Plus: Enjoy the past and future of surfing da web ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

May 30, 2025 | Read online
# WTF is Meta, no teen social media ban answers yet, Australia's Trump tax? Plus: Enjoy the past and future of surfing da web
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Flickr: robinhutton
Issue 2343 - Friday 30 May 2025
# The News
### What the fuck is Mark Zuckerberg cooking up at Meta?
Meta is an AU$2.5 trillion tech company that sells advertisers access to 3 billion people on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. using the most sophisticated tech systems ever created. That’s what it says on the glossy brochures — but that’s not the experience for the average user. Based on its quarterly “most viewed content report” released overnight, the top reasons people use Facebook is to see spammy engagement bait (Engadget), AI slop that’s been fact-checked (Facebook) and conspiracy theorists (Bluesky). Its new AI app has a billion users (Engadget) which has characters like Step Sis — “I’m stuck in the wash step bro help” — and Baddies Club as its most popular characters. Meanwhile it’s releasing increasingly popular VR glasses (The Verge) and, now, hoping to use that tech to build high-tech military headsets to the US army (WSJ, $). This all started with a website created to rate college girls.
This is why we’re boiling the oceans btw
### Still no answer for how to do age verifications and it’s 6.5 months until the teen social media ban kicks in
It’s T-minus 6.5 months until Australia can start fining tech companies up to $49.5 million for not taking reasonable steps to stop teens from using social media apps and the trial of the age verification technologies has only tested 1 — one — method to verify users’ ages (The Guardian Australia). The government’s tenderer running the trial, ACCS, is a month behind schedule and has warned that there will only be “enough testing” to confirm claims made by various companies using “relatively modest level” of experimentation. I don’t blame ACCS, the issue is that the Australian government decided to drive into an extremely complicated, unsolved problem and tell everyone that they have a year to sort it out. Good luck to them! Also worth watching out for: the eSafety Commissioner is right now coming up with internet rules around “age appropriate content” and experts warn that these could end up hurting access to sex and health educational material if done wrong (The Conversation).
### Australia’s own Trump tech tariff?
It’s weird that no one in Australia is yet reporting on this but there’s a special tech-related treat in the Trump administration’s big tax cut bill just for us (Bloomberg, $). Hidden in the 1,000 pages is a Section 899 that says it’s going to lump extra tax on residents from countries that have “discriminatory” digital services taxes — like Australia. Considering this will hit any institutional investor with US assets which likely includes every working Aussie with a superannuation fund, looks like we could all get a little taste of the Trump tech tariffs fun.
cool cool cool
#### Leftovers
Social engineering threat assessment (Australian Cyber Security Centre) Australia approves Apple, Samsung sleep apnoea tech (Information Age) — I’m confused by this, my Apple Watch sleep apnea feature already works and I bought and used it only in Australia. Google facing adtech class action from local businesses (InnovationAus, $) Pay up: Understanding Australia’s new ransomware reporting requirements (Cyber Daily) AI models analyzing audio from AirPods could determine a user's heart rate (Apple Insider) Apple has only 30 days to comply with EU DMA rules (The Register) iOS 26 release date: rumors, features, and what to expect (The Shortcut) Google Lens is coming to YouTube Shorts (Engadget) The emerging reality of the OpenAI-SoftBank grand plan for data centres (FT) EXCLUSIVE: Xbox's handheld has been sidelined (for now), as Microsoft doubles down on Windows 11 PC gaming handheld optimization (Windows Central) Tested: Nvidia’s GeForce Now just breathed new life into my Steam Deck (The Verge) We Made a Film With AI. You’ll Be Blown Away—and Freaked Out. (WSJ, $) AI video just took a startling leap in realism. Are we doomed? (Ars Technica) Cybercriminals exploit AI hype to spread ransomware, malware (Bleeping Computer) We still know almost nothing about Tesla’s robotaxi service (The Verge) Tesla pleads for Senate to spare its booming energy business (TechCrunch) Putting an untrusted layer of chatbot AI between you and the internet is an obvious disaster waiting to happen (Tom MacWright)
# Oh, Also
### Experience the past and future of surfing da web
Inside of all of us, there are two wolves. You are either:
Surfing da web like it’s 2005: Cast your mind back to pre-WebKit internet by using Opera Mini, the mobile browser that allowed people to go to websites that were not designed to be mobile friendly by routing page requests through a cloud server that rendered the page in a friendlier way. Some guy figured out that this service is still operating, emulated a Java-friendly phone and found that it handles some of the modern internet okay (Spacebar.News). Or
Surfing da web like it’s 2025: Thiswebsitedoesnotexist is a web page that is redesigned and rewritten using AI every time it’s loaded, meaning it’s new every time you refresh. In one sense, an insane way to run a website. But it’s also probably the future? This is a taste of the “generative UI” content that I expect we’ll see a LOT more of soon.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
$50 off when you spend $200 or more at Samsung Earning $10 Reward Voucher by Making a $39+ Eligible Purchase at Amazon TP-Link Tapo Smart Light Bulb 5 Pack - $54 at Tapo AU store Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro Home Mesh Wi-Fi 6E System White 3 Pack - $377 at Officeworks Bose QuietComfort Ultra Noise Cancelling Headphones - $445 at Qantas Marketplace Miele Scout RX3 Robot Vacuum Cleaner - $499 at Amazon AU Roborock Q10V+ Robotic Vacuum - $697 at The Good Guys
Computing
ASUS RT-BE58U Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router - $229 at Bing Lee Samsung 2TB T7 Shield Portable SSD - $243 at Officeworks Lenovo Legion 27" IPS QHD 180hz 0.5ms Gaming Monitor R27qe - $247 at Officeworks Gigabyte B650M AORUS Elite AX AM5 mATX Motherboard - $269 at Umart LG UltraGear 27" (27GS75Q-B) 1440p 200Hz IPS Gaming Monitor - $299 at Scorptec 32" Samsung ViewFinity S70D UHD Monitor - $349 at Samsung Western Digital Red Plus 3.5" Hard Drive 10TB - $343 at Amazon US via AU Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro Home Mesh Wi-Fi 6E System White 3 Pack - $377 at Officeworks Apple Products at BIG W Apple iPad 11" A16 Wi-Fi 128GB for $499 Apple Watch 10 42mm GPS for $499 TP-Link Deco XE75 Pro Mesh Wi-Fi 6E Router System (3-Pack) - $509 at PClive Computer Online eBay Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Laptop: Intel i5-10310U, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Win11 Pro (refurb) - $520 at Computer and Laptop Sales AMD Ryzen 9 7950X - $664 at Amazon UK via AU Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Wall All in One Internet Gateway - $1099 at Scorptec Dell 32 Plus 4K 120HZ QD-OLED Monitor - S3225QC - $1156 at Dell Samsung 32" Odyssey OLED G8 G80SD 4K 240Hz Monitor - $1399 at Samsung Gaming PC: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, 1000W PSU - $5198 at TechFast
Mobile
360-Day Prepaid Mobile Plan (50GB Per 30-Days) - $180 at Lyca Mobile Samsung Galaxy S24 8GB RAM 256GB, Onyx Black - $687 at Amazon AU
# The End
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