# The Sizzle

### Issue 256 - Tuesday, 18th October 2016 - I Knew You Were Mine The First Time I Googled You

- Apple's Project Titan skidded out of control
- Julian Assange has no internet accesss
- New Qualcomm SoCs and gigabit LTE modems that Telstra will be first to implement
- Samsung start mass producing 10nm SoCs
- GCHQ spied on everyone in the UK illegally for 17 years, no big deal

- There won't be a ceramic iPhone any time soon
- Pepe is gonna be rescued and turned into a good meme
- Another eBay sale ($100 off a $300 purchase!)

NEWS

Apple's Project Titan skidded out of control
Apple's infamous car project, which has never been announced or acknowledged publicly, has apparently, been canceled according to Bloomberg. Internally the car is referred to as Project Titan and up to a thousand people were working on it until mid-2016, when Bob Mansfield return to Apple and changed the project from building an entire car, to simply working with an automaker (or buying one) to integrate Apple technologies. It appears like Apple bit off more than they could chew (like Google) with this car stuff. Makes what Tesla is doing all that more impressive I reckon.
Discuss

Julian Assange has no internet accesss
Julian Assange apparently had his internet access cut off at his Ecuadorian hideout in London. Who cut it off? The Ecuadorian embassy themselves. Wikileaks put out these two tweets. The Ecuadorian embassy isn't talking either to explain their actions. Fuck knows what's going on in that dumpster fire lately (even though they are exposing some fucked up things Clinton is up to). I'm sure someone can drone drop a couple of SIM cards and 4G modems into Assange's balcony though.
Discuss

New Qualcomm SoCs and gigabit LTE modems that Telstra will be first to implement
Qualcomm had a thing in Hong Kong yesterday to announce new mid-range Snapdragon SoCs and a new cutting edge LTE modem. The new SoCs are pretty much just mild speed improvements, better LTE radios, with access to more RAM and some getting Bluetooth v4.2. Expect to see them in Android phones late 2016 and early 2017 - they'll definitely bring a bit more performance for not a lot of coin. Qualcomm's LTE modem is much more interesting however, with Qualcomm announcing they're working with Telstra, Netgear and Ericsson to make gigabit LTE a real thing later this year. The X16 LTE modem will be placed inside a a Netgear MR1100 modem that Telstra will sell and Ericsson will upgrade Telstra's network to be the first in the world to support it. It's fucken bullshit that LTE is faster than the fibre running to my house, but also cool Australia is getting this first. Qualcomm also announced its first 5G modem, the X50. It'll use 28Ghz mm-wave tech and will apparently be designed to reach speeds of over 5Gbps. It'll be in retail products mid-2018.
Discuss

Samsung start mass producing 10nm SoCs
Also in SoC news, Samsung has kicked off the mass production of 10nm SoCs. Yep, those little chips inside your pocket computers are getting even smaller transistors, so they'll use less electricity, run cooler and operate even faster. Samsung are the first company in the world to do this, stealing the lead from TSMC. Dunno what SoC Samsung are making, but Anandtec reckons its either an iteration of the Exynos range (for Samsung's phones) or a new iteration of the Snapdragon 820 flagship that isn't just a speed bump.
Discuss

GCHQ spied on everyone in the UK illegally for 17 years, no big deal
We already knew this thanks to Ed Snowden's leaks *turns towards Moscow and salutes the greatest patriot that ever lived* but now we have confirmation that yes, GCHQ (the UK equivalent to the NSA) was spying on people indiscriminately for 17 years. It hoarded vast amounts of information gathered from telcos about who called who when, where they were and heaps of other info. The UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal said that the program to do this was against the European Convention on Human Rights and should never have happened. But now laws have changed and it's totally cool now, so the surveillance isn't going to stop and nobody will be punished for doing it.
Discuss

COOL SHIT

There won't be a ceramic iPhone any time soon
The new Apple Watch Edition is ceramic and how kick arse would it be to have a ceramic iPhone? Unfortunately, here's an excellent and thoughtful summary of why there won't be an Apple product produced in scale, made out of anything but aluminium or plastic any time soon. It's crazy enough Apple stuff is made out of aluminium the way it is. Ceramic is just too crazy. Still, I reckon a nice limited edition/small batch iPhone to celebrate its 10th anniversary next year would be so cool. I'd unnecessarily pay extra for one.
Discuss

Pepe is gonna be rescued and turned into a good meme
The guy that made the Pepe meme is fucken pissed off it's been adopted by alt-right shitheels and racists who use it as a hate symbol. Matt Furie has teamed up with the Anti-Defamation League to announce a project to turn Pepe into a symbol for good and to use Pepe as a vehicle for positive memes and messages. Good Pepe is better than bad Pepe. Poor Pepe.
Discuss

Another eBay sale ($100 off a $300 purchase!)
There's a pretty sweet eBay offer on at the moment, where if you spend $300 on eBay and use Woolworths Click and Collect instead of getting the item posted to you, you get a $100 eBay voucher. Spend $150 and get a $50 eBay voucher. So while it's not a discount, you can use the $100 voucher as credit for another eBay purchase, like, say grocery vouchers, which to me, is as good as cash. Here's some deals on tech stuff from Wireless1, on mid-range video cards (great time to upgrade for Civ6 imho) and some other random finds, including the very nice Bose QC35 Bluetooth noise canceling headphones.
Discuss

Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony

The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Today's subject line is from Romance Of The Damned, by Regurgitator. Like The Sizzle? Tell your friends!