# Issue 782

##### Monday, 10th December 2018

## In This Issue

- ACCC get a bit salty over Facebook & Google's influence in Australia
- Huawei's CFO still in Canadian prison, currently seeking bail
- QLD govt to be a fibre optic backhaul wholesaler
- Chunks of the 3.6GHz radio spectrum were sold off by ACMA for 5G
- Five bits of news that deserve only a sentence each
- 50 years since The Mother of All Demos
- Three Sydney councils to install kerb-side EV chargers
- Cheap Samsung Note 9, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Bose QC35, Amazon Echo Plus & Hue bulb, Surface laptop, PlayStation Classic, PSVR Mega Bundle, 65" 4K TV, Pelican case, Nintendo Switch

## News

### ACCC get a bit salty over Facebook & Google's influence in Australia

The ACCC has released a preliminary report of its Digital Platforms Inquiry - an investigation on "the impact of online search engines, social media and digital content aggregators (digital platforms) on competition in the media and advertising services markets". It's a really broad range of issues (there's stuff in here about media bias, data privacy, advertising market power & more), but the report comes to a few conclusions anyways, like potential laws to make it obvious what data a user is handing over to an advertiser, making the default for data collection "no", a mandatory option to delete all the data a company owns on you and making web browsers offer a choice of search engines instead of implementing a default. The full report will be out mid-2019, but the ACCC has already launched multiple investigations into Facebook & Google's activities.

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### Huawei's CFO still in Canadian prison, currently seeking bail

Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei CFO and daughter of Huawei's founder arrested by Canadian authorities on behalf of the USA, is currently trying to get bail on "U.S. accusations that she misled multinational banks about Huawei's control of a company operating in Iran. This deception put the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions and incurring severe penalties". The Chinese government is obviously not happy and told the Canadian ambassador that "there would be severe consequences if it did not immediately release Meng". Meanwhile, Japan joined Australia, NZ and the USA in blocking government use of Huawei (and ZTE) gear and the EU is considering similar action. If you're wondering why everyone's hating on Huawei lately, The Guardian has a good story explaining their circumstantial dodgyness.

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### QLD govt to be a fibre optic backhaul wholesaler

Queensland's state government has started up a new business called FibreCo that's gonna wholesale out around 6000km of optical fibre cable that it owns across the state. It's not designed for end users to hook up their homes or offices to, but for ISPs to purchase large chunks from so there's a second option besides Telstra as outside the metro cities Telstra is the only, expensive option. The state government reckons it'll be popular with WISPs that'll service remote/regional communities that are stuck with NBN's shitty satellite or congested fixed wireless.

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### Chunks of the 3.6GHz radio spectrum were sold off by ACMA for 5G

The latest Australian 5G spectrum auction has concluded and ACMA's announced who got what. Telstra got the biggest haul, spending $386m to buy 147 chunks of the 3.6GHz band. Vodafone and TPG's "Mobile JV" not far behind with $263m and 131 lots. Optus got 47 chunks for $185m and Dense Air Australia (a mob doing small cell/dense/indoor coverage operations) paid $18.5m for 29 lots. Interesting that Optus didn't purchase any 3.6GHz spectrum in the capital cities. Maybe they don't plan to use that high frequency stuff in the cities as it won't be any good indoors? Either way, this spectrum can be used in March 2020, but 5G networks will go live in existing spectrum sooner than that.

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### Five bits of news that deserve only a sentence each

Once again, there's a few small bits of news worth mentioning, but don't deserve an entire paragraph all to themselves:

- Google's cutting off support for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in future Play Service API releases.
- An Indian company called HCL has purchased Lotus Notes off IBM. Can't believe that's still a thing and it's worth US$1.8b.
- Uber and Lyft have seperately filed IPO documents in "secret". Uber in particular is huge, as it's worth an estimated US$120b.
- Apple's re-released the Beddit sleep tracking hardware device they purchased a while ago. Slip this thing under your bed and it'll track your sleeping habits.
- Elon Musk said in an interview with 60 Minutes that nobody reviews his tweets "hello, first amendment, like, freedom of speech is fundamental" and that "I want to be clear, I do not respect the SEC. I do not respect them".

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## Not News, But Still Cool

### 50 years since The Mother of All Demos

50 years ago today, Douglas Engelbart gave the "mother of all demos" at a San Francisco computer conference. It was the first time someone showed off a bunch of tech we all take for granted in 2018. Doug showed the audience the concepts of video conferencing, a modern desktop-style user interface, word processing, hypertext, the mouse, collaborative editing and more. Doug also came up with the idea for an "oN-Line System", a prototype-ish version of ARPANet, which itself is a predecessor to the internet we love and hate today. It's amazing that what this dude came up with an showed the world 50 years ago is now common and taken for granted.

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### Three Sydney councils to install kerb-side EV chargers

Three Sydney councils have hooked up with JetCharge to install half a dozen kerb-side EV charging stations. Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick councils will get 22kWh AC chargers and will mark the parking spots out as EV only spots. The parking spots won't be free and will have the same parking restrictions as ICE cars. It's a small step and the 22kWh chargers aren't exactly speedy compared to the 50kWh CCS/CHAdeMO units gaining popularity (i.e: a LEAF or Ioniq will only suck in ~6.6kWh from them, only the Zoe and Teslas will make use of the full 22kWh), but they're affordable and better than nothing.

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### Cheap Samsung Note 9, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Bose QC35, Amazon Echo Plus & Hue bulb, Surface laptop, PlayStation Classic, PSVR Mega Bundle, 65" 4K TV, Pelican case, Nintendo Switch

- Samsung Note 9 128GB is $1150.72 after using the code PRESENTS10 and redeeming a $200 prepaid Visa.
- Huawei Mate 20 Pro is $1340.72 also after using code PRESENTS10 and redeeming a $100 prepaid Visa.
- Bose QC35II noise cancelling headphones are $303.95 from Amazon AU after Cashrewards
- Myer's eBay store is selling the 2nd-gen Amazon Echo Plus and a Philips Hue bulb for $182.20 using the code PMYERGIFT
- Microsoft Surface Laptop with i7 CPU, 16GB, 512GB SSD for $1839 using the code PMICRO20
- Sony PlayStation Classic is $118.85 delivered from Amazon AU after Cashrewards
- Get the PlayStation VR Mega Bundle for $312.55 delivered from Amazon AU after Cashrewards
- Big W has a 65" Viano 4K TV for $669 in a few days time
- Pelican iM2275 Storm case with foam inserts for a DJI Mavic Pro (can always get new foam cheap for different stuff) is only $118 delivered to AU from B&H
- Nintendo Switch console is only $341.15 delivered from Amazon AU after Cashrewards

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That's it, see ya tomorrow!
--Anthony

Sleater Kinney - You're No Rock n Roll Fun

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