# In This Issue

- Apple bows further to China, removing HKmap from App Store

- Dyson’s electric vehicle no longer happening

- Government won’t re-fund the CSIRO’s science & tech startup incubator

- Domino’s pizza AI camera is used not just for pizza quality control, but franchisee and employee control too

- Cheap Mini NES, Raspberry Pi 4, Chromecast Audio, Soniq 75" TV, Civ6: Gold

# News

#### Apple bows further to China, removing HKmap from App Store

Apple caved in to the Chinese and removed HKmap from the App Store. In a leaked company wide email, Tim Cook said that "the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present" - but Maciej Ceglowski reckons that's ridiculous and HKmap was used by every day people in Hong Kong to avoid protests and oppressive police action. Charles Mok, a Hong Kong politician, has pleaded with Apple to re-instate HKmap on the App Store and "uphold its commitment to free expression and other basic human rights". This, plus the removal of Quartz from the App Store and removing the Taiwanese flag from iOS 13, isn't Apple's finest hour.

#### Dyson’s electric vehicle no longer happening

Dyson (yeah, the vacuum cleaner company) were hyping up their electric car ambitions just a year ago, with a gushing profile of James Dyson and his EV plans in GQ. Dyson has announced today that they’re cancelling their EV project. No Dyson branded car will be made. According to an email sent by the boss to employees, they "developed a fantastic car", but "we simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable". Dyson even went through "a serious process to find a buyer for the project which has, unfortunately, been unsuccessful so far". They still plan to spend £2.5b on a bunch of tech that would have gone in the car, but also benefited their wider business, like advanced manufacturing techniques and the mystical solid-state battery.

#### Government won’t re-fund the CSIRO’s science & tech startup incubator

One of the final remnants of Malcolm Turnbull's innovation boom was the CSIRO's "ON program", a science and technology accelerator that aimed to commercialise the research CSIRO works on. The ON program handed out $20m in the four years its been around, trained over 1,400 researchers and started 52 new companies which resulted in 226 high-tech jobs. The current government has decided not to renew its funding as it reckons that universities running their own startup incubators have filled the gap. On the same day the federal government announced they're no longer funding this science & technology incubator, they also announced they're going to pay Scott Cam as a "national careers ambassador" to encourage kids to pick up a trade.

# Not News

#### Domino’s pizza AI camera is used not just for pizza quality control, but franchisee and employee control too

You've probably heard of or seen ads for Domino's "DOM Pizza Checker". It uses image recognition to detect if a pizza coming out the oven was made and cooked properly and even sends a photo to your phone so you can see your precious pizza baby before it's delivered. According to the latest Dominos investor update, quality control isn't the primary purpose of DOM, as it is also used to harass workers and franchisee holders into making pizzas better and faster. DOM allows Dominos HQ to check all this remotely, rank stores and apply/remove financial bonuses to stores. It's literally pizza big brother, like a boss you can't escape. Sounds like hell.

# Bargains

- Nintendo Classic Mini NES - $68 from Amazon AU

- Raspberry Pi 4 4GB - $90.58 delivered from Logicware's eBay store

- Your local Officeworks might have Chromecast Audio units on clearance for $15

- Soniq 75" 4K TV with built in Chromecast for $994+delivery from Catch

- Civ 6: Gold Edition - $45 from Humble Bundle

🎶 Red Death at 6:14 - The White Stripes

😁 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.​