Two Blokes Talking Tech
Tech Guide #698 – The new Apple features that didn't make the WWDC keynote
16 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Tech Guide with Stephen Fennec, the podcast that keeps you updated and educated.
Tech Guide, episode 698. Hello and welcome to the show. Great to have you with us once again. Thank you for listening. My name is Stephen Fennegan. I'm the editor of techguide.com.au. On this week's show, Bupa has offered a new smartphone insurance policy that covers device damage and protection from scams and identity theft.
We'll also go over the announcements from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, including the many features that didn't make the keynote. In the Tech Guide reviews, we're going to run our eye over the new Xiaomi 17T smartphone. And Insta360 has released an 8K gimbal camera. And we'll answer all of your questions in the tech guide help desk.
And it's all brought to you by Netgear, the company that keeps you connected. And Norton, the company that keeps you protected. Welcome to the show. And I just want to mention, I'm actually using new monitors, new headphones. These are the HD 480 Pro Plus from Sennheiser. These are designed for professional recording and monitoring.
And I will follow up with a full review on Tech Guide in the next couple of weeks. All right, let's kick off the show. And Bupa, the insurance company, has come up with a different type of smartphone insurance. Now, my understanding is that insurance companies don't offer coverage.
You say in your house and contents insurance, a lot of insurers, if you damage your phone at home, some home and content policies cover that damage, but they don't cover the damage when you leave your home.
So what Boop has done, they've come up with a new smartphone insurance policy that not only covers damage at home and outside of home, but also covers the, it has protection from scams and identity theft. So you think about the rise in cybercrime. According to the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre, there is a cyber incident every six minutes.
Now that incident could be a scam, could be identity theft, and the average cost has risen by 8% to an average of $33,000. Wow.
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Chapter 2: What new smartphone insurance policy has Bupa introduced?
So having protection from that, and I do know our great sponsors, Norton, they do offer protection against scams and identity theft as well as help to restore your identity as well. Now, my understanding is that the Bupa policy is, covers not only the damage to your phone, and they had an interesting look at the most common damage to your phone. I'll talk about that in a minute.
But the insurance applies to new and existing devices and includes accidental damage when you're not at home. And it comes with protection against online fraud, this includes financial reimbursement if you've lost any money or any out-of-pocket expenses, and online preventative cyber care support as well.
It costs $19.95 per month, or you can go to $49.99 per month and cover four phones under the one policy. So I'd imagine family coverage for not only device damage, but also protection from scams and identity theft and those things that could cost on average 33K, that is $49.99 per month. So this is, I think, that Bupa's initial press release, I think they buried the lead with all respect.
They buried the lead with their press release. The press release was, the heading of the press release was, what are the most common forms of phone damage?
Chapter 3: What features from Apple's WWDC were not highlighted in the keynote?
And I read the press release and I'm thinking, okay, that's interesting. And just for your information, the most common type of damage is the back glass, damage to the back glass. So if you drop your phone, the back glass shatters. That's the most common.
Next most common is display bleed or panel damage, so something wrong with the screen, followed by unresponsive touchscreens and a cracked front screen. Now, I thought cracked front screen would be the most popular, but back glass is apparently the most popular.
So here was a press release about phone damage and how they were saying that smartphones obviously are an essential part of our daily lives and we can't be without them. So protecting them has to be important. So having coverage and having them by our side all the time is important.
But then Madeline Young, who's the Bupa General Manager of Product Proposition and Loyalty, in her quote says that your phones become essential, but the protection is not kept up with how we live and work.
Chapter 4: What are the standout features of the Xiaomi 17T smartphone?
And here's what she said. Phone repair and replacement costs have risen sharply with screen repairs now costing hundreds of dollars and popular phones costing thousands to replace. At the same time, cybercrime and scams continue to increase, leaving many Australians financially exposed.
This is a cover that protects your phone and your digital life together, giving people real peace of mind when things go wrong. So I think that's a terrific idea, and probably if they haven't already done it, I haven't heard of an insurance policy that covers the phone damage and your scam and identity theft protection.
Chapter 5: How does the Insta360 8K gimbal camera enhance video quality?
I've heard of internet security companies offering that protection, while like Norton, as I mentioned earlier, they offer some protection against scams and identity theft, but they don't protect you if you drop your phone and break it. So a lot of our internet security companies have that secondary online protection that's part of your plan that you pay per year, whatever that costs.
But I've never seen a plan that includes physical damage to your phone as well as digital protection as well. Let's hope other insurance companies may follow suit. If they have it, if you've got an insurance policy similar to this already, I'd love to know.
I did a bit of searching around and couldn't find anything that was quite like this, but happy to be corrected if there are some floating around. Bupa, I think on the front foot here, addressing two obvious problems is that we damage our phones and we need them to be working 24-7, seven days a week, but also to the digital protection that can help us in the event of a scam.
And let's see how common they are. This is so common now. or identity theft. So protecting our identity should be as valuable, we should have as much protection and thought of protection as we do with our passwords and other things we protect online as well. So yeah, I think that's a great start there from Bupa.
And I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in that, especially the family policy. I think mums and dads with teenage kids and, oh, look, dad, I broke my phone again. And okay, well, it's going to cost you 150 bucks to repair it. That might be an option for families for sure, but definitely worth checking out. You can read all about it.
The Bupa phone cover, which ensures not only damage to your phone, but also protection from scams and identity theft. You can read all about it at techguide.com.au.
This is Tech Guide with Stephen Fennec.
Now, last week, as you know, Apple held their Worldwide Developers Conference. It was after we had recorded last week's episode of Tech Guide. Trevor and I did go over much of it in our two blokes talking tech episode from last week, but I thought I'd just touch on a couple of things about Siri AI and the next generation of Apple intelligence.
Before and in the next segment, I'm going to talk about the features, the top 10 features that missed the keynote. So more about that. But first of all, let's chat about Siri. And finally, after two years... Apple has finally delivered on its promise of Siri AI, more personal, smarter, better Siri, as well as an upgraded and improved Apple intelligence as well.
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