### Issue 1291 - Wednesday 27th January, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Apple announces its boss of hardware has shifted to a secret new project
- Plex adds game console emulator to its diverse range of features
- WA police want an app to replace paper notebooks
- /r/WallStreetBets is off the fucking chain
- Cheap Telstra Lite 2 4GX smartphone, 5% off sitewide at Melbourne Hi-Fi, refurb iPhone 8, Vodafone SIM starter kits, 15% off catch.com.au & Spotify gift cards

## The News

### Apple announces its boss of hardware has shifted to a secret new project

Dan Riccio is a big deal at Apple, heading up the hardware engineering team since 2012. That team has kicked some enormous goals (Apple Silicon anyone?), so when Apple move him to a new role in the company that is an unspecified "new project" that reports directly to Tim Cook, it's worth taking note. Dan said in the announcement that "I'm looking forward to doing what I love most — focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about". Is it an Apple car related project? Is it related to augmented reality and a new wearable? Fuck knows but something's up.

### Plex adds game console emulator to its diverse range of features

Plex has added a new feature called Plex Arcade. It costs US$5/m (or US$/3m if you have Plex Pass) and simply put, lets you add old console ROMs into your Plex library and stream them from your Plex server, via a service caled Parsec to your Plex client device. Going by the first impressions of the author in the linked article, it feels like Plex Arcade needs a bit more time in the oven as it was a pain in the arse to set up (not as easy as just pointing Plex at a folder of ROMs) and when it did work, latency was iffy as everything goes through Parsec instead of straight off your Plex server.

### WA police want an app to replace paper notebooks

Cops around the world log their activities in paper notebooks and are often an important piece of evidence in anything that goes to court. Now that an iPhone 11 is standard kit for West Australian police, the force has put out a tender for an "electronic notebook application and associated secure data storage" so they can type their notes, along with audio and video directly into a system that also has a desktop application, audit trail and a bunch of other features. Also mentioned in this article is an app called OneForce Locate that "gives on-duty frontline officers real-time visibility of all other on-duty frontline offers, including their location, status and current duties". I had no idea such a thing was available, let alone in use.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### /r/WallStreetBets is off the fucking chain

If you take even a passing interest in the stock market, you probably familiar with /r/WallStreetBets - a section of Reddit that is to finance what 8chan is to politics. They've attracted mainstream attention by making irrational investments as a group of fuck the world young men that end up screwing over the old school institutional investors. Their latest adventure is pumping up ailing US videogame retailer GameStop, which resulted in some very rich people losing their pants. Ahh the internet, bringing people together for a common, noble cause. Jeromy Sonne has a good insight as to the mindset of this wild online community.

## Bargains

- Telstra Lite 2 4GX smartphone (good to use as a hotspot) - $24 at Coles
- 5% off sitewide at Melbourne Hi-Fi if you're after any fancy audio gear
- Refurbished iPhone 8 with a $10 Boost mobile SIM - $359 at Coles
- Vodafone $30 SIM starter kit - $8 at 7-Eleven via their app
- $50/$150 Vodafone pre-paid SIMs - $19/$120 from Vodafone with free delivery
- 15% off catch.com.au & Spotify gift cards at Coles

## The End

📻 Volcano - Kills Birds

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