### Issue 1945 - Wednesday 4th October, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Who wants a necklace that records all your human interactions for playback later?
- Federal government considering mandatory licences for telcos
- Gmail is getting react emojis
- Paramount uploaded Mean Girls to TikTok and split it into 20 clips in the wrong aspect ratio
- Cheap Anker headphones, Logitech keyboard, 8BitDo controller, PS5 Console, Seagate & Lexar SSDs, Anker powerbank, Timezone double load credit, Lebara SIM, Telstra phone contract

## The News

### Who wants a necklace that records all your human interactions for playback later?

The Rewind Pendant is yet another story of tech bros seeing an episode of Black Mirror (S01E03) and instead of recoiling and reconsidering their life choices, have thrown themselves head first into the dystopia. It's literally a US$59 recording device you wear as a necklace that uses AI to transcribe everything it hears so you can go back and read what was said. I kinda get that it could be useful for people with memory issues, but come on, a little surveillance device hanging around people's necks that works 24/7 and only provides a vague "we offer features for you to ensure no one is recorded without their consent" statement when you try to find out what the privacy implications are? The CEO popped up on Hacker News and said "I'd really love to share more but our competitors will try to imitate it and I want to build as large of a lead as I can before we unveil it". It's 2023, this shit won't fly. Get in the fucking bin.

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### Federal government considering mandatory licences for telcos

A discussion paper is doing the rounds in Canberra that seeks to get a better grasp of who is a Carriage Service Provider (aka CSP or "telecommunications retailers") in Australia. Right now they simply use who is a member of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, which while mandatory, not all telcos join and there doesn't seem to be any real punishment for not doing so. This is important to departments like ACMA, Home Affairs and the Attorney-General, as if they don't know who is or isn't a telco, they can't boss them around (data intercepts, network takeovers, etc.), so they're throwing out ideas for a mandatory CSP license, but acknowledge nowhere else in the world does this except for Singapore. It's pretty wild to me that the government doesn't know who is operating carriage services in the country. I just assumed you needed a license of some sort already!

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### Gmail is getting react emojis

You know how Slack has emoji reactions you can attach to every message? They're coming to Gmail. It will "will roll out gradually, starting with Android users and coming to web and iOS users over the next few months". I you need to use the website/smartphone app - IMAP users aren't getting this. Be grateful Google still allows IMAP access to be honest. If you use a 3rd party client "every person's reaction will arrive as a separate email". Oof. I'm an old grump man, but people expect this kinda stuff as it's a thing in basically every messaging app (even though email isn't an instant messaging platform!!) and sometimes all you need is a "yep, gotcha" response or be seen as "reacting" to the message but not have to come up with any words. Shame it's gonna be a pain in the arse for non-Gmail users added in to these emails.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Paramount uploaded Mean Girls to TikTok and split it into 20 clips in the wrong aspect ratio

I have a 140" screen in a light controlled room with a plethora speakers and a giant subwoofer for the specific purpose of watching movies. I even buy 4K blu-ray discs of movies I already own because it might have HDR colour grading and a new digital transfer of the audio. I love it and its the best mid life crisis project if you aren't into cars. I say this as background as to why it hurts me, physically, to know that Paramount officially published the movie Mean Girls on TikTok, split into 20 parts, in the wrong aspect ratio - deliberately!! And people like it!!! Martin Scorsese rescue me from this world because I no longer want to live in it.

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## Bargains

- Anker Soundcore Q35 Noise Cancelling Headphones - $109.99 from Amazon
- Logitech MX Keys Mini Keyboard for Mac (Pale Grey) - $87.99 from Amazon
- 8BitDo Ultimate wireless controller with charging dock - $67.96 from Amazon
- PlayStation 5 Disc Console - $630.15 from Sony's eBay store
- Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD 2TB - $181.91 from Amazon UK
- Lexar NM790 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with heatsink 1TB/2TB/4TB - $75/$139/$265 from BPC Tech
- Anker 737 Power Bank, 140W USB-C input/output, 24,000mAh battery - $169.99 from Amazon
- Double load credits at Timezone arcades 21st & 22nd October
- Lebara 360-day pre-paid SIM with 6.67GB/30 days of data - $99 from Lebara
- Get a $1200 JB Hi-Fi gift card when porting to Telstra on a $99/m 300GB/m data 24m contract

## Image Of The Day

Steve Jobs atop Company sign outside Apple Computer Co. in Cupertino, CA December, 1982 (Diana Walker/SJ/Contour by Getty Images)

## The End

📻 Not Too Amused - Sebadoh

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