> Before I start today’s issue, I wanted to mention the passing of EFA Vice President, Peter Tonoli. I didn’t know him beyond his tweets but he was a large part of the digital rights scene in Australia and he efforts will be missed. His family has asked for donations to the EFA, so if you haven’t donated to the EFA in a while, now is a good time.

# In This Issue

- CORONAVIRUS

- Bill Gates quits Microsoft board

- Google blocked Amazon’s smart TV ambitions by threatening manufacturers with Play Store bans

- People in the USA are getting first deliveries of Tesla’s Model Y SUV

- Cheap Civ6 Platinum, eBay Plus, Sennheiser HD 4.50 headphones, VentraIP shared hosting, Life is Strange

# News

#### CORONAVIRUS

- Telstra told everyone who can work from home, to work from home and has cancelled all events and meetings of more than 25 people.

- Elon Musk's trial over using Tesla's money to bail out his brother's failing SolarCity business was supposed to begin today, but has been suspended indefinitely as US courts decide not to gather the large crowds required for jury duty.

- Israel is gonna do "real-time tracking of infected persons' mobile phones to spot quarantine breaches and backtracking through meta-data to figure out where they had been and who they had contacted", by re-purposing the same tech they do for fighting terrorists.

- Donald Trump said that Google is going to make a website that helps with coronavirus testing, but that was wrong. Google quickly posted a string of tweets outlining what it's actually gonna do (make websites with info people can trust isn’t bullshit) to help the US government fight coronavirus.

- WWDC will be online only this year. Apple also banned coronavirus related apps and games unless they’re from an official source like “government organizations, health-focused NGOs, companies deeply credentialed in health issues, and medical or educational institutions”.

- Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker have been made available on Disney Plus earlier than planned so people can cope with their annoying kids while in lockdown.

- The ALP wants NBN to disable CVC pricing temporarily so ISPs don’t get stingy with bandwidth when everyone’s working from home. I reckon they should uncap everyone’s speeds too. Let’s stress test this bastard!

#### Bill Gates quits Microsoft board

Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board. He resigned as CEO 20 years ago but was always on the board of directors and had other roles within the company he started back in the 70s. He made the announcement on LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft remember!) that he's going to be dedicating "more time to philanthropic priorities including global health and development, education, and my increasing engagement in tackling climate change" and that "stepping down from the board in no way means stepping away from the company. Microsoft will always be an important part of my life’s work and I will continue to be engaged with Satya and the technical leadership to help shape the vision and achieve the company’s ambitious goals". So in other words, the only way you'll be taking Billy G out of Redmond is in a casket.

#### Google blocked Amazon’s smart TV ambitions by threatening manufacturers with Play Store bans

Amazon's been trying to make Fire TVs a thing, but because it's a fork of Android, no TV manufacturer wants to touch it because their contract with Google means if they use a forked version of Android that Google doesn't bless, they lose all access to Google Services and the Play Store - across all their devices, not just TVs. So for example, if Samsung wanted to make a variant of their TVs with Fire TV on it, Google could take away the Play Store and Gmail and everything Google related from the Samsung Galaxy phones. Makes sense why nobody who makes TVs and smartphones would touch Fire TV. Nice little hostage situation Google's got going here.

# Not News

#### People in the USA are getting first deliveries of Tesla’s Model Y SUV

Tesla's SUV version of the Model 3 is now on public roads in the USA as a handful of first deliveries have been made to customers. It's basically a Model 3 jacked up a little and with a hatch for cargo space, but it's also added a few extra refinements that the Model 3 doesn't have as of yet like a heat pump for HVAC and factory chrome delete. Here's an owner's walk-through and you can check out the Model Y owner's manual if you're particularly keen, as there's no word on when the Model Y will go on sale in Australia and they're not even taking pre-orders for it here. Maybe it'll go on sale here in 2021? I don't know and I don't care as I pick up my Model 3 tomorrow.

# Bargains

- Civ 6 Platinum Edition - $48.49 from MacGameStore (but is just a Steam key you can redeem for Mac, Windows and even Linux)

- Sign up for eBay Plus at $49/yr and get a $50 eBay gift card in return

- Sennheiser HD 4.50 wireless noise cancelling headphones - $130 at Harvey Norman (get Officeworks to price match down to $123.50)

- $1 for 12 months of shared AU web hosting from VentraIP

- Life is Strange Complete Season (PC, Steam) - $5.50 from Fanatical

🎶 Buddy Holly - Weezer

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​