Bits: daily tech news bulletin

Byteside needs to consolidate its focus to give ourselves the best chance of building a sustainable media business. So Bits, unfortunately, has to go back on the shelf. We hope it will return, but whatever happens we thank you so much for your support through its first three months.The core Byteside podcast will continue with guest hosts and interviews every week.Search 'Byteside' in your podcast app or hit the relevant link below to add it to your app of choice:Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/itunes/1482077503Overcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-player/id888422857Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1482077503Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzA0NzA5ZTVkLWU0ZTQtNDk0Ny1hYmNmLTYyZDM3MmIyZTFiNgSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43tUBmO4DknkGbd4Hw9dlbRSS: https://rss.acast.com/bytesideAnd get loads more written content at www.byteside.comGet our weekly newsletter at newsletter.byteside.comgB6CmVjBdiLNerFIgqfY Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yesterday afternoon, a major outage occurred that impacted a wide range of Australian institutions, including major banks and their mobile apps, Virgin Australia airlines, Australia Post and more. Soon after cyber attack theories had been raised, it was learned that CDN Akamai had a routing error that impacted around 500 of its customers. All up the incident caused disruptions for around six hours.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/akamai-routing-error-caused-widespread-outages-566103The controversial Online Safety Bill will pass parliament with the Labor party once again claiming to be "not happy" but going to support it anyway. Since before the election in 2018, Labor has held a consistent position of claiming to be upset or disappointed or unhappy with legislation related to important digital protections like privacy, encryption and censorship, but to pass the laws anyway because they never want to open the door to an actual fight over civil liberties. What's the point of an opposition again?https://www.innovationaus.com/labor-not-happy-about-supporting-online-safety-bill/In better local news, Aldi Australia has become the first retailer in the country to power all its operations with 100% renewable power. The German supermarket chain's local operation announced it has achieved the target six months ahead of schedule, using solar installed on its own premises as well as purchased power from wind farms and other renewable energy purchases. According to Renew Economy, Aldi is the 67th biggest user of electricity in Australia, with 555 stores and eight distribution centres. So this really is a great example to the nation on big business getting the right thing done.https://reneweconomy.com.au/aldi-claims-first-place-in-major-retailer-race-to-100-pct-renewables-in-australia/Up in space, China has successfully sent a first crew to its new orbital space station with a team of three astronauts to the Tiangong station where they are setting up living quarters for the next three months. China has said it is open to future collaboration with other nations on its new station which is expected to be in orbit for over ten years. The ISS is scheduled to retire in 2024 though it can potentially be extended out to 2028.https://www.sciencealert.com/first-astronauts-have-just-arrived-at-china-s-space-stationIn entertainment news, Carrie Fisher is set to receive a posthumous Walk of Fame star which raises the question of how on Earth this didn't happen during her lifetime? The easy answer is no one bought one for her to promote a film, which is how it usually happens. Other great names scheduled to be added to the walk in 2022 include Ewan McGregor, Willem Dafoe, Regina King, Francis Ford Coppola, Salma Hayek, and Bob Odenkirk.https://www.themarysue.com/carrie-fisher-is-getting-a-star-on-the-hollywood-the-walk-of-fame/In videogames, Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft's next major patch, Chains of Domination, will go live on June 30, with the next raid opening its doors on July 7. Players will also be able to unlock flying in the patch in that second week and then the next race for mythic world first will kick off on July 14.https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23686104/shadowlands-the-chains-of-domination-content-update-goes-live-june-29For those after some esports to watch this weekend, DOTA 2 is finally feeling the excitement again with the ESL One Summer tournament taking place. We're into the thick of qualifying for The International which did not take place in 2020 so fans are ready and eager for things to get serious once again. Hearthstone also has its Masters Tour Dalaran taking place which you can catch on YouTube, and a reminder that we are just a few weeks away from Battle Arena Melbourne on the second weekend of July for the biggest FGC tournament in Australia.https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/esports/tournament/masters-tour-dalaran/https://www.esl-one.com/dota2/summer/That's your Bits bulletin ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the Western Australian government has introduced legislation to limit the use of COVID check-in app data after the WA Police Force accessed the information in two investigations of serious crimes, which is allowed under the existing rules. To ensure users feel confidence in always using the check-in system, the new rules definitively limit the use of this data to the explicit purpose of contact tracing. WA Premier Mark McGowan told parliament that the new law was only being introduced after the Police Commissioner refused to adhere to a request to no longer access the register.