Plus: Bringing a Nokia 900 back to life ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

December 12, 2025 | Read online
# Disney's bizarre OpenAI deal, Pebble's perfect dumb smart ring & the Sizzler Say Plus: Bringing a Nokia 900 back to life
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Edition 2471
"Computer Center" (Flickr: Flork 1138)
Hello! Happy Friday. Thank you all for bearing with me during the most hectic professional week of my life! I never would have guessed that I would do an interview on FOX(‘s streaming channel) NEWS and a German news talk show appearance in the same day.
I’m sure you already caught this interview
I will be back to normal delivery times next week for the last Sizzle week of the year. Have a great weekend — I know I will!
# The News
### Why is Disney paying OpenAI to let the company make AI slop with its characters?
Disney is investing $1.5 billion into OpenAI in a deal that lets the AI company use its characters for AI videos (Guardian). OpenAI announced the three-year deal which will let OpenAI AI video generator make videos of “more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters” (OpenAI). And, in return, OpenAI will pay Disn— wait, I’m sorry, Disney will buy a chunk of OpenAI and give its staff access to ChatGPT and other tech. In completely coincidental timing, Disney has sent a cease-and-desist to Google for infringing on its intellectual property with its AI models (Variety).
The Sizzle: I’m scratching my head a little bit about this deal because, well, surely OpenAI would need to pay Disney to license its characters and not the other way around… right?
But, without knowing if they got some weird discount on equity or whatever, here’s why Disney may have wanted this:
The story of YouTube’s early days was trampling intellectual property owners by not really doing anything about people uploading copyrighted material. Music labels and TV/film studios eventually does deals with YouTube and put a lot of their content on there, rather than suing YouTube out of existence, because it became so big and popular. Disney, seeing something similar with AI, has decided they’d rather get ahead of this by coming to an agreement early and a slice of the action ($1.5b of OpenAI) and… Disney has gotten some concessions from OpenAI that leaves them with control, like limiting the number of characters, no voices and having “robust controls”. The alternative, they fear, is that this all gets declared fair use and Disney will have no control. Disney believes that there will be a commercial benefit from letting users churn out AI slop using their IP under their terms, and so that means it’s actually more mutually beneficial than you might suspect.
Still, very weird. What do you think? Does it make sense to you? LMK.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Pebble’s dumb smart ring is perfect
Smartwatch maker Pebble has released a very cool little “smart ring” that I want (Engadget). After reviving the Pebble watches, Eric Migicovsky has announced the Index 01. It’s a stupidly simple device that is essentially a microphone in a ring with a button and a battery life that lasts for “years” (Verge). It connects to your phone by Bluetooth, where it collects your recordings and transcribes them locally.
It says a lot that I’m so pleasantly surprised it’s not ugly
Here’s the banger bit: it’s open source and designed to be hacked so it interact with other apps: whether it’s to immediately send your notes to Notion or to send requests to ChatGPT. I fucking love this: simple, open, and built to make you spend less time distracted, not more. It FEELS like a gizmo. You can pre-order it now for $110 or buy it later for $150.
The Sizzle:
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### The Sizzler Say: sleep apnea, Paramount’s hostile bid and what’s a good budget printer?
Firstly, thank you to all the concerned Sizzlers who said on the forum or in emails that I should not just take my GP’s word that I do not have sleep apnea. I’m pretty sure I’m ok — when I sleep normally, I feel great! — but maybe I should get a proper test. The teen social media ban did not go smoothly for some Sizzlers and their family. Also gtch & others on Slack had some good points in favour of the ban. Some chat on the forum about the Netflix-Warner Bros and Paramount’s hostile bid since I wrote about it. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A GOOD BUDGET PRINTER PLEASE.
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:
Pro-teen social media ban group funded by firm making gambling ads (Crikey, $) Reddit launches High Court challenge to Australia's social media ban for kids? (BBC) 'Already had a profound effect': parents react to Australia's social media ban (The Guardian) How the AFP's crypto investigator tracks ill-gotten gains (AFR, $) BYD wins approval for lower cost variant of its best-selling EV in Australia (The Driven) ACMA secures pledges from major online retailers to block "dodgy" mobile sales (iTnews) New resources to help First Nations communities stay well connected during social media delay (eSafety Commissioner)
Rest of the world:
Apple Loses Appeals Court Ruling in App Store Fight With Epic (Bloomberg, $) OpenAI Launches GPT-5.2 as It Navigates 'Code Red' (Wired, $) One in three teens uses AI chatbots daily, with ChatGPT dominating (PCWorld) Lawsuit claims ChatGPT put a ‘target’ on murdered woman (The Verge) Rivian is building its own powerful AI chips for autonomous driving (The Verge) IT GETS WORSE: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16 (Alec Muffett) A Developer Accidentally Found CSAM in AI Data. Google Banned Him For It. (404 Media, $) Age Verification Is Coming For the Internet. We Built You a Resource Hub to Fight Back. (EFF)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Bringing a Nokia 900 back to life
I have such a soft spot for Nokia’s phones from its 1990-2000 glory years, and I love seeing people re-use devices. That’s why this project about resuscitating a N900 and turning it into a music player really tickles my fancy. Worth checking out to see everything the author had to step through — very clever!
WE WILL REBUILD YOU
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Panasonic Open Ear Headphones - $49.95 at Pansasonic Online Store (Down from $199) RØDE PSA1+ (Black) Premium Professional Studio Boom Arm - $129 at Amazon AU Fitbit Charge 6 - $155 at Google Store Fosi Audio ZH3 DAC/Amp - $184 at Fosi Audio via eBay AU Oura Ring Gen 4 Black and Silver - $398 at Harvey Norman (Down from $568) Sonos Beam Gen2 Black Smart Soundbar BEAM2AU1BLK - $509 at Costco Apple Watch Series 11 at Costco 42mm Aluminium GPS for $539 46mm Aluminium GPS for $589
Computing
Intel Network Cards at LingsTech Intel i350-T2 Dual-Port Gigabit NIC for $99 Intel X710-DA2 Dual-Port 10Gb SFP+ NIC for $219 Cooler Master MasterLiquid Atmos 240 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler - $114 at FrontidaHealth via Amazon AU AOC 24G11ZE 23.8" FHD Fast IPS 240Hz Adaptive Sync Gaming Monitor - $139 at Centre Com Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming Wi-Fi AMD Ryzen AM5 ATX Motherboard - $301 at Amazon DE via AU Galaxy Tab A11+ Wi-Fi Kids Edition Case and Pen - $329 at Samsung AU Dell S3225QS 32" 4K UHD 120Hz VA Monitor - $499 at Dell AU
Mobile
Samsung Galaxy & Pixel Phones at amaysim Samsung Galaxy A17 for $209 A35 for $249 A55 for $350 Pixel 8a for $399 Pixel 8 for $499 Pixel 9a for $624 S25 FE for $749 Samsung Galaxy S25 256GB at Costco - $949 Xiaomi 15T Pro Black 12GB+512GB at Xiaomi Australia - $1099 Motorola Razr 60 Swarovski 256GB + Moto Buds Loop Swarovski at Harvey Norman - $1598 OPPO Find X9 Pro 5G 512GB/16GB RAM Titanium Charcoal Dual Sim Global Version - $1726 at Spectronic
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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