### Issue 1922 - Thursday 31st August, 2023

1922, what a year. The first successful treatment of insulin was delivered by Frederick Banting in Toronto (lucky for me) and on the tech front the world's first regular wireless entertainment was broadcast on radio station 2MT in Writtle, England.

## In Today's Issue

- Australia will not enforce age verification on adult websites
- More Google Pixel 8 Pro leaks ahead of iPhone 15 launch
- Amazon launches new "Influencers" affiliate program
- Melbourne City Council is nerfing Airbnb's to combat the rental crisis
- Get ya bargains! Bargains here!

## The News

### Australia will not enforce age verification on adult websites

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland released the eSafety commissioner's roadmap for age verification for online phonographic material (catchy name) along with the government's response. It's their belief that the benefits of implementing any age verification systems currently available would be outweighed by issues they create, such as privacy, security and effectiveness, not to mention how difficult it would be to actually enforce. Instead they've decided to shelve it in favour of the eSafety commissioner working with industry partners to develop a new code aimed at educating parents about filtering software and how to limit their children's access. In other words, more of the same please eSafety guy. Here's a link to Net Nanny to get you started old mate.

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### More Google Pixel 8 Pro leaks ahead of iPhone 15 launch

A couple of days ago Apple officially sent out the invites to their September "Wonderlust" (yes Apple really did spell it wrong on purpose) iPhone launch event and low and behold Google has yet another leak about its unannounced Pixel 8 Pro the day after. What a coinky-dink! The latest is a product photo of the phone in "Porcelain" on the Google Store. Other leaks have indicated the Pixel 8 Pro will retain 12GB of RAM, have a new 64MP Sony ultrawide camera with a 0.55x field of view & upgraded 50MP Samsung GN2 primary camera sensor. New software features have also been eluded to with a new "Video Unblur" tool widely discussed in the rumour community. The Pixel 8 & Pixel 8 Pro are expected to be announced in October this year.

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### Amazon launches new "Influencers" affiliate program

Watch out folks influencers are getting their own Amazon shopfronts to further squeeze the juice out of their paid (and mostly undeclared) endorsements. The new Amazon Influencer program allows those it deems worthy to set up shop as an Amazon affiliate as well as develop a store within the Amazon ecosystem. The Amazon affiliate program has been around forever, the main change here is the ability to create a store front where influencers can push their flock and further skim some cream from off the top. To enter the program Amazon ask you to connect to your social platform of choice where they verify your popularity. As I expected I'm not one of the cool kids and neither mine nor Reckoner's socials hit their undeclared cut-off. As a guide Reckoner's TikTok has over 50k views this past month.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Melbourne City Council is nerfing Airbnb's to combat the rental crisis

This one is more of a 4th news story, but I thought it was worth throwing in today. This week the Melbourne City Council approved to regulate short-stay accommodation as a first step in battling the rental crisis. The proposal puts a cap on the number of days any accommodation can be used as a short-stay premise in a given year as well as adding a one off registration fee. The first version, which is due to come into effect in February 2024 will require all owners to pay $350 to register their property as a short-stay, which can only be rented out for 180 nights per year. This isn't a first, many councils already impose a registration fee and in 2021 Sydney also applied a 180 night cap, which was criticised by Sydney's mayor as being too much and did nothing to free up rental accommodation.

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## Bargains

- SanDisk 1TB Ultra microSDXC - $118.43 Amazon
- 20% off Philips Hue products - JB Hi-Fi
- Gaming PC (AMD R5-7500F, RTX 4080, 16GB, 1TB SSD - $2379 TechFast
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition (PS4/PS5) - $19.99 PlayStation Store
- Bellroy 3 card iPhone 14 case - $19 Officeworks

## Image Of The Day

Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive in 1995. Set in an alternate history, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations and a cult-like militant organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, led by the mysterious Kane. The groups compete for control of Tiberium, a mysterious substance that slowly spreads across the world. (RuriVarangian / Internet Archive)

## The End

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