### Issue 1998 - Tuesday 19th December, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Apple stops selling Apple Watches in USA due to patent dispute
- Adobe abandons Figma acquisition because regulators said no
- Flipboard enables ActivityPub so it can join Mastodon, Threads & others
- macOS hidden features, Qantas tech blog, Internet Archive Manual Showcase, everything you need to know about Unicode & The Crux's essays
- Cheap SanDisk USB flash drive, Apple AirTags & AirPods, Hack The Box Academy, Samsung SSDs, 13" 1080p OLED USB-C monitor, Google Play gift cards, Shokz bone conducting headphones, free 5-day trial eSIM

## The News

### Apple stops selling Apple Watches in USA due to patent dispute

Apple is gonna stop selling the Apple Watch S9 and Ultra 2 in the USA as of December 24th. This is due to a decision by the USA International Trade Commission from earlier in the year that found Apple infringed on Masimo's patent for blood oxygen monitoring capabilities. The Apple Watch SE, which doesn't do blood oxygen monitoring, will still be for sale. Unlike most of Apple's patent problems, Masimo is not a patent troll and Apple even wanted to purchase them at one point before deciding to rip them off instead. A bit hypocritical from the company that had a big whinge and sued Samsung for "stealing" their design language. In the meantime, Apple is working on a software update to change how the blood oxygen feature works and satisfy the commission and resume sales.

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### Adobe abandons Figma acquisition because regulators said no

Adobe's given up trying to purchase popular design app Figma. Adobe said that there's "no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals" as the UK and EU both considered Adobe's purchase of Figma will significantly reduce competition and "lead to higher prices, reduced quality or less choice for customers". Adobe now has to pay Figma US$1b as a result of the failed acquisition, which is nice, I guess, but Figma's CEO really wanted to deal to go ahead, telling the Financial Times last week "it is important that those paths of acquisition remain available because very few companies make it all the way to IPO. So many companies fail on the way", obviously thinking that Figma wouldn't do too well if did decided to go public - aka, our investors want an exit and besides an acquisition, there's not much else we can do.

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### Flipboard enables ActivityPub so it can join Mastodon, Threads & others

Flipboard (remember them?!) still exists and is going to "switch its user accounts to ActivityPub", "which means that everyone curating stuff on Flipboard is now doing so in a way that apps like Mastodon can see and interact with". It's currently a limited test - only 25 accounts are in it (The Verge, Medium, Semafor, Pitchfork, The Conversation & others) right now - but it means you can follow The Verge's Flipboard posts on Mastodon, or even Meta's Threads once they get ActivityPub support going. Flipboard's CEO said that "we're in the process of replacing our whole social back-end with ActivityPub", which is nice and all, but honestly, how is this any different to an RSS feed? Is it the ability to see favourites/boosts/comments, etc as well as the original content? Either way, this is great progress. Maybe this is the silver lining of Twitter's death.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### macOS hidden features, Qantas tech blog, Internet Archive Manual Showcase, everything you need to know about Unicode & The Crux's essays

- Did you know macOS has a built-in accessibility feature that lets you use your head to move the pointer around the screen instead of a mouse or trackpad? Now you know.
- Qantas has a tech engineering blog you might find interesting even if you'll never fly in one of their metal tubes. Me however, will simp for the big red roo 'till I die.
- The Internet Archive has gathered a "showcase of unusual or interesting manuals" from its collection. My favourites are the McDonaldland, Apollo 8 Saturn V Flight and Bell System Vehicle Graphics.
- Nikita Prokopov has a blog post titled "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Must Know About Unicode in 2023 (Still No Excuses!)" and despite being a usually boring topic, is quite fun to read.
- If you're after some reading material for the holidays, Justin Warren has collected all the essays he published the last year in his newsletter The Crux (a great compliment to The Sizzle IMHO) and made them available as a PDF or ePUB.

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## Bargains

- Ezysim (TPG MVNO) is giving out free 5-day pre-paid eSIMs with 3GB of data and unlimited calls & SMS
- SanDisk CZ880 Extreme PRO USB 3.1 128GB flash drive - $39 from Amazon
- Apple AirTag 4-Pack - $124 from Futu Online's eBay store
- Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) with USB-C Magsafe Case (MTJV3ZA/A) - $302.40 from Techciti's eBay store
- Hack The Box Academy cybersecurity training Annual Gold Subscription - US$945 from Hack The Box
- Samsung PM991a 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 2230 (i.e: small size, ideal for Steam Deck) SSD - $81 from Aliexpress
- Bimawen 13.3" OLED 1080p 100% DCI-P3 portable monitor - $198 from Aliexpress
- 10% off Google Play gift cards at Woolworths
- Shokz OpenComm2 UC bone conduction headphones - $245.20 from Crooze
- Samsung T7 Shield 4TB Portable SSD - $313.46 from Amazon USA

## Image Of The Day

Charge sensitive pre-amplifier (IC) with bonding wires attached, 31x magnification. William Marin Jr. Brookhaven National Laboratory. (1994 Nikon Photomicrography Competition)

## The End

📻 New Dawn Fades - Moby

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