### Issue 1964 - Tuesday 31st October, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Apple releases new MacBook Pros and iMac with M3 range of SoCs
- Thanks to GDPR, Meta creates option to pay to remove ads from Facebook & Instagram
- Politicians are concerned about Chinese solar inverters used in cyberwar
- Tesla opens new round of Supercharger location voting & plans congestion fee for popular sites
- Cheap headphones, SSD, monitors, gift cards, Nokia rugged 5G smartphone, Bluetooth thermometer, Games for Gaza bundle, mechanical keyboard

## The News

### Apple releases new MacBook Pros and iMac with M3 range of SoCs

Apple's little "Scary Fast" event this morning ran for 30 minutes and graced us with the M3 SoC. It's available now in the MacBook Pro and iMac. The iMac is still only available in a 24" screen size. There's no longer a 13" MacBook Pro. The M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max SoCs are very fast according to Apple (thanks TSMC and their 3nm fabrication process!), orders of magnitude faster than any Intel CPU MacBook you may still be using - Apple was very insistent on that fact, repeating many times that your obsolete and a pathetic Intel MacBook Pro is an insult to Steve Jobs that should be replaced with a MacBook Pro with an M3 SoC immediately. Oh and the MBPs come in black now. Serve The Home, like me, are a little skeptical of Apple's vague claims of increased performance with the M3. They just throw out percentages but don't outline what benchmarks they're running! Cool, the M3 is 2.5x faster than the M1 in "rendering" - rendering what?? The M3's E-cores are 50% faster than the M1's - 50% faster in which task?!

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Thanks to GDPR, Meta creates option to pay to remove ads from Facebook & Instagram

In order to comply with the EU's "GDPR legal basis of 'Consent' for the purpose of processing data collected on our own platforms for advertising purposes", Meta will "offer people in the EU, EEA and Switzerland the choice to pay a monthly subscription to use Facebook and Instagram without any ads. They can alternatively continue to use these services for free while seeing ads that are relevant to them". It'll cost €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android should someone want to use Facebook in this way. As of March 1st 2024, there will be "an additional fee of €6 on the web or €8 on iOS and Android per linked account". Honestly, the ads are the least annoying thing about Facebook these days. Can we pay to get rid of the comments?

⬆ Share or Discuss

### Politicians are concerned about Chinese solar inverters used in cyberwar

A Liberal senator has asked the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water during Senate Estimates, "what is being done to ensure that we have sovereignty and that our sovereign risk is protected when it comes to our energy markets?" - a dog whistle relating to Chinese solar inverters and some perceived cyber security threat that these Chinese made inverters that are connected to the internet could be used against us somehow by the Chinese in a cyber war. In response, the department said that they are "in a position to move forward with a standards development proposal with Standards Australia in terms of additional cyber standards for [rooftop] inverters" and that they are in "early-stage discussions with the Australian Energy Market Operator about a potential technical solution that could be applied in the event that there is a successful cyber attack on rooftop inverters to restore functionality and stability to the grid".

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Tesla opens new round of Supercharger location voting & plans congestion fee for popular sites

The results of Tesla's Supercharger location votes are in and the winning sites for Asia-Pacific include two in Australia - Mansfield in VIC and Batemans Bay in NSW. Tesla has re-opened voting on where they should install the new batch of Superchargers in Australia, so if you're a Tesla owner or have a Tesla account (so you can use Tesla's Superchargers even if you don't own a Tesla, at select sites), you can vote for the next batch. Currently Rockhampton in QLD is the top result in Australia, with Mildura in VIC not far behind. Meanwhile in the USA, Tesla is planning a "congestion fee" at popular Supercharger locations, where if you set the car to charge over 80% there's an extra fee. I'm not against it, but I did find on my Brisbane road-trip that I had to charge to 90% regularly so I'd arrive at the next Supercharger with at least 20% to act as a peace of mind buffer.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Bargains

- Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones - $552.46 at Myer
- Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD - $179.79 from Amazon UK, buy 2 and get an extra 9% off
- Hifiman Edition XS headphones - $619 from Amazon
- AOC CQ27G2 27" VA-panel 144Hz 2560x1440 monitor - $257 from Amazon
- Buy a $150 Card.Gift digital gift card (can be converted to a range of gift cards) and get a bonus $10 gift card
- Corsair K70 Pro Mini Wireless Keyboard (Black) - $169 from Amazon
- Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Headphones - $351.20 from David Jones
- Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (White Smoke) - $382.46 from Amazon
- Games for Gaza, 256 indie games for US$10 via Itch.io
- Nokia XR20 5G rugged Android smartphone - $399 from JB Hi-Fi
- ThermoPro TP357 Bluetooth Hygrometer Room Thermometer - $15.99 from Amazon
- Lenovo G34w-10 34" 3440x1440 144Hz curved VA-panel monitor - $497 at Officeworks

## Image Of The Day

Book for kids about computers. Translated to Russian language from original japan book (Software & Computer Museum / Internet Archive)

## The End

📻 Autopilot - Skeever

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

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.