Plus: 18yo tries to get out of drone fine by saying shot was AI-generated ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 17, 2025 | Read online
# Apple’s AI rot spreads, EVs shine in Cyclone Alfred chaos and is ‘vibecoding’ a programming sin? Plus: 18yo tries to get out of drone fine by saying shot was AI-generated
Issue 2292 - Monday 17 March 2025
Good afternoon. I experimented with my first smart home sensor over the weekend, a basic Bluetooth Govee therometer, and I can already hear the little voice whispering “what if you got one more…”. Have a great week and enjoy the edition! - CW
# The News
### Apple’s AI rot spreads
Apple’s AI woes have reached DEFCON 1 as the company’s Siri chief admits that their “improved” AI voice assistant doesn’t work a third of the time in a leaked meeting (Bloomberg, archived). Since covering the Siri delay last week, there was a palpable vibe shift led by notorious Apple fanboy John Gruber. He wrote a damning blog post ‘Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino’ that took the company to task for its AI features both delivered and imagined (Daring Fireball). There’s a feeling, right or not, that this AI failure symbolises a cultural inability to innovate at Apple, especially when it comes to software1 . At the same time, there’s a new leak about future iPhones (The Verge) including the rumoured 17 Air which was supposed to be Apple’s first ever port-free phone — but was reportedly ditched because of concerns with EU regulators (Engadget). Bonus: I really enjoyed listening to this podcast episode with Stratechery analyst Ben Thompson on Apple’s problems last night. It does a good job explaining why Apple has lagged behind on its software offerings going back decades, and why the company, despite being hamstrung on AI efforts due to their stricter privacy stance, has an enormous potential future advantage because of the superior iPhone hardware (Sharp Tech).
### EVs shine in Cyclone Alfred chaos
A story that has come out of the Cyclone Alfred saga is a trend of people using their EV’s vehicle-to-load features to keep the lights on when hit by power outages (The Guardian Australia and The Driven). Popular EVs in Australia have had the feature for a while — although Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 notably don’t — but retailers say they started to become inundated with orders for V2L equipment in the lead-up to this year’s storm. The V2L tech goes some way to rubbish the criticism that EVs are inherently less useful than traditional combustion engine vehicles in abnormal situations because they’re so dependent on electricity rather than gas.
### Is ‘vibecoding’ a programming sin?
You might have seen the term ‘vibecoding’ pop up in the last few weeks. Last month, former Tesla AI lead Andrej Karpathy described the experience of using an LLM to write code for projects without much care for keeping it tidy or really understanding what’s happening under the hood. (X)
| Andrej Karpathy @karpathy |
There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It's possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper… x.com/i/web/status/1…
11:17 PM • Feb 2, 2025
26.8K Likes 2.85K Retweets
1.27K Replies
Apparently, it’s possible to get pretty far using Claude or Cursor, a relatively new AI-powered programming app, without much programming knowhow. One guy reckons he made a flight simulator game in 30 minutes that earns $50k a month (404 Media, $). Naturally, some people are very mad about the idea of people just jamming together shitty code and the general impact of generative AI on programming because (See: AI is Making Developers Dumb - eli.cx). I get that. I have concerns about how LLMs cut people off from the source of knowledge. But when it comes to vibecoding — which is more DIY stuff than pro coders — it’s hard to get too upset that Joe Blogs is making a custom workout tracking app without having memorised UNIX: The Textbook, Third Edition. Have you used LLMs to hack anything together? Do you think it’s a cardinal sin? I would love to hear from you!
#### Leftovers
Tesla chair exits operating partner role at Australia's biggest VC firm (Reuters) BoM tech overhaul ‘rebadged’ as costs pass $900m (InnovationAus, $) Should we ban DeepSeek AI from all Australian devices? Experts weigh in (ABC News) UK to crack down on illegal content across social media (Financial Times) A DOGE staffer broke Treasury policy by emailing unencrypted personal data (The Verge) People are using Google’s new AI model to remove watermarks from images (TechCrunch) AI tool tells user to learn coding instead of asking it generate the code (Tom’s Hardware) Microsoft is paywalling these features in Notepad and Paint (PC World)
# Oh, Also
### 18yo tries to get out of drone fine by saying shot was AI-generated
A write-up in techAU alerted me to the 18-year-old-photographer who unsuccessfully tried to get out of a CASA fine for breaking drone rules by claiming the footage was AI generated. Hiroki Rule posted a video to Instagram showing a fine from Australia’s aviation regulator who were alerted to a drone footage of Sydney Harbour that he posted to social media in early February. Rule claims that he tried to tell them that it was AI and not real, but he was still fined anyway.
hirokirulephoto 13K followers |
View more on Instagram
I went back and looked at the original Instagram post that got him in trouble and I saw that he has since edited the image’s caption to say “The Sydney harbour on a quiet arvo, taken from a really long pole that I stuck my camera ontop😉🇦🇺” (Instagram).
