### Issue 1463 - Friday 1st October, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- Waymo & Cruise allowed to operate robotaxis in San Francisco
- New logos to tell you what speed & power a USB-C cable can handle
- Friday news dump
- iPhones participate in Find My iPhone network even when turned off
- Friday forum update
- Cheap Microsoft 365 subscription, Eero Pro 6 mesh wi-fi, Surface Laptop Go, Football Manager 2021, The Last of Us Part 2, PC Building Simulator, Blue Yeti mic & Logitech webcam bundle, 17% off eBay sale this evening

## The News

### Waymo & Cruise allowed to operate robotaxis in San Francisco

The Californian DMV has approved Cruise and Waymo using their robotaxis to pick up paying passengers in parts of San Francisco. Cruze's cars will be limited to operating between 10pm and 6am, and can't go faster than 30mph. Waymo is allowed to operate at any time of the day at a max speed of 65mph and in rain and light fog. Both also won't need a safety driver. Literally a driverless car will come pick you up and take you somewhere starting now in San Francisco. Sure, there will be funny mishaps posted to YouTube like we saw with Waymo in Phoenix, but handling the city driving of a place like San Francisco with its bizarre street layouts and varied weather (compared to Phoenix at least) compared to Phoenix is next level.

### New logos to tell you what speed & power a USB-C cable can handle

The USB Implementers Forum has come up with a range of "Certified USB Type-C Cable Logos" that are designed to "demystify the USB-C 2.1 and USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) 3.1 standards". The logo will now show either speed and/or data transfer speed - e.g: a 40 Gbps 240W USB certified cable. The use of the logos isn't mandatory and necessarily doesn't mean you won't get a counterfeit piece of junk cable off Amazon that you then have to take the post office to return and get a refund - but on products from reputable brands (i.e: Anker, Belkin, Amazon Basics etc) the logos should make it easier to determine the speed and wattage a USB-C cable can tolerate.

### Friday news dump

- Xbox Cloud Gaming kicks off in Australia today. If you've got an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription you can now play games without owning an Xbox. All you need is a fat internet pipe, a controller of some sort and a compatible device.
- Optus has flogged off 70% of its mobile phone tower business (Australia Tower Network) to Australian Super for $1.9b. Telstra sold 49% of its tower business for $2.8b a few months ago to some super funds too.
- Australian pricing for the Polestar 2 is out. Base model is about the same price as the Tesla Model 3 (low $60k range). Looks like a nice way to get a fancy EV without having to give a cent to Elon Musk. Goes on sale Jan 2022.
- Spotify has introduced "interactive polls and Q&As" into podcasts created by Anchor and listened to within the Spotify app. This is the little crumb we get in return for letting Spotify turn into the Facebook of podcasts.
- Cloudflare has yet another new feature - Stream Live. You feed it live video, it transcodes and broadcasts it out using their kickarse network, then makes it available as a recording instantly.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### iPhones participate in Find My iPhone network even when turned off

Maybe not a surprise to us dorks, but for most people, when they turn their iPhone off, they kinda assume the damn thing is off. With modern iPhones (iPhone 11 and newer), that isn't the case if you've enrolled the device in Find My iPhone (i.e: almost everyone). Apple's popped a chip in the iPhones called the "Always On Processor" and it runs its own real-time operating system, RTKitOS. It enables stuff like waking the iPhone up when tapped/moved or allowing Siri to operate when the phone is asleep. It also turns the iPhone into a big AirTag - even when turned off - using some special combination of Bluetooth and the U1 chip.

## 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.

- Josh wants to know what kinda smartwatch they should get their kid
- LilSizzle is after anyone's experiences with moving their email domains over to Apple iCloud+
- warkolm kicked off discussion regarding WSJ's Facebook Files, exposing heaps of leaked internal Facebook comms
- lenjet wants recommendations on a quality desktop USB charger and USB-C cables
- The Buy & Sell forum has been going off, mostly with people selling their old iPhones as the iPhone 13 gets delivered

## Bargains

- Microsoft 365 Family 12m subscription - $94 from Bing Lee
- Amazon eero Pro 6 tri-band mesh wi-fi 3-pack with built-in Zigbee hub - $799
- Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 12.5" i5/8GB/128GB SSD - $777 from Microsoft
- Football Manager 2021 for PC - $9 at JB Hi-Fi
- The Last of Us Part II for PS4 - $38.96 on the PS Store
- PC Building Simulator is free on the Epic Games Store next week
- Blue Yeti USB mic & Logitech Streamcam bundle - $298 from JB Hi-Fi
- 17% off "eligible items" on eBay starting at 5PM today (usually a good time to score cheap Apple/Dell/Ubiquiti stuff)

## The End

📻 Pervert - Descendents

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Checked out the paid subscriber only forum? It's a tidy little place to discuss tech with like minded Aussies.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info? Visit the customer portal.

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.​