# In This Issue

- Victoria Police tried out Clearview AI but it was crap so they didn’t use it further

- Microsoft encourages governments to regulate app stores of all kinds

- WWDC 2020 rumourmonging (aka ARM based Macs)

- TSMC gaining semiconductor ascendance has fascinating geopolitical ramifications

- Cheap Philips Hue gear, LIFX gear, DJI Osmo Mobile 3, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Cygnett smart plug, Boost Mobile 12m SIM, Google Home Max, Cities Skylines DLC, Tile Pro 2-pack, Dell 27" 4K monitor, Nintendo e-Shop gfit cards & Labo kits, Lenovo cashback

# News

#### Victoria Police tried out Clearview AI but it was crap so they didn’t use it further

When Clearview AI's dodgy business of building a giant database of everyone's face by scraping Facebook and other social media sites then selling it to the cops was made public a few months ago, journalists all over Australia asked all our police forces if they use it. Victoria Police said no at the time but thanks to a freedom of information request placed by Justin Warren, we now know they received a sales pitch from Clearview AI ("Google for faces", "try your friends or family", "it's the best way to quickly see the power of Clearview in real time") and submitted a "small number of publicly available stock images" to test its capability. Victoria Police ultimately decided it was too shit to use in real investigations and stuck with iFace for "conducting searches against the offender image database for intelligence and investigative purposes".

#### Microsoft encourages governments to regulate app stores of all kinds

Microsoft's thrown in its two cents regarding Apple's threats to kick email service Hey's app off the App Store and moves by the EU to investigate Apple's App Store business practices. In an interview, Microsoft's chief legal officer Brad Smith said that "the time has come" for government regulation about app store rules, pricing and tools to see if "there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created". Basically Microsoft's saying, yes, governments, please investigate those bastards at Apple. Microsoft obviously has skin in the game here, with many apps on Apple's platforms they'd love to sell directly on (e.g: buy a subscription to Office within the app) but also don't want to give Apple a 30% cut of their revenue or raise the price for iOS users by 30%.

#### WWDC 2020 rumourmonging (aka ARM based Macs)

And on the topic of Apple, their WWDC conference is tomorrow morning at 3AM AEST. If you didn't already know, the entire thing is streaming online due to COVID-19. You can download a Mac and iOS app (fuck you to Windows I guess) to follow along. The biggest expectation of this year's conference is the announcement of moving Macs to use ARM CPUs. Jean-Louis Gassée has an article about how Apple and Microsoft want this to happen. Ming-Chi Kuo reckons an all-new iMac will be released with an Intel CPU now, replaced with an ARM CPU in 2021. Software wise, everything will get an update, it's just a matter of what's changing. The Verge outlines what they reckon will happen on all of Apple's operating systems.

# Not News

#### TSMC gaining semiconductor ascendance has fascinating geopolitical ramifications

If you wonder why I sometimes crap on here about what is seemingly esoteric semiconductor news, Steve Blank's latest article is a good explanation of why this niche of technology is worth keeping an eye on. In it he explains how Taiwan/TSMC's dominance in semi-conductor manufacturing, the USA/Intel's fall from grace plus ban of TSMC from dealing with Huawei and China's massive boner for wanting to be king of the world with the spice of Hong Kong's situation added in - all mixes together for a potential World War 3 situation if handled poorly. There's far more to this issue than simply Huawei or ZTE not being able to sell the latest smartphones.

# Bargains

- Philips Hue wall lantern - $125.30 from Amazon

- DJI Osmo Mobile 3 smartphone gimbal - $135.15 from Amazon

- Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 Triple Thrill for PC - $1.45 from Fanatical

- Cygnett Smart wi-fi plug with power monitoring & Homekit support - $24.47 at The Good Guys

- Boost Mobile 12m SIM with calls/SMS & 240GB data - $250 from Boost

- Google Home Max - $194 at The Good Guys

- 20% off Philips Hue lightning stuff at JB Hi-Fi

- Lots of cheap LIFX gear at Bunnings

- Cities Skylines game & DLC 50% off in Paradox Interactive’s midsummer sale

- Tile Pro Bluetooth Tracker (2020) 2-pack - $47.96 at JB Hi-Fi

- Dell UltraSharp U2720Q 27" USB-C 4K monitor - $790.54 from Dell

- 10% off Nintendo e-shop gift cards & $29 Labo kits at Big W

- 11% cashback via Shopback from Lenovo’s online store

🎶 Minus - Beck

😁 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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