### Issue 1853 - Thursday 25th May, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Sony teases a milquetoast handheld streaming console & some new games
- Sam Altman touring Europe, warning them about regulating AI in ways that don't benefit OpenAI
- Telstra's SMS spam hotline, Binge & Kayo now on Amazon Fire TV, NBN to upgrade some satellite premises to FTTP
- Tips for making sure your emails don't end up silently blocked or in the spam bucket
- Cheap Lenovo ThinkPad P14s, Pixel 7, Sony earbuds, Mi Band 8, 5% Apple store cashback, shitloads of stuff in eBay sale

## The News

### Sony teases a milquetoast handheld streaming console & some new games

Sony had one of its Showcase events this morning (full vid on YouTube) and besides the usual line up of new games I'm mildly interested in but will probably never play because I'm an adult with responsibilities and guilt, dropped a new portable console they've code named Project Q. They pretty much sliced a PS5 controller in half and glued each end to an 8" LCD, grinned and said you can buy it later this year. Looks cool in the photos but the bad news is that you need a PS5 to use it as Project Q is a streaming device, the damn thing doesn't play the game itself. Anyway, also at this showcase was a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, a sequel to Alan Wake, Street Fighter 6 (they're still going!?), Beat Saber for PSVR2 and Bungie remaking the classic Marathon in the style of a slightly more adult Fortnite.

### Sam Altman touring Europe, warning them about regulating AI in ways that don't benefit OpenAI

OpenAI's slippery Sam Altman is on a speaking tour of Europe and unlike in the USA where he was begging Congress to "regulate" the AI industry, he's having a big old whinge about the EU's proposed AI Act. He said that "if we can comply, we will, and if we can't, we'll cease operating... We will try. But there are technical limits to what's possible" and that his preference for regulation was "something between the traditional European approach and the traditional U.S. approach". His main beef is that under the EU's law, GPT-4 would be classed as a "high risk" system - that is an AI system that could "harm people's health, safety, fundamental rights or the environment" - bringing with it way more red tape for it to be allowed to operate. Ideally he'd like no regulation so OpenAI can do whatever they like, but it's so clear he's trying to set up a regulatory moat that's high (with the pretense it's to protect society) but not too high (to actually protect society) that it gets in their way.

### Telstra's SMS spam hotline, Binge & Kayo now on Amazon Fire TV, NBN to upgrade some satellite premises to FTTP

- Telstra's got a spam SMS hotline its customers can forward dodgy messages to. Send all your toll payment requests, illegitimate children asking for money, too good to be true job offers and demands to pay customs fees to collect your parcel to 7226. Fuck knows what they'll do with all these messages - Telstra already knows about all the scam SMSes on their network, right?
- Binge and Kayo are finally available for Amazon's range of Fire TV units. These are the best bang for buck set top boxes on the market, particularly when they're on sale ($29 for a basic one at the moment!), as unlike the similarly priced units from Aliexpress/eBay the Fire TV stuff isn't pre-installed with malware and gets regular updates.
- NBN is gonna upgrade around "10,000 premises in 28 communities" to FTTP that are currently stuck in its woeful satellite footprint as their only option for internet access. Talk about a massive upgrade! They're also still upgrading big chunks of the satellite footprint to fixed wireless. Someone's scared of Starlink (and soon OneWeb, then Amazon).

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Tips for making sure your emails don't end up silently blocked or in the spam bucket

Sending mass amounts of email is a mother fucking pain in the goddamn cunting arse. Trust me, I know all about the ways your email can get added to a blocklist (I'm looking at you Microsoft). For those of you in a similar situation as me where emails not arriving in people's inboxes means you lose money, I found this handy list of tips and tricks from Hello Inbox you can work through to ensure your emails are of a high quality. I've done all the practical ones (including a dedicated IP now) and The Sizzle gets to everyone's inboxes on a more or less consistent basis these days, unless you use Hotmail or Outlook.com.

## Bargains

- Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 2 (14" 1080p, Ryzen 5-5650U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 3yr premier warranty) - $1249 from Lenovo
- Google Pixel 7 5G 128GB - $737 at Officeworks
- Sony WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds - $198 at Harvey Norman
- 5% cashback via Cashrewards (no cap) at the Apple online store
- Xiaomi Mi Band 8 (CN Version) - $77 from Hekka

There's a 10% off sale one Bay right now. All the following items are part of that sale:

- Apple TV 4K (3rd-gen) 64GB wi-fi or 128GB wi-fi & ethernet - $159.08/$199.21
- Google Pixel 6 - $499.51
- Apple iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular 64GB (4th Gen, A14 SoC) - $634.88
- DJI Mic 2-Person Compact Digital Wireless Microphone Kit - $380.64
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU - $685.62
- Apple iPad 9th Gen Wi-Fi 64GB - $449
- Google Nest Doorbell - $199
- Apple AirTag (4 Pack) - $119
- Apple Watch Ultra - $1099
- Apple iPad Pro 11" (4th Gen) Wi-Fi 128GB - $1,052.22
- PNY CS2241 4TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD - $269.10
- Valve Steam Deck 64GB/256GB/512GB - $712.06/$848.56/$1098.16
- Chromecast with Google TV (HD) - $45.24
- PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of The Mountain Bundle - $772.16
- PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge Wireless Controller - $276.08
- Xbox Series S Console & Gilded Hunters Bundle - $389.22
- Xbox Series X Diablo IV Console Bundle - $662.22
- Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (i5-1035G1, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 12.4" touch screen) - $712.88
- Samsung 870 QVO 8TB 2.5" SATA SSD - $595.92

## Image Of The Day

The CSIRO Observatory Dish (Parkes, Central West New South Wales) 2018 (Buddy Patrick / Flickr)

## The End

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong 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.