Issue 1367 - Tuesday 18th May, 2021

In Today's Issue

The News

Apple Music gets lossless & spatial audio for free, but check your devices supports it

Apple will be adding lossess audio to the entire Apple Music catalog and spatial audio to selected titles - both at no extra cost. The lossless stuff will be in the Apple Lossless Audio Codec and some songs will be in "Hi-Resolution Lossless" which is 24-bit 192kHz. It won't be enabled by default due to the extra data used and won't be compatible with every device - the HomePod, HomePod mini, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max can't handle lossless audio. Ditto most Bluetooth headphones (e.g: QC35, XM4 etc). Spatial audio is more widely supported (but only on headphones with the H1 or W1 chip) and utilises the Dolby Atmos standard.

Lightning has cooked most of the Blue Mountain's FTTC modems, NBN replaced over 10,000 already

10,000 NBN supplied VDSL modems have already been replaced due to recent electrical storms in the Blue Mountains. Apparently they're going to supply "a strengthened [device] that is much less likely to fail in these conditions". One family saw a "massive spark, like a flash, coming out of the NBN box" that continued to spark until the "phone cord was removed from the box". This is the 3rd time their NBN equipment has been replaced due to lightning damage. Now for the obvious moral of this story - if these homes had FTTP instead of FTTC, they'd all still be operational.

Microsoft Teams personal edition, UniSA pwnd, Tesla hasn't sold all their Bitcoin, Sharp's big camera smartphone, bye E.gg

Something I Saw On The Internet

The National Archives of Australia needs your help

The National Archives of Australia is a wonderful resource of Australia's history but unfortunately there are millions of government produced documents, photos, film reels, audio tapes and video tapes literally rotting away in Canberra. The NAA wants to digitise it all as to preserve it, but the government hasn't given them any extra money do so with for a long, long time. Things are getting so bad that this government agency is resorting to asking for donations. They shouldn't have to, but I slipped them a tax-deductible $20 anyways because I love their YouTube channel and enjoy browsing their collection of Telecom/Telstra photos.

Bargains

The End

📻 Candy Gun - Melt-Banana

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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.​