROG Xbox Ally and the Ally X run Windows 11 underneath, but ASUS layers its own software on top so you log in and see your games, not a desktop. Steam, EA, Activision and Xbox titles show up in one library regardless of where they came from. PC-based Xbox games install and play natively; the rest of your Xbox library streams through Xbox Play Anywhere, Remote Play or the cloud. Mitchell tested Call of Duty and Diablo 4 on a non-fiber home connection and reported no latency problems.The hardware is the story. The grips and controls feel like an Xbox controller split in half with a screen between them, and Mitchell says that tactile match is what makes the device work. You also get programmable back buttons, assignable LEDs, an M.2 storage slot for easy upgrades, and a weight that feels solid rather than cheap.On specs and price: the base Ally is around $599 with 16GB of RAM, a Z2 processor and 512GB of storage. The Ally X is $999 with 24GB of RAM, the Z2 Extreme, 1TB of storage and a larger battery. Expect roughly one and a half to two hours in top performance mode, or five to six hours in lower power modes. Mitchell's take: unless you play first-person shooters, the base model will serve you well, and ASUS deserves credit for holding launch pricing while competitors raised theirs.If you like what you see, feel free to hit that like button; if you really like what you see, make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell!!All the products we talk about are available, for the most part, on Amazon. Click here to view https://amzn.to/3oQuQkhSubscribe to @YourTechReport on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y7gcftlv Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gaming in 2025 looks nothing like it did a decade ago. Today's gamers stream on Twitch, edit content for YouTube, chat on Discord, and learn new skills — often all at the same time, on the same machine. Intel Gamer Days was built around that reality: a campaign designed to help Canadians find a gaming PC that handles everything they throw at it, not just high frame rates. Asma walks through what makes the Intel Core Ultra processor a centerpiece of this campaign: performance for smooth, uninterrupted gameplay; built-in AI acceleration through an NPU for AI-powered applications and creative software; and efficiency gains that mean quieter systems and longer battery life on gaming laptops. Retail partners Best Buy, Costco, Canada Computers, and Memory Express are key to the campaign, giving shoppers a chance to compare systems hands-on and speak with knowledgeable staff before committing. Software bundles — including titles like Star Wars Galactic Racer and Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis — add extra value for buyers who upgrade during the campaign window. If you've been thinking about upgrading your gaming PC, head to a participating retailer before September 13 to see these systems in person. Find full details and deals at game.intel.com/gamerdays. Like and subscribe to stay updated on exclusive opportunities we'll be sharing throughout the campaign. Relevant Links Intel Gamer Days: https://game.intel.com/gamerdays Best Buy Canada: https://www.bestbuy.ca Canada Computers: https://www.canadacomputers.com Memory Express: https://www.memoryexpress.com #IntelGamerDays #IntelCoreUltra #GamingPC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Michael Cioni built four startups, and each one taught him something the last one couldn't. What he learned at Frame.io and Adobe was that the cloud, despite its flexibility, was too expensive and the internet too slow for the workflows creative professionals actually live in. That insight became Strada: a peer-to-peer network that lets you share files directly off your own local storage — OWC drives included — without uploading them to a cloud service first. Larry O'Connor saw it in motion at IBC and recognized immediately what Strada represented: a practical, powerful use case for OWC hardware that cloud infrastructure simply can't replicate. He describes a generation of professionals who have been told cloud is the answer for everything, sometimes at the expense of understanding what on-premise storage can actually do. OWC has consistently pushed back against that narrative, and the partnership with Strada is the clearest expression of that position yet. The conversation covers how Strada evolved — starting with AI-assisted media tagging, shifting to peer-to-peer file access after direct customer feedback, and planning to bring AI enrichment back in 2027, this time running locally on your own hardware. Michael explains why building the company in public, with weekly live streams and open beta testing, wasn't just a marketing strategy — it was a financial necessity for a startup that can't afford to build the wrong thing. Larry echoes this, noting that customer-first thinking has always driven OWC's product decisions. They also discuss storage pricing volatility, the real-world limits of internet bandwidth for high-resolution formats like 8K RED RAW, and what it means to give creative professionals access to that footage remotely in seconds — without requiring a full upload first. 👉 If this conversation sparked something, subscribe so you don't miss what's next. Drop a comment — are you still paying for cloud storage you wish you could replace? Larry and Michael would probably love to hear it. Strada: https://strata.tech OWC: https://www.owc.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Schlage has been in the lock business for over 100 years, and that heritage is very much alive in how the company approaches smart home security. Tim Eskew walks through the evolution of Schlage's connected products — from their first electronic lock in 2007 to Bluetooth integration in the early 2010s, Wi-Fi with the Encode line in 2019, and now the Sense Pro, which combines Ultra-Wideband, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, and Matter over Thread in a single device. The centerpiece of the conversation is Schlage Converge, the proprietary technology built into the Sense Pro that enables hands-free, approach-based unlocking. Using Ultra-Wideband, the lock detects the angle and speed of your approach, then unlocks at exactly the right moment — no fumbling for keys, no tapping a phone. Tim explains that the use case that drove its development was deceptively simple: coming home with your hands full. Beyond Converge, the conversation covers the Sense Pro's keyless-and-keypadless design, how Schlage handles battery life and low-power failsafes (including a USB-C jumpstart port), ecosystem compatibility across Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home, and Matter, and how firmware updates have allowed Schlage to keep older locks relevant and valuable over time. Marc and Tim also dig into how consumers discover features they didn't know they had — scheduled access codes, remote unlocking from hundreds of miles away, and vacation rental integrations — and how the smart home ecosystem has genuinely reinvigorated product development at Schlage from the inside out. 👉 Subscribe to Your Tech Report for hands-on smart home coverage every week. Leave a comment below — would you trust a lock with no keypad and no physical key? Relevant Links: Schlage official website: https://www.schlage.com Allegion (parent company): https://www.allegion.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.