Issue 1885 - Tuesday 11th July, 2023

In Today's Issue

The News

Threads hits 100m users, Elon not taking it well

Threads has hit 100 million users in just 5 days. Zuck said that it's "mostly organic demand and we haven't even turned on many promotions yet". Elon is taking Meta's success about as well as you imagine, tweeting that Zuckerberg should have "a literal dick-measuring contest" and that "Zuck is a cuck". According to Cloudflare's stats, Twitter's website traffic is "tanking", but the new CEO is proclaiming they "had our largest usage day since February" and Elon replied that "Cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime, as reported by iOS & Android, is hardest to game. I think we may hit an all-time record this week". Really??? Anyways, the Taliban have given Twitter their seal of approval, saying Twitter "doesn't have an intolerant policy like Meta". What an endorsement!

Share or Discuss

Evernote fires "most" of its employees

Any of you still using Evernote? Might be time to reassess that relationship as it has "laid off most of its staff as it prepares to exit the Bay Area and relocate nearly all operations to Europe". After sacking over 100 people just a few months ago and after getting sold in a fire sale to an Italian company called Bending Spoons. Never a good sign for something many people rely on to store such important information. I don't have any suggestions for a replacement (I use goddamn text files sync'd by OneDrive and Apple's Notes), but get some sort of exit plan going should shit hit the fan. Get that data out and backed up somewhere else if Evernote is the only place it lives.

Share or Discuss

Oracle tries to look good after IBM's decision to take Red Hat source behind paywall

Oracle, one of the computer world's most loathed businesses, published an open letter on its blog espousing how much it loves Linux and that its Oracle Linux distro will remain compatible with RHEL for as long as possible despite Red Hat/IBM's decision to remove public source code. Without any sense of irony, Oracle suggests that "if you are a Linux developer who disagrees with IBM's actions and you believe in Linux freedom the way we do, we are hiring" and telling IBM "you say that you don't want to pay all those RHEL developers? Here's how you can save money: just pull from us. Become a downstream distributor of Oracle Linux". Oracle are gigantic pricks, but you know you fucked up when these guys are taking pot shots at you from an ethical high ground.

Share or Discuss

Something I Saw On The Internet

App Store turns 15 years old today, but it only launched a few years ago, right?

Can you believe its been 15 years since Apple launched the App Store? If you go into the App Store on your iPhone, tap "Apps" in the bottom menu bar, then tap your icon/avatar in the top right corner and select "Purchased", you'll see a list of software you've grabbed off the App Store in reverse chronological order. Swiping all the way down to the bottom, I can see that my first apps was AIM, (which surprisingly, I can re-download) so I could talk to my iChat buddies! Remember iChat on the Mac? Some good memories in the list of early iPhone apps. I loved them so much I started a conference about app development.

Share or Discuss

Bargains

Image Of The Day

Freedman means the gold mine bit literally. Rode's revenue has risen from $116 million in 2017-18 to $318 million in 2020-21, and net profit from $22 million to $55 million, as the home-audio boom spawned by YouTubers and TikTokkers was intensified by pandemic lockdowns. Rode met the demand with almost uniformly well-reviewed products at accessible prices. Freedman debuts on this year's Rich List with an estimated valuation of $701 million. This is taken from Australian corporate filings and does not include Rode’s business in the US, meaning his actual net worth is likely to be even larger. (Australian Financial Review)

The End

📻 Rips in Jeans - Niko B

😎 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.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 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.

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.