### Issue 1929 - Monday 11th September, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- BMW stops its stupid heated seat subscription after customer complaints
- Anthropic has a pro version of Claude, it's ChatGPT competitor
- Roblox's developer conference is big news for 10 year olds and those with 10 year olds
- Rode's new wireless mic has 32-bit float audio recording
- Cheap Gigabit NBN, Optus SIM-only plan, Dell & LG monitors, Logitech mouse, SanDisk microSD cards, PS5 console, Catch Connect SIM, Samsung 8TB SSD, Red Dead Redemption 2

## The News

### BMW stops its stupid heated seat subscription after customer complaints

BMW's subscriptions for heated seats already installed in your car are the poster child for enshittification. The damn heating elements are already in the car, that I paid (usually a lot of money) for, and now you want me to pay you a monthly fee to unlock their use??? Get fucked is what most people said to that and BMW heard us loud and clear. According to a BMW board member, "people feel that they paid double — which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that". Good stuff, but subscriptions aren't going away for BMW (or carmakers in general). BMW will focus on "software and service-related products" like driving assistance and functions that require data transmission.

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### Anthropic has a pro version of Claude, it's ChatGPT competitor

Anthropic, the AI company Google has thrown their weight behind in a manner akin to Microsoft's lovefest with OpenAI, have released Claude Pro for US$20/m. It is basically ChatGPT, but with a "100,000-token context window, which means it can process about 75,000 words at once", which means "Claude can analyse longer documents or hold longer conversations without losing its memory of the subject at hand. ChatGPT can only process about 8,000 tokens in GPT-4 mode". That said, it appears to have a stronger "morality filter" (Anthropic is more afraid of negative PR) and suffers from more frequent hallucinations (i.e: making shit up) than ChatGPT. Meanwhile, ChatGPT's monthly active user count is still dropping despite US kids going back to school after their summer break.

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### Roblox's developer conference is big news for 10 year olds and those with 10 year olds

This story is for those reading with kids in primary school - Roblox's developer conference took place over the weekend and there is stuff you might want to be aware of. First up, it's getting a video chat feature called Roblox Connect that "lets you chat with other people as your Roblox avatar, and your avatar will be able to mimic your real-life facial movements. The call will also take place in a shared virtual space that you can run around in, like a campsite or a dock". It's also getting a PlayStation version (damned if I thought there wasn't one already!) and they want to enable a "dating experience" and "real life relationships" for its 17+ verified adult users.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Rode's new wireless mic has 32-bit float audio recording

Rode has some new wireless microphones, the Wireless Pro. There's nothing particularly amazing about them if you discount the fact that the entire concept of a wireless microphone is fucking magic, but these new ones have 32-bit float recording. If you're unfamiliar with 32-bit audio, it's kinda amazing. Normally you'd have to set the gain on a mic prior to recording and if it's too high or too low, you've fucked it and it's tough or impossible to fix later. With 32-bit recording, there's so much dynamic range in the recording that if you do set the gain incorrectly, it's easy to normalise later. This video from Rode explains it well. It's not exclusive to Rode, other audio recorders from Zoom and Tascam support 32-bit float audio too, but this is the first Rode product to have it.

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## Bargains

- 1000/50 FTTP NBN - $89.90/m for first 6 months with Tangerine
- Optus Choice Plus 30GB SIM plan 12 month contract with Optus Sport for $6.99/m on top (includes 5G access & 6 months free Amazon Prime) - $24.50/m from Optus
- Dell U2723QE 4K 27" IPS monitor with USB-C - $699 from Shopping Express eBay store
- LG 27GP850 27" 2560x1440 165Hz IPS monitor with G-Sync & Freesync Premium - $419 from Amazon
- Logitech MX Anywhere 3S Compact Wireless Mouse - $95 from Amazon (could price beat at Officeworks)
- SanDisk 1TB Extreme Micro SD Card - $137.99 from Amazon
- SanDisk High Endurance 128GB U3 MicroSDXC - $19.99 from Amazon
- Sony PlayStation PS5 Console (Disc) - $699 at Target
- Catch Connect 365-day pre-paid SIM with 80GB data & unlimited calls/SMS - $89 from Catch via Finder
- Samsung 870 QVO 8TB 2.5" SSD - $571.38 from Amazon UK
- Red Dead Redemption 2 Ultimate Edition for PC - $36.95 on Epic via Greenmangaming

## Image Of The Day

Advertisement for Visa in Wired's December 1996 magazine. (warmidge / Internet Archive)

## The End

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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.