# In This Issue

- H.266 is the video codec successor to H.265, but ya can’t use it yet

- Tech companies revising operations in Hong Kong as China introduces new laws

- Random Aussie tech news

- People are pushing for Autodesk to stop selling its gear to fossil fuel companies

- Cheap refurbished iPhone 8, Xiaomi Mi A3, LABO Variety kit, Intel i5 NUC

# News

#### H.266 is the video codec successor to H.265, but ya can’t use it yet

Hey look, it's a new video codec! The Fraunhofer Institute has released the spec for H.266, also known as the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) as the successor to HEVC/H.265. It's had input from Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Sony and claims to "reduce data requirements by around 50% of the bit rate relative to the previous standard H.265/High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) without compromising visual quality" - a 90 minute 4K video can be squeezed down to as little as 5GB with H.266 and look mint compared to a 10GB H.265 file. Sounds awesome but don't get too excited, there's no software to encode/decode it and hardware support for it is probably years away and H.265 is barely supported!

#### Tech companies revising operations in Hong Kong as China introduces new laws

Companies that have issues about operating in China (i.e: Facebook & Google) due to the severe amount of government interference but were cool operating in Hong Kong, are starting to change their minds due to new laws. Businesses operating in HK now have to respond to Chinese government requests for user data, which is particularly thorny in HK as China cracks down on dissidents, who happen use social media and digital devices to organise. Tech companies don't want to be seen as collaborators in ripping freedom of speech away from Hong Kongers, so WhatsApp, Apple, Google, Facebook and probably others have decided to "pause" processing data requests while they assess the impacts of feeding data on users to a Chinese backed HK administration.

#### Random Aussie tech news

- The NSW state government has dropped off over 10,000 computers from Apple, Acer, Dell, and HP to year 12 students so they can study from home. Sorry to the kids that got Acers.

- You can buy Bitcoin at Australia Post now. It's not as easy as going into a post office and asking the confused staff for 0.00232352 Bitcoin, but the option is there.

- NBN is offering satellite backup as an option for business customers starting in October. Get a dish on the roof and if your fixed line NBN dies, the satellite takes over.

- ME Bank and Heritage Bank now offer Apple Pay. Better late than never hey? Pretty much every bank in Australia has it now.

- 86 new sites have been added to the official piracy shitlist that Australian ISPs must block. I've never heard of em but pop your DNS to 1.1.1.1 and check em out if you need some new stuff to watch.

# Not News

#### People are pushing for Autodesk to stop selling its gear to fossil fuel companies

Autodesk.Earth is a campaign to pressure the market leader in industrial design software to stop selling its services to coal, oil and gas companies. Autodesk say they are "committed to improving the environmental performance of its business operations" and have various social responsibility statements in their business code of conduct, yet hypocritically support these filthy industries by selling it software to design their massive machinery and factories. It's pretty obvious that Autodesk prefers to be seen to be seen to be green friendly rather than taking the financial hit and banning the use of their products to mine coal or extract and refine oil and gas. You can’t say you care for the environment whilst enabling its destruction at the same time. Shrugging your shoulders and saying “well if we don’t someone else will” is a cop out that shows you care more about money than principles.

# Bargains

- Refurbished iPhone 8 64GB with $30 Optus pre-paid SIM - $409 from Cellmate

- Xiaomi Mi A3 dual SIM Android One smartphone - $289 from Allphone’s eBay store

- Nintendo LABO Variety kit for the Switch - $29 at JB Hi-Fi, Amazon & EB

- Intel BXNUC10I5FNH4 NUC (i5-10210U CPU, BYO RAM & storage) - $549 + delivery from Shopping Express

🎶 Territorial Pissings - Comeback Kid

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