Issue 1660 - Friday 29th July, 2022

In Today's Issue

The News

Instagram boss offers to slow changes while they improve the algorithm

Less than 24 hours since Instagram's boss made a video telling to any people complaining about the increase in videos to suck it up, he is now saying "I think that we need to take a big step back, regroup, and figure out how we want to move forward". He goes on to that the usage data "isn't great" on the new feed design and that Instagram will "temporarily reduce the amount of recommended posts and accounts as it works to improve its personalization tools". While it's great Adam Mosseri is saying these things, it kinda shows how visionless Meta/Instagram is.

Removal of fringe benefits tax on EVs now in effect

The federal government passed a law yesterday that'll make "any new EV or PHEV purchased after July 1 this year exempt from FBT, provided it's priced under the luxury car tax threshold for fuel-efficient cars, which is $84,916 this year". I'm not an accountant, but the government reckons "savings of up to $9,000 per year on a car valued at $50,000 through these changes" if your car is provided by your employer. Definitely worth looking into if you want a new EV and can get a novated lease salary sacrificed. There's also the removal of tariffs for EVs imported into Australia, which in practice should make EVs from Europe 5% cheaper as there's already no tariffs on cars from the USA, China, South Korea and Japan.

A dump of Big Tech financial results from the last week

This week saw multiple quarterly financial reports for the big US tech companies published:

To put all this into context, these companies are still filthy rich and making incredible profits but the profits are less than usual.

Something I Saw On The Internet

BeReal is a photo-based social network the kids are getting into

With all the talk about Instagram shitting the bed lately, an app called BeReal has gained a fair amount of traction and rising to the top of the iOS App Store charts. It sends a push notification once a day at a random time and you've got 2 minutes to post a photo. You can't post photos outside of that 2 minute window and you can only post when the notification comes in. BeReal takes a photo using the front and rear cameras on your phone to get "a complete snapshot of what the poster is up to at that moment". I signed up and had a look around. None of my "friends" have posted yet (cowards).

Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

Bargains

The End

📻 Nietzsche - The Dandy Warhols

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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.