# In This Issue

- ACCC to make mandatory code of conduct for tech & media company interactions

- More info about Australia’s COVID-19 tracing app, it might not suck that hard, maybe

- SpaceX to fire humans into orbit on the 27th of May

- A new version of Arq, an app to disable the Touch Bar and on-demand office noises for the mentally broken

- Cheap Diablo: III & expansions, free Tidal & Deezer 3 month trials, Circles.Life & Kogan mobile plans, Animal Crossing for Switch, free Superloop NBN for impacted residents, Sonos One speakers, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro & MacBook Air

# News

#### ACCC to make mandatory code of conduct for tech & media company interactions

Since the ACCC's digital platforms inquiry wrapped up, they've been tasked with negotiating a code of conduct between Google/Facebook and media companies for the use of their content. It was supposed to be voluntary and be released in November, but the government has told the ACCC to make it mandatory and release a draft before the end of July due to the impact of COVID-19 on the media industry. The press release says the code will include rules around "the sharing of data, ranking and display of news content and the monetisation and the sharing of revenue generated from news" - aka, media companies get paid when someone clicks a link to view their content. Can't wait to see how bad this initiative goes for everyone involved, it's gonna be a corker.

#### More info about Australia’s COVID-19 tracing app, it might not suck that hard, maybe

Minister for Government Services, Stuart Robert, has given a bit detail about the upcoming Australian COVID-19 tracing app. He said on Saturday that it'll be open source and that a privacy impact assessment is being done which will also be released. The app will be completely voluntary and ask for your name, age range, postcode and phone number. He's saying all the right words, but who trusts him? It's hard to know what's really happening until the app is actually out, but in the meantime check out this post from Sizzle subscriber Dan Nolan about Apple & Google's tracing API and this demonstration video & GitHub repo from another Sizzle subscriber, Quentin Zervaas, of an example app in action exchanging data between devices.

#### SpaceX to fire humans into orbit on the 27th of May

NASA and SpaceX are gearing up to send humans on a US-made rocket for the first time since the Space Shuttle's retirement in 2011. The target launch date is May 27th and if everything goes to plan, two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley & Bob Behnken) will be placed into orbit where they'll test the Dragon's displays and control systems, then return to Earth alive. NASA hopes to be using SpaceX's capsules and rockets as soon as possible to do missions to the International Space Station because it's embarrassing they're still getting rides in Russia's Soyuz.

# Not News

#### A new version of Arq, an app to disable the Touch Bar and on-demand office noises for the mentally broken

- An all new version of Arq - my preferred Windows & Mac backup software - has been out for a few weeks now. Never been a better time to get your backups into shape!

- Hate accidentally coming into contact with Touch Bar on your fancy new MacBook Pro? Bar None is an app that "lives in your menu bar and ignores all Touch Bar input unless you're holding the fn key. That’s it".

- I think you'd have to be insane to want this, but if you miss the ambient noise of an open plan office, this fun website recreates it for you.

# Bargains

- Diablo III: Eternal Collection is $44.85 on Battle.Net and various Diablo III expansion packs are 25% off too

- 3 month free trial of Tidal and/or Deezer music streaming service

- Circles.Life will give you 100GB/m of Optus 4G data for $38/m with no contract

- Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch - $69 delivered from Amazon AU

- Kogan Mobile (Vodafone MVNO) is doing $14.90 for a 90 day pre-paid plan that gives you 20GB of data per 30 days

- Free 25/5 NBN plans from now until September 30th with Superloop for "impacted residents"

- Sonos One (2nd-gen) smart speaker - $249 delivered from Sonos

- 2020 11" iPad Pro 128GB LTE - $1,372.15 from Wireless1's eBay store using the code PBOLT15

- 16" MacBook Pro i7 CPU & 512GB SSD - $3,259.15 from Wireless1's eBay store using the code PBOLT15

- 2020 MacBook Air i5 CPU & 512GB SSD - $1,729.15 from Wireless1's eBay store using the code PBOLT15

🎶 Shitlist - L7

😁 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.​