### Issue 2098 - Wednesday 29th May, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Huge leak of Google's Search algorithm internal documentation
- Netflix & Amazon Prime get price bumps in Australia, again
- The National Robotics Strategy will helps us dominate the robot instead of it dominating us
- tinyPod turns your Apple Watch into an iPod
- Cheap Playstation Plus, JB Hi-Fi 10% off almost everything, Jabra earbuds, Android watches, Moto G84 phone, Sony & Nikon cameras, iPads on Telstra plans, Sonos Move, iPad Pro M4, Ryzen 5950X CPU

## The News

### Huge leak of Google's Search algorithm internal documentation

Looks like "more than 2,500 pages of API documentation containing 14,014 attributes (API features) that appear to come from Googles internal Content API Warehouse" have been leaked, exposing what people in the SEO industry reckon "directly contradict public statements made by Googlers over the years, in particular the company's repeated denial that click-centric user signals are employed, denial that subdomains are considered separately in rankings, denials of a sandbox for newer websites, denials that a domain's age is collected or considered, and more". The source of the leak is "Erfan Azimi, an SEO practitioner and the founder of EA Eagle Digital", who handed it over to Rand Fishkin, the founder of SparkToro, an "audience research" tool and Mike King at iPullRank, an SEO consultancy. If you're in the SEO game you gotta read this. For the rest of us, SEO is still a black box of bullshit.

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### Netflix & Amazon Prime get price bumps in Australia, again

This news is a bit old, but Netflix pricing is going up again and Amazon is gonna start showing ads on Prime unless you pay an additional fee. If you want to watch your Netflix in 4K, it's gonna be a whopping $25.99/m, a 13% increase on top of the increase they did just a few months ago. Standard (1080p, but no ads) will be $18.99/m and the 1080p plan with ads will go up to $7.99/m. Over on Amazon Prime, you'll need to pay an extra $2.99/m on top of whatever you're already paying to avoid ads. I think most of us have Prime simply to get the free and faster shipping on stuff you buy from Amazon, so I'll probably just put up with the damn ads. For no reason in particular, here's a link to the most popular post on my blog.

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### The National Robotics Strategy will helps us dominate the robot instead of it dominating us

Australia has its first National Robotics Strategy. According to the press release this "strategy charts a course for governments, industry, researchers and the wider community to position Australia as a world leader in developing, manufacturing and using responsible robotics and automation technologies". It also "aims to support Australian industries developing and using robotics and automation technologies to strengthen competitiveness, boost productivity and support local communities". I know nothing about robots except to fear their uprising, so I'll let you lot be the judge if the government's strategy is any good. You can get it off the Department of Industry, Science and Resources' website.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### tinyPod turns your Apple Watch into an iPod

Some loose unit has made an Apple Watch enclosure that turns it into a clickwheel-esque iPod. From 9to5Mac: "tinyPod is essentially a case for the core Apple Watch hardware that takes inspiration from the iPod to turn your Watch into something of a tiny phone. Oh, and instead of using your Digital Crown to navigate watchOS, you'll use the included iPod-like click wheel. Is it brilliant? Is it bizarre? Maybe a bit of both". The tinyPod team posted a little teaser to X and you'll be able to buy one "this summer". I mean, you could just buy an iPod (so many around 2nd hand) or one of the many quite decent MP3 players off Aliexpress, but this is still a curious little device.

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## Bargains

- 20%-30% off PlayStation Plus subscription upgrades via the PlayStation Store
- 10% off (almost) everything at JB Hi-Fi if you're a Perks member, valid until 11:59PM today only
- Jabra Elite 10 wireless earbuds - $206.10 from JB Hi-Fi with 10% Perks coupon
- Google Pixel Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 GPS 44mm - $179.10/$224.10 from JB Hi-Fi with 10% Perks coupon
- Motorola Moto G84 smartphone - $314.10 from JB Hi-Fi with 10% Perks coupon
- Sony A7 III camera body - $1599.20 after cashback via digiDirect's eBay store
- Nikon Zf camera body or kit with 40mm f/2 lens - $2791.20/$3191.20 from digiDirect's eBay store
- Get $1000 off any iPad if you grab a 24m 200GB/m Telstra data plan contract at JB Hi-Fi
- Sonos Move Gen 1 - $419 from Premium Sound
- iPad Pro M4 256GB - $1599 at Costco (apparently OW will price beat Costco?)
- AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU - $463.70 from Amazon Germany

## Image Of The Day

Microchip, 20x magnification. Norm Baker, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1997 Nikon Photomicrography Competition)

## The End

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