### Issue 2064 - Wednesday 10th April, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Automattic buys Beeper for US$125m
- Google adds "Vids" to Workspace suite
- More Tesla news
- Cory Doctorow discovers Kagi
- Cheap Aldi TV, Lego, Japanese SIMs, Anbernic emulation console, Lenovo e-ink tablet, RTX4070Ti, Fikwot 2TB SSD, iPhone 12 Pro Max leather case, Boost Mobile SIM

## The News

### Automattic buys Beeper for US$125m

Automattic has spent US$125m on Beeper - you know, the people who tried to make iMessage cross platform but ran into Apple's stubborn arse - to go alongside its menagerie of internet businesses. Beeper started off as an inoffensive cross platform app to get all your instant messaging stuff into a single spot and did a pretty good job of it. The Beeper team is now acquihired and co-founder Eric Migicovsky will be Automattic's "head of messaging", which will combine Beeper's team with the Text's team - another all-in-one messaging app Automattic purchased recently. Beeper joins Tumblr, PocketCasts, Day One, Simplenote along with Wordpress and a shitload of Wordpress related businesses in the Automattic house.

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### Google adds "Vids" to Workspace suite

Google has added a new app to its Workspace suite - Vids. As The Verge explains, "it appears to be roughly what you'd get if you transformed Google Slides into a video app. You collect assets from Drive and elsewhere and assemble them in order — but unlike the column of slides in the Slides sidebar, you're putting together a left-to-right timeline for a video. Then, you can add voiceover or film yourself and edit it all into a finished video". Of course, Google jammed Gemini in here. It can be used to "make a first draft of the video for you" and "build a storyboard; it can write a script; it can read your script aloud with text-to-speech; it can create images for you to use in the video". This is what happens when you have a generation of children weaned on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram Stories that are now entering the workforce. I hate it.

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### More Tesla news

A bunch of Tesla news for ya on this otherwise slow news day. They've opened their first body shop/collision repair centre in Australia. It's in Sydney and they plan to open some in Melbourne and Brisbane eventually. Maybe this will get repair costs down so insurance isn't so fucking expensive! Reuters is reporting that Tesla's cheap car "for the masses" - the Model 2 - has been cancelled. Sounds bad, but don't worry Tesla shareholders, Elon tweeted "Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8". Who will be brave enough to take a ride in a Tesla Robotaxi (if it ever really happens)?! Not me, based on the feedback people have given the latest version of "Full Self Driving" Tesla recently enabled on everyone's cars for a month, even if they didn't ask for it.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Cory Doctorow discovers Kagi

Cory Doctorow is a fan of Kagi. "I tried it. It was magic. No, seriously. All those things Google couldn't find anymore? Top of the search pile. Queries that generated pages of spam in Google results? Fucking pristine on Kagi – the right answers, over and over again. That was before I started playing with Kagi's lenses and other bells and whistles, which elevated the search experience from 'magic' to sorcerous". I also like Kagi enough to spend US$108/yr on, at least until the inevitable enshittification takes place.

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## Bargains

- Bauhn 50" 4K TV with webOS & Apple AirPlay - $379 at Aldi
- 20% off Lego at Big W
- 20% off various Japanese SIMs and eSIMs from SimsDirect
- Anbernic RG556 Retro Handheld Game Console - $270 from anbernic-store2 on eBay
- Lenovo Smart Paper 10.3" E-Ink Paper Tablet - $349 at The Good Guys
- PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER VERTO 16GB Overclocked GPU - $1203.50 from Smarthomestoreau's eBay store
- Fikwot FS810 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD - $139.99 from Amazon
- Genuine Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max Leather Case - $21.54 from Loop Mobile's eBay store
- Boost Mobile 365-day SIM with 170GB/260GB data, unlimited calls & SMS - $195/$260 from Lucky Mobile

## Image Of The Day

Technopolis Volume 1 - August 1982 (RevengeOfTheHubz / Internet Archive)

## The End

📻 Total Trash (Album Version) - Sonic Youth

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