Plus: How bad can you make a date picker? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 26, 2025 | Read online
# Nvidia's chip challenge, social media ban challenge and YouTube videos disappearing Plus: How bad can you make a date picker?
Edition 2458
"Myah Enochs, a learning technology analyst, demonstrates a computer science lesson at PennWest's Global Online facility." (Flickr: PennWest)
# The News
### Turns out Nvidia ain’t the only game in town
After quite a hot-streak, Nvidia’s complete dominance of AI chipmaking may be facing its first serious challenger in Google. When Google launched Gemini 3 last week, it announced that it had trained this model on its own tensor processing units (TPU), not Nvidia’s sought after GPUs (Google). These were invented by Google in the early 2010s to run its search engines but now can apparently do the tasks that 90% of the market used Nvidia’s GPUs for (Bloomberg, $). Now, Meta is apparently in “advanced talks” with Google to actually buy TPUs and Anthropic has already inked a deal to get some (Bloomberg, $) after they’d only been available for renting via Google cloud before. Nvidia, naturally, says it’s still a “generation ahead” (CNBC)
The Sizzle: With all the AI bubble talk, everyone has been looking for a reason to jump off Nvidia. I think people are getting over their skis with assuming that Google’s chips present a serious challenge to Nvidia’s. It’s a bit beyond my pay grade but my understanding is that GPUs remain a lot more flexible with how they work, and that a lot of the AI ecosystem’s infrastructure has been built on Nvidia’s frameworks too. Even if TPUs prove to be a valid alternative, I reckon hyperscalers will still buy as much as Nvidia will sell them.
That being said — Nvidia has been invincible for a few years now. That may no longer be true!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Teen social media ban is facing a legal challenge
Two weeks before Australia’s teen social media ban comes into effect, a group has launched a last minute legal challenge (Crikey, $). Digital Freedom Project, led by Libertarian Party MLC John Ruddick, filed court documents this morning challenging the ban on the grounds that it violates Australia’s implied constitutional freedom of political expression. The case will argue that the ban’s benefits don’t outweigh its harms, and that those harms can be addressed in other ways.
Meanwhile, politicians behind the ban are telling people to expect “problems” and “controversies” about the ban not working perfectly (Crikey, $).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### YouTube’s videos are disappearing from view
You might remember earlier this year, I shared a blog post that noticed how YouTube’s homepage had gone from showing dozens of suggested videos to five (plus one advert). The author graphed it out and predicted that YouTube’s homepage would only show one video by May next year.
very scientific
Turns out we’re ahead of schedule. The same author opened up YouTube on his Apple TV and was presented with one video… and one advertisement, naturally.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Labor to take ‘light touch’ on AI rules (The Australian, $) Fresh Optus outage impacting emergency service calls (The Sydney Morning Herald, $) Triple Zero Custodian might force telcos to share info (iTnews) Govt urged to subsidise SMEs’ AI uptake (InnovationAus) BYD Shark 6 – Australia’s most enjoyable ute is undone by inept customer service (The Driven) Blinded by the sun no more: Why I bought smart blinds (GadgetGuy)
Rest of the world:
Apple Set to Become World’s Top Phone Maker, Overtaking Samsung (Bloomberg, $) Roblox is a problem — but it's a symptom of something worse (Platformer) CISA warns spyware crews are breaking into Signal and WhatsApp accounts (The Register) OpenAI denies allegation that ChatGPT caused teenager's death (NBC News) Car influencers love Chinese EVs — and China loves them back (The Verge) The unpowered SSDs in your drawer are slowly losing your data (XDA Developers)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### How bad can you make a date picker?
It’s that time of year again! The Bad UX World Cup has come around again (thanks to rholmes in the Slack for flagging).
Bad UX World Cup Finals
There were some great entries for the worst design for a date picker this year! I quite liked Aussie Leigh’s DateHack, but scroll through the page and try em all if you want to have your blood pressure spike <3.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
20% Sony cashback ($150 Cap) Uniden App Cam X24 - 2k Internal Security Camera - $29.95 at Uniden (Down from $49.95) Nothing CMF Buds 2 Dark Grey/Light Green/Orange - $45.78 at Nothing Flagship Store AliExpress Blaupunkt Detachable Dual Wireless (Bluetooth) Magnetic Speaker - $49.99 at BCF Philips Hue Smart Candle Bulb White and Colour Ambiance - $52.95 at Amazon AU Philips Hue Light Strip Plus 2m Base Kit - $54.95 at Amazon AU Govee Christmas String Lights 2S 20m - $89 at CleverGear (Down from $199) Harman kardon luna bluetooth speaker - $99.95 at Amazon (Down from $199) Ring Home Security Bundle - $179 at Amazon AU Kogan SmarterHome LX16 Robot Vacuum Cleaner and Mop w/ Auto Empty Dock - $269 at Kogan TCL 55" P7K Qled Google TV 2025 - $549 at Costco Insta360 X5 8K 360 Action Camera Adventure Bundle - $799 at Costco Roborock Saros 10 Robot Vacuum and Mop - $1,788 at Roborock AU via Amazon AU
Computing
HORACO 4 Port 2.5GbE Network Switch with 2-Port 10G SFP+ AU Plug - $32.01 at HORACO Official AliExpress Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8gb) Ddr4 3200MHz C16 RAM - $85.11 at Amazon Germany via AU (Expired) Crucial DDR5 5600MHz ECC SODIMM 32GB (2x16GB) - $178 at Amazon UK via AU Lenovo N27p 27" 4K 60Hz IPS USB-C 65W PD Ergonomic Monitor - $247 at Officeworks Dell Latitude 5520 1145G7 16GB RAM 256GB SSD 15.6" - $319 at Australian Computer Traders (Refurb) Western Digital 12TB WD Red Plus NAS HDD 7200rpm CMR 512MB Cache (WD120EFGX) - $363 at Amazon US via AU Lenovo ThinkPad E14 AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS 16GB 512GB - $775 at Official Lenovo AU Store eBay Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i (Core™ 5 210h, 16", 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - $999 at Lenovo Apple MacBook Air 13" (M2, 8-Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Starlight/Midnight) - $999 at Costco
Mobile
Nothing Phone 2 & 2a Plus at JB Hi-Fi Nothing Phone 2a Plus 12GB/256GB for $379 Nothing Phone 2 12GB/512GB for $599 iPhone 17 Pro Max 1TB (Silver or Orange) - $2,899 at Ozmobiles
# The End
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