Australia’s COVID-19 tracing app coming next week but maybe not as open source as we hoped
Protests to “re-open” America seem to be the work of internet trolls
Canon’s new EOS R5 mirrorless full-frame stills camera is also a video beast
Reviews say the $500 Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro is pretty good
Cheap Boost & Telstra pre-paid, Google Play gift cards, Far Cry 5, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Surface Pro 7, iPhone 11 Pro Max
Health Minister Greg Hunt was on Triple M's "The Spoonman" show this morning (where all serious political discourse takes place) saying that the COVID-19 contact tracing app will launch "next week" and may not be open sourced as the Government Services minister said it would, explaining that they're "not going to release the complete source code for the app" - but it also sounded like Hunt had no idea what he was talking about and said the topic is "a little bit beyond my technical capabilities". Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) said she'd be "comfortable" installing the tracing app on her smartphone after her team did a "stress test" on it.
You've probably seen those crazy yanks getting around their cities demanding workplaces re-open and claiming their liberty and freedom has been abused under the disguise of a pandemic. Redditors discovered that a bunch of "reopen" sites where the movement began are owned by various guns rights groups, intriguing Brian Krebs. He dug deeper and found them to belong to "the Dorr Brothers", who have been described as doing what they do simply "to stir the pot and make as much animosity as they can, and then raise money off that animosity" by selling merchandise related to it. I mention this not so much to discuss the the stupidity at hand, but to stare in amazement at how the internet has enabled this in a way nobody would ever have imagined 20 years ago when we were bleating that everyone should have access and the information would set us free.
Canon has a new camera! Okay, normally not big news for most people, but based on specs the EOS R5 is gonna be fantastic for anyone wanting a great stills camera and a great video camera in the one package. Non-crop 8K @ 30fps is the headline feature, with DCI 4K at 120fps a close second. Both can be recorded to internal storage as raw video or compressed as 10-bit 4:2:2 H.265. To top it all off, it'll record video using the excellent Dual Pixel Auto Focus system used on other Canon cameras. Specs aren't out for stills but it'll do 20fps shooting with a silent shutter and has in-body image stabilisation. Plus it's a Canon camera, it's not gonna suck for taking photos. No release date yet, hopefully it’s not too far away.
Reviews are out of the $500 keyboard and trackpad that goes with the $1300 iPad. Everyone reckons its superbly built (you'd hope so for $500), the trackpad is silky smooth, the hinge and keyboard itself is incredibly sturdy (no flex, no wobble) and the keyboard feel is just as good as the 16" MacBook Pro. Sounds like if you want to pretend your iPad is a laptop, the Magic Keyboard is the one to get. The only downside (besides the price) would probably size and weight. When combined with a 12.9" iPad Pro, the setup is thicker and heavier than a 13" MacBook Pro. You can’t snap the screen off the MacBook Pro and use it as a tablet though.
Boost Mobile 12m pre-paid SIM with 240GB data - $270 from eBay using the code PSIGNAL10
Telstra 186-day pre-paid recharge & SIM with 60GB data - $100 at Coles
Get 2000 bonus FlyBuys Points when buying a $50 Google Play gift card at Coles
Far Cry 5 for PC - $17.98 from Fanatical
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 Triple Thrill Pack for PC - $1.44 from Fanatical
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (i5, 8GB, 256GB) with Type Cover - $1,799 from Microsoft
iPhone 11 Pro Max 64GB - $1709.10 from 3 Brothers Mobiles
🎶 Standing on the Outside - Cold Chisel
😁 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.