NEWS
Telstra's national data network is stuffed at the moment
I wrote this at 1:20PM and at this time, Telstra was having a major meltdown of it's entire mobile network, as well as NBN and ADSL services. Apparently all this happened because a core switch within Telstra's network was reset. Hopefully by the time this issue gets to your inbox, its resolved. Unless you're a Telstra customer, heh.
Instagram adds support for multiple accounts
For some reason this took Instagram a solid couple of years to implement, but now you can have multiple Instagram accounts on the same device. The latest version of the iOS and Android apps will let you switch between all your accounts on the gram. Have a nice Instagram account for your mum to look at and separate one for your mates to shitpost on. Oh, the Windows Phone version won't be getting this feature, or any kind of update in the near future - maybe in 2018, if it's still around as a mobile OS.
Facebook told to stop trying to subvert the open Internet in India
Facebook has been trying to give away "free Internet" in India by allowing carriers there to offer Facebook for nothing and if you want the rest of the Internet, you've gotta pay. India's telco regulator knocked it back saying it creates an uneven playing field for any competitors to Facebook who can't afford to give away their bandwidth for free or cajole a telco into doing so. All good, right? It's good to see another win for net neutrality and it's a nice fuck you to a giant corporation using poor people as pawns and thinly disguised altruism in their quest for growing profits.
Google/Alphabet's CEO is the best remunerated CEO in America
Speaking of giant corporations, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai is now the highest paid CEO in the USA thanks to his $199m worth of share options in Alphabet. Those options are currently valued at US$650m. Not bad for what's essentially an ad agency CEO.. (oooh suck burn)
German soccer club hires a full time FIFA video game player
Wolfsburg, a team in Germany's Bundesliga soccer leauge, has given a contract to a 22 year old dude from England to play the FIFA video game for them professionally. He doesn't reveal how much he gets, but he's "comfortable" on his salary from the club. Wolfsburg sees it as a way to connect video game players to the club. What a time to be alive.
COOL SHIT
BuzzFeed explains Snapchatting like a teen
Reading this story on BuzzFeed made me feel old. I've never used Snapchat as I don't see the point, but this kid fucken loves it and can't get enough of the snaps to satisfy her narcissistic teenage desire for attention. If you're as clueless as to the allure of Snapchat as I am, this won't really answer the question of its popularity, but will at least explain how the kids use it.
Melbourne Apple Admin meet-up on again on the 25th of Feb
In Melbourne? Responsible for babysitting a bunch of Macs or iOS device? Get your arse to the Melbourne Apple Admins meetup at RMIT Uni on the 25th of Feb. Yell amongst each other at how Apple's latest software update broke that thing you use every day, vent about how dumb management is and drown your sorrows with other people in the same situation as you (thanks to Sizzle reader Chris Menz for the heads up on this)
eBay has 10% off everything right now
There's a good old fashioned 10% off everything sale on eBay at the moment. So if you've been wanting to purchase some gadget you don't really need but kinda want, is never on sale and need an excuse to buy it, here it is.
Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Like The Sizzle? Tell your friends!