Plus: Let's go on a Telnet adventure together! ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

February 06, 2026 | Read online
# Aussie kids could use your tech, Ikea's smart home problems and the Sizzler Say Plus: Let's go on a Telnet adventure together!
Edition 2496
"Lenovo thinkpad p50 (29237281256)" by Wolfgang Lonien from Moerfelden-Walldorf, Germany is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
# The News
### A lot of Aussie kids could use your old tech gear
Almost a quarter of young Australians cannot access a computer at home (Information Age). This data comes from the most recent Australian Youth Digital Index which also included some alarming stats about other issues with their resources. It found that kids were also less likely to have other things you need to learn on a device at home like Wi-Fi and a quiet space to work.
The Sizzle: It's easy to assume that there's not really any tech barriers anymore. Everyone has phones so, it follows, everyone should be able to do everything online, right? Unfortunately, there remains a pretty big digital divide. It's not just simply about access to devices, either. A lot of cheap tech is not good enough for kids to learn on. (In)famous AI critic Ed Zitron had a great post in 2024 about just how shitty the experience is of buying a budget laptop now (which, true to form, he only begins writing about once he's 4,000 words into this post but trust me it's worth it). Anyway, WorkVentures is a not-for-profit that is urging businesses to donate old devices that it can recycle as refurbished, cheap computers to people who need them. If you've got a few devices getting dusty - they might be enough to really help someone out!
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Ikea's tantalising new smart home gear has a big problem
still looks pretty good but
I have really been looking forward to picking up some of Ikea's new smart home gadgets. The Swedish furniture company has been releasing a whole bunch of buttons, switches, monitors and plugs that seemingly achieve the impossible: they're very cheap, attractive and interoperable (they use Matter which is incredible). But it seems like things were too good to be true. People who've managed to pick up the new Ikea devices say they're really struggling to connect them to any smart home platform which is uhhhh a problem (Verge).
Also, some good news for Google Home users: smart buttons now work with the platform (Forbes) which is honestly crazy that they didn't before.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### The Sizzler Say: Nintendo's mobile problem, single use tech and a Bill Gates story
As always, if you wanna get involved (or even be able to read what’s on Slack) you can join the Slack server and forum via these links.
I had quite a lot of incoming about why Nintendo hasn't succeeded at mobile (as in, mobile phone) gaming. Nick, Dan and Brett all highlighted how mobile gaming is dominated by predatory business models that typically use a freemium model -- not exactly fertile territory for Nintendo, which tends to make its margins on hardware to my knowledge. There was a lively discussion about using single-purpose technology on the forum. In response to the Bill Gates story, artywah on Slack said "but I do have a (typically 80s excess?) story involving Bill visiting my employer, a Toga party, and some female ... let's call them employees." .... say more! The Sizzlefather decryption weighed in on the SpaceXAI merger on the forum and makes a prediction for what will happen next.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
AI war against 'one cent' family violence perpetrators (AAP, $) Social media ban: Do under 16s think it is working? (ABC News) Crypto exchange gave cheque directly to Andrew Charlton (Australian Financial Review, $) Tech's biggest safety feature is largely ignored, but it shouldn't be (GadgetGuy)
Rest of World:
Researchers say no proof of TikTok US censorship under new owners (NPR) Valve pushes back Steam Machine launch due to storage and memory shortage (Engadget) The AI arms race continues with Anthropic dropping Claude Opus 4.6 and OpenAI releasing GPT-5.3-Codex (also both companies are bickering over a Super Bowl ad which is so lame) Substack data breach exposed user emails and phone numbers (The Verge) Starlink phone???? (Reuters, $) A potential Starlink competitor just got FCC clearance to launch 4,000 satellites (Engadget) Very late iPhone Fold display decision could mean fewer scratches than competition (AppleInsider) Honor, Nothing, and Google Pixel were some of 2025's fastest-growing phone brands (9to5Google) Italy blames Russia-linked hackers for cyberattacks ahead of Winter Olympics (The Record) BMW Commits to Subscriptions Even After Heated Seat Debacle (The Drive) Recreating Epstein PDFs from raw encoded attachments (NeoSmart)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Let's go on a Telnet adventure together
Let's go back in time to when things were simpler and we didn't have to worry about pesky security features: Telnet.org has a list of fun places on the internet that you can visit right from your terminal. My highlight was NASA's solar system data. (BTW know any others? Send me an email)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
$50 off Coupon ($250 Min Spend, New Customers Only) - Bing Lee Sharge Retractable 165W 20k mAh PowerBank - $64.46 at Amazon (Down from ~$100) Samsung Galaxy Fit3 (Grey/Pink) + Any $1 Item - $65 at BIG W (Down from $149) Anker Prime USB C Charger, 200w 6-Port Gan Charging Station - $89.99 at Amazon (Down from $149.95) Sennheiser Accentum Wireless Headphones - $135 at Sennheiser eBay (Down from $299) JBL Boombox 4 Portable Bluetooth Speaker (Black) - $599 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $699)
Computing
20% Cashback on Lenovo up to $250 EnGenius AP Wi-Fi 6 Cloud Managed with Bonus PoE++ 10G Injector - $99 at Amazon (Down from ~$199) Lenovo Legion 27Q-10 27" Monitor - $249 at Lenovo (Down from $399)
Mobile
Motorola Edge 60 Fusion 12GB/256GB Storage - $347 at Bing Lee (Down from $699)
# The End
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