### Issue 1367 - Tuesday 18th May, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Apple Music gets lossless & spatial audio for free, but check your devices supports it
- Lightning has cooked most of the Blue Mountain's FTTC modems, NBN replaced over 10,000 already
- Microsoft Teams personal edition, UniSA pwnd, Tesla hasn't sold all their Bitcoin, Sharp's big camera smartphone, bye E.gg
- The National Archives of Australia needs your help
- Cheap Circles.Life plans, Dell monitor, UniFi Dream Machine, iTunes gift cards, Optus Sport, Blitzwolf USB charger, Hisense TV, AirPods Pro, Chromecast with Google TV

## The News

### Apple Music gets lossless & spatial audio for free, but check your devices supports it

Apple will be adding lossess audio to the entire Apple Music catalog and spatial audio to selected titles - both at no extra cost. The lossless stuff will be in the Apple Lossless Audio Codec and some songs will be in "Hi-Resolution Lossless" which is 24-bit 192kHz. It won't be enabled by default due to the extra data used and won't be compatible with every device - the HomePod, HomePod mini, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max can't handle lossless audio. Ditto most Bluetooth headphones (e.g: QC35, XM4 etc). Spatial audio is more widely supported (but only on headphones with the H1 or W1 chip) and utilises the Dolby Atmos standard.

### Lightning has cooked most of the Blue Mountain's FTTC modems, NBN replaced over 10,000 already

10,000 NBN supplied VDSL modems have already been replaced due to recent electrical storms in the Blue Mountains. Apparently they're going to supply "a strengthened [device] that is much less likely to fail in these conditions". One family saw a "massive spark, like a flash, coming out of the NBN box" that continued to spark until the "phone cord was removed from the box". This is the 3rd time their NBN equipment has been replaced due to lightning damage. Now for the obvious moral of this story - if these homes had FTTP instead of FTTC, they'd all still be operational.

### Microsoft Teams personal edition, UniSA pwnd, Tesla hasn't sold all their Bitcoin, Sharp's big camera smartphone, bye E.gg

- Microsoft Teams now has a personal version that's free to use for personal use, with Microsoft pitching it as a way for your family and friends to stay in touch.
- UniSA got owned by a "cyber attack" on the weekend that's taken out VPN access, Citrix apps, network drives, online booking systems and staff email. God speed to whoever is fixing that.
- Because the Bitcoin price has been tanking lately and Elon Musk has been critical of it lately, people reckon Tesla sold its US$1b+ of Bitcoin. Elon said that is not true.
- Sharp has a smartphone featuring a huge 1" camera sensor paired with a Leica lens, arguably the biggest sensor on any smartphone ever. I look forward to seeing real world images from it.
- Facebook is shutting down E.gg on May 25th, it's beautifully bizarre social network experiment. E.gg was kinda like a mix of Myspace, Tumblr and Instagram. May it rest in peace.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### The National Archives of Australia needs your help

The National Archives of Australia is a wonderful resource of Australia's history but unfortunately there are millions of government produced documents, photos, film reels, audio tapes and video tapes literally rotting away in Canberra. The NAA wants to digitise it all as to preserve it, but the government hasn't given them any extra money do so with for a long, long time. Things are getting so bad that this government agency is resorting to asking for donations. They shouldn't have to, but I slipped them a tax-deductible $20 anyways because I love their YouTube channel and enjoy browsing their collection of Telecom/Telstra photos.

## Bargains

- $10/m off Circles.Life (Optus MVNO) plans for 12 months (e.g: 8GB/m for $8/m)
- Dell 27" S2721D 1440p monitor - $259.33 from Dell
- Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine - $389.27 at Wireless1 (lots of other UBNT gear cheap too)
- 15% off iTunes/App Store gift cards at Woolworths starting tomorrow
- Optus Sport Subscription - $99 for 12 months
- BlitzWolf BW-S15 6-port 60W USB charger with QC3 support & AU plug - $28 from Banggood's AU warehouse
- Hisense 75S8 75" 4K smart TV - $1395 from The Good Guys eBay store
- Apple AirPods Pro - $293 from Big W
- Chromecast with Google TV - $89.10 at The Good Guys

## The End

📻 Candy Gun - Melt-Banana

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Did you know that The Sizzle has a Slack group? Join in and chat with other subscribers like you.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info? Visit the customer portal.

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.​