### Issue 1999 - Wednesday 20th December, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Beeper Mini finds new way send iMessages, isn't very practical
- NASA uses lasers to send data 31 million km away at over 260Mbps
- USA National Academies of Science reckons social media isn't that bad for teens
- ACMA's How We Use The Internet report for 2023 is mildly interesting
- Cheap Lenovo monitor, 5L of 100% isopropyl alcohol, Fallout 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, Google Nest Mini, DJI drone, Boost Mobile SIM, Edifier headphones, Apple Pencil, refurb 16TB HDDs, Micron enterprise SSDs, PS5 controller

## The News

### Beeper Mini finds new way send iMessages, isn't very practical

Beeper Mini is still plugging away at trying to get iMessages onto Android devices but keeps hitting hurdles every time they change their technique for communicating with Apple's servers - primarily the registration phase of connecting your Apple ID or phone number with Apple to tell them it can be used with iMessage. Beeper's latest fix for that problem appears to be using a Mac to register, then moving that registration info to your Android device "roughly once per week or month". At this point there's probably too much messing around for most users, so the dream of seamless cross-device iMessage sending is dead for all but the most desperate. God speed little Beeper, keep the dream alive!

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### NASA uses lasers to send data 31 million km away at over 260Mbps

NASA completed a live test of laser space communications for the first time. There's a "flight laser transceiver" on a spacecraft called Psyche that's currently 31 million kilometres away (insert joke about NBN FTTN failing to do 50mbit a few hundred meters here), which sent a 15-second test video of Taters the cat chasing a laser to the Hale Telescope receiver in California at 267 Mbps, then sent it back to Psyche via NASA's JPL transmitter also in California. It took 101 seconds to reach Earth, but the video was able to be played back from Psyche in real time. The aim is to make it more practical for any Mars missions NASA may do in the future. It would be awesome if it was used on Artemis somehow so we could get live 4K 60fps video of humanity's return to the Moon.

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### USA National Academies of Science reckons social media isn't that bad for teens

Techdirt reports on a huge study by the USA's National Academies of Science titled Social Media and Adolescent Health, that found "the committee's review of the literature did not support the conclusion that social media causes changes in adolescent health at the population level" - the opposite of popular thought, but confirming the conclusions of other studies and reports on the same topic. The report says it would like to see "more digital media literacy training in schools starting as early as kindergarten, and running through all years of schooling", specifically not recommending strict age verification, parent spyware or cutting kids off from social media - all things the eSaftey Commissioner and other policy makers keep pushing as solutions.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### ACMA's How We Use The Internet report for 2023 is mildly interesting

It's a slow news day as we creep towards Christmas, so let's take a quick look at ACMA's freshly released "How We Use The Internet" report for 2023. There's a lot going on, but the most enlightening statistic to me is that only 41% of Australians use a desktop computer to access the internet. 74% use a laptop and 95% use a mobile phone. More people use tablets (52%) than desktop computers now. The demographic least likely to use a desktop computer are 25-34 year old people. The most common activity performed on the internet in the past 6 months is "access news", which 95% of people said they did in the last 6 months, with drops in "work from home", "video conferencing" and "telehealth consult". ACMA has a bunch of other fresh reports too like "How We Watch and Listen to Content" and "How We Communicate" you might find interesting.

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## Bargains

- Lenovo ThinkVision S24e-20 23.8" 1080p monitor - $95.20 from Futu Online's eBay store
- 5L of 100% Isopropyl Alcohol - $23.40 + delivery from Sydney Solvents
- Fallout 4 GOTY Edition or Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC - $11.68/$25.82 from Green Man Gaming
- Google Nest Mini - $18 from Harvey Norman
- DJI Mini 2 SE Fly More Combo - $495 + delivery from Videopro
- Boost Mobile 28-day SIM with 65GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $6.50 profit via Shopback
- Edifier W600BT wireless headphones - $39 from Amazon
- Apple Pencil 2nd Generation - $159 at Officeworks
- Used/refurb WD Ultrastar DC HC550 16TB 3.5" SATA HDD - $287 from Eastdigital HK's eBay store
- Micron 7400 PRO 7.68TB U.3 PCIe NVMe Enterprise SSD - $950 + delivery from Silicon Centre
- PS5 Dualsense Controllers - $79 at Big W

## Image Of The Day

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration's flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021, before being installed inside its box-like enclosure that was later integrated with NASA's Psyche spacecraft. The transceiver consists of a near-infrared laser transmitter to send high-rate data to Earth, and a sensitive photon-counting camera to receive ground-transmitted low-rate data. The transceiver is mounted on an assembly of struts and actuators – shown in this photograph – that stabilizes the optics from spacecraft vibrations. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

## The End

📻 Wet Blanket - Metz

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