### Issue 1529 - Wednesday 19th January, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Microsoft to spend US$68.7b buying Activision Blizzard, if regulators allow it
- First case involving use of Autopilot in fatal car accident going to court in California
- US airline regulator and telcos still can't agree on how to operate n77/n78 5G bands
- Intel's hegemony is over, now they're having a bet on both semiconductor business models
- Cheap Oculus Quest 2, Dell 4K monitor, Crucial SSDs, Anker USB charger, Apple Watches, Lenovo gaming laptop, EA Play sub, Sony wireless headphones, Pixel 4/4a cases, Amaysim 365-day SIM, Xiaomi Zigbee motion sensors, Viofo & 70mai dashcams

## The News

### Microsoft to spend US$68.7b buying Activision Blizzard, if regulators allow it

Microsoft is splashing US$68.7b to purchase sex-pest infested video game company Activision Blizzard. Microsoft's press release says the purchase "accelerate the growth in Microsoft's gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse". If you've been living under a rock, Activision Blizzard is responsible for very popular game franchises like Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft, Call of Duty, StarCraft and Candy Crush. The deal still depends on regulators agreeing to it, who have been burned on much smaller tech mergers in the past, but despite the size of this deal I reckon it'll sail through. There's still an insane amount of competition in the gaming space (Sony, Apple, Facebook, Steam) and plenty of AAA-studios (Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive and Epic) churning out games. Microsoft Game Pass is gonna be pretty irresistible.

### First case involving use of Autopilot in fatal car accident going to court in California

California has charged a bloke with vehicular manslaughter whilst using Tesla's Autopilot driver assist. In 2019, "a Model S was moving at a high speed when it left a freeway and ran a red light in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena and struck a Honda Civic at an intersection", killing both people in the Honda. NHTSA investigated the crash and confirmed that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the incident. Tesla has always said you're on your own if this kinda thing happens and they accept no responsibility, but you'd kinda hope they'd be in the background helping defend this guy. If Autopilot is to blame, be it technologically (why didn't it stop?) or indirectly (an over-reliance on Autopilot due to Tesla's incorrect marketing of it), maybe the Elon-fanboys will realise "full self driving" is more of a scam than a legit feature worth $10,000?

### US airline regulator and telcos still can't agree on how to operate n77/n78 5G bands

The FAA and US telcos are still arguing over the rollout of relatively high frequency 5G services. Verizon and AT&T were due to kick off 5G on the n77 and n78 bands this week, but have put the launch on hold because but the FAA reckons that despite a chunky 220MHz of distance between those bands and the frequencies used by radar altimeters used on planes, there's still too much risk. Emirates, Air India, ANA, and Japan Airlines aren't taking any chances and have cancelled flights to the USA until this mess is cleared up. United said they'd be happy with n77/n78 5G country-wide, but not within 2 miles of runways at airports. What confuses me the most here is that many countries have n77 and n78 5G bands running - what's going on in the US that makes their rollout such a risk?

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Intel's hegemony is over, now they're having a bet on both semiconductor business models

Ben Thompson has a solid take on Intel's business strategy now that they're no longer king shit in the semiconductor game. Most semiconductor related businesses these days focus on either design (ARM, AMD, Nvidia) or fabrication (TSMC, Samsung, Global Foundries). Intel does both and doesn't share with anyone - until now, as new CEO Pat Gelsinger is "de-integrating" Intel. It'll keep designing its own chips obviously, but Intel will pay TSMC (their main competitor!) to make them, while working other design companies that don't necessarily need the top shelf stuff to use Intel's factories. It also means Intel's factories will have to compete with TSMC to manufacture Intel's flagship designs and the fresh sexy stuff from others. Interesting times ahead.

## Bargains

- Oculus Quest 2 128GB - $479 from Amazon
- Dell S2722QC 27" 4K UHD USB-C monitor - $369 from Dell's eBay store
- Crucial MX500 1TB/2TB SATA SSDs or P2 1TB NVMe SSD - $124.95, $256. $119 from Shopping Express
- Anker PowerPort Speed 60W 5-port desktop USB charger (1x 30W USB-C PD, 4x USB-A) - $44.99 from Amazon
- Apple Watch Series 6 GPS+Cell 40mm/44mm (red only) - $509/$559 from Telstra tomorrow only
- Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 6 laptop (16" 2560x1600 165Hz, i7-11800H CPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, RTX 3070) - $2,294.40 after Cashrewards cashback from Lenovo
- 3 Month EA Play subscription via the PlayStation store - $6.95 (new members only)
- Sony WH1000XM3 headphones - $259 from Amazon
- Google Pixel 4/4a 5G fabric case - $1 at JB Hi-Fi
- Amaysim 365-day SIM (60GB data, unlimited calls/SMS) and 1000 Everyday Rewards Points - $99 at Woolworths
- Xiaomi Aqara Zigbee motion sensor 2-pack - $38 from GeekBuying
- VIOFO A129 Plus Duo dashcam - $195.50 from Amazon
- 70mai Dash Cam Lite - $79 from HT's eBay store

## The End

📻 Motel #27 - The Velveteers

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