In This Issue

News

Voyeur live group broadcasts of unaware people’s indoor security cameras are a thing now

Motherboard/Vice has exposed a bunch of "hackers" that get their kicks out of livestreaming themselves watching the feeds of Amazon Ring and Google Nest cameras installed in unknowing family homes. They call it NulledCast and their audience gathers around in Discord to laugh at and torment oblivious people who can suddenly hear the security cameras in their house shouting at them. "In Brookhaven a hacker shouted at a sleeping woman through her hacked Ring camera to wake-up. In Texas, a hacker demanded a couple pay a bitcoin ransom. Hackers targeted a family in DeSoto County, Mississippi, and spoke through the device to one of the young children". Juvenile behaviour that sounds like the kinda shit I'd be into if I was a teenager in 2019.

Microsoft’s shown more of their next-gen console, now called the Xbox Series X

What was known as Project Scarlett now has a proper name - Xbox Series X. It's a black upright oblong, basically a mini-ITX PC, that can be used either horizontally or vertically. Other info let loose about the new Xbox include a disc drive; a vent-covered top with either painted or backlit green coloring; and a slightly modified update to the Xbox One gamepad. Previously known features of the Xbox Series X are backwards compatibility with the Xbox One (including accessories), 8K output, 120Hz support (doubt there is 8K and 120Hz simultaneously) and a "holiday 2020" launch (Nov/Dec 2020). Cool, can't wait to see more games I'll have no time to play. At this point I'm practically just collecting them all to play in my retirement.

Intel’s manufacturing roadmap leaked if you’re into that kinda thing

I honestly don't know who is interested in CPU related news besides myself and maybe one or two other Sizzle susbcribers, but a leaked Intel roadmap is doing the rounds and it's got some interesting details on what the 800 pound silicon gorilla has planned to catch up with AMD. They plan to have a 2-year cadence for fabrication node decreases, starting with 10nm this year, 7nm in 2021 and then 5nm in 2023, 2nm in 2025 and so on, all the way down to 1.4nm (that's like 7 silicon atoms wide) by 2029. Considering TSMC (the mob who build AMD's CPUs) are shipping 7nm CPUs now for AMD (the current Ryzen range) and how far Intel's already missed their 10nm targets, I'd take this all with a grain of salt.

Not News

Snowflake is a nice replacement for the departing Pocket Weather

Looking for a replacement weather app for iOS because Pocket Weather will be taken out back and shot in the head December 31st? (rest in peace pocket weather) Aussie app developer Bjango has some great news for you - Snowflake is now out of beta and on the App Store for you to enjoy. Personally, the free BoM app gets the job done for my basic weather needs, but if you're a classy person who likes nice things and a few extra features the BoM app will probably never get (e.g: forecast timeline, Apple Watch app, widgets) then Snowflake is worth the $8 and $6/yr for various radars to fill the Pocket Weather shaped hole on your iPhone's home screen.

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😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​