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-moves-to-plug-legislative-gaps-after-cops-access-check-in-app-data-566021https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-police-refused-request-to-stop-accessing-covid-check-in-app-data-566033In other COVID news, Victoria has now launched its online vaccination booking platform. Until now a hotline phone service was the only way to book appointments, with the online system delayed since the start of the year. Users can now go online via coronavirus.vic.gov.au to check their eligibility and book their appointments.https://www.innovationaus.com/victoria-launches-online-vaccine-booking-platform/Ahead of exciting new Windows 11 news next week, Microsoft has named CEO Satya Nadella as the new Chair of the Board of Directors. The current chairman, John Thompson, has been in the role since Bill Gates stepped down from the position in 2014 at the same time Nadella became CEO. Thompson will remain a member of the board. Meanwhile, leaks seem to indicate the launch of Windows 11 might not be too far behind the big announcements set to be made next week, with fully functional versions of the next generation OS appearing online as part of the leak.https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22537683/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-chairman-bill-gates-john-thompsonSpotify has launched its new live audio chatroom service, Spotify Greenroom, a rebranding of a tool created by Betty Labs called Locker Room. You can log into the service using your Spotify login and find chatrooms related to topics of interest or launch your own chatrooms. The tool will also allow users to record rooms they create to turn them into podcasts. It's yet another reason why Clubhouse is facing greater and greater competition while the overall shine on these audio chatrooms is starting to fade and, as I've said since early on, it really seems more like a feature than a platform. I expect at some point Greenroom will integrate directly into the core Spotify app rather than live out on a limb the way it currently does.https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-06-16/get-to-know-some-of-the-features-in-our-live-interactive-audio-offering-greenroom/Internet advertising machine Facebook is ready to turn the serenity and solitude of virtual reality into a new space to thrust floating advertising units into your enraptured eyeballs, with news it is starting to test advertising inside Oculus headsets. Naturally, the company says it is a "small" test and is all about unlocking new business models for the platform and for the game developers who produce VR experiences. I'm sure the advertising units won't be too awful... at the start... Facebook also says it won't use information from within your VR experience to target ads toward you. Again... that's a "during this test" statement, not a "never" statement.https://www.oculus.com/blog/testing-in-headset-vr-ads/Amidst media investigations into businesses gaming the Amazon user review system to earn high ranking in search results, Amazon has stated in a blogpost that the greatest blame should lie with social media platforms. It might sound like a cop out, and no doubt there's more Amazon could be doing on its own end, but the company's post said it reported more than 300 groups to social media companies in Q1 2020 that were using the platforms to organise campaigns to cheat the review system, yet it took a median time of 45 d... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Australian Signals Directorate, our national spy agency, wants to see laws introduced to compel organisations to cooperate in the event of a hack or ransomware attack, after a recent incident saw a company refuse assistance and ultimately become reinfected within months of the first attack. ASD Director-General Rachel Noble told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that the unspecified incident was a nationally-known case with a nationally-known company that had serious implications, but even two weeks into the incident they would only take general advice from the ASD. Noble believes improved legislation would give them power to demand better cybersecurity standards in the corporate world, halting weak attacks so that the government only has to worry about high level threats.https://www.zdnet.com/article/nationally-known-australian-company-lawyered-up-to-resist-asd-help/Australia's transport union has accused Amazon of firing delivery drivers who spoke with union officials during a site inspection, and that further site visits have had union staff refused entry. In a Senate inquiry hearing last week, the union said it believes third-party Amazon Flex contract workers now fear reprisal for any public criticism of the tech giant's work standards or processes. The visit in question took place last year at a NSW distribution centre. Amazon told Innovation Aus that it has never terminated workers in connection with speaking to a union, and that it allowed dozens of union visits to its facilities in 2020. More widely, other unions have told the inquiry they feel Amazon is engaging in anti-union behaviour, a problem widely reported in recent years when its US workers made moves to unionise.https://www.innovationaus.com/amazon-workers-sacked-for-talking-to-union-twu/A Melbourne renewable energy company, AgBioEn, is working with La Trobe University and LAB3 to run trials for turning crop waste into bio diesels and jet-fuels, as well as into soil nutrients that can be ploughed back into fields to improve future crops. The trials are set to take place through the next three to four years, with an aim to produce 150 million litres of fuel per year through the process. On the technology side, LAB3 is assisting with the development of IoT devices and drones to test and monitor crops, with data and analytics running on Azure Cloud