 | Edition 2461 |
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The News |
Google has walked back its Android side-loading restrictions |
Google has revised restrictions on side-loading anonymous Android apps after ferocious campaigning by the developer community (Verge). The company put out a blog with a totally-not-owned title “Android developer verification: Early access starts now as we continue to build with your feedback” that offers two concessions on a requirement for Android apps to have a verified developer: creating an “advanced flow” for “experienced users” to install unverified apps, and an anonymous developer account option that can put out apps to a limited number of devices. |
The Sizzle: Love wins ❤️! In all seriousness, this seems like a fine compromise. As I said when first announced, the truth is the vast, vast majority of people entirely use apps from known developers. Leaving a more limited option to side-load unverified apps — assuming it’s not crazy difficult — seems OK to me? (That being said, I admit I could be over-indexing on the downside risks of scams and not appreciating enough how the closing of a once fully open platform will affect the developer ecosystem.) |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Gambling is ruining young men’s lives and everything is becoming gambling |
The majority of people who signed up to be banned from online and phone gambling were men under 40 betting more than $500 a week (ACMA). That’s according to research done for the gambling regulator ACMA which also found that three-quarters of people who self-excluded had better lives and four-fifths had improved mental health (Asia Gambling Brief). This comes as sports gambling has taken over the US, with companies now looking to expand into politics gambling too (an excellent NYMag piece). |
The Sizzle: I really can’t express how much I fucking hate gambling. I don’t have a problem with it in theory, but I really think that being able to gamble everywhere and on everything is going to ruin a lot of people’s lives and make society worse. Like, I don’t think we should have the TikTok of sports wagering or that we should be able to gamble on our bills. Maybe that makes me a puritan! But look around, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot of people are particularly happy about it. (It also scares me how much gambling, finance, work and social media all feel like they’re converging to make our lives one big perilous casino, but that’s for another day). |
Technology is good at removing friction. But my take is that there probably should be friction when it comes to pissing your money away. |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
The Sizzler Say: best power monitoring smart plugs, Russian robot fail and is it getting harder to give family IT support? |
uep kicks off a discussion about the best power monitoring smart plugs on the forum. Quilgy asks on Slack if everyone else feels like it’s getting “more troublesome” to help family and friends with online/IT problems because of how complicated everything is getting. A much hyped Russian humanoid bot had an interesting launch. You Sizzle sickos had a lot to say on the forum about the “transcontinental submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth”. And, turning this section on its head, I will use the Sizzler Say to respond to the Sizzlerfather Anthony’s story “Softbank sells its entire Nvidia stake so it can invest more in OpenAI” to quote Ralph Wiggum: “I’m in danger”.
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As always, if you wanna get involved (or even be able to read what’s on Slack) you can join the Slack server and forum via these links. |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Leftovers |
Australia: |
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Rest of the world: |
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Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Oh, Also |
Jeffrey Epstein did not like what he saw when he Googled himself |
For some people, SEO is important to their business. For others, it’s a bit more personal — like for Jeffrey Epstein. When a tranche of his emails were released yesterday, one of the revelations was that Epstein was upset by Google’s search results for his name and wanted to bury bad stories (Verge). |
 | Yikes |
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Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Bargains |
Electrical & Electronics |
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Computing |
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Mobile |
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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. |
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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. |
