In This Issue

News

Nice updates to the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop & new Surface Earbuds and Surface Pro X

Microsoft held a Surface event last night and let loose with some awesome looking products. First up was refreshes of the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro - faster, lighter, etc. They go on sale in a few weeks. Microsoft made their own version of the AirPods with Surface Earbuds, charging case, gestures and all. Those are coming "late 2019". The Surface Pro X is a new 13" ARM based Surface using a new Microsoft SQ1 SoC co-developed by Qualcomm and Microsoft. Very similar to the Surface Pro, but instead of an Intel CPU it's ARM-based, so it's still snappy but with way more battery life and less heat generation so the overall form factor is thinner and lighter. The Pro X ships November 5th.

Microsoft Surface Duo & Surface Neo are cool as hell

The really exciting stuff is Surface Duo and Surface Neo. Remember the Courier prototype? The mad bastards at Microsoft have finally done it and called it the Surface Neo. There's two screens with a hinge in the middle that wraps all the way around and it runs Windows 10X, a special variant of Windows 10 designed for dual screens. The Duo is a smaller version of the Neo, also with dual screens, but runs Android instead of Windows. I reckon the Duo looks amazing and really want to buy one when it comes out - unfortunately that's not happening until "holiday 2020" (i.e: December 2020) and there's no price or hardware specs. Marques Brownlee and The Verge got some hands on time with the prototypes.

ANU releases report on mid-year data breach

Back in June, Australian National University (ANU) made public that they got comprehensively owned by what at the time was considered a state sponsored attack, from probably China. Late yesterday afternoon, ANU released a report of their investigation into the incident. The most surprising bit is that they claim the "initial means of infection was a sophisticated spearphishing email which did not require user interaction, ie clicking on a link or downloading an attachment". According to ANU's available logs "this email was only previewed but the malicious code contained in the email did not require the recipient to click on any link nor download and open an attachment". The report is very easy to read if you're interested in such things.

Not News

National Film and Sound Archive starts adding Aussie videogames to its collection

The National Film and Sound Archive announced last week that it will start collecting Australian video games for archival preservation. The NFSA's CEO said "it would be impossible to accurately represent modern life without games" and that "it is essential that games be collected alongside other audiovisual media, to ensure their continued preservation and access". The Hobbit (1982), Halloween Harry (1985/1993), Shadowrun (1993), LA Noire (2011), Sumberged (2015), Hollow Knight (2017), Florence (2019) and Espire 1: VR Operative (2019) are the first titles being preserved. I bet Untitled Goose Game will get added soon! Oh and if you're in Canberra, the NFSA is hosting the Game Masters exhibit - I saw it a few years ago when it was at ACMI in Melbourne and loved it.

Bargains

🎶 Handsprings - The White Stripes

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​