### Issue 1443 - Thursday 2nd September, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Apple allowing "reader" apps to allow customers to pay outside the App Store
- After latest round of politician SMS spam, experts call for law change
- Miscellaneous NBN, Telstra & Vodafone news
- Australia finally makes offshore wind farms legal, 12 projects kicking off
- Cheap Kingston SSD, Shelly wi-fi dimmer switches, Tenda smart plugs, MacBook Pros, Polk Audio wireless speakers, 1Password subscriptions

## The News

### Apple allowing "reader" apps to allow customers to pay outside the App Store

An investigation by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission has lead to Apple allowing developers of "reader" apps (e.g: apps that provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) to "include an in-app link to their website for users to either set up or manage an account, and signup using a non-App Store payment method will be possible". The changes will come into effect in 2022 and will be applied globally. Apps like Netflix and Spotify will be loving it. Next year they'll be allowed to greet users with a "sign up" button that goes to a website. No more having to give Apple a 30%/15% cut, or telling users to visit their website.

### After latest round of politician SMS spam, experts call for law change

I think by now everyone in Australia has received a spam SMS from Craig Kelly and/or the United Australia Party. Unlike other servers of spam, politicians and political parties are immune from any punishments from ACMA for doing so. In 2016 the ALP did the same thing. Dob them in all you like, but the law carves out an exception for these attention seekers to just robo-spam every number in Australia with their bullshit. The law hasn't changed since 2000 - 21 years ago - where this kind of mass spamming being so cheap and easy wasn't in mind when the exemption was given. Privacy experts are now wanting a review of the Privacy Act to ensure this "self-serving exemption" is taken away.

### Miscellaneous NBN, Telstra & Vodafone news

Bit of Aussie telco news around today. NBN had added a bunch of new suburbs to their plan to upgrade FTTN connections to FTTP. A "small scale pilot" of the process to upgrade your FTTN shitheap to FTTP will kick off in November. Telstra has given a name to the company that now owns all their mobile towers - Amplitel - a combination of "amplify" and "Telstra". Cool. Vodafone's begun offering fixed wireless 5G broadband. $75/m for 100/20 speeds or $85/m for best effort, both plans have unlimited data. And finally, Telstra is encouraging people to get a COVID-19 vaccination by giving out 2,500 Plus points to vaccinated customers, as well as changing its network name from Telstra #StayHome to Telstra #LetsVaxx.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Australia finally makes offshore wind farms legal, 12 projects kicking off

Good news - the federal government has finally allowed offshore windfarms to be built. Can you believe that up until now it was illegal to harvest the incredible coastal wind resources Australia is blessed with? The Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021, will according to the press release "establish a framework for the construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of offshore electricity projects". It's a bit of a big deal as the minister announcing it, Angus Taylor, is/was a big wind farm conspiracy theorist. I guess old mate noticed the winds are changing and finally got with the program. There's already 12 projects lined up and AEMO has identified 40GW of offshore wind in VIC, TAS & NSW alone. Renew

## Bargains

- Kingston 1TB A2000 M.2 NVMe SSD - $144.28 from Amazon
- Buy 10 Shelly Wi-Fi Dimmer Switches and Receive 1 for Free - $389.90 from Oz Smart Things
- Tenda Beli SP3 Smart Wi-Fi Plug 4-pack - $38 from Shopping Square
- 10% off MacBook Pros at JB Hi-Fi
- Polk Audio Omni S6 wireless speaker - $99 + delivery from Digital Cinema
- 50% off new 1Password subscriptions for readers of The Verge (US$30 for family, US$18 for individuals)

## The End

📻 Private Execution - The Drones

😎 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.​