Plus: just a cool looking website ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 21, 2025 | Read online
# EU still getting all the features US tech companies said they won't, folding phones and Aussie crypto regulation Plus: just a cool looking website
Issue 2296 - Friday 21 March 2025
# The News
### EU is getting all the features that US tech companies said they couldn’t get, but with more protection and more open
After some grousing, Meta is going to let EU citizens use its AI bot (Engadget). The delay for rolling these features was EU’s “complex regulatory system”, although Meta says it is still not quite releasing its full multi-modal models. Last month Apple, too, released its delayed AI features in Europe, too (9to5Mac). I don’t know what people are doing with these specific functionalities — I assume it’s some kind of perverted or freakish image generation — but I flag this for the larger point: for all the noise they make about regulation, these big tech companies are frothing to bring their products to the EU. And what do EU citizens get in return for a few months delay? Well, they get the ability to opt out of having their data used for training (The Guardian). The rest of the world benefits too — just thank those Brussels bureaucrats for being able to charge all your devices with USB-C (WIRED, $). And now, the EU is trying to force Apple to open up iOS notifications to third-party devices, AirDrop and other stuff (The Verge).
### Weren’t we all supposed to have folding phones now?
As someone who read tech media over the past half decade, I kinda assumed by now that my phone would be a folding one by 2025. But my iPhone 16 Pro is not, so what gives? Mobile World Congress still showed off a bunch of foldable concepts this month (Gizmodo) and there are real, available models produced by major phone makers (Tom’s Guide). Apple’s foldable phone is always just around the corner (Macworld) or a foldable iPad (MacRumors) or Apple Watch (Apple Insider). Having done some poking around, the answer as far as I can tell is that foldable devices are significantly more expensive — because there’s more of them — and also thicker and more prone to breaking. Also, I don’t know if I’m being blinded by status quo bias, but I struggle to see the benefit of a significantly bigger phone. After all, you could just … hold your existing phone closer to your face. What do you think? Do you lust after a foldable or even have one? Let me know.
### Government’s finally settled on crypto regulation, dragged feet on AI plan
Australian crypto exchanges will avoid being regulated like financial markets and instead have the same expectations as banks under Labor’s proposed crypto rules (AFR, $). The government has been pissfarting for ages around crypto regulation but, in the end, is promising to come up with legislation to let them operate under a financial services license and not a stricter market licence, as lobbied for by ASIC. In practice, this means obligations to do things like “providing services honestly, fairly and efficiently and avoiding conflicts of interest”, per the AFR. Also on the government dragging their feet front, the government rejected an “AI Growth Plan” before last year’s budget (InnovationAus, $) but has ended up just doing an “AI Capability Plan”, just later.
#### Leftovers
Microsoft boss Satya Nadella reveals Australia’s homegrown edge in the AI arms race (The Australian, $) Digital passenger card pilot expands after early success (InnovationAus, $) The Australian YouTuber who turned down a $30m payday at 19 (AFR, $) Court Rules That Constitution Protects Private Possession of AI-Generated CSAM (Tech Policy Press) FOSS infrastructure is under attack by AI companies (Libre) Apple loses $1B a year on prestigious, minimally viewed Apple TV+: report (Ars Technica) Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri (Bloomberg, archived) Mom horrified by Character.AI chatbots posing as son who died by suicide (Ars Technica) Five Eyes "cannot replace US intel in Ukraine", claims former US Cyber Command Chief (TechRadar) SoftBank buys chipmaker Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion, deepening AI bet (Reuters) AI-driven weather prediction breakthrough reported (The Guardian)
# Oh, Also
### Just a cool looking website
It’s so close to da freaken weekend, so here’s a website I came across that will help create some Good Vibes™ for you on this Friday afternoon and beyond.
The Liquid Shape Distortions (collidingscopes) gives me flashbacks to watching the Winamp or Windows Media Player visualisations as a early teen. It’s described as a “psychadelic animation generator” that can be “(p)art of your next trip”, but I just found it relaxing to go in a browser window while I worked. Enjoy 😎
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
10% off Samsung orders by paying via Samsung Pay $75 off when you spend at least $750 at Appliances Online HPM Piggy Back Extension Lead - $5 at Bing Lee Phillips SHP9500 HiFi Precision Stereo Over-Ear Headphones - $65 at Famous Audio Store AliExpress Fosi Audio K5 Pro DAC Headphone Amplifier for PS5/PC (24bit/192khz) - $71.99 at Fosi Audio Amazon AU Anker Prime Charger (100W 3 Ports GaN) - $89.99 at AnkerDirect via Amazon AU Tapo TP-Link D235 Wi-Fi Security Camera - $162 at Amazon Germany via AU Shokz Open Ear Bone Conduction Headphones at Retravision Swim Pro - $220 Run Pro 2/Mini/Comm2 - $238 Elegoo Centauri 3D Printer (Pre Order)- $499 at Elegoo Philips Air Purifier at Amazon AU 3200 Series - $378 3000i Series - $399 Ecovacs DEEBOT X8 PRO OMNI - $1947 The Good Guys Commercial
Computing
Samsung 256GB EVO Select microSD Card & Adapter - $30.36 at Amazon US via AU Samsung PRO Plus MicroSD Card 1TB - $129 at Amazon UK via Amazon AU Alldocube iPlay60 Mini Turbo (8.4" 8GB/128GB SD6 Gen1 Widevine L1) - $202 at Alldocube Tablet AliExpress Western Digital WD 16TB Ultrastar DC HC550 SATA HDD (Refurbished) - $271 at Metrocom AU via Amazon Crucial RAM 96GB Kit (2×48GB) DDR5 SODIMM 5600MHz - $318 at Amazon Germany via AU ORIGIMAGIC N2pro Mini PC (Ryzen 7 6800H 32GB RAM 512GB SSD Dual USB4) - $517 at OrigimagicDirect Amazon AU Alienware 34" Ultrawide Monitor 3440×1440 AW3425DWM - $673 at Dell Apple iPad Air (5th Gen) 10.9" Wi-Fi/Cellular 64GB - $697 at Officeworks MSI Prestige 16" Ultra 9 288V 32GB RAM 2TB Storage OLED - $2597 at Officeworks Online Only Gaming PC at GALAPOWER RTX 5070 Ti - $2399 Ryzen 5 7500F 32GB 1TB 850W Gold RTX 5080 - $2999
Mobile
Optus 30GB 28-Day Prepaid Mobile - $17 Optus Motorola Moto G85 8GB RAM/128GB Storage - $298 at Harvey Norman Motorola G75 5G 8GB RAM/256GB Storage & Moto Buds and $75 eGift Card - $348 at Harvey Norman
# The End
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