# In This Issue

- Tech Related Coronavirus News

- Huawei has new P-series flagship smartphones, still no Google Play on em

- West Australians will have their mugshots added to the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution

- How to hide your computer’s primary operating system from prying eyes

- 1Password, FCPX & Logic Pro X trials extended, Telstra lowers mobile broadband (including 5G) pricing

# Tech Related Coronavirus News

- Messaging platform Whispir is being used by Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services to interact with those who have to go into 14-day isolation. It automates the collection of contact tracing questions and other health related stuff.

- The federal government is planning to make a "mobile platform to allow the dissemination of COVID-19 virus information, related restrictions, and other supporting advice and directions" according to a tender put out on the DTA's digital marketplace.

- Optus is hiring over 500 new staff members to act as "customer care concierges" in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne because its Indian and Philippines teams are out of action due to lockdowns in those countries.

- Folding@Home has gathered over 1.5 ExaFLOPS of computing power due to the rush of participants who want to help decode some COVID-19 secrets. This makes it the world's most powerful supercomputer.

- Dyson showed off a prototype ventilator that the NHS has ordered 10,000 of to treat potential COVID-19 patients. Apparently lots of companies are working on it in the UK/EU, but Dyson's the only one who sent out a press release.

- Patreon reckons over 30,000 people signed up to become creators on its platform in the early weeks of March, a 36% increase compared to Feb. Many artists that would normally perform live are turning to Patreon to make a buck.

# Normal Tech News

#### Huawei has new P-series flagship smartphones, still no Google Play on em

Despite the fact there's a global pandemic and the US government took away their access to Google's Android services, Huawei announced the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro+ smartphones overnight. They're flagship phones with flagship specs, particularly the camera. The P40 Pro+ has a 50MP 1/1.28" sensor (massive for a smartphone) with a 10x optical zoom. On paper, it's probably the best quality smartphone camera. Will need to wait and see hands on reviews to compare it to Xiaomi's 108MP beast. The P40 & P40 Pro go on sale in Australia April 16th for $1099 and $1599 respectively - honestly though, who's gonna buy one outside of China without the Play Store on it?

#### West Australians will have their mugshots added to the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution

Western Australia is gearing up to join VIC, TAS & SA in sharing its citizen's driver's licence information with the federal government's national facial biometrics matching database. The National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution (NDLFRS) is operated by the Department of Home Affairs and whilst not operational yet, will make a giant database of every Australian's face from each of the state and territory's driver's licence and ID systems. State and federal governments will then use that database against CCTV footage to find people of interest - oh and to "quickly and easily" verify someone's identity when "engaging with government".

# Not News

#### How to hide your computer’s primary operating system from prying eyes

HiddenVM lets you run a VirtualBox VM inside the Tails operating system, then keep that VM in a hidden VeraCrypt volume for maximum tin foil hatness. According to the readme, "if you set it up correctly, when your computer is turned off all anyone can plausibly see is a blank Tails USB and a 'wiped' hard drive full of meaningless data, or a default booting decoy OS in a partition that you can create". The use case the creators of HiddenVM give is to protect your privacy when entering a new country and prevent your computer getting molested by a border agent - not that you'll be going anywhere any time soon.

# Bargains

- 1Password has extended the 30-day trial of its Business plan to 6 months

- Apple has extended the 30-day trial of FCPX and Logic Pro X to 90 days

- Telstra's 100GB/m mobile broadband plan is now $60/m and includes 5G access if you've got a 5G modem

🎶 Riffer - Spiderbait

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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.​