Elon Musk had an epiphany overnight, deciding Tesla will stop taking Bitcoin as payment for cars due to the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining and transactions. Fucked if I know why it took him months to realise this, but better late than never? Maybe it was a huge pump and dump scheme? Did he get teased too often by his rich greenie friends about the incredible hypocrisy of building zero emissions cars yet accepting filthy currency for them? The mind boggles, as it usually does when Elon is involved. The price of Bitcoin fell like 17% thanks to this announcement.
If you had any doubt as to why TV manufacturers persist with bullshit smart TV units when heaps of people just want a dumb TV you plug a Chromecast/Apple TV into, Visio's first public earnings report gives a bit of insight. They made $48.2m profit last quarter selling TVs, but not far behind was the $38.4m they made "collecting and selling user data as well as targeting advertising at users". Device sales only rose 7% year over year, but money from the ad-related business unit grew 133%. I bet as soon as a large chunk of people just don't connect their TV to the internet, they'll build in 5G radios that can't be disabled so that the ad revenue continues.
I've never heard of Antonio García Martínez, but he recently moved from selling ads at Facebook, to selling ads at Apple. When his new colleauges discovered he was joining their team, they sent out a petition that over 2,000 Apple employees signed and Antonio was sacked within 24 hours. Apparently he wrote an autobiography called Chaos Monkeys that had some extremely worrying quotes about women in it (check the article for the full excerpts), which unsurprisingly, the women at Apple didn't react well to. Imagine being such a ratbag that people who have never met you immediately want nothing to do with you.
Old mate Peter Wells has shared with us the magic that is the Superlux HD681 studio monitoring headphones. They're only $39 delivered, but sound like headphones that cost ten times as much. The build quality is nothing fancy, but this my friends, is supreme value for money. This is the kinda tech gadget stuff that excites me. It's easy to find the best of the best with slick marketing, sold in heaps of stores with dozens of reviews because a PR agency sent a sample out to everyone with a blog, but when I discover these no-name brand products nobody has heard of that perform great and cost sweet fuck all, it's very satisfying.
📻 Dripping - Blonde Redhead
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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.