### Issue 1890 - Tuesday 18th July, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- SA dept of education makes its own AI chatbot to learn more about its use in schools
- Xbox changes pricing and features for Live & Game Pass subscriptions
- Twitter's still broke, 1st-gen iPhone sells for over $190k, Samsung's 5K monitor same price as Apple's 5K monitor
- Why does a black screen for 24 hours have over 40m views on YouTube?
- Cheap Pixel smartphones, Pixel Buds Pro, Xiaomi smarthome kit, Starlink, Apple TV+, Apple cashback, Samsung S22, Amaysim & Kogan pre-paid, GL.iNet travel router

## The News

### SA dept of education makes its own AI chatbot to learn more about its use in schools

The South Australian department of education has developed its own AI powered chatbot. The proof of concept runs on its "private cloud" Azure instance and is currently operating as an 8 week trial in "several" secondary schools across the state. They hope to learn "how it is being used and the impact it can have on teaching and learning" and use the results to "inform consideration of broader implementation and provide valuable insight as the department explores its strategic priorities". They told the federal government's inquiry on AI use in schools that there are "significant potential benefits in education". This is probably a better approach to AI than putting your head in the sand and trying to ban it.

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### Xbox changes pricing and features for Live & Game Pass subscriptions

Microsoft is changing up its very popular Game Pass subscription. As of September 14th, all of the Xbox Live and Game Pass subscriptions will be shitcanned and replaced with Game Pass Core, Game Pass Console, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate. Game Pass Core goes for $10.95/m, replaces Xbox Live Gold and provides a "core" of 25 "high quality games" on tap. The Console & PC variants give you "hundreds" more games for either your Xbox or your Windows box and Ultimate bundles the console and PC versions into one subscription if you play on both platforms. I'm sure Game Pass is fucking up the gaming industry somehow, but damn it's a good deal and it's what got me to buy an Xbox Series X instead of a PS5.

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### Twitter's still broke, 1st-gen iPhone sells for over $190k, Samsung's 5K monitor same price as Apple's 5K monitor

- Elon Musk tweeted that Twitter still has "negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load", despite telling the BBC three months ago that "Twitter was close to being profitable and that advertisers who left after his acquisition were returning". Lying dickhead.
- A 1st-gen 4GB iPhone, brand new in box, still sealed in shrink wrap, has sold for over US$190,000 at an auction in the USA. An 8GB version, also brand new, sold for almost US$40,000 at the same auction house late last year. An in-box iPhone 8 (!!!) sold for US$52,797 in February. What the absolute fuck is going on here??
- Good news, Samsung's finally released the price for its 5K monitor. Bad news, it's the same RRP as the Apple Studio Display anyways. It's got more features (4K webcam, built-in smart TV stuff, VESA mount) and Samsung stuff goes on sale at a bigger discount than Apple gear though.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Why does a black screen for 24 hours have over 40m views on YouTube?

A video titled "24 hours + of pure black screen in HD!" has racked up 40.2 million views on YouTube. It's a black screen with no audio, why the hell are people watching it? Apparently people play this video "so that my laptop doesn't shutdown while downloading games", or "so I can have music open on another tab at night and have this open so the screen with the music on it wont shine so bright in my room" and someone even said it is "the perfect video to cast to your tv when you're too tired to get up and turn it off". Wow, okay. That's certainly an approach to those problems I had not considered.

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## Bargains

- Google Pixel 7a 128GB or Google Pixel 7 Pro 128GB - $599/$949 from Telstra
- Google Pixel Buds Pro - $209 at JB Hi-Fi
- Xiaomi Mi Smart Home 4-in-1 Starter Pack - $29.95 from PC Byte
- Starink High Performance Kit - $2,992 from Starlink
- 1 month free Apple TV+ (new and returning customers) from Apple
- 7% cashback from the Apple (no cap, online only) via Cashrewards, don't forget to double up with 10% off gift cards
- Samsung Galaxy S22 128GB - $849 from Samsung
- Amaysim 365-day pre-paid SIM with 120GB data, unlimited calls & SMS, 1000 EDR points - $119 from Woolworths
- Kogan 365-day pre-paid SIM with 300GB/500GB data, unlimited called & SMS - $179/$199 from Kogan
- GL.inet GL-MT3000 travel router - $127.20 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

The increasing commercial demand for Dolby Atmos mixes has led to Forbes Street Studios in Sydney's Woolloomooloo joining the spatial audio movement, by creating an immersive mixing environment in its main studio – complete with a 9.1.4 Genelec Smart Active Monitoring system. (Genelec)

## The End

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