### Issue 1404 - Friday 9th July, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- US states allege that Google paid off Samsung to stop making its own app store
- NSW Department of Education got hacked just days before term 3 remote learning kicks off
- Qualcomm's attempt to show off its best hardware and software is a bit of a dud
- Things I saw on GitHub you might find interesting
- Cheap AirPods Pro, Hisense 70" TV, Chromecast, Nest Hub, ThinkPad X1 Carbon

## The News

### US states allege that Google paid off Samsung to stop making its own app store

More details have come out regarding the lawsuit 36 US states have threw at Google yesterday. According to the states, "Google engaged in a range of anti competitive practices, including offering large app developers profit-sharing agreements in exchange for exclusivity, creating unnecessary hurdles for sideloading, and attempting 'to buy off Samsung to limit competition from the Samsung Galaxy app store'" - that is a wild allegation, but totally believable. Google denies all this in a blog post and argues that "others" (aka Apple) with less choice are the real problem. Heads up, the little violin store is out of stock, I bought all of them to play a symphony for Google.

### NSW Department of Education got hacked just days before term 3 remote learning kicks off

The NSW Department of Education announced yesterday afternoon that they've "been a victim of a cyber-security attack". They don't give any more detail about the attack, but a "a number of internal systems have been deactivated by the Department as a precaution and have been unavailable since late Wednesday". Really shit timing as Term 3 starts in a few days and will be done remotely due to NSW's COVID lockdown. Hopefully it doesn't impact the kiddies too hard as remote learning is a tough slog. Cyber Security NSW is assisting the department in getting stuff back to normal and NSW Police plus "federal agencies" are looking for the crooks that did it.

### Qualcomm's attempt to show off its best hardware and software is a bit of a dud

Qualcomm is making their own smartphone - kinda. They've teamed up with ASUS to make a "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" (that is honestly its name), a smartphone that uses the best bits Qualcomm make. The SSI is based off ASUS's ROG 5 and is basically the same except for replacing the macro camera with a telephoto, a smaller battery (making the SSI a bit thinner and lighter), a rear fingerprint sensor instead of an under display one, mmWave 5G support and removal of the 3.5mm headphone socket. There's also a pair of earbuds to go with it to make a "Snapdragon Sound" experience, but apparently are very average. Such a shame, as Qualcomm have a lot of good gear, would be nice if it was paired with a classy phone and no bullshit version of Android. Oh, and it costs $2,200+

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Things I saw on GitHub you might find interesting

- Got a Tesla and an iPhone? Here's some iOS shortcuts you can use to automate various car related things.
- Upduck is a very simple HTTP/HTTPS server that's a piece of piss to setup (e.g: for sharing files or static HTML) that integrates with DuckDNS so you don't need to register a domain name.
- If I was the kind of person that lived at the command line and had a permanent terminal window open, I would type "curl wttr.in/Ballarat" to see the weather for my locale. How delightful.
- Dunno if this actually works, but Depix claims to be able to recover passwords from pixelised screenshots. Note to self, do not pixelise information I want to keep hidden.
- Lisa Dziuba's curated collection of articles and tools to help developers (or simply clueless idiots like me) market and grow their products might come in handy if you've done something cool and want to let people know it exists.

## Bargains

- Apple AirPods Pro - $270 from MediaForm (get Officeworks to price match down to $256.60)
- Hisense 70S5 70" 4K TV - $760.75 from The Good Guys eBay store (possible delivery fee of $55 if your local store hasn't got it in stock)
- Chromecast with Google TV - $84.15 from The Good Guys eBay store
- Google Nest Hub 2nd-gen - $126.65 from The Good Guys eBay store
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 (i5-1135G7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $1598 from Lenovo

## The End

📻 Dumb - Cosmic Psychos

😎 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.​