There's a new Samsung Galaxy smartphone. The S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra use the "Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy" SoC that's custom designed for Samsung and these devices that's good, but still a far cry away from Apple's SoCs in terms of performance. As usual these phones are faster, better, more productive, etc - the big feature however is the monster of a camera packed into the S23 Ultra. It features a 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP2 image sensor that can do various types of pixel binning to vastly improve low light image quality. They've teamed up with Adobe to include Lightroom as the "exclusive" editor for RAW photos taken on the phone. Also interesting is omission of the cool off-grid satellite communication feature like the iPhone 14. Qualcomm was hyping it up not too long ago as a feature of the SoC in the S23, what happened that Samsung, who love to cram their phones with every feature possible, useful or not, didn't bother to include it?
It's nice to hear that the Biden administration is on the record saying "Apple and Google create hurdles for developers to compete for consumers by imposing technical limits, such as restricting how apps can function or requiring developers to go through slow and opaque review processes" and "created unnecessary barriers and costs for app developers, ranging from fees for access to functional restrictions that favor some apps over others". One of the recommendations is legislation requiring Apple and Google to provide "a readily accessible means for users to download and install third-party apps or mobile app stores, including through means other than the Google Play Store and Apple's mobile app store, while allowing for reasonable privacy, security and safety precautions". I can hear the dump trucks loading up with piles of cash in Cupertino and taking it to every lobbyist in Washington DC.
Maker of popular, privacy focused internet connected security cameras, Eufy (a brand of Anker), has according to The Verge, "finally admitted its Eufy security cameras are not natively end-to-end encrypted - they can and did produce unencrypted video streams for Eufy's web portal". As Gizmodo explains, this issue was raised months ago by a security researcher who showed "Eufy cameras were streaming recorded video to a cloud server on the site's web portal, even though cloud storage wasn't enabled. That data sent to the cloud remained unencrypted, and users could use web browser devtools to play back those clips on many simple desktop media players like VLC". Eufy denied it, then tried to downplay it, but now Eufy say they're fixing it up now for existing products, will hire more security experts and will do better in the future, but who's gonna trust em?
I'm tired of Twitter and Elon Musk and ignore his bullshit, but the latest antics are too funny not to write about. There's a problem, or at least something perceived as a problem by a certain set of users, that tweets made by a locked/private account are getting more views or engagement than on an unlocked/public account. The usual suspects whinged enough to Elon that instead of simply "looking into it", he has "made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you see my private tweets more than my public ones" - my dude, you own Twitter, why the fuck are you doing this? Is nobody left at Twitter to test this stuff??? The dumpster fire burns so strong.
Doom is a 1993 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by id Software for MS-DOS. Players assume the role of a space marine, popularly known as Doomguy, fighting their way through hordes of invading demons from hell. (Reddit)
📻 Mayonaise - The Smashing Pumpkins
😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.
💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.
👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.
📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.
🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!
💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.
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.