# In This Issue

- Australian government will go headhunting global STEM talent for local businesses

- Xiaomi’s “108MP” smartphone camera goes on sale & 1st-gen Pixels are now EOL

- Adobe Max 2019 has some news for the arty nerds among us

- Voice assistant speakers are vulnerable to being overtaken via lasers aimed at their mics

- Cheap Hisense 65R7 65" 4K TV, Edifier S1000db speakers, Sony WH-H900N wireless headphones, Affinity Photo for iPad

# News

#### Australian government will go headhunting global STEM talent for local businesses

It's now easier than ever for "skilled migrants", particularly those in the STEM fields to work in Australia, with the federal government officially launching the Global Talent Independent visa program. They're opening offices in Berlin, Washington DC, Singapore, Shanghai, Santiago and Dubai with the aim of head hunting whales in the "AgTech, FinTech, MedTech, cybersecurity, energy and mining, space and advanced manufacturing and quantum information, as well as advanced digital, data science and ICT" industries, with the lure of fast-tracked permanent residency in Australia. There's 5,000 spots available and the jobs these people will do have to “be likely to earn” more than $148,700 annually.

#### Xiaomi’s “108MP” smartphone camera goes on sale & 1st-gen Pixels are now EOL

Xiaomi's new Mi CC9 Pro has 5 image sensors, one of which is a whopping 108MP. The catch is after "pixel binning" the output image is 27MP, but still, that’s pretty good. There's "main", short tele (12MP), long tele (8MP), ultra-wide (20MP) and macro (2MP) lenses on the back of this thing. Here’s a review from DxOMark - it looks as good as the flagship phones (Note 10, iPhone 11 Pro), but costs 50% less. In other Android news, Owners of the 1st-gen Google Pixel may be slightly pissed off to know that this month is the last month their device gets updates. No more security patches for this 3 year old device. RIP the Pixel, it died way too young.

#### Adobe Max 2019 has some news for the arty nerds among us

Adobe's annual Max design conference wraps up for 2019 today. For non-creatives there's not much to give a shit about besides maybe Photoshop for the iPad going live on the App Store. But if you make your living using Adobe's tools (there's millions of you out there), you should pay attention to Adobe's Max blog as there's probably some upcoming features in apps you use daily that'll make your life easier. Some of the stuff I thought was interesting include Illustrator for the iPad coming some time in 2020 and a new app called Photoshop Camera that uses Adobe's Sensei AI to "intelligently recognize the subject of a photo and apply effects, both realistic and creative".

# Not News

#### Voice assistant speakers are vulnerable to being overtaken via lasers aimed at their mics

Some loose units at the University of Michigan and the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo have figured out a way to shoot lasers at a Google Home voice assistant unit and get it to do stuff. Microphones, apparently, can not only turn sound into electrical signals, but light beams too. I don't know if they discovered this or it was widely known before, but they took that theory and were able to use a laser tuned to the right frequency to send inaudible commands to Alexa, Siri, Portal, and Google Assistant. If someone is really pissed off with you and is a real smart arse, they could turn your lights on and off, or play music in the middle of the night or countless other forms of harassment. Don't place your voice assistant speaker near a window I guess.

# Bargains

- Hisense 65R7 65" 4K TV - $976 + delivery from Appliance Central's eBay store

- Edifier S1000db active Bluetooth bookshelf speakers - $351.05 delivered from Amazon AU

- Sony WH-H900N wireless Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones - $204 delivered from VideoPro's eBay store

- Affinity Photo for iPad is half price - $14.99 from the App Store

🎶 Sparrow - Magic Dirt

😁 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.​