Plus: Remember Stop Tony Meow? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 21, 2026 | Read online
# Tim Cook resigns as CEO, Anthropic-Atlassian rumours and some Sizzle news... Plus: Remember Stop Tony Meow?
Edition 2546
"Computer sperimentale di Statistica (Uni.Padova) aperto nel lato posteriore, senza le porte" by Giorgio Contin, Francesco Piva is licensed under Public domain
Mentioned in today’s edition: Tim Cook, Anthropic, Macbook Neo, Microsoft, Jira, Tony Abbott The Onion, and ChatGPT. Plus, deals on Sennheiser headphones, Roborock robot vacuums, and Motorola smartphones.
# The News
### I'm leaving the Sizzle! I think you'll like the new guy
It feels weird to put this first with all the news today but — just to make sure everyone sees it — I'm finishing up with the Sizzle at the end of this week.
My real sadness at handing over the reins is salved by the very exciting news that the Sizzle will soon be in very safe and familiar hands. I'm proud to announce the return of Sizzlefather Anthony 'decryption' Agius who will assume his rightful throne starting next week.
Why am I leaving the Sizzle after 18 months? To be honest, I wasn't planning on a change, but two weeks ago I was offered the opportunity to become the ABC's inaugural AI reporter. As everyone who reads the Sizzle knows, I think AI, and everything surrounding it, is probably the biggest story in the world right now? The opportunity to cover this critically for the public broadcaster was just too important to pass up.
Anyway, I'll have more to say to you later but I wanted to give Sizzlers the first heads up, before it's public, so you knew what was going on. If you have any questions, send me an email. Love you all.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple's CEO
On to a smaller personnel change: Tim Cook has resigned as CEO after 15 years and will be succeeded by hardware boss, long-tipped heir John Ternus (Verge). Cook announced his decision to leave the chief role in a genuinely touching letter to the public (Apple). The reshuffle will see Cook stay on as "executive chairman" — I think that means Trump whisperer-in-chief (Verge) — and Ternus will be replaced by Johny Srouji, who oversaw the development of Apple's banger in-house chips.
You share little pieces of your lives with me and tell me things you want me to know about how Apple has touched you. About the moment your mom was saved by her Apple Watch. About the perfect selfie you captured at the summit of a mountain that seemed impossible to climb. You thank me for the ways Mac has changed what you can do at work and sometimes give me a hard time because something you care about isn’t working like it should.
Tim Cook’s surprisingly heartfelt letter
The Sizzle: Cook's decision to do a low-key step-down instead of announcing it at Apple's 50th anniversary or at the announcement of the new iPhone or Siri was a surprise and, as noted by Apple chronicler John Gruber, very Cook-coded (Daring Fireball).
Cook is going to have a fascinating legacy. The first post-Jobs CEO was always going to suffer from comparisons to the great man, let alone someone who wasn't really a "product" guy. By all accounts, Cook is a real supply chain sicko and that's not the kind of person who ends up as a mythical cultural character. But you shouldn't mistake that for meaning he's had no influence. In fact, I think he's really made Apple into his own image in an understated way. On the bad side of Cook, Apple hasn't really had a post-Jobs product hit, the services stuff is a money maker but a lot of those services suck too, and there's a lot of despair about design decisions like Liquid (Gl)ass. But, the good side of Cook is what transformed Apple into the most valuable company in the world on a good day that prints money because of the ruthless iterations of its products and genuinely impressive hardware advances.
Many people will remember Cook for his baby, the Vision Pro flop, but I think Apple's most Cookian product is the MacBook Neo. Cook was able to launch a cheap, good version of a product that is wildly popular thanks to the supply chain wizardry of repurposing an outdated iPhone chip. That's his Mona Lisa.
Related reading: Don't expect changes from Apple anytime soon, even with new leadership (AppleInsider)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Is Anthropic really looking at buying Atlassian?
There's a rumour floating around that Anthropic is looking to buy Atlassian (r/Atlassian). There's no credible reporting substantiating that it is even being considered, but I hear Atlassian group chats have lit up with chatter.
As people will remember, Anthropic's exec team was in Australia earlier this month, purportedly to sign a deal with the federal government, so it's possible that they were kicking the tyres while they were here? On paper, there's certainly some sense to it — Anthropic gets their hooks into a whole bunch of enterprise businesses that use Jira and all that, as well as all the juicy user interaction data etc. — but there are a lot of pain points. Like that Atlassian has somewhere between 2 and 3x as many staff as Anthropic.
Maybe relatedly: Atlassian Enables Default Data Collection to Train AI (Let’s Data Science)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Gamified footage of Bondi terror attack circulated online, Australia's eSafety commissioner says (The Guardian) Labor minister Andrew Charlton lends his weight to Firmus AI blockbuster (The Australian, $) You might remember that the ACTU and Microsoft came to a weird agreement a few months back? Here's a read-out of their meeting yesterday which just makes it sound like the ACTU told Microsoft how much they hate AI lol (ACTU) Telstra, Optus, TPG say UOMO devised with unrealistic expectations (iTnews) Tech giants ready to fight in Australia's $100b data centre war (Australian Financial Review, $)
Rest of World:
Mobile phones statutory ban in England schools bill amendment (The Guardian) A decentralised crypto thing called KelpDAO lost $290 million to hackers (BleepingComputer) Palantir is posting crazy shit online (Reason) In Article About Horrific Shooting That Killed Eight Children, Forbes Lets Readers Place Bets About Gun Control (Futurism) These Middle Eastern News Sites Are Actually U.S. Government Propaganda Operations (The Intercept) The Onion says it has a deal to take over Alex Jones' Infowars (Variety) Robots beat human records at Beijing half marathon (TechCrunch) Why pay for ChatGPT when McDonald's support bot is... (Reddit) Post was deleted but I saved the image
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Remember Stop Tony Meow?
I took a little stroll down memory lane thanks to a blog post from Aussie developer Matt Kelsh who, in 2013, came up with the genius idea to create a browser plug-in to replace all photographs of then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott with a cat. I won't spoil it all but the Stop Tony Meow story includes the National Library, a surprise cameo from at least one Sizzler and a very expensive FOI request.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Click 10m Cord Wall Mountable 3 Outlet Power Board with Hanger - $15 at Bunnings Sennheiser IE 200 In-Ear Wired Headphones (Black) - $119 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $179) Reolink Go PT Plus 5MP 4G LTE Wire-Free Cam w/ Solar Panel, PT & Night Vision - $256 at Reolink AU (Down from $359) Roborock Qrevo L Robot Vacuum - $649 at Amazon (Down from $2199)
Computing
Tenda RX12L Pro AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Router - $69.65 at Amazon Square Terminal - $194 at Amazon (Down from $329)
Mobile
Boost Mobile 25GB 28-Day Prepaid SIM - $12 at TopCashback AU (Down from $39) Motorola Edge 70 256GB: $12.48/Month over 36 Months ($449.28 off RRP $898.56) with an Eligible 36-Month Phone Plan @ Optus - $449 at Optus (Down from $898)
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. Also by Aussies for Aussies — so all prices are in dollarydoos.
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