# In This Issue

- US Solicitor General sides with Oracle in Supreme Court case against Google

- First dev preview of Android 11 is out, not much in it for end users

- Russia is meddling in 2020 US elections & Julian Assange offered pardon if he says Russia wasn’t involved in 2016

- Shiori, an open source clone of Pocket you can host yourself

- Cheap Blue Yeti USB mic, Withings fitness watch, Powerbeats Pro wireless earbuds

# News

#### US Solicitor General sides with Oracle in Supreme Court case against Google

The Trump administration is backing Oracle in its Supreme Court fight against Google using what it claims are its copyrighted Java APIs. The US Solicitor General submitted a brief saying that in its opinion, Oracle can claim copyright over Java APIs and Google's claims that the APIs fall under fair use are not persuasive. In what I am sure is 100% unrelated and not in any way some sort of quid pro quo, Larry Ellison hosted a Trump campaign fundraiser the same day. 300 Oracle employees went on strike over their boss supporting Trump's bid to get re-elected. Oral arguments in this case will take place on March 24th, so expect to hear heaps more about it soon. If you'd like to know more about what Oracle and Google are arguing about, this EFF article is an easy read.

#### First dev preview of Android 11 is out, not much in it for end users

The first developer preview of Android 11 was released yesterday and Arstechnica has a nice look at what's new in what I think is the world's most used operating system (2.5b Android devices vs 1.5b Windows users). There isn't much user facing stuff, which to be honest, is probably a good thing - what else is there really to mess around with after a decade of these devices? The entire industry could do with a solid 2-3 years of leaving shit alone and fixing stuff under the hood. What is new in Android 11 however, is a rejig of do not disturb options, a screen recorder and as is tradition for Android releases, major changes to notifications. There will probably be more stuff slipped in to Android 11 as each preview is released every month prior to public release in Q3-2020.

#### Russia is meddling in 2020 US elections & Julian Assange offered pardon if he says Russia wasn’t involved in 2016

Apparently Russians are meddling in US election campaigns again, this time agitating to get Trump re-elected. The Washington Post & NYT are basing this on their insiders telling them about a secret briefing given to the House Intelligence Committee last week. It's not known publicly what the Russians are up to, but they could simply be doing what they did in 2016 - it's not like the social networks that allowed them to stir shit back then have changed much. Related-ish, Julian Assange's lawyers are trying to prevent him being extradited to the USA when his UK prison time is over. A key part of their argument is evidence that Trump sent a goon offering a Presidential pardon for Assange if Julian says Russia had nothing to do with the DNC email leaks. Presumably so Trump's fragile ego can keep telling itself that he became President on merit instead of being a puppet of more craven individuals.

# Not News

#### Shiori, an open source clone of Pocket you can host yourself

Pocket is one of the key tools I use for The Sizzle. Everything I see in passing on the web or on social media, I save to Pocket so I can look back at it later and mention it here. I've got no beef with the product (I even pay for Pocket Premium) but like all online services, I worry about what happens if it disappears one day, taking years of my perfectly curated bookmarks with it - or the developers of Pocket just fuck it up somehow and it becomes unusable. One way to prevent that is self-hosting a service, taking full control of my data. Shiori is an open source clone of Pocket that looks half decent. I quickly installed the Docker image and yeah, it's a clone of Pocket but without a smartphone app.

# Bargains

- Blue Yeti USB mic - $147 from Amazon AU

- Withings Activite Steel HWA01 fitness tracker watch - $58.51 from eBay with the code PRESTO

- Beats Powerbeats Pro wireless earbuds - $277 at Harvey Norman & Officeworks

🎶 Truk - Grinspoon

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

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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.​