### Issue 1903 - Friday 4th August, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet & Amazon made fat stacks of cash this quarter, as usual
- German hackers found a way to unlock Tesla's in-app purchases for free
- Nobody gives a crap about Meta's internet sunglasses
- KOSA is yet another severe internet law getting pushed by a scared government
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Crucial & Samsung SSDs, AWS exams, Amazon smart home kit, Quake for Switch, Portal for PC, Pixel 7 smartphone, refurb Caldigit TS3 Thunderbolt docks

## The News

### Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet & Amazon made fat stacks of cash this quarter, as usual

Quarterly financial results are out for the US$1t+ market cap behemoths - Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. Apple's revenue was down 1% compared to last year, but they hit an "all-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions", making up 26% of Apple's overall revenue. Microsoft's net income (i.e: profit) was US$20b, an increase of 20%. PC sales are down, meaning Windows revenue is down. The profit increases came from Office and Azure. Amazon is back to double digit growth, hitting US$134b of revenue and an operating profit of US$7.7% - 70% of which came from AWS alone. Alphabet's also still growing, hitting US$74.6b of revenue and US$21.84b in net income. Like Microsoft and Amazon, a large chunk of that growth is Google Cloud.

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### German hackers found a way to unlock Tesla's in-app purchases for free

A group of security researchers from Berlin reckon they've successfully hacked/jailbroken Tesla's onboard computer and unlocked hardware features that come with the car but you need to pay to enable, like increased acceleration and heated seats/steering wheel. They used a "known voltage fault injection attack against the AMD Secure Processor (ASP), serving as the root of trust for the system" and it is "unpatchable". Full details to come in a talk they're giving at a conference next week. Dunno if I'd fuck around with jailbreaking my Tesla. Wouldn't put it past them to void the warranty should they ever detect its been tampered with. But when the car is out of warranty? I'm tempted.

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### Nobody gives a crap about Meta's internet sunglasses

Remember those sunglasses Meta concocted with Ray-Ban that "allow users to take pictures, listen to music, and send / receive Facebook and WhatsApp messages"? To nobody's surprise, they're not very popular. Out of the 300,000 sold between September 2021 and February 2023, only 27,000 are still being used each month. 13% of customers returned them due to "issues with audio, voice commands, poor battery life, and importing media from other devices". If smart glasses ever had a shot with current technology, these were it. They looked good, were not that expensive considering and widely available. I think they're just a thing nobody wants or needs, but despite that, Meta is gonna have a second shot "some time next year".

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### KOSA is yet another severe internet law getting pushed by a scared government

We gotta talk about the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) over in the USA. It's got bipartisan support, along with the President's blessing, so it's probably going to happen in one form or another and inspire other jurisdictions. The law will introduce a "duty of care" to children, so if they something their parents don't like, it's the platform's fault. So that results in services verifying everyone's age to shove the under 18s on a nerfed internet that is so censored, topics teens are really into, like gender, sex and drugs are verboten. It also could be interpreted that end-to-end encryption could be seen as an evasion tool around the platforms knowing what kids are talking about, so that has to end too.

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## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- I started a thread where people can share the stuff they've purchased from Aliexpress/Temu that doesn't suck.
- Jusrus needs a USB-C dock that's affordable, but also reliable.
- The keyboard and mouse in Lenjet's office meeting room keeps dropping out, is after a new set with better range.
- The Sizzle is obviously the best newsletter in the world, but netizen wants to know if there's any other good ones around.
- LiamJM has given us an update on their adventures with Starlink's satellite internet service around the country.

## Bargains

- Crucial 2TB MX500 2.5" SATA SSD - $140.27 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- 4TB Samsung 870 QVO SATA 2.5" SSD - $299 from PLE
- 50% off selected AWS Certification exams from Amazon
- Echo Dot with Clock (5th Gen), TP-Link Tapo L510B wi-fi smart LED bulb (B22), Echo Show 5 (2nd-gen) & Ring video doorbell (2nd gen) - $235 from Amazon
- Quake for Nintendo Switch - $4.93 from the Nintendo eShop
- Google Pixel 7 128GB/256GB - $499.50/$564.50 from Telstra
- Portal Bundle (Portal 1 & 2) - $2.18 on Steam
- Refurb/used CalDigit TS3 Thunderbolt 3 dock - $195 from RebootIT

## Image Of The Day

This mosaic was commissioned by the Mortlake with East Sheen Society to honour the work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the World Wide Web who was born and raised in East Sheen. (Bartholomeus Thoth / Wikimedia Commons)

## The End

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The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.