Plus: They’re trying to make Poke happen ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 05, 2025 | Read online
# Atlassian buys browsers, Swiss AI and the Sizzler Say Plus: They’re trying to make Poke happen
Edition 2412
"postcard made of pictures of Elena Pilosova. frame from the Internet. My collage. My computer graphics." (Flickr: Strannitca2010)
# The News
### Atlassian splurges on some pretty browsers
Atlassian has splashed out $935 million to buy the startup behind niche Arc and its AI-powered successor Dia (CNBC). The six-year-old The Browser Co. became a Silicon Valley darling when it launched its artisanal Arc browser in 2022 but didn’t catch on much beyond that. Earlier this year, it announced it was ditching Arc in favour of Dia which launched in June. Mike Cannon-Brooks told friend of the Sizzle David Swan he believes “the browser can become your memory of everything you’ve done at work.” (SMH)
| brandon @burcs |
wild rebrand...
1:56 PM • Sep 4, 2025
4.59K Likes 184 Retweets
63 Replies
The Sizzle: I’m scratching my head a little bit about this purchase. Apparently, Arc was very popular at Atlassian (including with MCB). But what value does an AI browser have for the company behind Confluence beyond buying a lottery ticket in case we’re all using AI browsers in 2028? This quote from a Verge interview with The Browser Co.’s CEO gives a bit more insight but I’m still not sure why it means Atlassian needs to own it.
Open up three spreadsheets in three tabs and Dia can move data between them; log into your Gmail and Dia can tell you what’s next on the calendar. Anything with a URL immediately becomes data available to Dia and its AI models. For a company like Atlassian, which makes a whole suite of work apps — the popular project-tracker Jira, the note-taking app Confluence, plus Trello, Loom, and more — a way to stitch them all together seems obviously compelling.”
Josh Miller, The Browser Co.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Switzerland launches its own home-grown, ethically sourced, Fair Trade™ LLM
The Swiss Government has released its own open-source, non-copyright infringing AI large language model (Swiss-ai). Called Apertus, the multi-language model has been trained on publicly available data and excluded websites that opted-out from AI training. It’s pitched as “a building block for developers and organizations for future applications such as chatbots, translation systems, or educational tools.” You can try it in a browser here.
The Sizzle: This is cool as hell! Rather than handing over our data for pennies (or nothing) to foreign companies for their profit, why shouldn’t we build and release models based on our expectations, our rules and our culture? I’d love to see the NLA do something like this.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The Sizzler Say
Off the back of Google’s slap-on-the-wrist illegal monopoly punishment, there was a bit of a back and forth on Slack about whether it made sense or not. andyb had a very important PSA in response to the toilet TikTok limit. gtch had an insider perspective on why Atlassian staff love the Arc browser on Slack. On disclosing AI use on collaborative projects, is vibecoding really that different to ripping someone’s code from Stack Overflow? Hollow Knight: Silksong prompted a Slack discussion about its appeal and quite an update from the company shared by uep.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Hollow Knight: Silksong is the biggest game in the world today, made by a tiny team in Adelaide (ABC News) Paris-based econocrat warns ‘tech bros’ should not dominate the AI regulation debate (Capital Brief, $) IFA 2025: Samsung Sound Tower ST50F and ST40F party speakers coming to Australia (GadgetGuy) hell yeah party speakers Nepal will ban TikTok unless it agrees to open an office in the country (AP News) Nvidia dominates GPU shipments with 94 percent share — shipment surge likely caused by customers getting ahead of tariffs (Tom's Hardware) Uber offers driver-partners a side hustle: AI data labelling (The Economic Times, $) Melania Trump and tech CEOs discuss saturating US schools with AI (The Guardian) COVID vaccine locations vanish from Google Maps due to alleged “technical issue” (Ars Technica) Apple sets its sights on turning future Apple Vision product into smart sunglasses (AppleInsider) Apple’s Wallet app just made it easier to Pay Later for purchases (9to5Mac) Russia promotes ‘national messenger’ to vanquish WhatsApp (Financial Times, $) New TP-Link zero-day surfaces as CISA warns other flaws are exploited (BleepingComputer)
Does anyone want to buy the Sizzle?
| Jordi Hays @jordihays |
The Free Press for 200 The Browser Company for 600 Great time to sell your company if your name starts with “The”
12:44 PM • Sep 4, 2025
539 Likes 10 Retweets
80 Replies
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### They’re trying to make Poke happen
Ignore the story about bankruptcy lawyer Mark S. Zuckerberg suing the Facebook führer Mark Zuckerberg (NYPost), that’s a distraction from the real big news: Facebook is trying to bring back the Poke (TechCrunch). While technically always available but hidden, Meta is doing a push to popularise the never-really-explained Poke feature (Facebook) and have added a poke counter, which people speculate is an attempt to emulate Snapchat’s purportedly addictive Snap Streak feature and boost engagement. Nothing’s innocent anymore — not even the poke.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Meta Cashback 10% AI Glasses (Ray-Ban Meta & Oakley Meta) 5% Meta Quest VR Headsets, Apps & Games $30 cashback when you spend $300 or more at Sony with Commback Yello 20% off RRP at Creative Labs Roseselsa Star City 5 Pro IEMs - $88.80 at Keebz N Cables (Down from $111) Audio-Technica ATH-M50XBT2 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones (Black) - $139 at JB Hi-Fi MiLESEEY TR10 Thermal Imaging Camera - $165 at Mileseey Official Store eBay Sony WF-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds (Silver/Black) (Seconds) - $191 at Sony eBay (Down from $329) Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Seconds) - $304 at Sony eBay= Mova z50 ultra robot vacuum - $1999 at JBHIFI (Down from $2999) LG 83" OLED evo AI C5 4K Smart TV 2025 + LG S40T Soundbar - $5072 at Bing Lee
Computing
Anker Powerconf C202 Webcam - $55.20 at Goodbuyz IQU SmartEasy T10w Wi-FI 32GB Tablet - Black - $159 at Amazon AU NetComm CF60 AXE11000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E 10GE Gateway - $189 at MyITHub (Down from $449) Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Wi-Fi 128GB - $579 at Amazon AU Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable: i7-1180G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Win 11 Pro (Used) - $600 at Dee Why Computers Asus ExpertBook P1 16in FHD i5 + SimpleCom 12in1 Dock - $995 at Umart Galax GeForce RTX 5080 1-Click 16GB OC Edition GDDR7 Graphics Card - $1779 at Centre Com
Mobile
Telstra Pre-Paid Mobile Casual Plan 6-Month Expiry: 390MB, 110min Talk, 140 SMS & MMS - $13 Free OnePass membership with any OnePass Mobile SIM
# The End
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