Plus: Paying your tax late is an OPSEC issue ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 03, 2026 | Read online
# Apple's new iPhone & iPad, Starlink 2.0 and YouTuber's movie tops Aussie box office Plus: Paying your tax late is an OPSEC issue
Edition 2513
"Computer motherboard magnified by water" by Therringshaw is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Mentioned in today’s edition: Tim Cook, OpenAI, Markiplier, Motorola, Canva, OpenClaw, Elon Musk and Iron Lung. Plus, deals on Sennheiser headphones, AMD CPUs and Optus prepaid SIMs.
# The News
### Apple refreshes its budget iPhone and mid-range iPad, leaves laptops for later
Apple has released its iPhone 17e and refreshed its iPad Air, clearing the way for a bigger announcement on laptops later this week (Engadget, Engadget). As expected, the budget version of the iPhone 17 (Apple) and the upgraded mid-range iPad (Apple) are evolutions, not revolutions. The 17e gets the ceramic backing of the 17, MagSafe, the new Apple modem, and a storage & speed bump while remaining at the same price in Australia (Pickr). The new iPad Air is completely identical to the old one, except with a new chip and memory bump at the same price (Pickr). Tim Cook has foreshadowed that there'll be more product upgrades over the week -- with some new laptops expected to drop tomorrow or Thursday (Bloomberg, $)
The Sizzle: The 17e is a fascinating phone because it's in no man's land. The 17e remains pretty expensive and, if you're going to shell out that much, why not splash out a few more bones for the superior iPhone 17? The upgraded iPad is particularly unoriginal for a product line that has lacked purpose other than "bigger and slightly cheaper iPhone for young/old person". With the touchscreen MacBooks expected to come out later this year (not this week), I wonder if there's a world in which the iPad ever gets phased out? Probably not, since they're such a money maker. And, hey, if people keep buying em, don't fix what ain't broke.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### We're getting more privacy Android phones, Starlink 2.0 and a phone that comes with a little guy
From some rather boring device updates to some more exciting stuff, Mobile World Congress is happening in Barcelona at the moment and there's some pretty groovy stuff being announced. Here's some of the stories that caught my eye:
The privacy-focused Android fork GrapheneOS will come to Motorola phones, after the foundation behind it signed a deal with the phone-maker. (Motorola) Speaking of Motorola, we've got a good look at its new premium Razr Fold which looks sweet (Verge). Starlink is launching its second gen satellites which it claims will offer up to 150 Mbps in ideal conditions (Engadget) Our very own Telstra has been promoting its "AI-enabled self-healing network" which it claims will cut down outage times by automating the detection and repair of connectivity problems (TechAU). And uh, Honor released, um, a phone that comes with a little guy? (CNET)
hello little guy
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### YouTuber's indie film tops Aussie box office
This is pretty late but I really wanted to note it: last month, a completely self-written, self-financed movie from a YouTuber topped the Australian box office (Numero). YouTuber Markiplier adapted a 2022 indie video game Iron Lung that he once played on his YouTube channel into a 125-minute sci-fi/horror film of the same name. Although it's gotten mixed reviews, the movie, filmed on a budget of ~US$4 million, has grossed $50m+ worldwide thanks to the social media-led, word-of-mouth campaign where fans requested that cinemas screen the film and subsequently attended in droves.
Not only has it paved a new path for independent creators, Markiplier claims to have broken a world record for most blood in a film (Deadline). Very cool!
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Australia's privacy commissioner wants to start putting more effort into "systemic harms and market practices" instead of responding to individual complaints (iTnews) Canva's gender pay gap got worse after its employees were allowed to cash in on shares (The Australian Financial Review, $) Assistant minister Andrew Charlton says some "data centre principles" will be released in the next few weeks (InnovationAus, $) Up to 20,000 public servants to join GovAI trials (InnovationAus, $) auDA introduces a "machine-to-machine" RDAP protocol to access its registry data (auDA)
Rest of World:
The Verge reports that OpenAI's contract with DoD had the "all legal uses" clause which means that its exclusions of mass domestic surveillance and autonomous killing don't matter (The Verge) US Treasury ending all use of Anthropic products, says Bessent (Reuters, $) UK teenagers pilot social media ban, smartphone restrictions (The Guardian) Musk faces trial for his tweets about Twitter purchase (Bloomberg, $) Instagram tracked growing usage while targeting teens, lawyers argue (TechCrunch) Some Apple AI servers are reportedly sitting unused on warehouse shelves due to low Apple Intelligence usage (9to5Mac) Iranian crypto outflows jump 700% minutes after airstrikes, Elliptic says (CoinDesk) OpenClaw surpasses React as most-starred software (Star History)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Paying your tax late is an OPSEC issue
South Korea's tax office made a teeny, eensy, US$4.8 million mistake. Late last month, its National Tax Service conducted a search relating to a "delinquent taxpayer" (Asia Business Daily). No doubt proud of its staff efforts, it posted a picture to social media of the raid which, seemingly unbeknownst to them, depicted both the hardware crypto wallets and secret passphrases belonging to the aforementioned taxpayer. Subsequently, these wallets were drained of their contents.
OK, well, better pay your taxes next time, then, hey?
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
SoundPEATS Wireless Earbuds at Amazon Air5 for $67.19 (Down from $115) Air5 Pro for $79.99 (Down from $108) DDPAI Z60 Pro 4K Dash Cam at AliExpress Front for $108 (Down from $329) Front + Rear for $136 (Down from $329) Reolink Duo Floodlight PoE 4K 180° Dual-Lens PoE Floodlight Camera - $206 at Reolink AU (Down from $269) Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless Headphones - $260 at Sennheiser (Down from $579)
Computing
KeepLiNK 8x2.5GbE + 1x10GbE SFP+ Unmanaged Network Switch - $63 at AliExpress Fanxiang S301 mSATA SSD 1TB - $90.09 at Fanxiang eBay AMD Ryzen 5 9600X CPU - $244 at AliExpress Crucial T705 4TB With Heatsink - $575 at Amazon KAMRUI H1 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 6800H 32GB LPDDR5 512GB SSD WIFI6 - $580 at KAMRUI Official via eBay
Mobile
Boost Mobile 75GB 28-Day Prepaid SIM plus $7 cashback - $12 at TopCashback AU (Down from $39) 30% Off 5G Mobile Plans For First 3 Recharges at Ezee Mobile 29GB for $20.30 70GB for $27.30 100GB for $31.50 160GB for $38.50 Optus 365 Days 300GB Prepaid SIM Starter Pack - $215 at Cellpoint (Down from $350) Samsung S26 Ultra 512GB - $1448 at CommBank Yello (Down from $2450)
# The End
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