Plus: Pauline Hanson song is #1 on "music loved by people who don't know how to stream music" ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

January 27, 2026 | Read online
# TikTok US has a rough start, Google loves DrBeast and Clawdbot oopsies Plus: Pauline Hanson song is #1 on "music loved by people who don't know how to stream music"
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Edition 2488
"IBM 7030 Stretch computer photo at National Cryptologic Museum.agr" by ArnoldReinhold is licensed under Public domain
Mentioned in today’s edition: Oracle, Canva, MrBeast, Clawdbot, Larry Ellison, AirTag 2, Chanel Contos, WhatsApp, Nvidia and Windows 11. Plus, deals on Sony shooting grips, Razer gaming mice and Coles Mobile recharges.
# The News
### Is the new TikTok US being censored or just struggling under Oracle incompetence?
The TikTok US deal finally closed last week (Business Insider). The new domestic app was immediately struck with outages and errors (The Verge). Over the weekend, US users were unable to access the app, had videos stuck under review, couldn't see new content uploaded by non-US users and had their personalised feeds revert to the default one. These errors, which happened at the same time as the ICE shooting of Alex Pretti, led people to believe that the platform was being censored but a TikTok US spokesperson said the errors were caused by a power outage (Ars Technica).
Delightful to think that this could be a whole generation’s first experience of Oracle
The Sizzle: I know it's easy to draw the lines between TikTok US -> Oracle -> Larry Ellison -> Trump, but I do buy the excuse that TikTok US just fucked up. In a sick way — as in, I'm a sicko for enjoying this — TikTok US is going to be a great natural experiment. Content MAGAoderation will be one thing, but I'm also curious to see how TikTok US will fare separated from the clearly very talented ByteDance engineering team. Like with Twitter-X transition backend stuff is invisible... until it breaks. Then it's suddenly a big issue. I've got the popcorn ready to see how it goes.
Further reading: Some TikTok users are decamping to another video app founded by a Palestinian-Australian who lives in Sydney 👀
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Google trusts DrBeast more than the CDC
Google's AI mode is primarily getting its health information from the most trustworthy source of medical info, YouTube (Guardian). A study looking at 50,000 answers to health questions found that Google's AI generated answered preferred the platform of M̶r̶ DrBeast over the CDC or Mayo Clinic. Meanwhile, Google is also prioritising YouTube and X posts over media outlets on its mobile Discover feed (Press Gazette). Google's prioritisation of the big, free platforms is not great because it means that the info that's going to be available to most people isn't what's highest quality.
Related reading: The Truth Is Paywalled But The Lies Are Free (2020)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Everyone loves Clawdbot, the AI assistant that is exposing your entire life to the internet
The latest buzzy app among the AI-LinkedIn-hustlebro posters is Clawdbot (GitHub), an open-source, locally-run AI personal assistant that plugs into a bunch of different apps (MacStories). Its main innovation is using messaging apps like WhatsApp as an interface to prompt the AI to do call restaurants for a booking (X), run OnlyFans accounts (X), even control your oven (X). Two teensy downsides: people are leaving their Clawdbots exposed on the internet (LinkedIn) and are chewing through hundreds of dollars of cloud AI to do basic automation (Hacker News) lol.
This is the future….
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
eSafety invites Australians to provide feedback on the social media ban (Cyber Daily) Canva quietly shifted billions of shares ahead of an expected US public offering (Sizzle exclusive!) ‘Kill switch’ risk: Data centres are the next national security fight (Financial Review, $) Chanel Contos fought for consent education in Australian schools. Now she wants tech companies to ask for consent too (Crikey, $) Everything Electric Sydney postponed to September amid “global EV headwinds” (The Driven) Australian journalism 'largely invisible' in AI-generated Copilot news summaries, research finds (The Guardian) High-risk govt AI to be auto-flagged for review in NSW (InnovationAus, $)
Rest of World:
Apple launches AirTag 2 with improved range, louder speaker, more (9to5Mac) WhatsApp falls under EU's strictest online rules (Euractiv) EU launches formal investigation of xAI over Grok’s sexualized deepfakes (Ars Technica) Payment processors were against CSAM until Grok started making it (The Verge) Apparently Intel's new laptop chip, the Core Ultra X9 388H Panther Lake, is good (The Verge) House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs (ISPreview) Microsoft Unveils Latest AI Chip to Reduce Reliance on Nvidia (Bloomberg, $) State of the Windows: What is going on with Windows 11? (NTDEV) Microsoft Offers Windows 11 Emergency Fixes Following Buggy January Update (The Verge) Bluetooth and Wi-Fi suddenly dead? Pixel update may be crippling some phones (Android Authority) Why is there no European Google? (Ploum.net) Netflix Claimed Copyright Violation Against Taipei Citizens Filming Honnold Climb from the Sidewalk on Their Phones (Reddit)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Pauline Hanson song is #1 on "music loved by people who don't know how to stream"
An Australia Day song sung by former Australian one-hit-wonder-turned-conservative darling Holly Valance and released by Pauline Hanson has topped the charts (7NEWS).
Now, you might ask, "which charts?" Well, the song topped the iTunes best-selling chart. As in, music that people purchased for $2.19 on iTunes. This might prompt you to say "hmm, I don't know how many people are buying music these days, how many sales do you need to hit number one?".
iTunes doesn't publish purchase numbers publicly. But, thanks to Scott who wrote to me, we have an answer: a Digital Sales Data tool calculates that the Hanson-Valance song was able to top the charts after being bought just 376 times. Of course, take this number with a pinch of salt - but that sounds about right to me!
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
SONY GP-VPT3 Wireless Shooting Grip/Tripod - $159 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $279) Reolink Altas with Solar Panel 2 - $172 at Reolink AU (Down from $229.99) DALI SPEKTOR 2 Bookshelf Speakers - $299 at Addicted to Audio (Down from $649) Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow Robot Vacuum & Mop - $1799 at The Good Guys / JB Hi-Fi
Computing
Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse - $98 at EB Games (Save ~$100 on RRP) Samsung 32" 4K 165Hz OLED Smart Monitor M90SF - $1197 at Officeworks (Down from ~$2000) Legion Pro 7i (16", Gen 10) with RTX 5090 - $4749 at Lenovo Education Store
Mobile
HMD Barbi Phone 4G (Pink) - $49 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $199) Coles Mobile 365 Days Recharge 60GB - $120 at Coles Mobile (25% off) Telstra $350 Prepaid SIM Starter Kit 365 Days - $269 at Costco (Down from $350)
# The End
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