| Issue 2266 - Friday 7 February, 2025 | TGIF, folks! Have a ripper weekend. | In Today’s Issue | Shein, Temu hit by Trump tax and your gadgets are next Mate, you haven’t been posting and boasting, have you? AI wrap: Aussie Deepseek connection, Meta pirating and everything OpenAI does get immediately copied Finally, myki’s on phones now Deals on Logitech speaker, EzySim prepaid 12-month SIM, GL.INet Wi-Fi router, Samsung 2TB SSD, Roborock robot vacuum, Samsung Frame 65’’ TV and Asus Zenbook
| | The News | Shein, Temu hit by Trump tax and your gadgets are next | Life has gotten harder for Chinese ecommerce giants Shein and Temu under the Trump administration (ABC News). For those not familiar or who haven’t seen their insane spammy ads (AdWeek), fast fashion company Shein and “Aldi catalogue on steroids” company Temu have built huge businesses by being very good at the tech side of logistics (Grist has a good piece on this from last year) but also by taking advantage of rules that exempt the deliveries from import taxes because of their low value (Reuters). Not only has Trump ripped up this exemption, but they’ve also applied it to packages that were already on the way so US shoppers are being told by UPS and DHL that they have to pay somewhere between $20-$50 to get their packages (WIRED, $). | Beyond these companies, there are two big flow-on effects. First, you should expect that the tech gadgets and gizmos using Chinese parts but made in America are going to get more expensive. Secondly, this kneecaps two competitors to Amazon, which just reported so-so earnings (WSJ, gift link) but is supposedly just about to announce a long-awaited souped-up AI-powered Alexa (Reuters) after a reportedly cursed, long development. | Mate, you haven’t been posting and boasting, have you? | South Australia wants to criminalise “posting and boasting” about criminal activity on social media (SA Premier). If passed, you could be given up to two years in prison for posting about a crime you committed. You can even be charged for the offence even if you’re not charged for the actual crime committed. They’ve included some public interest defences like if your post was for “journalistic or artistic purposes”. Apparently the context is that police are concerned that youth gangs are doing crimes for the purpose of posting online (Adelaide Now, $). It worries me a little bit that police are given new powers that could be misused — finding a new way to slap climate protestors with extra charges — when … crime is already illegal, lol, just charge em for the original thing. But we all know there’s nothing Australian politicians love more than cracking down on crime and going hard on big tech, so a mix of the two was an irresistible temptation. | AI wrap: Aussie Deepseek connection, Meta pirating and everything OpenAI does get immediately copied | AI remains the biggest story in tech at the moment. Some of you like reading about it, a few of you don’t, so I don’t want to overdo it for either party. So, here’s a wrap-up of a few interesting stories: | One of the “pivotal contributors” to DeepSeek is a bloke who studied at the University of Adelaide and Monash University (ABC News). Meta has admitted to torrenting 81.7 terabytes of books from online piracy websites to train its AI, emails unsealed in a court case reveal (Ars Technica). OpenAI released a whizz-bang “deep research” tool (OpenAI) which was replicated in 24 hours by AI dev company Hugging Face (TechCrunch). Also, researchers were able to replicate OpenAI’s top-of-the-line reasoning model for $50 and in 26 minutes (The Verge). Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence that OpenAI’s insane expenditure is giving them much of a business moat. Early returns on Microsoft’s bet on splashing AI on everything don’t seem great as its higher priced Copilot+ laptop series sales do not impress (The Register).
| | Oh, Also | Finally, myki’s on phones now | Every time I see a headline about Victoria’s long and arduous journey to transition its public transport system myki to a tap-and-go system, I shake my head. Contract disputes (The Age, $)? A trial that’s limited to just four bus routes (ABC News)? Some of the cards won’t let you tap and, instead, you must awkwardly “hover” (Herald Sun, $)??????? | Which is why I was so heartened to see this update – presumably an official announcement from the Premier’s account, I didn’t check. |  | @jackfrommelb_ |
| As a Sydneysider, I’m so happy to see you’ve finally caught up with the rest of the world. | | 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. | 💬 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. | 💳 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. | 🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply! | 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. |
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