Plus: How to uncover realestate.com.au’s hidden prices ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 23, 2025 | Read online
# Musk leaving DOGE for Tesla, Google unkills cookies and boring tech election Plus: How to uncover realestate.com.au’s hidden prices
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Issue 2362 - Wednesday 23 April 2025
# The News
### Elon Musk leaving DOGE to spend more time with his familie— err Tesla
Good news for Tesla shareholders! Elon Musk will soon be using his Midas touch primarily on Tesla again as the company reported a 71% drop in profits (The Guardian). The world’s richest man’s schedule has been freed up presumably because Musk eliminated all US government waste — I assume DOGE’s cut tracker is delayed and the $155 billion in cuts it shows will soon reflect the $2 trillion that was promised (The Register). In a letter to shareholders, Tesla acknowledged “changing political sentiment” and tariffs for the carmaker’s problems (The Verge). Incredibly, Tesla’s stock is… up 5% (MarketWatch) mostly on the news that Musk will be out of government and on his promise that there will be “millions of autonomous Teslas on the road” by mid-next year. How seriously should we take this prediction? Check out this tracker to see how his other promises have fared (ElonMusk.Today).
Seems bad (Source: CNBC)
### Google walks back plan to kill cookies in Chrome
Google will no longer kill off cookies in Chrome because it’s so impressed by how seriously the digital advertising industry is taking privacy (Google)… 🧐 After initially promising to end its support for cookies — which are blocked by Firefox and Safari — Google has cycled through a few different alternative proposals like FLoC and Topics API which would both make it a little bit harder for websites to track your specific movements across the internet (Ars Technica). Now, after a few delays, Google says it has abandoned a plan to prompt Chrome users to turn off cookies but will continue developing Incognito mode, adding a feature that will block IP cross-site tracking to its existing cookies blocking.
### Many are calling this the most boring tech election ever
The most high-profile tech moment of the Australian election so far has been both men who want to be prime minister furiously agreeing on the flawed teen social media ban (ITNews). At last night’s debate, it was just about the only thing Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton agreed on. This comes as there’s a growing consensus in the Australian tech press that YouTube’s exemption from the teen social media ban makes no sense and undermines the policy’s point (AFR, $). One place there isn’t consensus is with experts (SBS) and teens (Pew Research) who both have nuanced views on the benefits and downsides of social media. It’s crazy to me that tech policy has never been more interesting, important or contested — but you wouldn’t know that if you listened to our political contest.
Source: 9NEWS
#### Leftovers
Google wants to land subsea cables at Maroubra beach (ITNews) Australia is more reliant on imported oil than ever before. It needs more EVs (The Driven) DFAT handballs undersea cable centre to consultants (InnovationAus, $) 12-year-old Doom 2 challenge map finally beaten after six-hour, 23K-demon grind (Ars Technica) Bethesda officially reveals Oblivion Remastered, available today (The Verge) The Washington Post will now let ChatGPT summarize its articles (Washington Post) The Oscars officially don’t care if films use AI (The Verge) Instagram's former CEO testifies Zuckerberg thought the app was a ‘threat’ to Facebook (Engadget) When the world connected on Skype (Rest of World) Audi’s first AUDI is the AUDI E5 Sportback (The Verge) Humanoid workers and surveillance buggies: ‘embodied AI’ is reshaping daily life in China (The Guardian) Global PC Shipments Up 6.7% YoY in Q1 2025 Amid US Tariff Anticipation (Counterpoint Research)
# Oh, Also
### How to uncover realestate.com.au’s hidden prices
I’m not sure if there are any real estate website sicko Sizzlers, but browsing realestate.com.au for her dream house is one of my wife’s favourite pastimes. Someone got frustrated with the fact that it sometimes hides a house’s asking price — even though the listings only show up in certain price ranges searches (OzBargain)! So they built a Chrome extension that extracts this data and shows it to you (Chrome Web Store). An OzBargain commenter also found a handful of other extensions that do similar things. Warning: the extension also has some bullshit AI stuff but you can ignore them. Also the listed prices aren’t necessarily that accurate, but, hey, at least there’s something to go off.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 4-Pack (2 Black + 2 White) - $98 at digiDirect Philips Sonicare 3100 Toothbrush Bundle 2 Pack White - $99.97 at Costco Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Flight Pack - $304 at eBay Bose QuietComfort Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones - $320 at Amazon AU Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation with MagSafe Case (USB-C) - $320 at MyDeal De'Longhi Nespresso Vertuo Lattissima Coffee Machine- $355 at De'Longhi ANYCUBIC Kobra S1 3D printer - $510 (with eBay plus) at Anycubic eBay
Computing
SanDisk Memory Cards at Amazon AU Extreme SDXC Card 64GB for $15 (Back Order) Extreme PRO microSDXC Card 128GB for $25 (Back Order) MINISFORUM MS-01-S Mini PC at Amazon Intel Core i5-12600H CPU for $599 with 32GB RAM & 1TB SSD $799.99
Mobile
20-50% off Quad Lock & Rokform cases for older model iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy phones at Johnny Appleseed GPS Boost Mobile 65GB 28-Day Prepaid SIM with $9 cashback - $13 and ongoing $39 25GB for first 2 recharges at Boost Mobile via Cashrewards amaysim 28-Day 50GB Prepaid SIM Starter Pack - $10 and ongoing $30 32GB Per 28-Day at amaysim Everyday Mobile 30 day prepaid mobile plans $25 Starter Pack with 22GB data for $12.50 $30 Starter Pack with 32GB data for $15 $35 Starter Pack for $17.50
# The End
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