NEWS
The EC reckons Apple needs to give Ireland 13 billion Euros
Remember how yesterday I said Apple might be getting a tax bill from the EU for about a billion Euro? It's actually a 13 billion Euro demand. The European Commission wants the Irish Government to get that money off Apple - even though it didn't break any Irish laws and Ireland doesn't want Apple's money. Tim Cook has put out a statement that explains the situation from Apple's point of view. Apple's take is, obviously, that they did nothing wrong, the EC are lunatics and Apple will appeal this decision until every court and lawyer in Europe is sick of apples and Dutch Irish sandwiches. For a good analysis of the situation in Ireland about this ruling, the Irish Times has ya covered.
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Intel formally announces Kaby Lake mobile CPUs
Intel has formally announced its 7th Generation Core CPUs. The new chips are part of the Kaby Lake family and are based on the previous 14nm process, a further refinement of the 14nm Skylake family of CPUs (remember, the tick-tock process is dead now). Intel has started with the low power parts first, in the 4.5W Y range (i.e: for the MacBook) and the 15W U range (for the MacBook Air). The new CPUs are a bit faster and use a bit less power than the previous generation. One notable feature is the nice range of hardware video decoding for HEVC and VP9. Desktop class CPUs using Kaby Lake's new process should be announced in January.
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Google sources leak info about things that may or may not happen
Something is going on at Google that's making sources leak like a shitty bucket. 1 - Google is gonna use Waze to start a carpooling service in SF that'll totally be an Uber competitor. 2 - Google is ditching the Nexus branding for their phones and tablets and will start to release devices with software added on top of stock Android. 3 - some of the Nest staff will be split off into a new IoT venture within Google and will be lead by the guy who currently leads the Android team. Sources, leaks, pals, rumours, murmurs, rumblings - none of this stuff is confirmed but it's all over the tech news sites.
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COOL SHIT
Transport NSW leveraging all that sweet Opal data to give load info in apps
I missed this when it happened last week, but Opal is using the data it captures when you tap on a bus to show passengers waiting for a bus how full that bus may be. By exposing that data via an API anyone can use, apps like NextThere can show a little graphic next to the bus's real time tracking view that'll let you know if you should probably wait for the next one unless you've got a fetish for standing very close to strangers. I don't think Myki could even do this sort of info per week, let alone in real time.
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Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Today's subject line is from Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle, by Nirvana. Like The Sizzle? Tell your friends!