This is Sacha (above) and we work together on Telus. I’ve been partnered with the Telus team since 2009, my longest relationship! Working together has brought us closer as friends and every time we meet to ‘work‘ it hardly feels like we’re doing a ‘job’. I’m smiling as I write this thinking of all the LOLs we had last week at the Eaton Centre Telus Store. Don’t know if you’ve been in a Telus store recently but there’s HEAPS of home, audio, fitness, and fashion tech, aside from phones. I cruised the store picking out some tech things I love, to share with you. Here’s a few of my favourites right now and why I love them. JBL Clip 2 – Travel & Party On with This Loud Lil’ Thing I was sent to CES (Consumer electronics Show, Vegas) in January with Harman, the parent company of JBL. This little speaker packs major power and the 2017 version is waterproof not just water resistant. At CES they had them planing tunes in the water.  Last year at the cottage I used this little buddy so much and it’s my go-to travel speaker for hotel room dance parties. It’s surprisingly LOUD for it’s size. Lose your stuff all the time? Me too! Get a Tile! I backed Tile when it was a Kickstarter a bunch years ago. It’s a little plastic thing with Bluetooth that connects to an app on your phone.  You put them on your stuff to track it and the device makes a noise when activated. I can not tell you how many damn times I have lost my keys in the house, in a purse, in a jacket, in the couch, behind the couch, in the blankets, in a drawer, or in the pantry (yes).  Turn on the app, locate keys, listen for sound, then rush…

About a week ago I was out the door bright and early one morning for the media preview grand opening of the first Google shop in North America at Best Buy in Mississauga. I love going to this type of event! Ever since I was a little kid, my dad used to take us to stroll around Future Shop, look at all the gadgets, test stereos and TVs. I think I have him to thank for my lifelong love of tech. Google Shop is a ‘shop within a shop’ that’s got all kinds of Google goodies and product demos. I visited one of my favourite beaches in new Zealand via the Portal, tried Fantastic Beasts in w/ Google Daydream VR, and was sent home with Google Chrome. ?? I thought this was a neat thing to do over the holidays! Hangout with Santa in the Google shop. Select your city at g.co/instore to find your closest location. Before touring the store I chatted Best Buy’s Angela Scardillo, VP Marketing & Communications. The main thing I learned from her was how they’re really trying to make tech approachable. Their new round of ‘experience stores’ have a more immersive experience where you can touch, feel, test things. The new store design has raised access flooring that expands and contracts expand so they can actually move the store around and change the shopping experience. The new flagship Google shops are now open at Best Buy locations in Mississauga, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver. Angela also showed off her Google Pixel phone and I really want to try one. It takes great photos and organizes them in your phone like Google Images. I’m still thinking about it days later… To celebrate the new Googley space at Best Buy, we’ve giving away a $250 gift certificate.  To enter leave a comment, visit FB, follow us on Twitter, or send a…

Last week I met up w/ Jen aka @jennandthecity for after work drinks, we’ve been meaning to hang out for ages and our schedules finally aligned. It was my first time checking out Bar Reyna in Yorkville which has a gorgeous back patio that feels like an escape from the city. I picked up the tab bc we were in a bit of a hurry and a couple days later, Jenn sent me money via PayPal using Siri. I’ve had PayPal for ages and it’s my fav way to shop online, this new integration makes sending money to friends super easy. If you’ve ever had to pay someone back or been waiting for someone to pay you back, it can be super awkward and/or annoying. Luckily your girl Siri makes it super easy.  Starting November 10th, for the first time in Canada, iPhone users can tell Siri to send or request money through an integration with the PayPal app. A first for Canada, PayPal launches peer-to-peer payments w/ Siri. More here: https://t.co/U2dvZqlYFk #P2Ppayments #sendmoney #remittance pic.twitter.com/MvaJR1qz7N — PayPal Canada (@PayPalCA) November 10, 2016 Once you’ve got the PayPal app [download here if you don’t have it yet!] and your phone is on iOS 10, you’re ready to roll. Wake up Siri and ask him/her to send money to a friend.  Contacts who match the name will pop up, select the person, and voila, Siri will send it. You can 100% send money to someone who isn’t on iPhone and if they person doesn’t have a PayPal account, they’ll be prompted to set one up. Lending money to friends can end bad, on average PayPal found that 30% of Canadians have lost a friend over an IOU. Been there? Me too. In the PayPal Money Habits Study by Koski Research, they found more than 53% of us Canadians find it…