Apple's said they're gonna launch a "Self Service Repair" program next year. Regular punters like you and I will be able to order parts for the iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and M1-based Macs direct from Apple, as well as access service manuals for those products. The Self Service Repair program will be US only at first, but will exapand to other countries throughout 2022. Seems like the main reason Apple did this is because of a shareholder resolution from September that had to be acted on by today or the SEC gets involved. I'll save judgement until there's more details on what you can actually repair and what the parts cost.
Hey look, Australia's getting a Quantum Commercialisation Hub, National Quantum Strategy, a National Committee on Quantum and a quantum technologies prospectus, thanks to $111m of federal government funding spread out over the next 10 years. Announcing the funding, our Prime Minister said "Australia is already a global leader in several aspects of quantum technology" and the cash is all about "capitalising on our competitive advantage and taking our research to the world". There's bugger all details about what the money will be spent on, but hey, the government got an announcement and that's what really matters.
It pains me to say this, but Quentin Tarantino has turned "high-resolution scans from his original handwritten screenplay of Pulp Fiction, plus a drawing inspired by some element of the scene" info NFTs. Miramax is not happy about it and is suing him because they reckon their contract with Quentin regarding Pulp Fiction, which carves out "interactive games, live performances, and other ancillary media" for Quentin, doesn't include NFTs of the screenplay. Miramax is also shitty that "Tarantino's conduct may mislead other creators into believing they have the right to exploit Miramax films through NFTs and other emerging technologies, when in fact Miramax holds those rights for its films".
Phil Spencer, Microsoft's boss of Xbox/gaming, did an interview with Axios (in a horribly formatted article) where he states the game industry needs a way of preserving its history and that, he reckons, should be "legal emulation". This is basically finding a way to work around lazy/greedy/uninterested rights holders that don't make their titles available for emulation, so users have to resort to illegally downloading ROMs or whatever - something Nintendo in particular loves suing people for. The easy solution would be a total overhaul of copyright, making all games public domain after 20 years. Fucked if I know how that helps cloud-based games that rely on servers being online for anything to work.
📻 Natalie - Kills Birds
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