platforms. https://news.microsoft.com/en-au/features/agbioen-sparks-renewables-revolution-with-data-and-ai-injection/Australian DIY graphic design service Canva is teaming up with another Australian company, Snap Print and Design, to offer easy access to ordering prints through its platform from local Snap franchises. Options include business cards, brochures, stickers, posters and more. It's an interesting alternative to many other online print services that deliver from overseas or require designs to be uploaded in specific design formats that many average users may not understand, so seeing an end-to-end solution come together with such a partnership is a noteworthy option to see in the market.https://printonline.snap.com.auIKEA has officially unveiled its latest collaboration with networked speaker company Sonos, with the rather dazzling new Symfonisk wall art speakers that simply look like art but can push big sound for any room. The speakers can be hung on any wall, with a fabric cover that is available in a range of art designs to choose from, both simple and bold. Like any Sonos speaker, they can join your wider network of speakers around the home and are controlled via an app, with essential play-pause and volume controls hidden behind the frame on one edge. Sadly, the speakers are available in Europe and North America starting July 15 but will not come to Australia until 2022. US pricing was announced at $199 per speaker with alternate art options selling for $19. Locally you can buy the IKEA Symfonisk bookshelf speaker and table lamp speaker for $149 ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's virtual E3 season, with dozens of major games announcements over the weekend. Here's just a few of that caught our eye.Bethesda's Starfield had its first game footage, though still incredibly vague apart from the obvious "you'll be on spaceships visiting far away worlds" vibes. But the big news was the confirmation this game is the first Bethesda title to be announced as a full Xbox exclusive, scheduled for release on November 11, 2022. It was notable that the combined Xbox and Bethesda event was opened not by Microsoft's Phil Spencer but by Bethesda's Todd Howard, a big statement on the unification of the massive developer with the platform giant.In another crucial development during the Xbox event was the consistent foregrounding of how most every game was announced as day one on Xbox Game Pass, pushing the subscription service as the primary mode of access to Xbox first-party games, but also that Xbox Cloud Gaming is no longer being mentioned as a side project but as one of the 'platforms' games are being launched on. At every end screen where platforms were mentioned, Xbox Cloud Gaming sat clearly alongside Xbox Series consoles and Windows 10 PCs. That pre-announcement of the increased cloud delivery format made it easy to just slide this in everywhere, but it is perhaps the most important development for the future of Microsoft's gaming business – as a service you join, not a box you buy.Elsewhere in E3 news, dozens of games have had announcements and dates across the various conferences, including Left 4 Dead spiritual successor Back 4 Blood coming on October 12, Halo Infinite still coming 'this year' but getting an entirely free multiplayer mode, a Jack Sparrow crossover in Seat of Thieves, Ubisoft announced a new Mario + Rabbids game coming next year, Diablo II Resurrected is coming September 23, Rainbow Six Extraction is coming September 16, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands – a Borderlands fantasy D&D inspired spin-off – is coming early 2022, Forza Horizon 5 is taking this show to Mexico, and perhaps my personal favourite of the show so far is a vampire shooter called Redfall from the team behind Dishonored.The Federal Court has approved the $112M settlement in the robo-debt court battles, with presiding judge Bernard Murphy has delivered an unequivocal rebuke to the federal government, calling it an unlawful program. "The proceeding has exposed a shameful chapter in the administration of the Commonwealth social security system and a massive failure of public administration... It should have been obvious to the senior public servants charged with overseeing the robo-debt system and to the responsible minister at different points that many social security recipients do not earn a stable or constant income..." The settlement means the federal government does not have to admit any liability regarding the scheme.https://www.zdnet.com/article/federal-court-approves-au112m-compensation-in-settlement-for-robo-debt-failure/NBN Co is considering whether to pursue a request to have its monopoly broadband provider status revoked in markets where it is facing competition from 5G services. The National Broadband Network is held to a special access undertaking agreement until the year 2040, which must have any changes or updates cleared by the ACCC. The NBN points out that one in three homes are not using the NBN, calling this a reflection of the dynamic nature of the market and not that the NBN is delivering a poorer quality of service than alternatives in many locations. NBN has a long term target of of 73-75% uptake, which has been pushed outward over the years from an original target of 2021 out to today's target of 2024.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-says-5g-competition-is-challenging-its-monopoly-status-565686Google has just opened up Google Workspace for everyone that has a Google account, allowing people to go beyond just collaborating on documents and folders toward a much more unified space for p... