NEWS
Fresh rumours of Apple using ARM CPUs in Macs
Bloomberg is stoking the flames the ol' Apple is gonna move to ARM CPUs in Macs rumour. This time it's about making a hybrid ARM/Intel laptop, that when in "Power Nap" mode, disables the Intel CPU entirely and just uses the low power ARM CPU, so the laptop can remain connected when sleeping and not drain the battery. Codenamed T310, Bloomberg reckons it'll be included in the next update of the MacBook Pro (which going by previous form, could be 2019). You'd imagine this is just Apple starting the journey of replacing Intel CPUs entirely.
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No more mobile roaming charges in the EU
The European Commission has passed law to end roaming charges across the EU. If you've got a SIM from a telco in an EU country and go to another country, it'll just keep on working as if you were in your home country. No need to pay extra or have different data rates. Got a 5GB/month plan? Use your 5GB in any country in the EU. Very useful for travellers visiting Europe. It was a pain having to either get a new SIM in each country or pay pretty expensive rates for roaming. The changes come into effect in June. Would have been cool if they were able to make it so a telco could set up a giant network across all of the EU, without needing to get permits and spectrum in each country.
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Facebook has to give ZeniMax $500m because Oculus staff ignored their NDA
The beef between ZeniMax and Facebook over Oculus has reached a climax, with ZeniMax awarded US$500m in a Texas court. The court found that ZeniMax's employees didn't respect the NDA they signed with ZeniMax when Oculus was purchased by Facebook. From the article on Polygon, "Of the $500 million, Oculus is paying out $200 million for breaking the NDA and $50 million for copyright infringement. Oculus and Luckey each have to pay $50 million for false designation. And Iribe has to pay $150 million for the same, final count." Of course, Facebook and the employees involved have lodged an appeal, so it ain't over yet.
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Good Game to return, on 7
Good Game is gonna return! But on 7. Aww. No other details than that right now. No doubt it'll be a PR fest, with games chosen for review by whichever PR company manages to pay the most. Oh they'll chuck in a few legit titles that the crew likes, but this show has gotta turn a profit and that's the best way to do it. As if someone like Ubisoft or EA won't think twice about throwing $20k to 7 in order to review whatever poorly selling game they have out. But hey, prove me wrong, I'd love to be wrong about this.
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Telstra's Chatswood exchange in NSW catches fire, causes network chaos
Looks like Telstra has shit the bed in NSW, with the Chatswood exchange catching fire. The Chatswood exchange is one of Telstra's most important buildings. Jetstar had to delay 9 flights because its check-in system runs off Telstra's network, hah. At around 1:40pm shit went down and as of around 3:30pm, stuff was coming back online, but SMS was going a bit haywire, with people receiving messages intended for other people. Luckily Telstra is investing $3b in making sure this sort of thing doesn't happen. The ATO has some issues at the moment as well, but that's nothing new for them. Useless sacks of shit.
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COOL SHIT
Ozbargain goodies
Tightarse over at Ozbargain (perfect, just perfect) has rustled up a nice deal on a ThinkPad E570. Solid laptop, bit on the fat side, but well equipped and the price is right at just $1022. Vaya is offering 70GB of data a month for $65. They use the Optus 4G network and that's pretty much the best deal you're gonna get on bulk LTE data. Aus Post is selling Lebara SIMs with $30 of credit for $5. There's free Vodafone $2 SIMs at 7-11 as well, just grab the smartphone app. Perfect for your burner phone. The developer of the game FEZ (fun, lots of fun, I like it) has deicded to make the game free in return for a donation to the ACLU.
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Chrome add-on to stop all your tabs leaking RAM
The Great Suspender takes those Chrome tabs you aren't using for a set period of time (e.g: 1 hr) and unloads them from RAM - kinda freezing the tab for later. When you go back to the tab, it instantly loads. Because the website isn't active any more, it also stops sites from leaking RAM. Me, I have 32GB of RAM in this iMac, so Chrome can go hog fuckin' wild for all I care. If you're a chump stuck on something with a piddly 8GB or less, you might like this.
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Memories of Project Ginger and how spot on Bezos and Jobs were about it
A few of you may be old enough to remember Ginger - the much hyped tech product back in 2001 that ended up being the Segway. Some of the first people to see it were Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, who Dean Kamen invited in to take a look. This article from the Harvard Business School was published back in 2003 outlining the feedback session Bezos and Jobs had with the Segway team. You should read it yourself, but man, Jobs and Bezos were spot fucking on as to why the Segway never took off. Bezos in particular, who doubted any city would allow it to be used legally, was very accurate. A nice documentary about Kamen (who I think is a cool dude) called Slingshot is on Netflix if you wanna know more about the guy who invented the Segway.
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Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Like The Sizzle? Like it on Facebook!