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### Issue 1743 - Monday 28th November, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Twitter data breach & Elon explains how new check mark/verification system will work
- USA bans Dahua and Hikvision gear, along with all Huawei and ZTE products
- Tumblr to add ActivityPub support once it comes to grips with influx of new users
- Three interesting Apple related things
- Cyber Monday kicking off & don't forget the bargain email I sent out Saturday too!

## The News

### Twitter data breach & Elon explains how new check mark/verification system will work

Data breaches are a dime a dozen these days so unless they're absolutely massive I tend not to bother mentioning them here - but Twitter suffered one recently, exposing the "private phone numbers and email addresses that are not meant to be public" of over 5.4m users. The data was collected via an API vulnerability in December 2021. It's now appeared on some hacking forum, free to download. Meanwhile, Elon tweeted that Twitter's check mark program "could" return later this week. "Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates. Painful, but necessary".

### USA bans Dahua and Hikvision gear, along with all Huawei and ZTE products

The USA's FCC "voted unanimously to adopt new rules that will block the importation or sale of certain technology products that pose security risks to U.S. critical infrastructure". At the top of the list of are products from Chinese brands Huawei and ZTE, along with Hikvision and Dahua video surveillance cameras. Huawei and ZTE's issues with the US government are not new and I honestly thought they were already banned from the US market - but banning Dahua and Hikvision gear is pretty big. They arguably make the best value for money cameras going around and now they're effectively not allowed in the US. There's long been speculation that Hikvision and Dahua's gear is full of deliberate security vulnerabilities. Either the USA knows something we don't or it's just another act in their economic cold war against China.

### Tumblr to add ActivityPub support once it comes to grips with influx of new users

Tumblr is going to add ActivityPub support, made popular of late by people fleeing Twitter for Mastodon and also used by YouTube alternative PeerTube. As TechCrunch explains, "this announcement means Tumblr would move from being only a niche blogging platform to becoming a part of a larger, decentralized social network of sorts" - "it means users on Mastodon could follow Tumblr users' posts from their own Mastodon instance — without having to use the Tumblr app. It could also provide Tumblr users with an entry point into the so-called fediverse without having to face some of the complexities that are involved with signing up for Mastodon for the first time". There's no date for Tumblr supporting ActivityPub, but Matt Mullenweg said it is coming ASAP.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Three interesting Apple related things

- There's an annual Apple Music award, best song of the year or some shit - the reason I bring it up is because the trophy given to winners is a 12" semiconductor wafer! I assume they're duds/test runs from TSMC. One day a musician with one of these is going to go broke due to a drug or alcohol addiction and will be forced to sell the trophy to fund their habit. I will be there, cash in hand, to buy this glorious piece of art. More pics here.
- Apple engineer Esge Andersen, who works on the company's acoustic team, talked to What Hi-Fi about the AirPods Pro and was asked why they lack lossless audio support, a very nice feature of Apple Music. Esge's response was "the codec choice we have there today, it's more about reliability. So it's about making something robust in all environments" and that "we don't think that the codec currently is the limitation of audio quality on Bluetooth products". So there you go, stop asking.
- Did you know that iOS, iPadOS (15+ or later) and macOS (Ventura) have built in ambient/relaxation noises like ocean sounds, rain, bright noise, etc. They call it "Background Sounds". Here are Apple's instructions on how to enable them on your device. I know people pay for these apps to help them sleep or concentrate or whatever, but having them built in to the device is pretty handy. Cheers Apple.

## Bargains

- Yearly Subscription to The Sizzle Tech Newsletter - $42.50 from The Sizzle
- Logitech MX Anywhere 3, Logitech M720 Triathlon or UE Wonderboom 3 speaker - $71.10/$44.10/$89.10 + delivery from Bing Lee
- Apple iPhone 13 512GB - $1499 from Amazon (good price match reference)
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max - $49 at Officeworks
- Kindle Paperwhite 8GB 2021 - $146.28 from The Good Guys
- SanDisk 512GB Ultra microSDXC - $68.84 from Amazon
- Boost Mobile 12-month SIM with 260GB data - $205 via Cashrewards
- Boost Mobile 12-month SIM with 140GB data - $133 via Cashrewards
- Refurb Klipsch R-4B Sound Bar and Wireless Subwoofer - $149 from Hi-Fi Clearance's eBay store
- Lenovo ST64 B22 Smart LED Filament Bulb - $4 at JB Hi-Fi
- A Cloud Guru (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc training courses) 50% off - US$174/yr
- LG CS 77" OLED 4K Ultra HD - $4390 + delivery from VideoPro
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano G1 (i5-1130G7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 13" 2160x1350 screen, 980g) - $999 + delivery from Shopping Express
- Pixelmator Pro for macOS - $30.99 from the Mac App Store
- Anko Wireless Ergonomic Keyboard - $15 at Kmart
- Sony A7 III camera body - $1,446.24 after cashback offers from the Sony Store
- Orico 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub - $3.50 from Orico's Aliexpress store
- Pick-Me-Apps bundle for Mac (iStat Menus, Acorn, Soulver, Path Finder & more) - US$84 from Unclutter
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 128GB - $624 from Samsung's eBay store
- Samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro Bluetooth 45mm Black Titanium - $479 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

1996 Telstra Business Card phone card (Colnect)

## The End

📻 Spite - Billy Nomates

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