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Remax OWS Open Ear Buds Headphones Bluetooth 5.4 with 20cm USB-C Cable - $19 at Remax Au eBay JisuLife Life7 Handheld Fan 5000mAh 5-Speed Black - $26 at Amazon Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 1-Pack - $31 Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 4-Pack - $99 Meross Smart LED Strip Light 5m (HomeKit/Alexa/Google/SmartThings) - $32 at Amazon Anker Nano II 65W GAN Charger - $35 at AnkerDirect via Amazon AU Rocoren 150W GAN Charger 6 USB C Ports - $40 at AliExpress Meross Smart Garage Door Opener Homekit (Homekit Compatible) - $53 at Amazon eufy Security 2K Indoor Pan and Tilt Camera - $79 at JB Hi-Fi UGREEN Powerbank 20000mAh 100W Powerbank - $74 25000mAh 145W Powerbank - $97 Ring Outdoor Stick up Cam Pro Plug-in Security Camera - $99 at Amazon Canon Selphy CP 1500 Photo Printer - $161 at BIG W Vornado 633DC Air Circulator - $190 at Amazon Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (International Model) - $199 at Electronics Superstore via Dick Smith / Kogan TIBO Choros 6 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Speaker - $200 at Audio Visual Revolution Dreame H12 PRO Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner - $449 at Amazon Tineco Floor ONE S6 All-in-One Smart Cordless Floor Washer - $499 at Tineco Amazon AU Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar - $572 at Amazon Shark Cordless PowerDetect Clean & Empty System - $799 at Qantas Marketplace Dyson Gen5detect Absolute Vacuum Cleaner - $829 at Dyson Australia eBay xTool M1 10W Laser Engraver/Blade Cutter + Riser Base with Honeycomb Panel - $1099 at Amazon HEDD TYPE 07 MK2 Studio Monitor - Black (Single) - $1729 at Sounds Easy Focal Trio6 ST6 3-Way Studio Monitor (Single) - $3849 (Back Order) at Sounds Easy LG 83" OLED EVO C4 4K UHD Smart TV OLED83C4PSA - $4999 at LG Nikon Z 8 Camera Body - $5200 at Amazon
Computing
AppleCare+ for Eligible Macs/iPads Purchased via Back to Uni Higher Education Offer - 20% off at Apple Retail Stores Lossless Scaling - $5 at Steam Logitech M196 Bluetooth Mouse - $8 at JB Hi-Fi SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe 256GB - $38 at SwiftOrder Amazon AU HP G5 27” FHD [64X69AA] - $139 at Hub by Triforce Asus TUF Gaming AX4200 Wi-Fi 6 Router - $169 at Amazon ASUS Zenwifi XD4S AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router (3-Pack) - $229 at Amazon Gigabyte Z890 GAMING X WIFI7 DDR5 LGA1851 ATX Motherboard - $250 at Mike PC Toshiba Tecra X40-E Laptop: Intel Core i7-8550u, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, FHD Touchscreen - $339 (Used) at Corporatepc Asus ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI - $449 at Mike PC ASUS RT-BE88U BE7200 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 AiMesh Router - $499 at Amazon Lenovo Legion Go - $899 (Was $1499) at Lenovo Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Wi-Fi 12GB/ 256GB - $1099 Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Wi-Fi 12GB/ 512GB - $1299 Lenovo ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 Laptop: 16" IPS WUXGA 300n, AMD Ryzen 7 7735U CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $1099 at Lenovo Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14" Gen 9 Laptop: AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, RTX 3050 - $1359 at Lenovo ITX Gaming PC: AMD Ryzen 7 7700, RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, B650i Wi-Fi Mobo, 850W PSU - $3125 at Obsidian Labs Gaming PCs at Nebula PC 8700F, RTX 5070, 32GB CL32 RAM, 1TB M.2, 650W Silver PSU - $1828 9700X - $2228 7800X3D - $2428
Mobile
ProCam - Pro Camera (Manual Camera + RAW) - Free at Apple App Store Mindful Coffee App - Free at Apple App Store 30% off Travel Sims/eSIM at Simify Boost 65GB 28-Day Prepaid SIM with $11 cashback (Ongoing $39, 65GB For First 3 Recharges) - $13 at TopCashback AU Optus X Pro 5G 4GB/128GB With Free $35 Optus Prepaid SIM - $134 at BIG W Boost Mobile 290GB Prepaid SIM with 12-Month Expiry - $240 at Phonex iPhone 16 128GB - $1279 at Costco Apple iPhone 16 Pro 256GB - $1839 at Costco Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold 5G at JB Hi-Fi Business 256GB (Obsidian/ Porcelain) - $2097 512GB (Obsidian/ Porcelain) - $2297
# The End
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1 I mean you have to feel a little bit sympathetic for Apple. It’s not like any one else has nailed the “Gen AI voice assistant that actually works” brief yet. Alexa’s plans remain vaporware until people can actually demo them and Google, who is best placed to do something in this space, hasn’t got it going yet. The issue is that Apple promised something and then didn’t deliver.
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