### Issue 1751 - Thursday 8th December, 2022

## In Today's Issue

- Apple announces E2E iCloud backups, physical security tokens for Apple ID & ditches on-device CSAM scanning
- The 1,574th and final Boeing 747 leaves factory
- Minister for Home Affairs is a comedian, Sunny Balwani to spend 13 years in jail, SF decides against killer robots for cops
- Telegram's SIM-free registration feature is complicated blockchain boondoggle
- Cheap Chromecast, AusPost 365-day SIM, Samsung A8 tablet, Sonos Beam, Echo Dot, Tamron 24mm lens

## The News

### Apple announces E2E iCloud backups, physical security tokens for Apple ID & ditches on-device CSAM scanning

Apple will make end-to-end encrypted backups to iCloud, along with physical security key (i.e: YubiKey) support for Apple IDs, available in "early 2023". They're calling the encrypted iCloud backups "Advanced Data Protection for iCloud" and it is something you need to enable on your device. According to the press release, "the only major iCloud data categories that are not covered are iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendar because of the need to interoperate with the global email, contacts, and calendar systems". Apple also announced iMessage Contact Key Verification, so you can confirm if who you are talking to on iMessage is the person you expect it to be. Not formally announced by Apple, but they told Wired they've "decided to not move forward with our previously proposed CSAM detection tool for iCloud Photos. Children can be protected without companies combing through personal data".

### The 1,574th and final Boeing 747 leaves factory

A final Boeing 747 has left the Seattle factory opened in 1967 specifically to build these behemoths. The 1,574th 747 aircraft will fly to Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings early next year where it will spend a long and productive life moving freight around the world. Demand for the 747 plummeted thanks to its quad engine design and the hub & spoke airline business model going out of fashion. One of my earliest memories is being a ratshit little toddler annoying the fuck out of everyone on a flight from Melbourne to Malta (via Singapore & London) and being promised a tour of the cockpit of a Qantas 747 as a bribe to make me behave. Not only did it calm me down, it turned me into a Qantas fanboy for life. Master stroke from the cabin crew. There's still 447 in service (mostly freighters) so the 747 will still grace our skies for many years to come.

### Minister for Home Affairs is a comedian, Sunny Balwani to spend 13 years in jail, SF decides against killer robots for cops

- Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil gave her new stand up comedy routine a run at the National Press Club this arvo, claiming that Australia will be "the most cyber secure country in the world by 2030" thanks to an upcoming cyber security strategy led by former Telstra CEO Andrew Penn. Killer material Clare, great punchline for a tight five.
- Sunny Balwani, wingman to con-artist Elizabeth Holmes, will spend 13 years in a US federal prison. Unlike Holmes who wasn't found guilty of defrauding patients with dodgy blood tests, Balwani was busted for this, as well as defrauding investors. I like it when white collar criminals go to prison.
- San Francisco's board of supervisors have repealed their decision allowing the city's cops to wield killer robots. In a moment of clarity one of the supervisors said he is "increasingly uncomfortable with our vote & the precedent it sets for other cities" and that "I do not think making state violence more remote, distanced, & less human is a step forward".

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Telegram's SIM-free registration feature is complicated blockchain boondoggle

Telegram has a new feature that lets you sign up without a SIM card. Sounds handy, yeah? Unfortunately it's a massive pain in the arse and not anonymous at all. Telegram still wants a phone number, but they've partnered with Fragment (who appear to be a blockchain powered auction house for vanity Telegram usernames) to sell "anonymous" numbers. Essentially made up phone numbers that Telegram has set aside to sell on Fragment, which require the use of Toncoin and a Tonkeeper wallet. None of this is anonymous, as depositing funds into the wallet requires Tonkeeper to do a Know Your Customer ID verification process. Telegram should rename this to what it really is - vanity numbers they get a cut of.

## Bargains

- Google Chromecast 4K with Google TV - $75.05 from Big W's eBay store
- Australia Post (Optus MVNO) Prepaid 365-Day 100GB Mobile Plan - $112.50
- 3x Xiaomi 30W USB chargers with QC 3.0 - $16.95 from Panmi
- Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 Wi-Fi 64GB - $276 from DigiDirect's eBay store
- Sonos Beam Gen 2 - $548 from The Good Guys
- Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) - $19 from Amazon
- Tamron F051SF 24mm f/2.8 lens for Sony E-mount - $210.99 from Amazon

## Image Of The Day

Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), flies over the Washington skyline as seen from a NASA T-38 aircraft, Tuesday, April 17, 2012. Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA's shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles. NASA will transfer Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum to begin its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and to educate and inspire future generations of explorers. (NASA / Robert Markowitz)

## The End

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