Issue 2326 - Wednesday 7 May

Congratulations to Stilgherrian and bacco007 for being the first people to notice that I updated the newsletter template footer to declare that the Sizzle is ISO 3533 (Wiki) certified. Safety, of course, is our top concern here at Sizzle HQ.

The News

App makers are very eager to stop paying Apple 30%

With free money suddenly on the table, Apple app developers have wasted no time in putting in direct payment options in apps. Since last week’s court ruling, Amazon’s Kindle app (The Verge) and Patreon (TechCrunch) both now offer cheaper, in-app payment options instead of using Apple as a payment provider and taking its 30%. I’m not sure what the flow-on effects of this will be on Apple’s business model — apparently surveys show only one in five iPhone users would be “extremely likely” to buy outside of the App Store (Apple Insider) — but it’s really hard to see how this is bad for the consumer so far. And who knows what will happen if this ends up being widely popular? A Republican congresswoman has introduced a bill that would force Apple to allow people to install third-party app stores (The Verge). This won’t pass but it could be a preview of what’s to come.

Europe doesn’t want people using crypto crime coins

Europe is set to ban anonymous cryptocurrency accounts and coins from 2027 (CoinTelegraph). The EU’s new anti-money laundering rules will force banks, crypto exchanges and other financial institutions from even handling coins like Monero, a currency with untraceable transactions that recently saw a 50% increase in value after someone used it to wash $330 million in stolen bitcoin (CoinTelegraph). Now, I want to be fair: Crypto isn’t only used for crime — it’s also used for “probably-should-be(-and-might-be)-crimes” like $TRUMP (The Guardian). New reporting shows that 99.993% of $TRUMP coin buyers lost money (CNBC) while two dozen accounts made $100 million by buying $MELANIA in the minutes before it went public (FT).

GTA6 pushed back, Half-Life 3 might drop soon

Grand Theft Auto 6’s launch has been pushed back to next year, as Rockstar drops a new trailer for the game (YouTube). I haven’t played a GTA game since Vice City — which, coincidentally, is where the new game is set — but it looks pretty sick. Considering GTA5 is by some counts the highest grossing entertainment product of all time, there’s a lot of anticipation for the game that’s been more than a decade in the making. Incredibly, it’s possible that Half-Life 3 could be out before GTA6 if a rumour that it might be announced and released this year is true (Engadget). I am fascinated to see how much interest there would be in the game considering that it’s been 21 years since Half-Life 2 was released. (Have fond memories of playing CS 1.6, TF2, or another Valve-made game? Send me an email!).

Leftovers

Oh, Also

A developer updated Clippy for 2025

I’ve seen people joke about this before, so I was pleased to see it come real: Software developer Felix Rieseberg has built a version of Clippy that is powered by a local LLM of your choice (Felix Rieseberg). It’s a cute little project that lights up the nostalgia part of my brain, but it also makes an interesting point: why hasn’t any AI provider tried to make a more interesting avatar for their products like this? Bonzi Buddy is begging to be brought back to life…

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.