### Issue 1412 - Wednesday 21st July, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Jeff Bezos completes most elaborate astronaut cosplay project ever
- Netflix confirms plans to add games alongside video content for subscribers
- Top US Catholic priest resigns in shame after data brokers expose his regular Grindr use
- It's 2021 and watching the Olympics in 4K is still a pain in the arse
- Cheap Apple Watch S6, Google Pixel Buds 2, Apple Music

## The News

### Jeff Bezos completes most elaborate astronaut cosplay project ever

Jeff Bezos made it safely back to Earth after his 11 minute joyride to "space" early this morning. Bezos said "it was the best day ever" and that he wants to "thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this... thank you from the bottom of my heart very much". That's not a joke or paraphrasing, he really did say that. Check out his stupid cowboy hat. Am I the only one who feels no sense of joy here? I enjoy a space mission as much as the next nerd and got a kick out of watching Perseverance and Ingenuity doing their thing but seeing Bezos clown around as a space cowboy is comical, not inspiring (or even pretending to be) like most space missions.

### Netflix confirms plans to add games alongside video content for subscribers

Netflix has confirmed it is gonna get into the gaming market. In their 2nd quarter earnings report they said that "we view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members' Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series. Initially, we'll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices". Which is backed up by the recent hire of former Electronic Arts executive Mike Verdu as president of game development. There's no timeline yet, but I guess Netflix needs a new way to grow their subscriber base, so why not gaming?

### Top US Catholic priest resigns in shame after data brokers expose his regular Grindr use

Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, one of the top Catholics in the USA, has resigned after he was outed as "a regular user of Grindr, the queer dating app, and frequented gay bars". Normally this isn't news for The Sizzle, but the way he was outed is - cell phone data. An online newsletter called the Pillar (it's like The Sizzle, but for Catholicism) got a dossier from someone who obtained data from "a data vendor and authenticated by an independent data consulting firm". Essentially someone purchased a bunch of datasets from advertising/analytics companies and the data was so fine grained, a Catholic priest was outed and forced to resign. Welcome to the information superhighway Monsignor.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### It's 2021 and watching the Olympics in 4K is still a pain in the arse

The Olympics have begun in Tokyo and unlike previous games where select events are captured in 4K, everything at the Tokyo games is in 4K. Channel 7 and Optus stitched up a deal to broadcast the entire thing in Australia in 4K to Optus 5G customers with a Fetch TV box (all 5 of them), but that deal died, probably due to COVID and we are left with watching it in 1080p on 7Plus - which to 7's credit, will have every session live for free. After spending the morning researching, the best I could find is to fire up the VPN, get a free trial of YouTube TV in the US and enjoy 4K upscaled 1080p HDR streams from NBC.

## Bargains

- Apple Watch Series 6 GPS 40mm/44mm - $549/$599 from Wireless1
- Google Pixel Buds 2 - $209.25 at Google's online store
- 4 months free Apple Music for new customers via JB Hi-Fi

## The End

📻 Brainwasher - Warthog

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Did you know that The Sizzle has a Slack group? Join in and chat with other subscribers like you.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info? Visit the customer portal.

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.​