# In This Issue

- Apple will terminate Epic’s developer account on August 28th

- Oracle is interested in buying TikTok, yeah, Oracle

- Not even Microsoft sites will support Internet Explorer 11 as of August 2021

- The story of Apple’s clandestine iPod for the US Department of Energy

- Cheap 1000/50 Kogan NBN, BenQ 27" pro monitor, Q Acoustics bookshelf speakers, Xiaomi 34" monitor, Logitech C922 webcam

# News

#### Apple will terminate Epic’s developer account on August 28th

Epic has said that Apple told them it'll terminate Epic’s Mac & iOS developer accounts on the 28th of August. Apple responded to Epic's public statement with their own, saying they "won’t make an exception for Epic". It's unlikely Epic will suddenly give in to Apple without concessions considering the fuss they've made, but I don't think they expected Apple to totally shitcan them from working on Apple platforms. This will not only mean Epic can't publish anything to the App Store, but also means they can't notarise their apps for the Mac for self-distribution. It also potentially means development of the Unreal Engine that many iOS and Mac games use may be caught in the crossfire.

#### Oracle is interested in buying TikTok, yeah, Oracle

If you've forgotten, Donald Trump signed an executive order "Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok" earlier this month alleging that TikTok's data collection allows "China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage". For that reason TikTok will be banned in the US on November 12th unless their US operations are owned by a US company. This resulted in a forced sale of sorts, with Microsoft kicking the tyres on, but now Oracle of all companies, is interested in TikTok too. Only God knows what the soulless monsters at Oracle have lined up for TikTok, but I kinda want them to buy it just to see what hell they unleash on an unsuspecting audience of influencers.

#### Not even Microsoft sites will support Internet Explorer 11 as of August 2021

Microsoft has announced a timeline for ending support of Internet Explorer 11 for Microsoft 365 apps and services. Stuff like Office 365, OneDrive, Outlook and others won't work properly with IE11 by August 17th, 2021. Internet Explorer 11 itself will be taken out back and shot in the head even earlier, with support ending November 30th. The old version of Edge (based on the Internet Explorer rendering engine) will also die in August 2021, but for those stuck in sad enterprise environments that don't work in anything other than IE, Microsoft has set up a refuge for you with "legacy mode" in its new Edge browser - which thanks to a new update, cannot be removed from Windows. You will eat your Edge and you will like it!

# Not News

#### The story of Apple’s clandestine iPod for the US Department of Energy

David Shayer worked for Apple back in 2005 making iPod software. One day his boss's boss comes in and says "I have a special assignment for you. Your boss doesn't know about it. You'll help two engineers from the US Department of Energy build a special iPod. Report only to me". Unfortunately we don't find out what David was helping some DoE nerds work on (they never told him and he never found out) but his guess was a covert Geiger counter so DoE agents could walk around logging radiation levels without freaking people out. Thanks to chendo in The Sizzle's Slack group for bringing it up!

# Bargains

- 1000/50 NBN on Kogan - $134.90/m for the first 6 months

- BenQ PD2700Q 27" WQHD professional monitor (10-bit colour & 100% Rec.709 coverage!) - $479 + delivery from Mwave

- Q Acoustics 3020i bookshelf speakers - $399 from RIO Sound & Vision

- Xiaomi Mi 34" 3440x1440 monitor - $629 from PC Byte

- Logitech C922 Pro Stream HD webcam & 500 sheets of A4 paper (to meet the minimum order requirements) - $130.49 from Winc

🎶 Pink Turns to Blue - Hüsker Dü

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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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.​