You might have noticed a new footer in today's issue, which has affiliate links to Fastmail, Aussie Broadband and Vultr. I deliberately chose these businesses to affiliate with because I'm a long term user of their services and their referral offers include a discount of benefit for both of us.
I don't really want The Sizzle to become a place where corporations get a voice and take up valuable space - there's plenty of that out in society already - but these are bills I need to pay and by using these affiliate links, my financial burden is lowered and stress levels about slow growth in Sizzle subscribers eased. But just know I feel appropriately guilty for placing them there.
Samsung's got new stuff for ya. The Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are similar to last year's Galaxy phones in their design but with the usual spec upgrades like improved camera, faster SoC, better display and so on. The S22 Ultra takes over the role as the big boy now that the Note branding is discontinued. Probably the best new feature of all these phones is the promise of "at least four generations of Android OS updates" to match the 4 years of security updates. The Galaxy Tab range got some love too, with the addition of a large 14.6" unit packing an OLED panel, Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 1 SoC, 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage. Samsung's Australian website has all the pricing and release dates if you're keen.
Nintendo also did a live stream to announce new products this morning. As usual with most Nintendo stuff, it all looks like methods of distracting primary school kids for a few hours to me, but I know adults enjoy this stuff too. Games I might entertain playing include a large update to Mario Kart on the Switch that'll add 48 new tracks they've remastered from all the old iterations of Mario Kart. Switch Sports is the venerable Wii Sports, but made for the Switch. Make sure to strap those controllers to your wrist nice and tight! Valve is gonna bring the Portal series of games to the Switch some time this year. This is a personal failing, but I've never played Portal. Don't judge me.
A bunch of 2014-2017 Mazdas in Olympia, Washington (the capital city of Washington, just outside Seattle) have had their radios bricked by an errant data transmission. Anecdotal evidence seems to be that all these drivers were listening to KUOW on digital radio (the yanks use HD Radio, we use DAB) that broadcasts an image to pop up on the radio's display on their screen as a nice little treat for listeners. The image didn't have a file extension, which caused the headunits of these cars to reboot, then get stuck into a boot loop as the image is likely cached. It impacts the reversing camera too and the only way to fix this is for Mazda to replace it for ~US$1500. Computers, don't trust em.
📻 Surf Hell - Little Barrie
😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.
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📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
Fastmail. Email where you are the customer, not the product. Loads of features, smooth no-nonsense web interface, plus calendar and contact hosting. They've been around for 20 years and I've been a customer for over 10. Use this link and get 10% off your first year and I get around 30c/month you remain a customer.
Aussie Broadband. Great customer service and responsive to community needs (they have an "unofficial" Discord, they publish their CVC!). I've been a customer since 2017 and don't plan on going anywhere. Use my referral code (1001031) to get $50 credit when signing up for an NBN plan and I get $50 credit towards my next bill.
Vultr. All my Australian-based hosting needs (3x VPSes) are handled by Vultr. Easy to use admin interface, automatic backups, built-in firewall, custom ISO support and reasonable prices. Sign up with my link and score $100 credit. I get $25 credit if you're active for 30+ days and spend at least $25.
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.