Plus: Counterfeit SSDs are getting pretty good ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 31, 2026 | Read online
# New privacy protections for kids, Apple turns 50 and Microslop's Copilot pull request ads Plus: Counterfeit SSDs are getting pretty good
{{OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL}}
Edition 2533
"Computer Engineering" by Cory M. Grenier is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Mentioned in today’s edition: Microsoft, Canva, Pixel 11, Telstra, Paul McCartney, ChatGPT and Samsung 990 PRO SSDs. Plus, deals on Soundpeats earbuds, Xiaomi robot vacuums and Kobo e-readers.
# The News
### Australian teens set to get new online privacy protections (and are still on social media)
Australian kids might not be off social media but they are set to gain the "right to delete" and other privacy protections under new draft rules (OAIC). Today, the OAIC has released a draft of its online privacy code for children (under the age of 15) that would make social media networks, gaming platforms, even educational tools do things like:
only collect and use info in the best interest of kids. delete data when asked and provide info about how it was used. seek consent from a kid before going to the parent to share more information beyond the bare minimum.
Meanwhile, the federal government announced that 5 major social media platforms are being investigated for not adequately enforcing its social media ban (ABC News), as its own research showed that 7/10 — SEVEN OUT OF TEN — parents say kids who had social media accounts are still on platforms post-ban (eSafety).
The Sizzle: Getting both of these on the same day is perfect. The teen social media ban is not keeping teens off social media and hasn't reduced reports of harm. I know I keep banging on about this and it probably seems obvious to many of you, but, as I wrote in Crikey today, it's not working so far.
Meanwhile, the privacy commissioner wants to reform platforms that currently have the kids on them to treat them better. No fucking around with new age check tech, no whack-a-mole with refugee kids, not forcing people to hand over more data to the platforms. The kids' code is just a draft, and will no doubt change, but its design lets us focus on figuring out what protections we should extend to kids (and maybe, adults too?) instead of trying to fight kids who want to be online.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Apple turns 50 years young!
It's Apple's 50th birthday this week, and there's plenty of fun content out there celebrating one of the all-time most creative, weirdest and, ultimately, great companies of our time. Information Age's Tom Williams spoke to some Australian Apple megafans and even its first Australian employee (who is now a farmer). The Verge has an excellent series, Apple @ 50, which includes some great retrospectives on the Apple II and the MacBook Air. Paul McCartney is rumoured to perform for Apple employees this week too! And, perhaps the sweetest gift of all: Apple has apparently fixed a mystery bug that was causing typos on the iPhone (WSJ, $).
Relatedly: the Verge is ranking everyone’s top 50 Apple products by letting you choose your favourite of two randomly paired options.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Microslop's Copilot is putting AI ads into people's pull requests
And now we turn to Microsoft, which continues to have a terrible run. Its latest act of rake stepping is that its Copilot AI is now inserting a̶d̶s̶ "tips" into pull requests (Windows Central). Developer Zach Manson's colleague asked Copilot to fix a typo. It happily complied but also took it upon itself to insert a sentence about how to use its AI with Raycast (Zach Manson).
This isn't an isolated error, either! One Hacker News commenter found 1.5 million (!) of the same tips on GitHub. A Copilot employee now says they've disabled the "tips" in pull requests.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
RBA bans surcharging for small businesses from October (SmartCompany) Telstra forced to remove a third of its mobile coverage from its maps (AFR, $) It's official! 13400 scams cost Australians over $2bn in 2025, says ACCC (Cyber Daily) 'This is a new bar': Cliff Obrecht sparks Canva job cut fears in since-deleted Slack note (Capital Brief, $) Fair Work set to make worker who used AI to pay costs for failed claim (The Australian, $)
Rest of World:
A banger read on OpenAI ditching its video slop maker: The sudden fall of OpenAI's most hyped product since ChatGPT (The Wall Street Journal, $) Also on OpenAI: Its ChatGPT app store not doing so well (Bloomberg, $) The White House app has Huawei spyware and an ICE tip line (Sambent) Meta is now testing premium Instagram subscriptions (CNET) The latest Pixel 11 leak shows slimmer bezels and an all-black camera bar (The Verge) EVs were meant to bypass oil. Now they’re stuck at the Strait of Hormuz (Rest of World)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### These are some really impressive counterfeit SSDs
I want to give credit where it's due: whoever made these fake Samsung 990 PRO SSDs found by Japanese tech website AKIBA PC should probably be hired by Samsung. The drive, its packaging — it all looks good. It has the promised amount of storage. It even performs as well as the real deal. At first. The DRAM-less counterfeits use SLC caching to run blazing fast until the cache fills up, and then transfers become probably slower than old school hard drives. Still, pretty impressive!
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Soundpeats PearlClip Pro Ear Clip Black Earbuds - $51.93 at Amazon Samsung Galaxy FE Watch at Officeworks Pink Gold for $184 Black for $328 Xiaomi Robot Vacuums at Xiaomi Australia S40C for $199 S40 Pro for $319 H40 for $359
Computing
Fractal Design North ATX Case - $199 at Scorptec (Down from $299) Kobo Libra Colour (White) - $322 at Amazon (Down from $368) XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Magnetic Air Edition with RGB 16GB GDDR6 Black - $998 at All Needs Computers (Down from $1454) Gaming PC: AMD 9600X, GIGABYTE RTX 5060 Ti 8G EAGLE, B850M, 32GB 6400 RAM, 1TB SSD, 650W - $1899 at UMKLOGIX
# The End
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