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As WWDC wraps up for Apple developers, the Apple Design Awards have been announced, a great promotion for some of the best apps across iOS and macOS. I'm quite sure most people don't browse the App Stores like they once did, so checking out these lists is a great way to find some new gems. There's lots of games, plus powerful and helpful concepts like 'Be My Eyes' that helps identify objects in the camera view, a sleepscape app called Loóna, and other winners for categories like Inclusiveness and Social Impact. Shout outs to Aussie Sp!ng from SMG Studio for being a finalist.https://developer.apple.com/design/awards/Microsoft held another pre-E3 video event overnight, with Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella walking us through the future of Xbox gaming – which very much includes the end of needing to own an Xbox to play. Xbox has foregrounded new options like Xbox Cloud Gaming a lot recently, and it will officially launch locally later this year. They also announced efforts to get Xbox streaming built into smart TVs so that all you'll need is a controller and an Xbox Game Pass subscription to play, with Microsoft's global data centres playing a big role in delivering this new cloud focus for Xbox.https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/06/10/whats-next-for-gaming-highlights/We don't often do shout outs about hot tech deals, but the HyperX end of financial year prices look really good if you're after some new gaming peripherals. Prices include a 55% discount on HyperX Alloy Origins keyboards, down to $104, and 50% off the HyperX Cloud Flight wireless headset making it $145. They deals are all at JB Hi-Fi. On a related note, Kingston, the former owner of HyperX, has launched the new name for its gaming focused memory chips for PC hardware – look for the Fury brand if you liked HyperX components in your PC builds.https://www.jbhifi.com.au/collections/hyperxhttps://www.kingston.com/en/solutions/gamingIn other product updates, Wacom Intuos drawing tablets now have 'Works with Chromebook' certification, which is a super helpful option for people who are in Chromebook land in school environments or just like the price-performance ratio you get on those devices. Wacom has always been the leader in creative input tablets so this is a nice step for the Chromebook platform to get these in the mix.https://estore.wacom.com/en-AU/chromebookIn software, the latest updates to Norton's security software sees the Norton Game Optimiser claim some big upgrades. For years Norton has silenced notifications and other nuisance activity when it detects gameplay is happening, and now Norton claims Game Optimiser will isolate resource-hungry apps running in the background, including pushing them ti a single CPU core to ensure games get everything else for themselves. These days Norton can also do things like monitor the dark web for signs of your usernames, email addresses and even gamertags, so there's lots going on here. There's even a new Crypto mining mode coming if that's your passion.https://au.norton.com/products/norton-360-for-gamersAustralia's League of Legends Circuit Oceania had a great first season to kick off the year, and now the competition has partnered with Doordash as the naming rights sponsor for the second half of the 2021 championship. The sponsor will also be attached to replay and other segments during broadcasts, but overall a positive for the upstart competition that has kept the scene alive and thriving in 2021.https://lco.gg/2021/06/11/the-doordash-lco/If you're looking for something to participate in this long weekend, there's an ongoing Tony Hawk Pro Skater Ultimate Jam competition taking place, run by Order esports in partnership with Activision and 7+, for anyone who thinks they've got skills to show off in the classic skating game. You can enter speed runs, combo runs and straight up 'score the most points' runs, with top performers qualifying for finals next month. Entries cl... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

El Salvador has voted to make Bitcoin a legal tender currency in the country, the first country to do so. It sounds wild on its surface, but the legislation says it aims to add regulation to Bitcoin's use in the country. The country's other legal tender currency is the US dollar, and Bitcoin would make sending money to family back home from overseas potentially cheaper than many traditional banking transactions. Still, the wild fluctuations in crypto make this a risky choice, so we'll see how this progresses in the months and years ahead.https://www.axios.com/el-salvadore-first-country-adopt-bitcoin-legal-tender-vote-2bdd819b-620b-4385-af6b-261676883628.htmlNvidia and Perth ISP Pentanet have teamed up for the Australian launch of the GeForce Now game streaming platform. The service has been available overseas for a short while, allowing users to access the games they own through various online game platforms and play them via cloud streaming. This also includes getting maxed out experiences like RTX features even if your computer doesn't have the power to run games at that level. The full service aims to launch in October but there are special beta access 'quests' happening starting today. You can get all the details at cloud.gg.https://cloud.gg/Fans of secure email that isn't used as part of an elaborate personal data tracking scheme have been well aware of paid email platform Protonmail since its launch seven years ago, but yesterday the service announced a major upgrade to the experience of using ProtonMail over the web. The service serves 50 million users and allows fully encrypted emails as well as encrypting all messages, contacts and other data at rest. If you've never checked it out, this freshened up experience is a good time to take a look.https://protonmail.com/blog/new-protonmail-announcement/Ratchet & Clank is getting rave reviews as one of the first truly 'Next-gen' games to hit the Playstation 5, so if you've managed to get one you probably need to own this game. But