Plus: shit house DIY smart home set ups ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

May 19, 2025 | Read online
# Telstra's big lie, inside Apple's AI problem and Aussie Tesla FSD test Plus: shit house DIY smart home set ups
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Flickr: AZRainman
Issue 2334 - Monday 19 May 2025
# The News
### Telstra’s coverage lie
Telstra has been caught out inflating its mobile network claims after Vodafone called out the telco (ABC News). Telstra’s claimed it had a “mobile network coverage area of 3 million square kilometres covering 99.7 per cent of the Australian population”. This coverage relied on someone using “antennas and other special equipment”. Without, Telstra’s actual coverage is about 1.9 million km², and Telstra updated its website to specify this after it was contacted by Vodafone in May. (FWIW Telstra’s coverage remains a million km² bigger than Vodafone’s). While its coverage area is honestly irrelevant to the vast majority of people in most situations, it’s pretty shitty behaviour to lie like this (and yes, it is a lie to claim something with a ridiculous, unsaid qualifier).
### Inside Apple’s AI problems
There’s a great Bloomberg long read from Apple Oracle Mark Gurman about why the world’s most valuable company has completely biffed generative AI so far (Bloomberg, gift link). It’s definitely worth a read, tracing back to Steve Jobs’ infatuation with Siri which was released just after he died to internal squabbling now. The newsy bits are that Apple apparently has a pretty good ChatGPT-style bot competitor that it hasn’t released yet. Beyond the palace intrigue, it seems really clear that Apple’s DNA makes it unsuited for the generative AI boom: companies like OpenAI are messy, iterative and careless while Apple is known for its polish and intentionality. Also on Apple: Epic Games says Apple has blocked the return of Fortnite to iOS (The Verge) but it’s unclear why, so take the idea that it’s ignoring a court order with a grain of salt.
### Tesla tests FSD in Australia
Nearly five years after Tesla released its “““““full self-driving””””””, the company has released a video of it in action in Australia (The Driven). The footage shows the car driving through Melbourne, complete with a hook turn (after a delivery driver rides their bike through a red light). The video includes a note that it was filmed in a prototype vehicle being driven by an engineer. Even still, seeing a right-hand-drive version of Tesla’s driver assistance system is new. It seems like before too long, you’ll be able to pay $10,000~ to upgrade your Tesla (TechAU). Given the continued plunging sales for the Elon Musk-led carmaker (AFR, $), the upgrade can’t come soon enough.
| Tesla AI @Tesla_AI |
FSD (Supervised) testing in Melbourne, Australia And yes, that’s a hook turn
5:20 AM • May 16, 2025
6.38K Likes 967 Retweets
442 Replies
#### Leftovers
As more Australians use AI chatbots as personal therapists, experts have urged caution (ABC News) Every election, Australia archives campaign materials. Why don’t we save social media posts? (Crikey, $) Children, young people and parents invited to help shape online privacy protections (OAIC) Announcing Wikimedia Australia’s 10-Year Strategic Plan (2025–2035) (Wikimedia) Australia should take bold AI 'moonshots', says former OpenAI board member (Capital Brief, $) NSW Health told to open up digital patient records (InnovationAus, $) NSW education department caught unaware after Microsoft Teams began collecting students’ biometric data (The Guardian Australia) Social media age limits: Qld students part of world-first trial (Courier-Mail, $) Illegal crypto-betting website Polymarket under investigation by online media regulator (Crikey, $) Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar power inverters (ITNews) Chinese startups once downplayed their origin. Now some celebrate it. (Rest of World) Amazon Removed Backup Landing Sensors Before Drone Crashes (Bloomberg) Huawei’s first trifold is a great phone that you shouldn’t buy (The Verge) xAI posts Grok’s behind-the-scenes prompts (The Verge) xAI accepted GitHub pull request to put “white genocide” stuff back into Grok (Smol News) Why Are There So Many ‘Alternative Devices’ All of a Sudden? (The Atlantic) Thank you Google for breaking my YouTube addiction (Rakhim’s blog)
# Oh, Also
### If you have a shit house DIY smart home set up, you’re not alone
People always start out using Home Assistant with the best of intentions. I mean, what’s more enticing than the promise of a fully integrated, smart, automated house. But as we all know — including some of our own Sizzlers — executing these dreams is often easier said than done. I recently came across a blog post about someone’s “real-life, constantly evolving experiment” Home Assistant set up, complete with half-working automations and “disaster” dashboards (Frenck). They even publicly apologise to their wife and kids for how broken it is. Anyway, it turns out the author is Franck Nijhof, the lead engineer of Home Assistant. So if you feel bad that your set-up is a bit wonky, you’re not alone.
Looks OK.. but a monster lurks beneath
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Anko USB-C to USB-C Charging Cable & Wrist Strap - $2 at Kmart UGREEN Mini 30W USB C Nexode Gan II Fast Charger - $18.99 at UGREEN via Amazon AU Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner 470mL - $25.64 at Vevor AU Cygnett FreePlay Solar Wireless 10W Speaker with LED lamp + 8,000mAh Power Bank inside - $26.60 at MobileCiti Philips Hue Essentials Light Strip 3m - $59 at JB Hi-Fi Nitecore NB10000 Gen 3 10,000mAh Power Bank - $69 at RubberMonkey Philips Hue E27 1100 Lumen White and Colour Ambiance Bulbs at Amazon via Amazon UK 2pk for $113.15 4pk for $192.35 Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker - $119.99 at Costco Edifier MR3 Studio Monitor Speakers - $135 at Edifier via Amazon AU Google Pixel Buds Pro - $149 at JB Hi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Watch7 BT 40mm, Cream - $279.99 at Skyradar Amazon AU Roborock Q8 MAX+ w/ Auto Empty Dock at Mobileciti eBay - $639.08 Sony WH-1000XM6 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (pre-order) - $649 at Sony CPAP/APAP Deals: BMC M1 Mini Travel Kit (M1 Mini, mask, bag) - $850 at CpapOnline Roborock Qrevo S w/ Multifuctional Dock at Mobileciti eBay - $890.99 85" Neo QLED QN1EF 4K Vision AI Smart TV with Loyalty Voucher - $2124 at Samsung Online Store
Computing
UGREEN SD Card Reader Aluminum. Thunderbolt 3 Type C. - $14.93 at UGREEN via Amazon AU PADO YL mATX Computer Case at Aigo-darkflash Store AliExpress Black for $43.33 White for $46.07 Samsung 27" S36GD FHD 100Hz LED VA Curved Monitor - $148 at Amazon AU WD_BLACK SN7100 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD - $187 at Centre Com FX991 4TB NVMe SSD, M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4, up to 7300MB/s - $369 at Amazon AU Crucial T500 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD (+$20 WW eGift Card via Redemption) - $399 at Centre Com Dell S3225QS 32" 4K UHD 120Hz VA Panel Monitor - $499 at Dell Palit GeForce RTX 5070 Infinity 3 12GB Graphics Card - $1011 at Smarthomestoreau eBay Palit RTX 5080 Gaming Pro V1 16GB (Excl. NT) - $1975 at Smarthomestoreau eBay
Mobile
60% Off First 4 Months of Felix Mobile Samsung’s monthly ‘secret’ sale (Galaxy phones, monitors, TVs and more) Belong Mobile eSIM Starter Kit 100GB - $20 at JB Hi-Fi Motorola G85 8GB RAM/128GB at Mobileciti eBay - $241.37 at Mobileciti eBay Motorola G75 5G 8GB RAM/256GB (Grey) & Bonus Moto Buds - $259.19 at Mobileciti eBay
# The End
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