### Issue 1867 - Thursday 15th June, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- European Commission on the verge of breaking up Google's advertising business
- Twitter isn't paying bills, cops music copyright lawsuit & removing ability to block users
- US intelligence agencies love buying up commercially available personal data
- The Asus ROG Ally is a powerful Steam Deck competitor that's also a Windows PC
- Cheap Sony lenses, Apple Watches, Pixel Watch, Saturday Paper, Samsung T7 SSD, LG 34" monitor, UE Wonderboom 3, POCO F5 smartphone, Pixel 7 Pro, Sabrent & Samsung SD cards, Sonos & Bose soundbars, Bose & Catch pre-paid SIMs, Chromecasts, Xbox digital games

## The News

### European Commission on the verge of breaking up Google's advertising business

The European Commission has found that "Google may hold a dominant position on both ends of the adtech supply chain. On the buy-side with Google Ads and DV 360. On the sell-side with DoubleClick For Publishers" and are "concerned about two potentially anti-competitive conducts by Google, which are both about favouring AdX", Google's ad exchange. The EC is still investigating, but it's at the point now where "it might require Google to divest part of its services. For instance, Google could divest its sell-side tools, DFP and AdX". These are Google's crown jewels, the goose the lays the golden egg, the money printing machine. I hope the Europeans succeed in breaking Google up, if only to force Google to innovate in other areas besides advertising.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Twitter isn't paying bills, cops music copyright lawsuit & removing ability to block users

Twitter's had an interesting couple of days. They've stopped paying their Google Cloud bill, which is not only a bad idea because Twitter needs those services to actually operate, but Google is Twitter's second largest advertiser. Twitter also decided to stop paying rent at its offices in Colorado (I didn't even know they still had offices anywhere except San Francisco), so the landlord evicted them. Today a group of music publishers sued Twitter for $250m in damages, alleging "Twitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform. No longer can it hide behind the DMCA and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers". Oh and Elon said Twitter will remove the ability to block users. The sooner the banks take over Twitter and kick out Elon, the better.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### US intelligence agencies love buying up commercially available personal data

A 2022 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence was declassified this week and details how "commercially available information, or CAI, has grown in such scale that it has begun to replicate the results of intrusive surveillance techniques once used on a more targeted and limited basis". All the data spewing out of our internet connected devices is getting purchased wholesale by US intelligence agencies via data brokers on the open market. It's so good the intelligence agencies are using it to get around the Fourth Amendment (i.e: surveil people without a warrant) and the US government itself is confirming this activity! Really gotta wonder what has to happen for any sort of meaningful change to occur when it comes to data privacy.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The Asus ROG Ally is a powerful Steam Deck competitor that's also a Windows PC

Asus's ROG Ally handheld gaming console went on sale this week. It's basically a clone of Valve's Steam Deck, but with better specs. This little beast contains a Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC, a 1080p 120Hz display, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Going by a few videos on YouTube it appears capable of playing modern games at 1080p 30fps, helped by being a native Windows device so the Proton compatibility layer isn't needed. It costs $1299, which is a decent chunk of cash, but it can be used as a desktop PC when plugged into a monitor, keyboard and mouse. It's literally a laptop with a tiny screen and no keyboard. I'd love to try one of these out on my RSI riddled wrists. There's so many games I want to catch up on, but don't want to sit at my desk to play them.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Bargains

- Sony 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4 GM, 16-35mm F/4 PG G lenses - $623.22, $1499, $1013.22 from Camera House's eBay Store
- Apple Watch Series 8 GPS (Black Aluminum) 41mm & 45mm - $547/$597 from Amazon
- Google Pixel Watch - $349 from Google
- The Saturday Paper 6/12 month digital subscription - $39.50/$54.50 from The Saturday Paper
- Samsung T7 Portable SSD 1TB or 2TB - $108/$188 from Amazon
- LG 34WR50QC 34" 3440x1440 curved monitor - $404.82 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 portable Bluetooth speaker - $96 at Big W
- POCO F5 5G Android smartphone - $517 from Aliexpress
- Google Pixel 7 Pro 128GB - $949 from Telstra
- Sabrent Rocket 512GB SDXC V60 UHS-II memory card - $144.99 from Amazon
- Samsung SP-LSP7T 4K laser short throw projector - $2450 from Digital Dave's Audio Visual Installations
- Sonos Arc soundbar - $1188 from The Good Guys
- Bose Smart Soundbar 600 - $385 from Amazon
- Boost Mobile $200 SIM with 140GB data for 12 months - $165 from Boost
- Chromecast with Google TV 4K or HD - $79/$49 from JB Hi-Fi
- Samsung EVO Plus 512GB microSD card - $47 from Amazon
- Catch Connect 365-day prepaid SIM 120GB - $109 from Catch
- 750 games on sale via the Xbox game store (e.g: Fallout 4, NBA 2k23, GTA4, Read Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6)

## Image Of The Day

The interior view of the cryostat that cools the IBM Quantum Eagle, a utility-scale quantum processor at 127 qubits. Utility scale is a point at which quantum computers could serve as a scientific tool to explore a new scale of problems that classical methods may not be able to solve. (IBM Research/Flickr)

## The End

📻 Keep Their Heads Ringin' - Dr. Dre

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## 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.