Plus: Surf YouTube like it's TV ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 23, 2026 | Read online
# Data centre approval sped up for patriots, Android sideloading and a new (alleged) fraud AI company Plus: Surf YouTube like it's TV
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Edition 2527
"Inside View of State Department Store in Mongolia during Socialism" by Nrantuya is licensed under CC0
Mentioned in today’s edition: Bernie Sanders, Google, Canva, Microsoft Teams, DoorDash, Elon Musk, GrapheneOS and AirPods Max 2. Plus, deals on Alienware monitors, Apple AirTags and Vodafone prepaid plans.
# The News
### Australia will speed up data centre approval if you use renewables, ration water and pledge allegiance to the flag
Data centre approval will be fast-tracked for companies that pay for renewable power, let local businesses and research access compute, and "prioritise Australia's national interest" 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 (news dot com dot au). That's the gist of the federal government's new guidelines for "Expectations of data centres and AI infrastructure developers" (Dept of Industry). These guidelines set out 5 expectations around water, power, local jobs, access for Australian R&D and, of course, serving the national interest. While these aren't strict requirements, the federal government says projects that hit these expectations will be "prioritised" through the federal-state approvals to get built.
The Sizzle: Tech companies want to build their data centres in Australia because we're relatively politically stable, we've got the know-how to build them, and our energy is cheap (renewable energy, of course, ᵇᵘᵗ ᵃˡˢᵒ ᶠᵒˢˢᶦˡ ᶠᵘᵉˡˢ). One way of thinking about data centres is that they're kind of similar to coal mines: they make a lot of money for their owners that goes offshore, there's a lot of jobs for the local community in building them up, but not many once they're up and running, and they compete for resources with the local community. It makes sense, then, that we have some rules about what Australia gets in return (if we do in fact want to build them).
While these "expectations" are pretty good principles, I'm not surprised outfits like the Tech Council and Data Centres Australia have thrown their support behind this plan because of one key word: "expectations". It's great for these companies to have certainty, but also I bet it's even nicer to know that they aren't actually required to hit all 5 expectations. But, based on the backlash that's already happening in America around their data centres, I think it would be wise for companies to try and earn social licence, to avoid steamrolling through and actually contribute back to countries like Australia. Because when you don't, suddenly you get things like Bernie Sanders calling for AI moratoriums and anti-AI protests.
Two related stories to why AI companies might need to win back social licence: Australian companies predict AI will cut one in five jobs within two years (Oz, $) and Australian tech royalty still among nation’s wealthiest in new rich list (SmartCompany)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Android's sideloading hoops revealed, while privacy version refuses to do age verification
Google has released the details on how Android side-loading will work in the future, which includes a 24 hour wait (9to5Google). Meanwhile, the Android privacy fork, GrapheneOS, is refusing to add age verification into its system (Tom's Hardware). This seems to be in response to a Brazilian law that came into effect this month, and a California law beginning next year, that will require every OS to collect their users' ages.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Another AI company has been exposed as a) not AI and b) doing big fraud
The latest company promising to use AI but is just allegedly doing fraud is Delve, a US compliance company with some big tech clients (TechCrunch). An anonymous but comprehensive Substack post claims that while Delve says AI has sped up its systems, it actually saves time by making up a lot of compliance evidence like proof of audits (Substack). Delve also apparently left their Supabase storage bucket exposed, which allowed people to scrape all their reports and calculate that they were 99.8% similar (TrustCompliance).
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Canva founder says it's still worth $60b even though every other SaaS company has been smashed by AI (The Australian Financial Review, $) Self-driving cars could put more cars on the road, encourage urban sprawl and discourage public transport, researchers say (The Driven) DoorDash offers drivers cash payments to help cover rising fuel prices (SmartCompany) Services Australia, ATO, Defence are all leaving the Microsoft location tracking feature that comes in Microsoft Teams off (The Canberra Times, $) Fake Facebook ads lead to international investment scams (Pickr)
Rest of World:
Amazon plans smartphone comeback more than decade after Fire Phone flop (Reuters, $) Yessss let's goooo BezosPhone Elon Musk says Tesla, xAI, SpaceX Terafab to start in Austin (Bloomberg, $) "Musk, who has no background in semiconductor production and a history of over-promising on goals and timelines, had said before that the company will start with a smaller scale fab before moving to a bigger one." Pinterest CEO wants social media ban for youth under 16 (The Senior) The Oracle of Apple Mark Gurman goes quite hard on Apple here, saying "Apple's AirPods Max 2 blurs the lines between marketing and innovation."(Bloomberg, $) Windows users are angry and Microsoft is finally doing something about it (ZDNET) How BYD's EV charger got even faster, and it might not matter as much as you think (WIRED, $) The biggest theft in human history occurred in broad daylight (Labyrinth)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Surf YouTube like it's TV
There are simply too many choices for content. So, enjoy ChannelSurfer which brings back the old experience of flicking through channels, but using YouTube instead of TV.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Apple AirTag 4-Pack - $94 at The Good Guys Amazon Echo Show 8 (newest gen) in Glacier White ONLY - $249 at JB Hi-Fi Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Black) - $329 at Kogan (Down from $499) Sony Alpha 7R IV Full Frame Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) (Box Damaged) - $3211 at Sony eBay
Computing
Asus Prime B550-Plus ATX Motherboard - $161 at Amazon TERRAMASTER D4-320 4 bay DAS - $263 at Amazon Alienware AW2725D 26.7" 1440p 280Hz QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - $598 at Dell TP-Link Deco BE68 BE14000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router System 2-Pack (EU Stock) - $698 at Amazon (Down from $1125) Lenovo Legion Go S Z2 Go 512GB - White - $879 at Lenovo (Down from $999) MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Pro) 14/20 Core CPU/GPU 24/512GB Black - $3197 at Officeworks (Down from $3997)
Mobile
365-Day 200GB Prepaid 4G SIM Plan (New Services only) - $149 at OnePass Mobile Vodafone 300GB 12-Month Prepaid Plus SIM with 30% cashback - $199 at ShopBack (Down from $320)
# The End
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