### Issue 2075 - Monday 29th April, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Optus & TPG to share regional network and spectrum pending ACCC approval
- Online Safety Act review and issues paper now live
- NHTSA Autopilot report finished, blames lack of driver attention controls for multiple deaths
- Lots of people were logged out of iCloud & had their passwords reset this weekend
- Cheap Sennhesier & Beyerdynamic headphones, Ryzen CPU, refurb SFF PC, ITX case, 1000/50 NBN, iPhone SE, Samsung S24 Ultra, Neural DSP plugins, Moto G84 phone, 1.5TB microSD card, EzySIM prepaid, LG 49" monitor, various gift cards

## The News

### Optus & TPG to share regional network and spectrum pending ACCC approval

Optus and TPG cooked up a mobile network sharing arrangement that'll begin early 2025 and last for 11 years. Under the deal, "Optus will provide TPG Telecom with access to its regional radio access network and they will share spectrum in regional Australia. TPG Telecom will gain access to 2,444 Optus mobile network sites in regional Australia, increasing its current national 4G coverage from around 400,000 sq km to around 1,000,000 sq km and 98.4% of the population". In return, Optus will get some of TPG's spectrum to boost its regional coverage. It'll still need the ACCC to approve it, but should go ahead unlike TPG's attempt with Telstra, as the ACCC preferred TPG make a deal with Optus instead of further boosting Telstra's already significant mobile network. TPG's ASX announcement of the deal can be found here.

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### Online Safety Act review and issues paper now live

A review of the Online Safety Act has begun and an issues paper made public this morning. The government wants to look at "the effectiveness of the current framework, including whether more powers are needed to address new and emerging harms" and will be "examining options to reduce harms caused by online hate, as well as new harms raised by emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence". Reading between the lines, this review will be the excuse the government needs to beef up the Online Safety Act to be even more draconian and give the eSafety Commissioner even more powers that they really don't need. This is also a great time to make a donation to Digital Rights Watch so they have the resources to fully participate in this review and provide a voice of common sense in sea of big tech lobbyists and somebody-think-of-the-children hyperbole.

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### NHTSA Autopilot report finished, blames lack of driver attention controls for multiple deaths

The USA's NHTSA released its multi-year investigation into Tesla's Autopilot, concluding that the system's "insufficient controls can lead to foreseeable driver disengagement while driving and avoidable crashes". The NHTSA also said "Autopilot invited greater driver confidence via its higher control authority and ease of engagement" and that crashes involving Autopilot "are often severe because neither the system nor the driver reacts appropriately, resulting in high-speed differential and high energy crash outcomes". There is carelessness on both ends - the driver is careless because they're lulled by Autopilot's capabilities and Tesla is careless for not doing more to force the driver to be more active when using Autopilot considering it is a level 2 system that cannot operate on its own. Now the NHTSA has opened a new investigation to find out if the "fix" Tesla released in December to address these concerns actually did so.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Lots of people were logged out of iCloud & had their passwords reset this weekend

Did you have weird Apple ID issues over the weekend, like being signed out across all your devices and forced to reset your password? You aren't alone, as many people reported the same thing. Apple hasn't acknowledged this, leaving users in the dark about the status of their precious Apple ID/iCloud accounts. It was worse for users with Stolen Device Protection enabled, as they were unable to reset their password for a few hours (as per the SDP policy) and totally unable to log back in if they were away from one of their trusted locations. The fact this happened isn't necessarily a bad thing. Apple may have a good reason to reset the cookies and passwords of what appears to be thousands of users, but when you fuck around with people's highly sensitive iCloud accounts you gotta be more transparent about what's happening or people will panic and start catastrophising.

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## Bargains

- Sennheiser Accentum wireless over ear noise cancelling headphones - $225 from Amazon
- AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU - $559.69 from Amazon Germany
- Refurb Lenovo M720S SFF PC (i3-9100, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $139 from MetroCom
- Fractal Design Terra Graphite Mini ITX Case - $229 from Scorptec
- Aussie Broadband 1000/50 NBN - $109/m for 6 months
- Apple iPhone SE 5G Gen 3 128GB - $559.30 + delivery from The School Locker
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 512GB - $1999 from Amazon
50% off all Neural (guitar & bass amp) DSP plugins
- Motorola Moto G84 Android smartphone - $311.40 from Mobileciti
- SanDisk 1.5TB Ultra microSDXC Card - $188.01 from Amazon USA
- EzySIM (TPG MVNO) 365-day pre-paid SIM with 100GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $87.50 from EzySIM
- LG 49GR85DC-B 49" 5120x1440 curved 240Hz monitor - $1399 from LG
- Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 80 Ohm Limited Edition Headphones - $219 + shipping from Mwave
- 20x Flybuys points on all Ultimate gift cards at Coles
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on Apple gift cards & TCN Her/Him gift cards at Big W
- 20x Everyday Rewards points on TCN Her, Spotify & Google Play gift cards at Woolworths

## Image Of The Day

Department of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs, 1988 (National Library of Australia)

## The End

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