ACCC adds Netflix performance to its speed test regime, decrees most people don’t need more than 50mbit now
Google adds Action Blocks to Assistant and wheelchair accessibility info to Maps for #GAAD
Mum uses GDPR to force grandmother into removing pics of her kids off Facebook & Pinterest
Do not buy the Brother ADS-2200 scanner, even if it’s ridiculously cheap
Cheap Ring doorbell, FIFA20, Madden 20 & Civ6 is free (!!!)
Another round of the ACCC's internet speed testing report was published, with the latest report being the first time they tested how well different NBN plans go streaming video from Netflix and YouTube. Good news is that for YouTube and Netflix, all the NBN50 plans could handle 2 simultaneous HD streams (except MyRepublic, they really shit the bed with Netflix). The bad news is that the ACCC thinks "these results should prompt consumers to consider whether they actually need to pay extra for a higher-priced plan, or whether a cheaper plan could meet their needs" - as if being able to stream Netflix and YouTube is the only damn thing people do with broadband!!? Goddamn boomer normies. Anyways, if you'd like to see the latest report, here it is on the ACCC website.
It's Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Google has made some interesting accessibility related product announcements. Google Assistant on Android gets a new feature called "Action Blocks", which The Verge describes as letting you "create big, customized buttons for relatively complex actions like playing music or calling somebody". Here's a little video of it in action. What a great example of something designed for "accessibility" being useful for everyone, not just the people it was designed for. Google also said it's going to add wheelchair accessibility information to locations in Google Maps so people can check if a place has features like ramps, parking and toilets people in wheelchairs can use. Won't be perfect, but it's a good start.
A grandmother has been ordered by a Dutch court to remove photos of her grandkids from Facebook and Pinterest, after the children's mother used the EU's GDPR. It started off the mum simply not wanting her kids on social media, but the grandmother didn't care/think about that and when asked to remove them, didn't do so and it escalated into legal action and the GDPR coming into play. It usually doesn't apply to "personal" or "household" data but the judge didn't think that applied here because it was uploaded to Facebook. Stubborn old grandma should have just listened to her daughter - uploading people's photos to the internet without their permission (in this case the mum's as she's their legal guardian) is pretty rude anyways. Here's a more detailed article on the case than what the BBC whipped up.
I thought I was getting a bargain when I saw two brand new in the box Brother ADS-2200 scanners very cheap on Facebook Marketplace last weekend. What I got instead was Japanese designed and Chinese manufactured disappointment in a box. The ADS-2200 Windows 10 TWAIN drivers simply don't work. The WIA driver works but it's dumbed down so much that's no good for what I want to use it for (scanning old shit for archival). Brother's iPrint&Scan app is better but still lacks all the promised features of the TWAIN driver. On the Mac it's an even bigger disaster as something about the ADS-2200's USB implementation is so bad, the drivers crash after scanning 3 pages. Ultimately the only platform it worked on was Windows 7 and even then, it was a disappointment due to the lackluster image quality. It frustrated me so much I had to write about it and share the experience on my blog.
Ring Video Doorbell 2 - $229 at Amazon AU
FIFA 20 for Switch or Madden NFL 20 for PS4/XB1 - $29.99 each from Amazon AU
Civ 6 is free on the Epic Game Store. If you want all the DLC (except the brand new Frontier Pass), that’s an extra $45
🎶 Down the Garden Path - Something for Kate
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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.