Plus: Letting your kids watch TV but only with a floppy disk-related catch ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

January 13, 2026 | Read online
# iPhone is the smartphone king, proof of life app and vibecoding away from big tech Plus: Letting your kids watch TV but only with a catch
Edition 2479
NOIRLab/AURA/NSF, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Hello! A quick callout: if you work at Canva, can you send me a message? I have a question. Here’s my Signal.
Mentioned in today’s editions: smartphone sales, Siri, Linus Torvalds, Home Assistant, ACMA, auDA, Grok and text-based web browsers. Plus, deals on Nothing earbuds, WD drives and Boost prepaid plans.
# The News
### The iPhone keeps winning the smartphone battle
Nearly two decades after launch, the iPhone market is still hitting new heights (Counterpoint Research). Global smartphone sales were up a modest 2% overall, but Apple grew 10% year-on-year to rank first with 20% of the market. Samsung ended up in a close second with 19% share, and the rest of the market was close to flat or even down.
The Sizzle: It feels very normie to say this but the iPhone absolutely slaps. It’s a true credit to how much Apple nailed it that the company hasn’t made any significant design changes in close to a decade, and it’s still growing (albeit mostly in developing markets, Counterpoint Research said).
It’s even more impressive within the context of the last three years of AI hype. Apple’s generative AI features are simply not is in competition with OpenAI or Google — not for lack of trying, but for lack of ability — with the phone maker today confirming that it will use Google’s Gemini to run parts of Siri (CNBC). Meanwhile, everyone is trying to make an AI-first device, like OpenAI’s plans for a pen-like device according to recent leaks (Entrepreneur). And yet the next gen device that’s suited for the AI era might just be … the iPhone, still.
Related listening: The Verge’s retrospective podcast on the iPhone 4 is a great listen.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The new killer app is proof of life
The Australian version would be called “are you fucken right, mate?”
The hot new app that’s all the rage with young Chinese people is a single-purpose service for users to prove that they are still alive (BBC). After launching in May last year, “Are You Dead?” is reportedly the top paid app in China, and it works like this: you need to click a button every two days to confirm you’re alive, otherwise it tells your emergency contacts. The purpose of the app is serious — there’s also Chinese apps for monitoring fridges and TVs as a sign of life — but it’s also become a bit of a meme for a generation of young workers facing a slowing economy and loneliness.
“When they download this app, I would read that as a kind of collective installation art. Actually they are expressing a certain confusion and a certain anxiety,” Xiang said.
Biao Xiang, Max Planck’s Institute of Social Anthropology
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Could vibecoding help wean people off big tech?
I wanted to use the news that Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds has been vibecoding (Ars Technica) as a springboard to talk about how generative AI has completely opened up self-hosting and running little scripts for me. I’ve always wanted to do more things on my computer, but my self-hosting experiences have been completely miserable and usually end up with me relaying my problems to others to fix.
Over the holidays, I’ve begun fiddling with Gemini to troubleshoot problems. It’s a world of difference. It was a piece of cake to set up Home Assistant on a headless mini PC, then Jellyfin, Linkding, even a few things for work (like changedetector). Being able to upload a screenshot of my Docker containers and say “why isn’t this working” is a game changer. I know there’s a lot of anguish over AI slop being slapped into big projects, particularly open source ones, and the fact that generative AI risks entrenching a few massive tech companies (although there are some interesting smaller competitors that can be run locally). But on a personal level, LLMs have made little tech more accessible. Have you had similar experiences? Have I committed a terrible sin? Let me know!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
The government tech agency is telling all the other agencies that they need to “establish how they are planning AI adoption”, including requiring all staff to do “foundational AI training” (DTA) New DV regulations require telcos to tell ACMA within 2 days if an unauthorised person has accessed someone else’s info (ACMA) Volvo EX30 owners urged not to charge above 70% due to risk of fire (The Driven) Private members bill would ban ‘unethical' companies from govt contracts (Information Age) 9/10 AI specialists wouldn’t join the government’s newly launched AI safety institute because of red tape … (InnovationAus, $) Queensland Communications hit by latest copper theft incident, taking out Telstra, Optus and NBN services (techAU) Here’s what auDA is doing in 2026 (auDA)
Rest of the world:
UK regulators swarm X after Grok generated nudes from photos (The Register) Meta is laying off even more metaverse staff (The Verge) Office Is Dead: Microsoft Decision Confuses 400 Million Users (Forbes, $) Infamous BreachForums forum breached, spilling data on 325K users (The Register) Anthropic launches Claude Code for Dummies, Cowork (Claude) Porting Linux to Apple Silicon (media.ccc.de) The case for text-Based Web Browsers (CSSence)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Letting your kids watch TV but only with a floppy disk remote
A Danish dad decided that televisions physically are ill-suited to kids because their remotes and interfaces are hard to use, therefore encouraging passive, automated consumption. So, he decided to change that by recreating the TV remote… as a set of floppy disks (blog dot smartere). The disks excude code that control a Chromecast: to play, to stop playing, to play a random video from a predetermined playlist.
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure this is a great idea. But I give him credit for doing what dads do best: finding novel ways to force your individual habits and interests onto your children.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
UGREEN 15W Wireless Charger, 2 in 1 Magsafe Charging Stand - $41.99 at Amazon AU (Down from $59.99) Nothing Ear (a) White/Black/Yellow Buds - $83.16 at Nothing Flagship Store AliExpress (Down from $149) Wolfbox Electric Air Duster MF200 - $95.38 at Shop1102844086 Store AliExpress (Down from ~$150)
Computing
Anker 543 USB-C Hub (6-in-1, Slim) - $35.98 at Anker AU (Down from $89.95) GL.inet GL-MT6000 (Flint 2) - $119 at GL-iNet Overseas Store AliExpress (Down from ~$207) Western Digital WD Red Pro 22TB 3.5" NAS HDD - $751 at Amazon AU (Down from ~$1099)
Mobile
Boost Mobile: $7 Cashback on 75GB 28-Day Prepaid SIM - $13 at TopCashback AU (Down from $39) OnePass Mobile 365-Day Prepaid Plan with 280GB (Optus 4G Network) & Bonus 1-Year of OnePass - $168 at OnePass Mobile (Down from $240)
# The End
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