### Issue 1885 - Tuesday 11th July, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Threads hits 100m users, Elon not taking it well
- Evernote fires "most" of its employees
- Oracle tries to look good after IBM's decision to take Red Hat source behind paywall
- App Store turns 15 years old today, but it only launched a few years ago, right?
- Amazon Prime Day, so many bargains can't list them all here

## The News

### Threads hits 100m users, Elon not taking it well

Threads has hit 100 million users in just 5 days. Zuck said that it's "mostly organic demand and we haven't even turned on many promotions yet". Elon is taking Meta's success about as well as you imagine, tweeting that Zuckerberg should have "a literal dick-measuring contest" and that "Zuck is a cuck". According to Cloudflare's stats, Twitter's website traffic is "tanking", but the new CEO is proclaiming they "had our largest usage day since February" and Elon replied that "Cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime, as reported by iOS & Android, is hardest to game. I think we may hit an all-time record this week". Really??? Anyways, the Taliban have given Twitter their seal of approval, saying Twitter "doesn't have an intolerant policy like Meta". What an endorsement!

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### Evernote fires "most" of its employees

Any of you still using Evernote? Might be time to reassess that relationship as it has "laid off most of its staff as it prepares to exit the Bay Area and relocate nearly all operations to Europe". After sacking over 100 people just a few months ago and after getting sold in a fire sale to an Italian company called Bending Spoons. Never a good sign for something many people rely on to store such important information. I don't have any suggestions for a replacement (I use goddamn text files sync'd by OneDrive and Apple's Notes), but get some sort of exit plan going should shit hit the fan. Get that data out and backed up somewhere else if Evernote is the only place it lives.

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### Oracle tries to look good after IBM's decision to take Red Hat source behind paywall

Oracle, one of the computer world's most loathed businesses, published an open letter on its blog espousing how much it loves Linux and that its Oracle Linux distro will remain compatible with RHEL for as long as possible despite Red Hat/IBM's decision to remove public source code. Without any sense of irony, Oracle suggests that "if you are a Linux developer who disagrees with IBM's actions and you believe in Linux freedom the way we do, we are hiring" and telling IBM "you say that you don't want to pay all those RHEL developers? Here's how you can save money: just pull from us. Become a downstream distributor of Oracle Linux". Oracle are gigantic pricks, but you know you fucked up when these guys are taking pot shots at you from an ethical high ground.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### App Store turns 15 years old today, but it only launched a few years ago, right?

Can you believe its been 15 years since Apple launched the App Store? If you go into the App Store on your iPhone, tap "Apps" in the bottom menu bar, then tap your icon/avatar in the top right corner and select "Purchased", you'll see a list of software you've grabbed off the App Store in reverse chronological order. Swiping all the way down to the bottom, I can see that my first apps was AIM, (which surprisingly, I can re-download) so I could talk to my iChat buddies! Remember iChat on the Mac? Some good memories in the list of early iPhone apps. I loved them so much I started a conference about app development.

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## Bargains

- Buy a PlayStation 5 console for $699 and get $50 bonus Amazon credit for a separate purchase
- Samsung CJ791 34" curved 3440x1440 monitor with Thunderbolt 3 - $798
- Apple Watch Series 8 41mm/45mm - $546.95/$598
- iPad 9th Gen (2021) Wi-Fi 64GB Space Gray - $446.95
- Netgear WAX202 wi-fi access point (OpenWRT compatible) - $80.80
- Edifier MR4 Powered Studio Monitor Speakers - $125.99
- Bose QuietComfort 45 Noise Cancelling Headphones - $284.05
- Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 Bluetooth Speaker - $69
- Alienware AW3821DW 38" 3840x1600 144Hz IPS gaming monitor - $1535
- Alienware AW3423DW 34" 3440x1440 QD-LED monitor - $1495
- Apple AirPods (2nd Generation) - $159
- Bose Smart Soundbar 900 - $899 (also at JB for same price)
- Bose Soundbar 700 - $569
- Shure SM7B XLR Microphone - $569
- 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller with Charging Dock - $84.95
- Samsung BAR Plus 256GB USB flash drive - $31.81
- AKG K612 Pro Over-Ear Open Back Headphone - $188.14
- Western Digital Elements 12TB/14TB Desktop Drive - $299/$357
- Sony XR55A80K 55" OLED 4K TV - $1795
- Samsung Galaxy S23+ 256GB/512GB - $1099/$1249
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 128GB - $985
- Samsung Galaxy S22 128GB - $749
- Samsung A54 smartphone - $477
- Xbox controller white/other colours - $61.95/$69
- Xbox controller with wireless USB adapter - $81.95
- Logitech MX Master 3S Wireless Mouse - $99.17
- SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I A2 card - $145.74
- SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card - $190.51
- KEF Q950, Q750, Q550, Q250C, LS50 Meta bookshelf speakers - $1229/$1039/$629/$649/$1799
- KEF Q150 or Q350 speakers - $599/$749
- Samsung T7 Shield 4TB portable USB SSD - $382.43
- Beelink EQ12 mini PC with Intel N100 CPU, dual 2.5 gig Ethernet, 8GB RAM & 500GB SSD - $279.30
- 2TB SK Hynix Gold P31 M.2 PCIe SSD - $154.99
- 2TB SK Hynix Platinum P41 M.2 PCIe SSD - $177.99
- 1TB SK Hynix Platinum P41 M.2 PCIe SSD - $106.99
- 1TB Samsung 980 M.2 PCIe SSD - $60.38
- 4TB Sabrent Rocket M.2 PCIe SSD - $260
- 4TB WD Black SN850X M.2 PCIe SSD - $412.73
- Shitloads of Ring cameras and accessories
- Plus every Echo product, Kindle and Fire TV is on sale at their lowest price ever
- Apple AirTag 4-pack - $132.30 from digiDirect
- Orico USB 4 40Gbps 100W cable 30cm/80cm - $12.47/$20.91 from Aliexpress
- Reolink Video Doorbell (PoE) with chime - $120 from Aliexpress
- POCO F5 5G smartphone (8GB RAM/256GB storage) - $515 from Aliexpress
- Nokia G50 5G (4GB RAM/128GB storage) dual SIM smartphone with NFC - $219 from Mobileciti

## Image Of The Day

Freedman means the gold mine bit literally. Rode's revenue has risen from $116 million in 2017-18 to $318 million in 2020-21, and net profit from $22 million to $55 million, as the home-audio boom spawned by YouTubers and TikTokkers was intensified by pandemic lockdowns. Rode met the demand with almost uniformly well-reviewed products at accessible prices. Freedman debuts on this year's Rich List with an estimated valuation of $701 million. This is taken from Australian corporate filings and does not include Rode’s business in the US, meaning his actual net worth is likely to be even larger. (Australian Financial Review)

## The End

📻 Rips in Jeans - Niko B

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