Plus: one good reason not to trust AI to plan your holiday ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

January 23, 2026 | Read online
# Airwallex child abuse funding claims, custom Android ROMs & the Sizzler Say Plus: one good reason not to trust AI to plan your holiday
{{OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL}}
Edition 2487
"ComputerCraft CraftOS 1.8" by Ogidya is licensed under Public domain
Hello! Just noting that the Sizzle will be off for the public holiday. Seeya on Tuesday!
Mentioned in today’s edition: Airwallex, Google, Neal Mohan, Tesla, Windows 7, Atlassian, GrapheneOS, Adobe Acrobat, Max Woolf and Kagi. Plus, deals on Sennheiser earbuds, Alienware keyboards and the iPhone Air.
# The News
### Australian fintech startup Airwallex accused of not doing 'basic' checks to stop funding child sex abuse
One of Australia's hottest fintech companies, Airwallex, has been pulled up by the financial crimes watchdog over fears its platform is being used to fund child sexual abuse (ITNews). Yesterday, AUSTRAC ordered the company, now headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco, to appoint a special auditor over concerns it was being used by "money mules" accounts that facilitate criminal transactions (AUSTRAC). Airwallex denied the accusations and welcomed the audit (AFR, $).
The Sizzle: Airwallex has been a hot company, backed by some of Australia's biggest VC funds, and was reportedly set for a potential IPO this year (AFR, $). Not a lot looked like it could stop its rise — but claims that it's not even meeting the most basic anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financial requirements is a pretty legit one. Fintech has always been a sector that investors love in theory because, if successful, it offers an incredible business model (clip the ticket) and a limitless addressable market. The problem, of course, is that there's a lot of regulation in finance, with good reason. I've always heard whispers about some of the cowboy-esque philosophy at Airwallex, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to come on this.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### The rise and fall of custom Android ROMs
Remember in the early days of smartphones when it was an open question what "ROM" — or custom Android OS — you might roll with? 9to5Google has a nice piece and video on the former popularity of ROMs the endlessly customisable CyanogenMod or dodgy forks imitating the look of iOS. Custom ROMs fell to the wayside because phone makers and telcos stopped getting away with selling locked handsets that don't get updates, and because vanilla Android got better.
this isn’t a custom ROM but a custom launcher but tbh I couldn’t be bothered tracking down a proper picture because it’s friday
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### The Sizzler Say: Sizzler vollies, thanks to Apple's PDF viewer and a cool music production set up
I probably shouldn't be surprised, but it turns out quite a few Sizzlers shared on the forum how they've been involved in volunteer firefighting or in developing mapping tools. Gtch on Slack responded to my disgust towards Adobe Acrobat with some words of thanks for Apple's built in PDF reader. If the Trump-Greenland stuff has you interested in alt-US tech options, shermozle posted on the forum about how the EU's version is going. Jackie posted his sweet new music production set-up on Slack. Thank you again to everyone from Canva who messaged me. I'm still on the lookout for more - send me a msg on Signal @cmw.69 if that's you, we'll talk completely confidentially.
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 Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
auDA is consulting on the rules around using .au (auDA) Here's a piece about how Atlassian and other SaaS companies are down in the market because of fears that AI will just lead people to making their own custom software (Australian Financial Review, $) Former eSafety Chief Argues Meta Should Face Criminal Charges for Illicit Bank Trade (Capital Brief, $) Troops Cleared to Down Rogue Drones Threatening Defence Sites (InnovationAus) hell yeah Comms Department Queries Telstra Over Outback LEOsat Outages (iTnews) Sony Adds to Open Audio With LinkBuds Clip (Pickr) These look sick China EVs Have More Range at a Lower Price, No Wonder They Have Taken the Electric Crown (The Driven)
Rest of World:
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s 2026 Letter: The Future of YouTube (YouTube Blog) Waiting for the Dawn of Search (Kagi Blog) Human Artistry Campaign Pushes for AI Licensing for Artists (The Verge) Tesla to Test Unsupervised Robotaxi in Austin With Safety Monitors (The Verge) CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story (The Wall Street Journal, $) I wonder if this is because of the differences in types of work that CEOs vs workers are doing, or if because CEOs have more people cleaning up after them. Grok AI Generated Millions of Sexualised Images in Month, Research Says (The Guardian) Russia-Tied Stablecoin A7A5 Tops $100 Billion in Transactions Despite Sanctions (Bloomberg, $) curl Ending Bug Bounty Program After Flood of AI Slop Reports (BleepingComputer) You Can Now Download Windows 7 and Vista ISO Images With Every Possible Update Included (Neowin) EU Launches CVE Alternative GCVE Vulnerability Database (CyberNews) Your App Subscription Is Now My Weekend Project (Rselbach) I Don't Need No Rolex (Reddit)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### You're in the terminal vibecoding. I'm here playing with colourful balls. We are not the same.
Everyone seems to be spending a lot more time in the terminal these days. Me too. Not because I'm gooncoding with Claude Code or whatever, I've found something much more valuable: a CLI-based physics simulator with thousands of balls (made, as it turns out, by a former colleague of mine, Max Woolf!)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Sennheiser CX True Wireless Earbuds - $77 at The Good Guys (Down from $199) DJI Osmo Nano Standard Combo 64GB - $395 at Amazon JP via Amazon Oakley Meta HSTN - $582 at Amazon Yamaha True X BAR 50A Sound Bar - $598 at Amazon Sony ZVE1W Full-Frame Vlogging Camera - $2079 at eBay Plus (Refurbished)
Computing
Logitech G840 XL Cloth Gaming Mouse Pad - $19 at Big W (Down from $69) Alienware Low-Profile Wired Mechanical Keyboard AW510K - $87.11 at Dell (Down from $129) Logitech G PRO Gaming Mechanical Keyboard with GX Blue Switches - $99 at Jaycar Samsung LS27D396GAEXXY 27" FHD 1800r VLA Curved Monitor - $152 at Amazon (Down from $399) KAMRUI P1 Mini PC - $263 at Kamrui Official eBay Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE 5G 128GB (Refurbished) - $369 at Phonebot MSI Venture 14 AI A1M Laptop - $1199 at PLE Computers Gaming PC: ASUS RX 9070 16GB, R7 7800X3D - $2599 at Radium PCs HP OMEN 45L Desktop - $6499 at HP eBay
Mobile
Optus Flex Plus $350 Prepaid SIM 300GB - $218 at Lucky Mobile (Down from $350) iPhone 16e 128GB on 12-Month Plan - $49.91/Month at Vodafone (Total cost approx $600, Down from RRP $999) Apple iPhone Air 256 GB - $1397 at Amazon (Down from $1799)
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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