Plus: RIP to the best name in tech ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 26, 2025 | Read online
# TrumpTok's owners, Aussie crypto rules and the Sizzler Say Plus: RIP to the best name in tech
Edition 2427
"Computer reparatie" (Flickr: Spotgirl)
Folks, what a week. Have a ripper weekend, seeya next week - CW
# The News
### TrumpTok is a done deal. It’s got a few interesting owners
US President Donald Trump has signed off on a deal that will transfer TikTok’s American operations into the hands of his mates (CNBC). The sale, which apparently values TikTok US at AU$21 billion, leaves its original owner ByteDance with less than a 20% stake. The new major investors are Larry Ellison’s Oracle, A-League part owner Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX (Reuters). News Corp’s Murdochs and Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell have also purportedly bought in (CNBC)
The Sizzle: Let me pump the brakes on the most extreme doomerism about this. Yes, it’s really worrying that one of the few major tech companies that wasn’t owned by right-wing American billionaires has been handed over to… very right-wing American billionaires. The involvement of the Murdochs has particularly freaked people out.
But, the fact that the price-tag is quite low makes me suspect that this deal is going to be more limited in scope than has been suggested. And I think it’s far from certain that TikTok is turned into Fox News for Zoomers. The Murdochs don’t appear to be major owners. Even if they were, I’m not even sure that they would want to meddle too much — you only need to remember Rupert Murdoch’s ill-fated MySpace play to realise that News Corp has a pretty spotty history when it comes to social media. No matter about their political agendas, I imagine the very rich men buying TikTok also want to protect their commercial interests and not fuck with the goose that lays the golden egg.
(One thing I will add: I know no one cares about hypocrisy anymore. But it does feel pretty galling that News Corp, after spending years running campaigns about how the threat of social media, is linked to TikTok. I wonder if we’ll see their negative coverage drop off a bit…)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Crypto in Australia looks like it’s going to get some light touch regulation
Cryptocurrencies can continue to be treated like funny money under new proposed regulations which regulate exchanges and not tokens (AFR, $). At the moment, the only real regulation around cryptocurrency trading is that exchanges — the places that facilitate buying and selling — must do some basic know your customer/anti-money laundering measures. Now, Treasury has put out draft legislation that would require most exchanges to get a financial services license (Treasury). These exchanges will need to act “efficiently, honestly and fairly” … which would be a change for some in this sector!
The Sizzle: The federal government has been dragging its feet forever on crypto regulation, and has decided on some pretty industry-friendly measures. Instead of regulating cryptocurrency tokens — meaning that individual tokens would have requirements like reporting on their specifications and restrictions — this essentially lets crypto stay as the wild, wild West with shitcoins and rip-off schemes — just as long as they can convince an exchange to sell their token. This lighter regulation does seem to be the trend around the world but, man, a lot of people are going to continue to be ripped off.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The Sizzler Say: Canva profitability, mechanical keyboard fans, and send me your birth certificates
Banger week for the Sizzler community. Actually, I’ve been informed that we’ve hit 1000 Slack members… Nice.
As always, if you wanna get involved (or even be able to read what’s on Slack) you can join the Slack server and forum via these links.
When I was complaining in the Slack about how Apple nerfs third-party smart watches by restricting their access to data, Sizzler Renaud popped into Slack to say that he .. err… wrote that code for Apple and suggested we shouldn’t confuse malice for incompetence. On Canva’s profitability, TinBane had a good perspective on why he’s bullish. Phil also emailed to make a slight correction: “[Startups] often have an ESOP where a percentage is allocated to shares that you can divvy out without diluting the other shares. So you can keep incentivising staff to join or stay without having to update your cap table every time, which would require input and approval from the other investors.” I’m going to be honest: you guys really like your mechanical keyboards. Will the Sizzle Slack be part of the teen social media ban? Some of you think so. I’m not so sure but, just in case, please email me your birth certificate. I had some interesting emails about where people are finding good uses for LLMs in their lives. I wanna write something about it next week so keep letting me know!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Australian police are using encrypted messaging app Signal (Crikey, $) The emails that reveal how Optus downplayed the triple-zero disaster (The Sydney Morning Herald, $) Australia’s biggest R&D tax break users, ranked (InnovationAus) Facebook data reveal the devastating real-world harms caused by the spread of misinformation (The Conversation) Tech giants pitch data centres as climate saviours, not threats (The Australian Financial Review, $) DTA stands up new platform to track gov tech spending (iTnews) Korean-made electric ute approved for sale in Australia (The Driven) I went on the great UK podcast 10,000 posts to talk about my book and Australia’s conspiracy far-right culture (Podbean)
Rest of the world:
US judge approves $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright settlement with authors (Reuters) Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians (The Guardian) Introducing ChatGPT Pulse (OpenAI) The sweetest slice of Pi: Raspberry Pi 500+ sports mechanical keys, 16GB, and built-in SSD (The Register) Google’s Conversational Photo Editor Is the Rare AI Feature People Will Actually Use (WIRED, $) Meta now has a feed for AI slop (Engadget) FTC Secures Historic $25 Billion Settlement Against Amazon (Federal Trade Commission) Resurrect the Old Web (Steve’s Bear Blog)
| Gabriel @gbrl_dick |
predator drone aimed at the minds of men and women aged 55-65
Alexandr Wang @alexandr_wang Excited to share Vibes — a new feed in the Meta AI app for short-form, AI-generated videos.
