# In This Issue

- Apple, Amazon, Google & others will work together on a new, open-source smart home standard

- Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla sued by the families of dead Congolese child cobalt miners

- Former Senator Stephen Conroy is now applying his skills at a blockchain startup

- Two podcasts featuring Sizzle related people that’ll keep your ears busy

- Cheap Xbox One S, Surface Pro X, Fuji X-T30, Anker PowerPort III mini USB-C charger, life Plex Pass

# News

#### Apple, Amazon, Google & others will work together on a new, open-source smart home standard

Apple has announced they're kicking off a new industry working group to create a "royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products, with security as a fundamental design tenet". Members of the Connected Home over IP working group include Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance (which includes companies such as IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric and many more). According to the Connected Home over IP project's very basic website, the "reference implementation of the new standard, and its supporting tooling, will be developed and maintained on the GitHub open source platform" that'll appear in late 2020.

#### Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla sued by the families of dead Congolese child cobalt miners

The families of Congolese children that died in mines extracting cobalt for smartphones, laptops, electric cars and other high-tech stuff, have launched legal action in the USA against Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla. The families want "damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress". According to the lawsuit, the companies had "specific knowledge" the cobalt used in their products came from mines forcefully employing children to do hazardous work, making them complicit in the crime. If you want the horrible, gory details about what these kids endured so we can have cobalt in our batteries, The Guardian has more information.

#### Former Senator Stephen Conroy is now applying his skills at a blockchain startup

Stephen Conroy is the bloke originally responsible for our fucked up NBN and the stupid "clean feed" internet filter that just won't stay dead. After he quit politics the offensive ideas continued, parachuting straight into a pro-gambling lobby group innocently called Responsible Gambling Australia. After a few years making sure Australians can piss their money away on rigged sports betting and pokies he's now the chairman of Melbourne-based blockchain asset startup Day By Day, who reckon they can process insurance claims faster using blockchain technology. Politician, gambling lobbyist and now blockchain vapourware merchant. What a cunt.

# Not News

#### Two podcasts featuring Sizzle related people that’ll keep your ears busy

Two podcasts for ya to check out today - first up is one featuring my mate Eliza and her mate Lola, talking about the business they co-founded with another mate of ours Jack (you probably know him as Chendo), called Assembly Four, who work hard enabling technology for sex workers. Despite being legal in some parts of the world, it's amazing the disdain sex workers doing their job legally cop from all sectors of the "liberal" technology industry. Second is a podcast with myself in it! Kristofor Lawson interviewed me a few months ago for his new podcast, Supercharged, about Tesla & electric cars. I'm in the episode "Production Hell" talking about my Ioniq. If I sound dumber than usual, it's because I was trying to drive and have insightful comments at the same time and my brain isn't good at multi-tasking. The rest of the podcast is great if you're wondering what the fuss about Tesla and Elon Musk is all about.

# Bargains

- Xbox One S 1TB digital (no disc drive) console & 3 games - $191.20 from Microsoft’s eBay store

- 15% off the Microsoft Surface Pro X (the ARM/Qualcomm based Surface) at JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman

- Fujifilm X-T30 digital camera body only - $899 after $150 cashback from Camera Pro

- Anker PowerPort III mini with AU plug (30W USB-C charger) - $29.99 from Amazon

- 25% off Plex Pass Lifetime Subscription - $119.99

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😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

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.​