### Issue 1792 - Thursday 23rd February, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Apple might delete Watch ECG feature in the US, still trying to do non-invasive blood glucose monitoring and buys up all of TSMC's latest node capacity
- Medibank makes public statement in half yearly investor presentation about how it dropped the ball and got hacked
- Prime Minister wants Australia to be a lithium battery manufacturing powerhouse
- Gran Turismo 7 in VR on the new PSVR 2 headset sounds like a lot of fun
- Cheap Zigbee gateway, Jabra Elite 7 Pro earbuds, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Boost Mobile, TCN Him/JB gift cards, Dell 4K monitor, official Pixel 7 case, Galaxy Z Fold3

## The News

### Apple might delete Watch ECG feature in the US, still trying to do non-invasive blood glucose monitoring and buys up all of TSMC's latest node capacity

A big chunk of Apple news for ya today. The Apple Watch's ECG feature might get banned in the US after the International Trade Commission found Apple infringed on a patent belonging to AliveCor and the Biden administration won't overrule it. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reckons Apple's white whale - non-invasive blood glucose monitoring in the Apple Watch - is slowly becoming a reality after over a decade of work turning a prototype the size of a table into the size of an iPhone. Next step is to get it small enough to fit in a watch. According to DigiTimes, Apple has sucked up 100% of TSMC's N3 node manufacturing capacity for the A17 and M3 SoCs, giving them a huge advantage over any competitors when it comes to performance and battery life.

### Medibank makes public statement in half yearly investor presentation about how it dropped the ball and got hacked

Medibank has for the first time let us know how a hacker got so deep into its network that it was able to unsuccessfully extort it and leak the private details of millions of customers. From their 2023 half year results investor presentation: "The criminal accessed our systems using a stolen Medibank username and password used by a third party IT service provider. The criminal used the stolen credentials to access Medibank's network through a misconfigured firewall which did not require an additional digital security certificate. The criminal was able to obtain further usernames and passwords to gain access to a number of Medibank's systems and their access was not contained". Sounds like multiple levels of failure here, where if one of them was working properly, it would have prevented things getting out of hand like they did.

### Prime Minister wants Australia to be a lithium battery manufacturing powerhouse

Albo is keen for Australia to do more than dig lithium out of the ground and sell it to China. At a Press Club address yesterday, he said "why aren't we making more batteries here, we have almost half of the world’s lithium deposits" and that he wants to "make sure that we use the lithium and nickel and other products that we have to make batteries here". Apparently the government is developing a national strategy for critical materials and battery manufacturing and is currently seeking input from the community. Perhaps Magnis Energy will have something to say, as they've signed a deal with Tesla to supply them with Anode Active Materials that go in batteries. Unfortunately, it will be made in a US factory, but at least the company is listed on the ASX?

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Gran Turismo 7 in VR on the new PSVR 2 headset sounds like a lot of fun

The Verge has a hands on review of Gran Turismo 7 using the new PSVR 2 headset. "The speedometer and tachometer function. You have depth perception — enough to preemptively brake instead of sliding off the track like I've done so many times before in racing games. I could genuinely use my rear view mirrors to spot rivals and block them from passing me". "You can turn your head to gauge the distance between your vehicle and the cars you're trying to pass, or wave goodbye to those you've already left in the dust. You can look down and watch your avatar's arm row the gearbox if you pick a manual transmission, even if the game doesn't let you reach out and grab that stick yourself". Sounds impressive. Imagine what will be possible with VR gaming in just a few more years!

## Bargains

- Milfra Tuya Zigbee 3.0 Wired Gateway/Bridge/Hub - $25 from Aliexpress
- Jabra Elite 7 Pro wireless earbuds - $199 from Jabra
- 1-Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Membership (Digital Delivery, Stackable) - $11.15 from Eneba
- Boost Mobile $300 Prepaid SIM Starter Pack - $270 from Boost
- 10% off TCN Him (JB Hi-Fi) gift cards at Woolworths next week
- Dell UltraSharp U2723QE 27" 4K Monitor - $739 from RonaRigs
- Official Google Pixel 7 or 7 Pro Case (Chalk Colour) - $29.99 at JB Hi-Fi
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G 256GB Dual Sim (Black) - $1228 from Mobileciti

## Image Of The Day

An Apple Maps car driving through Geelong, Victoria, Australia in November 2019 (Ozdregs / Wikimedia Commons)

## The End

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