Mentioned in today’s edition: Reddit, the App Store, ASD, Meta, Claude, Peter Williams, PayPal and Android Auto. Plus, deals on BlueAnt party speakers, Apple AirPods and Logitech wireless keyboards.

The News

Apple will block Australians from downloading apps until they prove their age

Apple has begun forcing users to prove their age before they can download apps restricted for adults (TechCrunch). The iPhone maker told developers that, starting yesterday, the App Store will check whether users are confirmed to be adults using "reasonable methods" before letting them download apps rated 18+ (Apple). It doesn't spell out what these "reasonable methods" are, but its API suggests this includes checking government ID, payment method and other methods. 

The Sizzle: I'm surprised how little attention this has gotten. It’s a seismic move to get Apple to card people at the app store level. In practice, I doubt many people will notice because the vast majority of people already have a credit card attached to their Apple account. I've been banging the drum for the past year: our internet is now restricted by age. And we're now starting to see the consequences for not complying. Just today, Reddit was fined close to AU$30 million for inadequate age-checking (Ars Technica).

One big winner from Apple's move? Meta and the other social media platforms who have been begging regulators to force the app stores to do the age checks instead of them.

Discuss in Slack or Forum.

Australia's cyber spy agency is giving away its anti-malware tool

This is pretty neat: Australia's cyber-spook agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, has open sourced a malware analysis tool (Cyber Daily Australia). It's called Azul and it's used to help dissect malicious code by creating a sandbox environment and providing automations for picking it apart to understand what it is and how it works. Apparently other agencies like the NSA have done similar things in the past, it's a fairly new development for these agencies to share their tools like this. While it's not supposed to replace your standard anti-malware tools, the point is to make it easier for the infosec community to diagnose and share knowledge about the nasties going around. 

Discuss in Slack or Forum.

How AI-generated fake news gets laundered into the New York Times

In the US, attacks on politicians are being laundered through AI generated "local news" websites and making their way into real news websites (Spin Class). Former Biden national security spokesperson Emily Horne was curious where a "backlash" to politicians cited in Politico and the NYT had come from. She traced it back to an AI-generated fake news website run by right-wing political actors that was cited by these more reputable publications. It's one thing for average punters to be tricked by AI slop, but it's another thing for journalists who can legitimise lies and spread it further if they get tricked. 

Discuss in Slack or Forum.

Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of World:

Discuss in Slack or Forum.

Oh, Also

I don't know why you would want this but here's a CSS x86 emulator

This is extremely cursed, but someone has managed to build a CSS-based, no-JavaScript x86 emulator (x86css). You can use it to write and run C programs in CSS. Why? I guess why not? Even its author acknowledges that it's not practical because "you can get way better performance by writing code in CSS directly rather than emulating an entire archaic CPU architecture." 

Discuss in Slack or Forum.

Bargains

Electronics

Computing

The End

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

🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. Also by Aussies for Aussies — so all prices are in dollarydoos, of course.

🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply!

💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news.

🌐 The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide.

🦺 The Sizzle has been tested to meet and exceed ISO 3533 standards.

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.