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NEWS
Julian Assange is going in the back of a divvy van
Rumour around Washington DC is that the Justice Department has been told to arrest Julian Assange. Under Obama, the DoJ thought it'd be legally difficult to justify his arrest as legit media companies like the Guardian and New York Times were in cahoots with Wikileaks and the entire thing would be protected by the First Amendment - the one that says you've got freedom of speech and so does the press. Trump's lawyers though, reckon there's a new way to get Julian Assange, an Australian citizen remember, out of the Ecuadorian embassy and into Guantanamo Bay.
Discuss
Apple wants you to know that it is very environmentally friendly
Apple has been out and about promoting its 2017 environmental report. The main thing Apple wants you to know most about it is that they plan to make all their stuff out of recycled materials soon. There's no timeline for this, nor can it actually be done yet, there isn't enough recycled material around to do so, but rest assured Apple is committed to it. As part of Earth Day, Apple has released four videos about what they're doing to be less shitty to the planet they pillage to make their fortune. Apple's efforts all sound impressive, but they still are making it very difficult for their gear to be repaired and re-used, instead of ground up and used for new devices.
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So long Wunderlist, hello Microsoft To-Do
Microsoft will be closing down Wunderlist in favour of an all new to-do app it's calling, wait for it - Microsoft To-Do. Microsoft hasn't announced when it'll close Wunderlist, but you'll be able to import your tasks into the new app, so that's alright. What's not alright is that there's no Mac version, argh. It is on the web though, so there will be yet another pinned tab for me in Chrome. The app itself looks cool though, so I better add a task to Wunderlist to remind me to get my shit out of Wunderlist and into To-Do.
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GoPro announces Fusion, a 5.2K 360-degree camera
GoPro's latest attempt to remain relevant is the Fusion, a "pro-grade" camera that'll record 360-degree video in 5.2K res. It's basically a Samsung Gear 360 but (maybe) higher quality. It'll be out by the end of 2017, but some "pro" users will be enlisted into a pilot program (aka beta testing) sooner. That's about it really, Go Pro hasn't put out any other info besides a photo. I hate warm product launches like this.
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Stan has 4K vids now, costs $15/m
Stan is now streaming in 4K. The Netflix also-ran has a $15 "premium" tier that allows you to stream on 4 screens at once, as well as in 4K. The $10 plan is HD and lets ya watch on 3 screens simultaneously. Not sure what content they actually have in 4K, but the ability is there if you've got the bandwidth. Stan recently introduced the ability to download files for offline viewing, which is nice. Ya know, people shit on Stan, but I think it's pretty good. There's a nice range of shows and movies and it's on most devices and it works fine. Sure if you had to pick one you'd go with Netflix, but why not use both if you're into legally obtained media?
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COOL SHIT
Intel Optane benchies are in and it's a right banger
Anandtech has scored a review of the Intel Optane P4800 SSD. Unfortunately it's not a "hands on" review, they had to review it on a remote machine belonging to Intel, but it's still cool to see some benchmarks. If you remember Optane is Intel's flashy new flash storage medium that's supposed to be good shit. Anandtech's review backs that up. Awesome latency and very fast random access throughput. You can hammer this thing all day and it'll stay fast. I can't wait for it to get a bit more affordable (375GB is set to cost US$1500), even though I don't really have a workload that can benefit from it.
Discuss
Elon Musk will be CEO of a 3rd company
Elon Musk has done another interview with Wait But Why, this time explaining his new company Neuralink. If you didn't already know, this is Elon's attempt to get computers talking to human brains directly, without the pesky mouse and keyboard and touch interfaces. Elon wants to be jacked straight in to the information superhighway, baby. This surprises nobody. He's also going to be the CEO of this company, on top of his responsibilities at Tesla and SpaceX. It's a long read, but a good one I reckon. Perfect for the rainy weekend Victoria has in store.
Discuss
Cheap Mi Box 3, D-class amp and MacBook Pros
The Xiaomi Mi Box 3 (which I reviewed here) is just $76 for the international (i.e in English) version. Good price if all you want is a solid Plex/VLC/Kodi box that'll also do legit Netflix. The NAD D 3020 is on sale up on eBay, for $400.76 (use code C20SHOP). It's a sweet little D-class amp, that apparnetly, sounds amazing. Has a built-in USB & optical DAC, Bluetooth aptX support, a remote and a sub-woofer output. Would go perfectly with a pair of the Pioneer SP-BS22LR bookshelf speakers ($263.20). Vaya is selling MacBook Pros for 20% off. These come from Honkers, but according to people on Ozbargain and the Vaya rep, you will *not* get slugged GST on em - making them an awesome deal. The 15" MBP for $2759.20 is extremley tempting. View their full range, use the code C20SHOP and cross your fingers GST isn't charged!
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Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.