# In This Issue

- Knewz is News Corp’s attempt to take on Google News

- No more food related codenames for Android

- Apple rumour dumping ground for a slow news day

- You don’t realise how nice electric cars are until you own one

- Cheap Edifer S3000 Pro speakers, Amazon Echos & Kindles, 400GB Sandisk microSD, Sony CarPlay headunit, NYT sub, Spotify gift cards

# News

#### Knewz is News Corp’s attempt to take on Google News

For years News Corp has whinged the algorithms Google, Apple and Facebook use to promote articles is unfair and damaging their business and democracy - so much so that they've convinced governments around the world (including Australia) to investigate or regulate "digital platforms". The government lobbying approach isn't going too well, so News Corp is building their own online news aggregation alternative called Knewz. This stupidly named service will give higher prominence to original reporting, equal weight to subscription and non-subscription content and include a "variety of national outlets such as The New York Times and NBC News, as well as more partisan news sites like The Daily Caller and ThinkProgress". God speed Mr. Murdoch.

#### No more food related codenames for Android

Google will stop giving Android cute snack food related names like Kit Kat, Oreo or Pie, ending a tradition that goes back to 2009. The next version of Android will simply be known as Android 10. Apparently Google has "heard feedback over the years that the names weren’t always understood by everyone in the global community. For example, L and R are not distinguishable when spoken in some languages. So when some people heard us say Android Lollipop out loud, it wasn’t intuitively clear that it referred to the version after KitKat". I know it's silly and serves no practical purpose, but I liked the snack food names. RIP the good times in Mountain View.

#### Apple rumour dumping ground for a slow news day

Because it's a slow news day, let's dig in to Bloomberg’s summary of all the Apple rumours floating around. The iPhone XS and XS Max successors will be called the iPhone Pro when they're announced in September and will have features such as 3rd camera with a 3D scanner (like Huawei), reverse charging (like Samsung), remove 3D Touch (replaced with Haptic Touch from the XR) and an obligatory faster SoC. iPads will get some spec bumps, there might be a titanium cased Apple Watch, fanicer water resistant AirPods, a cheaper HomePod and a 16" MacBook Pro. All of this to come prior to Christmas according to Bloomberg.

# Not News

#### You don’t realise how nice electric cars are until you own one

Jeff Attwood (the guy that started Stack Exchange) got his first electric car and wrote a nice blog post about how great they are - "I was expecting "yet another car", but what I got instead was a new, radical worldview. Driving a car powered by barely controlled liquid fuel detonations used to be normal. But in an world of more and more viable electric vehicles this status quo increasingly starts to feel... deeply unnatural. Electric is so much better of an overall experience that you begin to wonder: why did we ever do it that way? Gas cars seem, for lack of a better word, obsolete" - amen brother, I love my EV too (but I don't love the lack of EV infrastructure in Australia).

# Bargains

- 15% off Spotify Premium gift cards at Target

- AU$1/week for a 1 year New York Times subscription

- If you're an auto club member, get the Sony XAV-AX1000 CarPlay headunit for $279.30 at Repco this weekend

- 400GB SandDisk microSD card - $83.80 from Amazon AU

- Lots of Amazon Echo & Kindle discounts from Amazon directly, too much to list in a single sentence.

- Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers - $699 from PC Case Gear

🎶 Mixed Bizness - Beck

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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.​