### Issue 1541 - Monday 7th February, 2022

Sorry for the much earlier than usual email. I've got some stuff on today that'll mess up my usual schedule.

## In Today's Issue

- Rockstar confirms they're working on a new Grand Theft Auto
- Apple takes the piss with 27% commission on Dutch dating apps
- Twitter's latest feature experiments are a mix of good and bad ideas
- Facebook is slowly dying and everyone is happy about it
- Cheap Apple Watch SE, Hisense 75" TV, AirPods Max, 16TB HDD, Viofo dashcam, Lenovo sale, Gomo eSIM free trial

## The News

### Rockstar confirms they're working on a new Grand Theft Auto

Put down the noose, flush that bottle of pills, return the knife back to the drawer - there's now a reason to keep living. Rockstar has confirmed there will be a 6th installment of Grand Theft Auto! "We are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway. We look forward to sharing more as soon as we are ready, so please stay tuned to the Rockstar Newswire for official details". No other details, but we got confirmation and that's all I ever wanted. Rockstar also said they're releasing a remastered version of GTA5 for the Xbox Series X and PS5 on March 15th.

### Apple takes the piss with 27% commission on Dutch dating apps

Apple has announced how it plans to comply with the Dutch regulator's ruling to allow 3rd party payments in dating apps - a 27% commission on all transactions made in the app, even if the app just links to their own website. Developers will have to provide Apple a report every month of all the transactions made and Apple will send them an invoice for their 27% cut. The app also has to display a warning message saying "this app does not support the App Store's private and secure payment system". Michael Tsai has collected a bunch of developer opinions on this and it isn't pretty.

### Twitter's latest feature experiments are a mix of good and bad ideas

Twitter has launched a few new experiments lately. Downvotes for tweets are now becoming more widespread, with the ability coming to iOS and Android users worldwide. Unlike Reddit, the downvotes are not public. They'll be used to "improve the quality of conversations on Twitter". A more controversial feature is adding a DM button on the timeline, that Twitter reckons will help "start a conversation". Lowering friction for unsolicited DMs sounds like a bad idea. Twitter Flock is a feature I actually want, mimicking Instagram's "Close Friends" to let you assign followers as mates and only show that content to them. Hope this one manages to escape the lab and become mainstream.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Facebook is slowly dying and everyone is happy about it

Garbage Day by Ryan Broderick is one of my favourite email newsletters and the latest issue has an insightful article about how fucked Facebook is. Not fucked in the usual sense that it's warping the brains of boomers globally, enabling genocides and pissing away money on whatever the hell Zuck thinks the metaverse is - but just how bleak Meta's prospects are as a business. The content truly, really, incredibly sucks. Young people avoid it, not-young people loathe it. Governments are strangling its ability to collect data and acquire other businesses. They haven't had hit product that wasn't an acquisition for over 15 years. Taking all that into consideration it's not a surprise the market had a "correction" of Meta's valuation.

## Bargains

- 30 day free trial of Gomo's eSIM plan (Optus-owned MVNO)
- Apple Watch SE (GPS, 44mm) - $419 from Amazon
- Hisense 75U7G 75" 4K TV - $1670 + delivery from Videopro
- Apple AirPods Max - $698 from Amazon
- Seagate Exos 16TB HDD - $475.65 from Newegg
- Viofo A119 V3 dashcam - $109 from eBay
- 20% off at Lenovo's eBay store, some good gaming laptop deals here

## The End

📻 Gospel - Dr. Dre, Eminem

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