12:33 AM • Sep 26, 2025
299 Likes 7 Retweets
10 Replies
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### RIP to the best name in tech
It’s the little things in life that make it worth living. Like knowing that the president of Nintendo America, who’s just announced that he’s retiring, is called Doug Bowser (Polygon).
Doug Bowser (right)
We all love a bit of normative determinism! Thankfully, we got word that Bowser is passing the torch for best name in tech to a new contender:
| andi (twocents.money) @Nexuist |
Ray Ban's holding company has a Chief Wearables Officer in charge of integrating Meta AI into their glasses named Roko's Basilisk
7:47 PM • Sep 18, 2025
4.21K Likes 205 Retweets
106 Replies
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
TP-Link Tapo Mini Smart Plug (2 Pack) - $18 at OfficeWorks Marshall Ear Buds Mode EQ - $29.95 at Premium Sound (Down from $79.95) Officeworks Aqara Clearance at Officeworks Aqara Doorbell G4 for $89 (Down from $239) Aqara Smart Lock U100 + E1 Hub Kit for $199 (Down from $499) JBL JR 470NC Noice Cancelling Headphones for Juniors/Kids - $98 at Retravision Google Pixel Watch 2 LTE (Refurbished) - $139 at Phonebot 75-inch Hisense U8QAU 4K ULED Mini LED Smart TV - $2487 at Harvey Norman
Computing
GL.iNet GL-B3000 Wi-Fi 6 Router - $68.20 at GL.iNet via Amazon AU GL.inet GL-Mt6000 (Flint 2) Wi-Fi 6 Router - $202 at GL.inet via Amazon Au AMD Ryzen 5 7600X AM5 6 Core CPU - $257 at Amazon UK via Au (Down from $505) Team Group G50 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD - $259 at Centre Com Lexar NM790 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - $329 at Mwave Acer Nitro XV275KP3 27" 4k Mini LED Monitor - $739 at Mwave Gaming PCs at TechFast i5-12400F 4060 ITX for $888 R5-7500F 9060 XT 16G for $1188 R7-7800X3D 9070 XT for $1999 R7-7800X3D 5070 Ti for $2248 AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16-Core CPU Processor - $969 at Mwave Gigabyte MO27U2 27" 240Hz 4K QD-OLED Monitor - $979 at Mwave AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU - $1069 at Computer Alliance via Amazon AU ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27UCDMG 26.5" 240Hz 4K UHD QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - $1119 at Mwave ASRock Taichi Radeon RX 9070 XT - $1199 at Centre Com Dell UltraSharp U4025QW 40" 120Hz WUHD 5K2K - $2029 at Mwave
Mobile
Boost Mobile Prepaid SIM Kit 365 Day 300GB - $240 at Lucky Mobile (Down from $300) Nothing Phones at JB Hi-Fi CMF Phone 2 Pro 8GB RAM/128GB Storage for $369 Nothing (3a) 8GB/128GB for $499
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans.
🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply!
💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news.
🌐 The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social.
💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal.
🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.
💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide.
🦺 The Sizzle has been tested to meet and exceed ISO 3533 standards.
## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land
The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.
Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 The Sizzle PO Box 351 Bacchus Marsh, VIC 3340, Australia
Powered by beehiiv
Terms of Service