### Issue 2083 - Wednesday 8th May, 2024

I'm gonna be at the /dev/world & X World conference tomorrow! If you're around please say hello, I have some cute Apple stickers to give you! Raj will be covering the newsletter, I'll be back Friday.

## In Today's Issue

- New iPads Pro with M4 SoC, Apple Pencils & iPad Air with M2 SoC
- UniSuper ran into a very rare Google Cloud bug that's taken them offline for over a week
- New Nintendo Switch coming by April 2025, Pixel 8a is out, Netcomm acquired by US company
- First crowdsourced data from the National Audit of Mobile Coverage is available
- Cheap Pixel Watch 2, Lenovo Tab M11 LTE, ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme, Ergotron monitor arms, Samsung SATA SSD, Google Pixel 8a, Boost Mobile SIM, GameSir mobile gaming controller, Philips headphones

## The News

### New iPads Pro with M4 SoC, Apple Pencils & iPad Air with M2 SoC

Apple's got some new iPads. iPad Pro is now sporting a M4 SoC, fancy "state-of-the-art tandem OLED technology" in 11" or 13" screen sizes with the option of a nano-texture coating, is now "the thinnest Apple product ever" (thinner than the USB-C connector), a new Magic Keyboard and Smart Folio and a new Apple Pencil Pro. Very fast, very expensive, same old iPad OS. iPad Air gets an M2 SoC and now has a 13" screen variant. The M4 SoC is the most interesting announcement here, with Apple claiming the "M4 can deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power" thanks to TSMC's latest and greatest N3E process. The M4 Ultra is gonna be a beast. Only thing missing from this iPad announcement is an iPad mini update, poor little baby.

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### UniSuper ran into a very rare Google Cloud bug that's taken them offline for over a week

Superannuation fund UniSuper's customer-facing systems have been stuffed since April 29th, but yesterday they finally provided an update beyond "it's broken". According to a statement provided by Google to UniSuper & iTnews, "the disruption of UniSuper services was caused by a combination of rare issues at Google Cloud that resulted in an inadvertent misconfiguration during the provisioning of UniSuper's private cloud, which triggered a previously unknown software bug that impacted UniSuper's secondary systems. This was an unprecedented occurrence, and measures have been taken to ensure this issue does not happen again". Service should start returning to normal tomorrow apparently. Shit happens, computers suck, everyone's money is safe, but that's a hell of a bug Google!

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### New Nintendo Switch coming by April 2025, Pixel 8a is out, Netcomm acquired by US company

- Nintendo cheekily let loose in its latest financial results that it plans to release a successor to the Switch console "within this financial year", which in Japan end on the 31st of March, 2025. Feels like the Switch just came out, but it went on sale March 2017!
- Google has begun selling the Pixel 8a and is promising 7 years of software updates. When this thing goes on sale in a few weeks for $599 (there's already $200-$300 promos, check out today's Bargains) it'll be the value for money king IMHO.
- Aussie network equipment company Netcomm has been saved from closure. American firm DZS has paid US$7m to acquire the 40-year old company, hoping to use Netcomm's expertise to "round out its offerings" in wireless connectivity. Big drop from the $161m Casa Systems paid for it in 2019.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### First crowdsourced data from the National Audit of Mobile Coverage is available

The first chunk of data from a pilot run of the National Audit of Mobile Coverage is now public. It's a program funded by the government and operated by Accenture to try and get real-world signal quality across the country for Telstra, TPG and Optus instead of relying on telco coverage maps that are usually just guesses. The aim is to drive on over 180,000km of roads every year for three years, as well as gather data from "static devices" in 77 locations across the country, "some Australia Post assets" and "crowdsourced" data. Right now only the crowdsourced data is available and the results are what you expect. Telstra has the most coverage (still leaves a lot to be desired IMHO), Optus not that far behind and TPG doing the bare minimum outside of capital cities. Would be nice to get more info on where the crowdsourced data is coming from. Accenture's website doesn't have much data on that.

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## Bargains

- Get $160 Google Store credit when buying a Pixel Watch 2 - $549 from Google
- Lenovo Tab M11 LTE with Pen - $304.89 on eBay
- ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme handheld gaming PC - $1099 at JB Hi-Fi
- Cheap Ergotron monitor arms, e.g: HX + HD Pivot - $300 at PLE
- Samsung 870 EVO 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD - $184.42 from Amazon UK
- Google Pixel 8a 128GB is free on a JB/Telstra plan (24m, $69/m, 120GB/m data)
- Google Pixel 8a 128GB with $200 JB gift card and $300 trade-in bonus - $849 at JB Hi-Fi ($349 after discounts)
- Boost Mobile 365-day SIM, unlimited calls, 170GB/260GB data - $195/$260 from Lucky Mobile
- GameSir G8 Galileo Mobile Gaming Controller - $89 from Gamesir
- Phillips SHP9500 open back headphones - $75 from Aliexpress

## Image Of The Day

Graphics Bonanza (ShivaShaw / Internet Archive)

## The End

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