Plus: Jeffrey Epstein did not like what he saw when he Googled himself ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 14, 2025 | Read online
# Android side-loading walkback, gambling sucks and the Sizzler Say Plus: Jeffrey Epstein did not like what he saw when he Googled himself
Edition 2461
"a late night soccer game during the oscars and the hunt for a lost thumb drive" (Flickr: a_hoss)
# The News
### Google has walked back its Android side-loading restrictions
Google has revised restrictions on side-loading anonymous Android apps after ferocious campaigning by the developer community (Verge). The company put out a blog with a totally-not-owned title “Android developer verification: Early access starts now as we continue to build with your feedback” that offers two concessions on a requirement for Android apps to have a verified developer: creating an “advanced flow” for “experienced users” to install unverified apps, and an anonymous developer account option that can put out apps to a limited number of devices.
The Sizzle: Love wins ❤️! In all seriousness, this seems like a fine compromise. As I said when first announced, the truth is the vast, vast majority of people entirely use apps from known developers. Leaving a more limited option to side-load unverified apps — assuming it’s not crazy difficult — seems OK to me? (That being said, I admit I could be over-indexing on the downside risks of scams and not appreciating enough how the closing of a once fully open platform will affect the developer ecosystem.)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Gambling is ruining young men’s lives and everything is becoming gambling
The majority of people who signed up to be banned from online and phone gambling were men under 40 betting more than $500 a week (ACMA). That’s according to research done for the gambling regulator ACMA which also found that three-quarters of people who self-excluded had better lives and four-fifths had improved mental health (Asia Gambling Brief). This comes as sports gambling has taken over the US, with companies now looking to expand into politics gambling too (an excellent NYMag piece).
The Sizzle: I really can’t express how much I fucking hate gambling. I don’t have a problem with it in theory, but I really think that being able to gamble everywhere and on everything is going to ruin a lot of people’s lives and make society worse. Like, I don’t think we should have the TikTok of sports wagering or that we should be able to gamble on our bills. Maybe that makes me a puritan! But look around, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot of people are particularly happy about it. (It also scares me how much gambling, finance, work and social media all feel like they’re converging to make our lives one big perilous casino, but that’s for another day).
Technology is good at removing friction. But my take is that there probably should be friction when it comes to pissing your money away.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The Sizzler Say: best power monitoring smart plugs, Russian robot fail and is it getting harder to give family IT support?
uep kicks off a discussion about the best power monitoring smart plugs on the forum. Quilgy asks on Slack if everyone else feels like it’s getting “more troublesome” to help family and friends with online/IT problems because of how complicated everything is getting. A much hyped Russian humanoid bot had an interesting launch. You Sizzle sickos had a lot to say on the forum about the “transcontinental submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth”. And, turning this section on its head, I will use the Sizzler Say to respond to the Sizzlerfather Anthony’s story “Softbank sells its entire Nvidia stake so it can invest more in OpenAI” to quote Ralph Wiggum: “I’m in danger”.
As always, if you wanna get involved (or even be able to read what’s on Slack) you can join the Slack server and forum via these links.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia (Guardian) Telecommunications ombudsman seeks powers to help wrongly banned social media users (ABC News) Australia's AUKUS base to connect to subsea cables (iTnews) Tech CEOs call for sovereign digital infrastructure investment (The Australian Financial Review, $) ‘We never thought anyone would be that crass’: Media code designer roasts Meta (The Sydney Morning Herald, $) Warning over dating app ‘gap’ in teen social media ban (The Sydney Morning Herald, $) Canberra’s next cloud policy is locked and loaded (InnovationAus)
Rest of the world:
Global Internet Freedom Declines for 15th Consecutive Year (Tech Policy Press) China uses Anthropic AI to automate hacking of major targets (The Wall Street Journal, $) Amazon Rebrands Project Kuiper as Amazon Leo After 7 Years (The Verge) Transhumanism "bullshit" is hindering legit neurotech research, experts warn (TechSpot) Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort (404 Media) Tesla Is Working to Add Apple CarPlay in Bid to Boost Vehicle Sales (Bloomberg, $) Introducing AI, the Firefox way: A look at what we're working on and how you can help shape it (Mozilla Blog)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Jeffrey Epstein did not like what he saw when he Googled himself
For some people, SEO is important to their business. For others, it’s a bit more personal — like for Jeffrey Epstein. When a tranche of his emails were released yesterday, one of the revelations was that Epstein was upset by Google’s search results for his name and wanted to bury bad stories (Verge).
Yikes
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Soundcore by Anker P20i True Wireless Earbuds - $27 at AnkerDirect AU via Amazon AU Uniden 2.8" Colour Display Baby Monitor (via Price Check Button) - $83 at The Good Guys Nothing Ear (a) White Buds - $84 at Optus (Down from $169) JBL Charge 5 (Membership Required) - $86 at The Good Guys Commercial (Down from $118) Apple AirTag MX542ZP/A (4-Pack) - $108 at Techciti eBay Roborock Qrevo C Vacuum Cleaner White RR-QRRC02-03-WHT - $699 at Costco Samsung 65-Inch The Frame QLED 4K Smart TV LS03F (2025 Model) - $1788 at Harvey Norman (Down from $2495) Sony HTA9M2 BRAVIA Theatre Quad Home Theatre System - $2879 at Sony AU eBay
Computing
SanDisk Extreme Pro 256GB UHS-I V30 U3 A2 MicroSDXC Card - $45 at MSY (Down from $91) Dell 200hz FHD IPS Monitor at Dell Dell 24" SE2425HG for $87 Dell 27" SE2725HG for $95 Xiaomi BE7000 Dual Band WiFi 7 Router at TRUE Mi Store AliExpress Router (no AU adapter) for $150 Router (w/ AU adapter) for $170 Lenovo Legion 27" QHD 180Hz 0.5ms Gaming Monitor R27qe - $199 at Amazon AU Synology DiskStation DS223J 2-Bay 3.5" NAS, Realtek RTD1619B, 1GB RAM - $299 at Amazon AU Ubiquiti Unifi Express 7 (Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band) - $308 at Telco Antennas (Down from $370) XFX Speedster SWFT210 Radeon RX 7700XT 12GB GDDR6 Graphics Card - $489 at Centre Com (Down from $499) Acer Aspire 14 Core Ultra 5 / 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD Copilot+ - $998 at Harvey Norman (Down from $1698) Gigabyte Gaming, A16, 16", i5 13420h, RTX 4050 - $1162 at Gamer Tech
Mobile
Optus $35 Prepaid SIM Starter Kit (75GB) - $13 at Optus (Down from $35) Motorola Moto Phones at Officeworks Motorola Moto G05 4G 64GB for $94 Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G 8GB RAM/128GB Storage for $247 35% Cashback on Vodafone 200GB 12-Month Prepaid Plus Starter Pack SIM for $169 - $110 at ShopBack (Down from $250) $150 Cashback on Optus 365-Day Prepaid 300GB Starter Kit - $275 at Shopback (Down from $350) Motorola Moto G56 (256GB/8GB, 6.7") - $179 at Kogan / Dick Smith eBay (Down from $399) Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Series at Mobileciti Redmi Note 13 5G 8GB/256GB for $249 Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G 12GB/512GB for $399 Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold 256GB on $99/Month Plan for 24 Months - $697 upfront or $1754 if cancelling early at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $3754)
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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