### Issue 1416 - Tuesday 27th July, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Qualcomm gets Intel to fab some of its gear & Intel rebrands process nodes
- Apple calls Google's NFC implementation "less secure", adds HICAPS to Apple Wallet
- Chicago cops fake evidence using ShotSpotter gunshot detection system
- Semi-interesting news because I pissed away the morning watching the Olympics
- Cheap Mini Metro for PC, DJI Osmo Mobile 3, Chromecast bundles, Apple TV 4K, Rode VideoMicro

## The News

### Qualcomm gets Intel to fab some of its gear & Intel rebrands process nodes

Intel's announced they managed to convince Qualcomm to become a foundry customer. Under the arrangement, Qualcomm will get Intel to fabricate products (unknown at this stage) some time in 2024 using Intel's 20A process. What the fuck is a 20A process? Glad you asked, as Intel gave a presentation about their roadmap for the next 5 years and part of that included new names for process nodes. From now on Intel won't call label their future chips as "10nm" or "7nm", but as Intel 7, Intel 4, Intel 3 and Intel 20A. Considering how disconnected the nanometer measurements are from any useful metric, it's a good idea.

### Apple calls Google's NFC implementation "less secure", adds HICAPS to Apple Wallet

Apple responded to a Parliamentary Joint Committee asking why Google allows anyone use the NFC stuff on Android, but Apple tightly controls NFC on an iPhone. The core of Apple's answer was "Host Card Emulation (HCE) is a less secure implementation, which was adopted by Android" and that "Apple did not implement HCE because doing so would lead to less security on Apple devices". I don't know if that's really true, but that's what Apple are rolling with. Meanwhile, you can add private health insurance HICAPS cards to Apple Wallet now.

### Chicago cops fake evidence using ShotSpotter gunshot detection system

ShotSpotter is a very dystopian service used in the USA that installs microphones in public places and listens for gunshots in cities that are then reported to police. Sounds fucked up right out of the box, but according to Vice, Chicago police forced ShotSpotter to change the sound it thought was fireworks to be a gunshot, then months later, change the location of the sound to better suit a prosecution narrative. When the matter went to court, the defence asked the judge to decide if ShotSpotter's reliability is good enough to be evidence, which spooked the cops who then withdrew the evidence. I told ya it was fucked up.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Semi-interesting news because I pissed away the morning watching the Olympics

- Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on the Xbox via Game Pass in the next 24 hours. You can play it with just the controller apparently and there's more noob friendly missions.
- Bitcoin and a bunch of other random cryptocurrencies went bananas because Amazon put up a job ad for a cryptocurrency product leader. Amazon denied they're going to accept Bitcoin, but are interested in cryptocurrency in general.
- Jeff Bezos personally wrote to NASA offering them a $2b discount out of his own pocket (essentially a donation/bribe) if NASA uses Blue Origin's lunar lander in the Artemis mission to put humans on the moon. Someone is desperate!
- Tesla made a US$1.1b profit in the 2nd quarter of 2021. Regulatory credits (government incentives in the US, EU and China for building EVs) "only" made $354m, meaning Tesla made a fair chunk of profit selling cars - 204,801 cars to be exact.
- Nokia's got a new rugged smartphone called the XR20 (built to MIL-STD-810H, for what it's worth) with specs that don't entirely suck and comes with 3 years of updates. They also re-issued the Nokia 6310, but bizarrely, only uses 2G!

## Bargains

- Mini Metro for PC - $3.64 on Steam
- DJI Osmo Mobile 3 Combo - $139 from Amazon
- Google Nest Mini and Chromecast Video bundle with 3 months free YouTube Premium - $89 at JB Hi-Fi
- Chromecast with Google TV & 6 Months of Netflix - $139.99 from Google
- Apple TV 4K (2021) 64GB - $265 from Amazon
- Rode VideoMicro microphone - $63 from Amazon

## The End

📻 OMG! - Quan

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

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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.​