Plus: The world’s lightest battery bank is gummy bear-themed ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 19, 2025 | Read online
# Australia on TrumpTok? Google shoving AI into Chrome and the Sizzler Say Plus: The world’s lightest battery bank is gummy bear-themed
Edition 2422
"[Redacted] friend from Jerzwałd preparing for another malicious experiment." (Flickr: VonMurr) - blurred by me
# The News
### Would you download TrumpTok?
Australia should sign up for Trump’s version of TikTok, Liberal MP James Patterson said (Sky News, archived). Since I wrote about the US-China TikTok deal earlier this week, a few more details have come out. The US entity will be controlled by Trump supporters including Oracle and a16z (Reuters). It looks like the original owners will license the original algorithm to the US entity (Guardian). Even without details about how this deal will address any of the original concerns about data and censorship, Patterson says we should sign up for whatever TrumpTok will look like.
The Sizzle: As has been made abundantly clear this week, almost all of America’s media and tech elites are bending the knee to Trump. Now, TikTok is being put into the hands of MAGA-allied owners (the son of Oracle’s founder, David Ellison, just bought Paramount and is set on make its news channel CBS News more pro-Trump). My guess — and fear — is that TrumpTok will take the original algorithm and add a bit of its own flavour. Now, almost all of the world’s major tech platforms will be run by pro-MAGA billionaires who have no qualms in putting their fingers on the scale. I don’t think Australia should want any part of that.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Google’s jamming AI into billions of browsers
Google is rolling out its AI features into all Chrome browsers “in the coming months” (Google Blog). Taking a leaf from Dia, Perplexity’s Comet and OpenAI’s forthcoming browser, Chrome’s AI will be able to read and interact with content on the browser’s tabs. Some of the promoted uses are summarising web pages, asking the browser to find previously browsed pages, even do basic “agentic” features (they showcased ordering groceries online) all without leaving the browser.
Behind the Browser: AI Edition Highlights
The Sizzle: One of the reasons I was scratching my head about Atlassian’s purchase of The Browsing Co. was that I assumed Google was going to switch this on imminently, thereby demolishing any chance that Dia would ever grow its market.
I’m curious to see how this goes. I don’t really need to search my browsing history for a website I can’t remember that often, but I’m sure this will be handy when I do. Nor do I trust an agent even to buy my groceries (not to mention all the ways that this is absolutely going to be exploited). I think this shows that the best use of generative AI and LLMs — at least in the short-medium term — are for a handful of useful features and not a overhaul of how all personal computing works.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The Sizzler Say: iOS26, RSS, desk speakers and a BOM anecodte
I just installed iOS26 onto my iPhone 15 Pro. Early review: feels laggy, but that could just be the animation. Anyway, we’re talking about it here on Slack. There’s a good, on-going forum thread about how Sizzlers are using RSS. TravestyAU wrote on the forum about “state and federal Governments are pushing approval of these data centres to keep us globally competitive in AI the losers are the locals who have to fight to get access to clean water”. Recommendations for a desk speaker? richardb asked on Slack and Sizzlers delivered. Sizzler Angus emailed this anecdote in response to BOM getting RSS: “the networks course at my old uni used to use the BOM website for testing students’ assignments (where they were tasked with making a web proxy), because it’s one of the few sites these days that defaults to HTTP. After a few years the uni IP range got blocked because BOM thought they were DOSing them (with a pitifully small amount of usage, lol).”
(FYI - Sizzle Slack links will only work if you have joined the Slack server here)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Social media ban trial data reveals racial bias in age checking software: just how inaccurate is it? (Guardian) Our important legislation to criminalise the creation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes has passed Parliament (NSW Premier Chris Minns on LinkedIn) The highest paid tech salaries in Australia revealed (SmartCompany) Google Plans Partnership to Fight Nonconsensual Images(Bloomberg, $) Cybercriminals Have a Weird New Way to Target You With Scam Texts(WIRED, $) Samsung confirms ads are coming to its smart refrigerators (Android Authority) Meta Reframes Their Reality: They're trying to back AI and Smart Glasses into the 'Metaverse'...(Spyglass) AI firm DeepSeek writes less-secure code for groups China disfavors (The Washington Post, $) Britain’s AI ambitions will need gas, Nvidia warns Miliband (The Telegraph, $) New attack on ChatGPT research agent pilfers secrets from Gmail inboxes (Ars Technica) Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase (Skyfall) A former Facebook lobbyist is now in charge of the EU's Facebook regulator (Engadget) LimeWire acquires Fyre Festival, asking 'What could possibly go wrong?' (NBC News) Podcasts, you altered the deal, so I will alter your app (Matthew Brunelle's Blog) Building a Geiger Counter module for the Flipper Zero (Kasiin's Blog) Pope nixes 'virtual pope' idea, explains concerns about AI (National Catholic Reporter)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### The world’s lightest battery bank is gummy bear-themed
There’s not really a good explanation for how this happened but it brings me so much joy to share that the world’s 20,000mAh lightest battery bank appears to be a crowdfunded collaboration between the gummy bear company, Haribo, and a Hong Kong-based hardware company.
WORLD'S LIGHTEST BATTERY BANK - Haribo Mini Power Bank 20000mAH. Cheap Ultralight Backpacking Gear!
The best part? The inbuilt USB-C cord has a fake gummy bear.
Yum
Sadly, it does not appear to be available to Australians — but tell me if you happen to find one.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electronics & electrical
JBL Go 4 - Mini Bluetooth Speaker - $45.86 at Amazon AU (Down from $59.95) INIU 25000mAh 100w - $84.99 at INIU AU via Amazon AU TCL 32 Inch Qled FHD Smart/Android TV - $234 at The Good Guys online Apple Watch at Rebel SE 3 for $399 Series 11 for $679 Ultra 3 for $1399 Ffalcon 55" U65 4K UHD Google TV 2025 Model - $399 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $499) Apple AirPods Pro (3rd Gen) - $429 at Rebel 65” NANO80 4K TV 2025 65NANO80ASA- $761 at LG via EPP, Government Hub & EDU (Down from $1299) TCL 65" C6K QD-Mini LED 4K 144hz Google TV (2025) - $899 at Costco DJI Mini 5 Pro Drone Fly More Combo (DJI RC2) - $1597 at JB Hi-Fi Commercial LG OLED EVO C5 AI UHD 4K Smart TV 2025 at Harvey Norman 55" for $1690 65" for $2426 77" for $3566 83" for $4399 LG 65" OLED B5 AI UHD 4K Smart TV (2025) - $2045 at Appliance Central LG OLED55C5 TV + S80TR Soundbar - $2178 at Harvey Norman
Computing
Asus B650M-AYW WIFI AM5 micro-ATX Motherboard - $129 at Umart & MSY Gaming PC (No GPU): R7 7800X3D, 16GB DDR5, 1TB Gen4 NVMe, 650W PSU, Wi-Fi - $999 at Radium PCs Lenovo Yoga 7i 14" 2.8k Oled Intel 7-258V/32GB/1TB Touch Pen 2in1 - $1948 at Harvey Norman Gaming PC: Ryzen 9 9800X3D | 32GB DDR5 6400MHz | 1TB Gen4 NVMe | RTX 5080 - $2949 at GalaPower Gaming PC: RTX5080, 9800X3D, 240mm AIO, 32G 6000 CL30 RGB DDR5, 1TB NVMe, 850w Gold PCIe5 - $3099 at Evatech
Mobile
Samsung Galaxy S25 256GB - $872 at Kogan eBay
# The End
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