#### Issue 1711 - Wednesday 12th October, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Meta Connect 2022 - new Quest Pro headset, Microsoft partnership & John Carmack debasing himself
- Ask Apple gives developers an opportunity to ask Apple questions on Slack and in one-on-one sessions
- IIHS study shows widespread abuse of L2 driver assist (aka Autopilot) features
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition reviews
- Cheap WD 20TB external HDD, Razer webcam, Ring security cam, Logitech MX Keys Mini, Samsung USB flash drives & microSD cards, MBP 13", Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro LTE, AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, various LEGO sets, Boost Mobile SIM

## The News

### Meta Connect 2022 - new Quest Pro headset, Microsoft partnership & John Carmack debasing himself

Meta Connect 2022 took place overnight, showing off Meta's efforts in "building the metaverse". The main announcement (besides avatars getting legs, haha) is the Meta Quest Pro. It'll cost $2,450 and go on sale October 25th. From what I can gather it's Microsoft's Hololens combined with a faster Quest 2. Microsoft is even partnering with Meta to bring Teams, Office, Windows and Xbox Cloud Gaming to Meta's VR/AR platforms. If that doesn't send a chill down your spine you have no soul. John Carmack gave an unscripted and quite frank one hour rant in a "custom build" of Horizon - Meta's VR social chat thing. While I respect John immensely, I can't take him seriously looking like a glorified Bitmoji with lip sync and frame rate issues.

### Ask Apple gives developers an opportunity to ask Apple questions on Slack and in one-on-one sessions

Apple has launched Ask Apple, a "series of interactive Q&As and one-on-one consultations that will provide developers with even more opportunities to connect directly with Apple experts for insight, support, and feedback". These interactive Q&As will be available via group chats in Slack or in 25 min one-on-one "office hour" sessions. Developers need to register ahead of time on Apple's website and the sessions will only run for a week. I don't know why this isn't a permanent thing, with a fleet of "evangelists" paid by Apple (a rounding error from Apple's 30% App Store cut) on call to answer everyone's questions.

### IIHS study shows widespread abuse of L2 driver (aka Autopilot) assist features

A new study from the USA's Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gives evidence for drivers overwhelmingly abusing level 2 driver assist systems in their fancy cars. They surveyed 200 users of General Motors Super Cruise, 202 users of Nissan ProPILOT Assist and 202 users of Tesla Autopilot and found some worrying stats like 10% of Autopilot users sleeping, 18% reading a book and 20% watching videos - and that's what drivers admit to! Almost half of Super Cruise and Autopilot users texted whilst driving! ProPILOT users did much fewer of these activities, which the study reckons is because it doesn't immediately disengage when the driver takes over, giving drivers a sense that they're always in control as opposed to Super Cruise and Autopilot.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition reviews

Reviews of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card are live. Unsurprisingly, this thing is a beast - in performance, in power consumption and in size. The triple slot card (!!) comes with a 12VHPWR power plug, which I think isn't native on any PSUs yet, so it comes with an adapter to go from 4x PCIe 8-pin plugs to one 12VHPWR plug. At its peak the RTX4090 FE uses around 425W alone. You absolutely want a 1000W PSU at a minimum for this bad boy. All that power consumption results in stunning benchmarks, with practically every game running at a stable 4K 60fps at ultra quality settings with ray tracing enabled and 4K at 120fps without ray tracing or reducing the quality settings. A feast for the eyes and the wallet with an RRP of $2,959.

## Bargains

- Western Digital 20TB Elements Desktop HDD - $486.20 from Amazon UK
- Razer Kiyo Pro Webcam - $164.95 from Razer
- Ring Spotlight Cam (Battery or Wired) - $139 from Amazon
- Logitech MX Keys Mini Wireless Illuminated Keyboard (Rose) - $79 from OzOnlineBuys eBay store
- Samsung Bar Plus 256GB USB flash drive - $46.98 from Amazon USA
- MacBook Pro 13” M2 (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) - $1797 from Amazon
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro LTE - $729 from Amazon
- AMD Ryzen 7600X, 7700X, 7900X, 7950X CPUs - $474.32/$623.90/$852.70/$1099.12 from Computer Alliance's eBay store
- Sony SRS-XB23 Portable Wireless Speaker - $85 from Target
- 20% off heaps of LEGO sets at Big W
- Boost Mobile $200 SIM Card (140GB/365 Days) - $164 from Luckymobileau's eBay store
- Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSD card - $31.70 from Amazon

## The End

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