Issue 2291 - Friday 14 March 2025

The News

Satellites are good, but not great, and also we’re going to use them as part of our electoral system

Low Earth orbit satellites are good but aren’t a replacement for reliable mobile phone coverage, says a group representing 21 regional and rural Australian organisations (ARNnet). This is in response to the government’s proposed universal obligation covered in a previous Sizzle. The Regional, Rural, and Remote Communications Coalition raised the valid points that satellite connections are limited to clear line-of-sight situations and compatible devices, which means it’s not a silver bullet for coverage issues. This is one of the reasons that the “replace the NBN with Starlink” feels like saying “if black boxes are so indestructible, why don’t we make the whole plane out of black box material”. LEO satellite coverage is cool as hell, but it’s pretty limited compared to mobile and fibre coverage.

Meanwhile, the NBN’s December upgrade to its fixed wireless service hasn’t set the world on fire with new customers (The Australian, $) although this article does smell like beat-up¹ . Meanwhile, the AEC has signed a contract to use Starlink and could be used to transmit election voting results, albeit encrypted results so I’m not too worried about that (The Guardian Australia). And for the NBN real sickos, there’s been some new appointees to the Co’s board (Minister for Communications).

The US wants to make the browser market more competitive by probably killing Mozilla

One thing I didn’t mention when covering the dire state of the browser market is Mozilla’s impending death sentence as part of the US DOJ’s Google Chrome antitrust suit. As a reminder: the Mozilla Foundation gets 75% (!) of its revenue from search providers, primarily Google, which pays it to make Google the default service on Firefox (The Register). The Feds say that Google’s big fat paycheques to Mozilla and Apple are making the browser market uncompetitive because the financial incentives mean smaller players can never get a foothold. Mozilla has responded saying that forcing Google stop making payments would kill them off … which would presumably also not be good for competition (Mozilla). The devil’s advocate case made by a petition that’s been circulating (Mozilla petition) is that Mozilla’s dependence on Google has stopped it from really committing to making a privacy-centric browser that thwarts ad tracking. Which, sure, fine, but how exactly do people expect Mozilla to fund the development of a browser engine — a costly, resource-intensive and not very lucrative business to be in? I’m not sure we want perfect to be the enemy of good.

Podcasting as an open medium is under attack from major platforms

The podcasting industry is moving away from being an open format towards a walled garden experience, the maker of one of the most popular podcast apps has warned. Pocket Casts has made its previously pay-to-use web podcast browser free, the same as its smartphone apps (TechRadar). The company said it freed this feature because it’s worried about “major platforms [Editor’s note: Spotify, YouTube] are shifting away from open standards, moving creators into proprietary systems that limit distribution and control discovery through algorithms.” (Pocket Casts). As an RSS fanboy and a Pocket Casts user, this is like my bat signal. One of the reasons that podcasting is such a diverse space is because the format doesn’t rely on big companies whims about what type of content they want to promote or allow.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

Pour yourself a cup of coffee and dive into this Elon Musk DOGE long-read

Do yourself a favour this week: put aside half an hour and read this mega-report from WIRED about Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’ (WIRED, $). I’ve always loved WIRED’s reporting, but it’s crazy that the tech outlet is legitimately doing the best political reporting about the deranged White House tech takeover, arguably the most important story in the world right now.

If you’re someone who doesn’t care about what’s happening in US politics, the case that I’d make for including it in a tech newsletter is that we’re seeing what happens when a type of mindset and approach to the world has been nurtured in Silicon Valley and then is set upon the rest of the world. Also, the illustrations are great.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday afternoon. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Gadigal 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.