### Issue 1827 - Tuesday 18th April, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Bing's resurgence has lit a fire under Google's arse
- Apple is likely to allow sideloading apps in iOS 17 thanks to the EU
- Apps that suck up unnecessary data and give it to landlords so you can rent a house are popular in Australia
- Automatisch is an open-source & self-hosted alternative to Zapier
- Cheap Samsung S21 FE, Vodafone 365-day SIM, refurb Dell Latitude 5300, Seagate 16TB HDD, 16" portable USB-C monitor

## The News

### Bing's resurgence has lit a fire under Google's arse

Apparently Bing's adoption of Open AI's stuff is spooking Google big time. They've rapidly set up internal projects that jam AI features in Google's search engine. Magi lets users "ask the search engine follow-up questions", a "tool called GIFI would use A.I. to generate images in Google Image results", "Tivoli Tutor, would teach users a new language through open-ended A.I. text conversations" and "Searchalong, would let users ask a chatbot questions while surfing the web through Google's Chrome browser". There's also rumours Samsung is looking to ditch Google as the default search engine on its smartphones. Good. Google's had it too good for too long.

### Apple is likely to allow sideloading apps in iOS 17 thanks to the EU

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple will show off the ability to sideload apps on iOS 17 at this year's WWDC. Apple has been forced to do this via the EU's Digital Market Act (DMA), which comes into effect in 2024. It's only a brief mention in an article filled with other WWDC predictions, but damn it would be a game changer. The big worry is that marquee smartphone apps like Instagram or TikTok for example would simply abandon Apple's relatively restricted App Store and persuade users to sideload their app. Will be fascinating to see what restrictions or guardrails Apple put in place, but still comply with the DMA. If they can walk the tightrope between privacy and open-ness it could be a new era in smartphone apps.

### Apps that suck up unnecessary data and give it to landlords so you can rent a house are popular in Australia

Choice has a depressing article about "RentTech". These are apps like realestate.com.au's Ignite as well as tApp, Tenant Options, Snug, and 2Apply that are forced upon prospective tenants by real estate agents. Tenants have to use them to apply for apps and unfortunately "collect information that goes well beyond what's needed to assess a tenant's ability to pay the rent, including nationality, education, professional qualifications, personal interests and information harvested from social media platforms". It is very shit that something as basic as a roof over your head is subject to a data driven, algorithmic bunch of hurdles. There is no escaping the data industrial complex in this life. I hate it.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Automatisch is an open-source & self-hosted alternative to Zapier

If you like Zapier, but don't like how much it costs, you might want to look into Automatisch. It's a self-hosted, open-source Zapier alternative that looks and smells a lot like Zapier. I don't know if it has all the same features, but if you only use the basic stuff in Zapier, Automatisch could be a winner. There's also N8N.io - which is like a super Zapier, also self-hosted and open-source, but a bit more complicated for newbies to workflow automation/no-code tools to get their head around. Personally I use Make (used to be called Integromat), but it's not open-source, nor self-hosted. But it is cheap compared to Zapier. Also if you need some assistance/consulting with Make/Zapier, hit me up, I could use the money.

## Bargains

- Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G 128GB - $474 from Telstra
- Vodafone 365-day pre-paid SIM with unlimited calls & SMS, 150GB data & 2000 EDR points - $150 from Woolworths
- Refurb Dell Latitude 5300 laptop (1080p folding touchscreen, i5-8265U CPU, 16GB RAM, 256G SSD) - $369 from Untech
- Seagate 16TB Exos X1 3.5" SATA Hard Drive - $333 from Eastdigital HK's eBay store
- 16" IPS 2560x1600 60Hz USB-C portable monitor - $197 via the Aliexpress smartphone app

## Image Of The Day

IBM 1401 Data Mobile European travelling exhibit outside The Atomium in Brussels, 1960 (IBM 1401 Archive)

## The End

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