### Issue 2148 - Thursday 8th August, 2024

## In Today's Issue

- Reddit still losing money, going to shove in more ads & maybe paywalls
- macOS Sequia makes life more difficult for third party apps
- First AMD Zen 5 CPU reviews, Hetzner opens Singapore location, OpenAI's co-founder defects to Anthropic
- Blackmagic's Camera App for iOS got a nice update
- Cheap refurb Toshiba laptop, Belkin 3-in-1 wireless charging pad, Google Nest doorbell, Fujitsu USB keyboard, Samsung 77" OLED TV

## The News

### Reddit still losing money, going to shove in more ads & maybe paywalls

Reddit's latest earnings report has confirmed their management has a severe case of Line Must Go Up disease, with one of the symptoms being pumping more ads into the community. Their COO said "there are still many places on Reddit without ads today" and will experiment with ads in comments and search results. Yuck. Reddit's bosses are also into the idea of paywalls for subreddits. I'd be a hypocrite to say that paywalls suck, but does anyone trust Reddit not to fuck it up? Run your own Discourse forum or whatever and don't rely on Reddit or any other VC funded or publicly listed company to act in your community's best interests. In the long run they'll screw you over if it means the share price will get a bump.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### macOS Sequia makes life more difficult for third party apps

macOS is getting slightly more annoying with the upcoming Sequoia update. Apps that need "screen recording permissions" will "require you to give explicit permission on a weekly basis to these types of apps, and every time you reboot your Mac". That sucks, but what sucks more is "users will no longer be able to Control-click to override Gatekeeper when opening software that isn't signed correctly or notarized. They'll need to visit System Settings > Privacy & Security to review security information for software before allowing it to run". Ugh. Hate being treated like a child because people are dumb on the computer. Every time Apple does this shit I feel like using to Linux, but I suffer from Cupertino Syndrome.

⬆ Share or Discuss

### First AMD Zen 5 CPU reviews, Hetzner opens Singapore location, OpenAI's co-founder defects to Anthropic

- First reviews of AMD's mid-range desktop Zen 5 CPUs - the Ryzen 7 9700X (8C/16T) and Ryzen 5 9600X (6C/12T) - have dropped and yeah, they're nice 65W TDP chips that seem to be incrementally better than Zen 4, as expected. You'd be crazy to buy an Intel CPU over one of these.
- Hetzner has expanded its server offerings into Singapore, a location very useful for us in Australia. Unfortunately pricing seems to be a bit higher versus its USA locations, but still pretty good for Singapore. They're also not offering dedicated servers (what Hetzner is most famous for), just its cloud service, which I really like.
- The co-founder of OpenAI, John Schulman, is leaving to join Anthropic, one of their main rivals. As the top comment on Hacker News states, "This is probably bad news for ChatGPT 5. I don't think it's that likely this co-founder would leave for a Anthropic if OpenAI were clearly in the lead". Schulman was also one of the calmer heads at OpenAI compared to Sam Altman.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Blackmagic's Camera App for iOS got a nice update

Blackmagic's Camera App for iOS is an awesome app for video recording and got a big update this week. From MacRumors - "version 2.0 of the app adds support for controlling multiple iPhones remotely. With the feature enabled, one iPhone acts as a controller, and other iPhones can be connected using the app via a wired or Wi-Fi network. Users can then control app features like zoom, focus, white balance, frame rate, shutter angle, and lens selection, and synchronize the cameras to record simultaneously" - that's pretty sick. It also has iPad support now, handy for controlling multiple iPhones at once.

⬆ Share or Discuss

## Bargains

- Refurb/Used Toshiba DynaBook Portege X30-G (i7-10510U, 32GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 13.3" touch screen) - $463.97 from Max Direct's eBay store
- Belkin WIZ016AUBK BoostUp Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad with MagSafe - $109 at JB Hi-Fi
- Google Nest Doorbell (battery version) - $175 from Amazon
- Fujitsu KB410 USB keyboard - $7.50 delivered from Australian Computer Traders
- Samsung 77" S90D OLED 4K TV - $3,899.35 from Samsung's EDU/EPP store (loads of ways to get access easily)

## Image Of The Day

Apple Macintosh Quadra 950 Waiting for a new computer poster (Danamania)

## The End

📻 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control

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

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

👋 Forums not your thing? The Sizzle has a Slack group you can procrastinate in and chat with other nerds bored at work.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and buy them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

📚 Browse The Sizzle Archive. A few issues are missing and it's not searchable, but it's better than nothing.

🫂 Friends of The Sizzle is a small group of businesses or organisations operated by Sizzle subscribers. Support your fellow Sizzler!

💔 Tired of my bullshit? Unsubscribe and I'll never speak to you again.

## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.