Issue 1987 - Monday 4th December, 2023

In Today's Issue

The News

Sony nukes videos people purchased on PlayStation store

It is reasonable to assume that when you buy a movie or TV show, that at least for as long as the service exists to verify the DRM laden file you paid money for, you'll be able to watch it whenever you like. Not so if that content was purchased on Sony's PlayStation network! They've told owners of a whole heap of Discovery-owned content that "due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library". And they wonder why we pirate their stuff.

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Amazon to use SpaceX rockets to launch Kuiper internet satellites

SpaceX and Amazon have done a deal for SpaceX to provide "additional capacity" for Project Kuiper's satellite deployment schedule. Project Kuiper being Amazon's plan to throw "3,236 satellites flying in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of less than 400 miles, providing broadband service to customers across most of the populated world". Their FCC authorisation expires mid-2026 so they really had to hurry up and find a way to get the satellites launched as all of the non-SpaceX options can't meet that deadline. Bit embarrassing considering Jeff Bezos owns Blue Origin, who also make rockets.

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Zoom has an Apple TV app now

Zoom's got a new Apple TV app that'll run on a 2nd-gen or later Apple TV 4K. It takes advantage of the Continuity Camera feature introduced in tvOS 17 that lets you pair an iPhone or iPad with the Apple TV and use the device's camera with the app. The Zoom tvOS app has the "the ability to start or join meetings, invite people to meetings, and view in-meeting chats". Despite being on the App Store now, there's no mention of it on the Zoom website. Also a shame you can't plug in a USB webcam so your iPhone isn't out of action while it's acting as a camera.

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Something I Saw On The Internet

Contribute to Open Street Map easily with StreetComplete Android app

StreetComplete is a really fun app (well fun if you're a dork like me) for Android that "finds missing map data in your vicinity and displays it on a map as quests. Solve each quest by visiting the location on-site and answering a simple question to update the map. The info you enter is directly added to OpenStreetMap in your name, without the need to use another editor". How cool is that? OpenStreetMap gives us so much, it's nice to give a little back.

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Bargains

Image Of The Day

Faculty of Arts Macintosh Computer Laboratory - Bruce Johnston (The University of New South Wales)

The End

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