# In This Issue

- Pre-Apple event rumours & Apple drops the ball on Foxconn worker conditions again

- Volkswagen shows off production model of its ID.3 electric car

- TPG and Vodafone take ACCC to court for blocking their merger

- I bet you don’t remember jumpstations as a thing from 90s internet

- Cheap 8TB & 12TB Ironwolf HDDs, Edifer R1280T speakers, Aldi 65” 4K TV

# News

#### Pre-Apple event rumours & Apple drops the ball on Foxconn worker conditions again

There's an Apple event tomorrow morning at 3AM AEST and Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (one of the more reliable Apple nostradamuses) gave his opinion on what we will and won't see on the new iPhone. We won't see Apple Pencil support, a USB-C port, two-way wireless charging (damn), or a new design. There will be a triple-lens camera setup and "ultra-wideband" support for indoor navigation. Meanwhile, Bloomberg let loose about some new labor violations at Foxconn's factory in China. Apparently they hired too many temporary workers in August, in order to meet demand (probably for the upcoming iPhone). Apple is very sorry this happened a day before their new cash cow is announced.

#### Volkswagen shows off production model of its ID.3 electric car

Volkswagen took the covers off their new electric car at the Frankfurt Auto Show last night. The ID.3 is basically a more modern Golf, but with the interior space of a Passat. Unlike most EVs, the ID.3 is designed from the ground up to be electric. VW is taking the ID.3 seriously, saying they're going to make hundreds of thousands in the next year or so. Autogefühl has a nice 25 minute video look around the car. Headline specs are ~330km range for ~€30,000, with support for 100kW fast charging. Don't get too excited though, as Australia is so far down VW's list of markets that require EVs we won't be getting it until 2022.

#### TPG and Vodafone take ACCC to court for blocking their merger

Vodafone and TPG have taken the ACCC to court over the blockage of their proposed merger. Federal Court hearings began today, with Vodafone's QC (fancy lawyer, I learned that from watching The Castle) saying that the ACCC is "wrong as a matter of commerce, wrong as a matter of economics, wrong as a matter of technology, and wrong as a matter of law", "was chock full of speculation and chock full of possibilities" and "not in the real commercial world". Voda & TPG's argument seems to be that 3 strong players is better for Australian consumers than 2 strong and 2 weak ones, and the ACCC's merger denial will lead to the latter. I tend to agree with them and reckon the ACCC stuffed up.

# Not News

#### I bet you don’t remember jumpstations as a thing from 90s internet

One of my favourite email newsletters is Tedium. Pretty sure I've mentioned it here in the past, but this week's email about "jumpstations" was particularly good and a nice opportunity to mention it again. Like the author, I've never heard of jumpstations in the context of the internet. It was a term used in the early to mid 1990s to describe a website full of links on a particular topic. Search engines weren't really a thing back then, so they acted as proto-search engines too. Weirdly, one jumpstation is still active - the Federal Acquisition Jumpstation, a US government website with a bunch of links on how they buy stuff. Amazing that it's still relatively untouched since 1995. It's an internet fossil!

# Bargains

- Seagate Ironwolf 8TB ($332) and 12TB ($495) NAS HDDs from Amazon AU. Use Cashrewards for even more of a discount.

- Edifier R1280T active bookshelf speakers - $112.49 delivered from Amazon AU. Supposed to sound fantastic.

- Aldi will have 65" 4K TVs for just $599 in 11 days time.

🎶 Money For Nothing - Dire Straits

😁 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.​