New iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods

I'm not gonna go into specs on the new stuff, you can get all that from Apple's Newsroom - but it sure does feel like we passed peak iPhone, doesn't it? Headlines features of the new phones are a fancy button on the side to take photos with, support for Apple Intelligence and some cool video stuff on the Pro. That said, there are some interesting things, like the new Apple Watch able to detect sleep apnea so you can go see a doctor about it, and Apple claiming the AirPods Pro 2 are "the world's first all-in-one hearing health experience including a clinical-grade, over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature". iOS 18 will be available for all compatible devices on September 16th. macOS Sequoia will be available the same day too.

Federal government commits to banning kids from social media by end of year

Just as I predicted yesterday, the federal government picked up on the positive reaction to the South Australian government's plan to ban kids from social media and run with it, putting out a press release this morning promising to "introduce legislation this year to enforce a minimum age for access to social media and other relevant digital platforms". No detail on what the minimum age will be, how social media platforms will enforce it and how the government will regulate the scheme. Whatever the eSafety Commissioner's age assurance trial comes up with will probably be what the government mandates social media platforms to implement in order to enforce the minimum age ban. Josh Taylor over at The Guardian explains how actually enforcing the ban will be a pain in the arse for everyone involved.

Google and the DoJ battle it out in court again, this time over online advertising

Yet another trial has kicked off between Google and the USA's Department of Justice, this time focusing on Google's dominance of the online ad industry. The DoJ alleges Google "used its acquisitions of ad software companies like DoubleClick and AdMeld to shore up an 87% market share in the ad-selling industry, stifling competition and hurting both consumers and publishers in the process". Google published a blog post defending itself, saying there's lots of competitors, most publishers use a mix of ad platforms, the fees aren't has bad as the DoJ reckons, ads keep the internet "free for all of us" and without Google's ad technology, small businesses will have a hard time growing. Pardon me while I vomit all over my keyboard.

Bazzite & ChimeraOS are Linux distros designed for gaming

Bazzite is a Linux distro based off Fedora that's tweaked to the max for gaming. It's designed to run Steam like a champ and incorporates driver support for common peripherals and GPUs, like Xbox controllers, Nvidia graphics cards, HDMI CEC support and more. ChimeraOS is another really good option if you plan on using the PC for nothing but gaming (i.e: plugged into a TV), but Bazzite also lets you use the PC as a normal desktop computer if you wish. How awesome is it that this is even an option now? God bless Valve and the efforts that put into Proton/Wine to make Windows games playable on Linux. I think I might build myself a little Steam box to plug into the TV as I don't like playing games in the same room I work in.