### Issue 1237 - Tuesday 27th October, 2020

## In Today's Issue

- NBN outs timeline for HFC gigabit upgrades & TPG to sell fixed wireless 5G early 2021
- Chairman and instigator of modern Samsung's incredible rise passes away after years in hospital
- Office apps on the iPad gain support for mouse & trackpad input
- Big ol' dump of mildly interesting YouTube vids sitting in my bookmarks
- Cheap RX5600XT GPU, Apple 20W USB-C charger, 12m Kayo subscription

## The News

### NBN outs timeline for HFC gigabit upgrades & TPG to sell fixed wireless 5G early 2021

NBN is saying that by the end of November, over 25% of HFC users will be able to sign up for 750-1000mbit plans, and that by the end of 2021 the entire HFC footprint will be able to soak up the joy that is gigabit internet. They also revealed the first locations (list is in the linked article) where premises suffering through FTTN will be eligible for free upgrades to FTTP. It's still unknown what strings are attached to get that free upgrade, but it's probably something like you have to get a 100mbit+ plan and stick with it for 3 years or something. Meanwhile, TPG/Vodafone plans to launch a fixed wireless 5G offering in early 2021. They reckon it isn't "simply a bypass of the NBN", but we all know it is. There's undoubtedly fatter margins on reselling your own 5G network than the NBN and for many users, the performance difference between half-arsed NBN and 5G is negligible.

### Chairman and instigator of modern Samsung's incredible rise passes away after years in hospital

Lee Kun-hee, Samsung group chairman and third son of Samsung's founder, has passed away aged 77. Lee was the boss of Samsung from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2020, leading Samsung from churning out crap TVs and microwaves to the electronics powerhouse it is today. That gap in leadership between 2008 and 2010 was due to a 3 year suspended prison sentence for running a "slush fund used to bribe influential prosecutors, judges, and political figures in South Korea". There's been rumours for years that Lee was artificially kept alive since he first went into hospital after a heart attack in 2014, so the heirs of his immense wealth could structure Samsung to avoid paying a 50% inheritance tax to the South Korean government - approximately US$7b. This week's announcement of Lee's death after 6 years in hospital is probably because the family completed the financial re-jigging of Samsung and Lee's assets.

### Office apps on the iPad gain support for mouse & trackpad input

Microsoft has added mouse/trackpad support in iPadOS for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. According to Microsoft's blog post, "when moving a finger across the built-in trackpad of Magic Keyboard, the cursor transforms into the tool you need depending on the content you're pointing to. And using a mouse or trackpad with iPad for common tasks like highlighting a passage of text in Word, selecting a range of cells in Excel, and moving and resizing graphics in PowerPoint are as simple and intuitive as ever". Office apps on iPadOS are also getting "new start screens and a new ribbon of feature menus" as part of Fluent UI updates to match other Microsoft 365 products. The blog post says "many users have already started receiving these updates through a phased roll-out, which should reach all users within a couple weeks".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Big ol' dump of mildly interesting YouTube vids sitting in my bookmarks

- Sony got Yasuhiro Ootori, the VP of Mechanical Design in the Interactive Entertainment division, to do a teardown of a PlayStation 5.
- Ever wondered what's inside an electric car charger? Technology Connections explains that they're pretty much just a big switch and shows you what's inside a Siemens residential unit.
- Jeri Ellsworth turned a Commodore C64 into a bass guitar. She can make music out of the C64's legendary SID 6581 sound chip by slapping the guitar's strings!
- Unbox Therapy got a few of the face masks Apple designed in-house for employees to wear. They look super comfortable. I wish they'd sell them via their online store.
- Dave from EEVblog explains all the little incremental improvements in Tesla's new 4680 battery cell that give it a significant performance edge over others on the market.

## Bargains

- Asrock Radeon RX5600XT 6GB graphics card - $379 from PC Byte
- Apple 20W USB-C power adapter - $24.95 shipped from Studio Proper
- 12 month Kayo basic sub for $200 if you can be fucked signing up for a $4 Herald Sun subsciption then getting on the phone to cancel the Herald Sun subscription

## The End

📻 Hear Me Out - Pixies

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

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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.​