Alphabet's quarterly results are out today, with revenue "only" rising 17% compared to this same quarter a year ago. Apparently there's more ad platform competition these days (Facebook & Snapchat), YouTube ad revenue is taking a hit (beacuse of all the conspiracy theories) and their hardware businesses aren't doing as well as they hoped (Pixel sales are slow). Wall Street didn't like the sound of that so the share price is down 7%, but still pretty damn close to an all-time high, so it's not like Alphabet is dying or anything.
Microsoft's throwing a big party to celebrate 10 years of Minecraft and hasn't invited the game's creator, Marcus "Notch" Persson. According to Microsoft, it's because "his comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft". With comments and opinions like "it's ok to be white" and that if you don't believe in a "Hetrosexual Pride Day", you "deserve to be shot", it's no wonder Microsoft is scrubbing themselves clean of the Notch stink.
The ATO already sucks up data from banks and other financial institutions so you can't get away with pretending you only earned $5,000 in interest when you actually made $50,000. Now cryptocurrency businesses registered in Australia will have to report to the ATO stuff like each customer's purchases and sales, so the ATO is aware of any capital gain events. The ATO will be taking it easy at first, sending warnings instead of fines, but don't expect that to last forever.
I never gave much thought to Anki after their infamous 2013 Apple WWDC keynote appearance (the little robot cars controlled by iPhones), which might explain why they've suddenly announced their demise today (plus the fact it's a slow news day). They managed to snag $200m of VC money and after 5 years couldn't make a buck selling cute robot toys for education or entertainment purposes.
Ring, the video doorbell and camera company owned by Amazon, is looking to hire a "Managing Editor, News", to "to manage a team of news editors who deliver breaking crime news alerts to our neighbors" - a company that sells security cameras wants to generate more crime related news. I wonder why someone that makes money off scared people wants to make more people scared? Hmmm, it shall forever remain a mystery.
Are you or someone you know keen on podcasting and between the ages of 15-25? SYN Media is hosting a free, 5 week podcast production course at Collingwood Library. "In week 1 we will meet at Collingwood Library to develop the themes and ideas that you would like to explore in the podcast. In week 2 we will visit SYN Media at RMIT, where they will show you the studio and teach you how to create a podcast. In week 3 & 4 we will research, write and develop content for the podcast at Collingwood Library. In week 5 we will record the podcast in SYN's studio at RMIT". Sounds like a great opportunity!
I do not watch Game of Thrones, but lots of people do and they are complaining about why so much of the latest episode was basically a black screen. First of all, it's supposed to be dark, but due to how crap most people's LCD TVs are and the compression techniques used to broadcast Game of Thrones, instead of a moody dark scene, most people saw banding, artefacts or just big patches of undefined blackness. Those with OLEDs are laughing at all of us LCD plebs right now.
That's it, see ya Thursday - Josh is filling in on Wednesday!
--Anthony
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