the big news of the day is that a number of developers who worked on the game have said they never had to 'crunch' to get the game finished. Crunch, or enforced and often extended overtime periods that can sometimes run for months on big game development projects, is a huge issue in the games industry, so hearing that a new big budget title has managed to respect the talent and humanity of its team sounds like even more reason to celebrate the game.https://www.vg247.com/2021/06/09/ratchet-and-clank-rift-apart-crunch-free-insomniac/The pre-pre-announcements ahead of virtual E3 have begun in earnest, with EA dropping a big reveal for Battlefield 2042 overnight. The big news everyone is talking about is that the game will have no campaign, and it's weird to mention it but also no Battle Royale. Just all out 128-player Battlefield action set in the near future, complete with dynamic weather, including sandstorms and tornadoes, with a bunch of game modes both returning and new. It will launch on October 22 for all the consoles new and previous gen, but not the Switch.https://news.ea.com/press-releases/press-releases-details/2021/Battlefield-2042-Marks-the-Return-of-All-Out-Warfare-in-New-Unmatched-Epic-Scale-Experience/default.aspxWe're five years deep into the Overwatch journey this month and while fans are very much excited about Overwatch 2 and desperately wishing for a launch date over there, Blizzard has announced that cross-play will be coming to the game as a beta release to let people play against each other across PC, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox. This also includes a new global Battle.net update that brings friend lists across all territories into a single list, where previously people were separated into different global regions.https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/news/23684155/And, finally, wonderful news for fans of the classic anime Cowboy Bebop, with word that the original composer of that show's absolutely iconic so... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In one of the most remarkable digital policing operations ever seen, the Australian Federal Police in conjunction with America's FBI managed to essentially run an encrypted messaging app for criminals, collecting masses of information and evidence over years before a massive worldwide sting broke up mafia and gang operations. Operation Ironside was a dazzlingly bold concept – literally running the app the criminals used to communicate in real time. It has led to thousands of arrests across the world in everything from drugs to human trafficking. Expect the movie in 2022.https://therecord.media/fbi-and-australian-police-ran-an-encrypted-chat-platform-to-catch-criminal-gangs/Things weren't running quite so smoothly last night for many major websites, unfortunately, with Content Distribution Network Fastly having a major outage. CDNs help big websites run close to wherever their users are around the world, but in this case when something goes wrong it means no one can access the services that the CDN supports. Everything from Amazon to Reddit, BBC to Buzzfeed, disappeared behind a 503 error for two hours. An eternity in Internet time.https://www.byteside.com/2021/06/fastly-just-showed-us-how-cdns-keep-the-internet-alive-until-they-dont/Moving to another network with a poor reputation for uptime, the NBN is working to clarify the way 'fair use' rules are managed on the network. Users are already subject to potential removal from the network for abusing 'unlimited' download limits, but the rules have always been managed under vague terms like "inappropriate and excessive" use. According to iTnews, the new move aims to build clearer rules that focus on activities like unauthorised stress testing or volume testing, and NBN is set to call for the industry to build a consensus on the rules for how to both identify and remedy such problems.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-looks-to-enforce-fair-use-for-fixed-line-users-565550Apple's developer conference continues through this week, with more new features being spotted amongst the many updates on show for its app developer community. One we missed yesterday is an API to make it easier for app makers to perform object capture for augmented reality, with tools to quickly and effectively turn a series of photographs of a real world object into a 3D model.In audio technology, Apple is also aiming to make it easier for apps to include audio recognition technology, and not just on Apple's own platforms. You might already know the Shazam app that can identify songs by listening to something playing near you. Apple has owned Shazam since 2018, and is opening up the Shazam backend technology for third-parties, including those creating apps for Android.https://sixcolors.com/post/2021/06/wwdc-2021-shazamkit-lets-apple-and-android-developers-add-audio-recognition/An exciting update was announced overnight to the intriguing handheld game console Playdate. The retro-style monochrome handheld with a crank on the side has been in the works for years, and is set to be up for pre-orders in July for US$179. But the big news was a free no-code tool for making games for the platform called Pulp. Via a web browser anyone can put together graphics, sound, animations and scripts to create real games for the Playdate. A great way to ensure game making is accessible and creative for this weird little platform.https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/382905/Panic_unveils_Pulp_a_free_nocode_tool_for_creating_Playdate_games.phpIn bigger games news, the first part of Minecraft's massive Cliffs and Caves update has gone live in the game, adding new underground environments for fans to explore. New creatures, new blocks, new light sources, new things to make fans run the latest update and make their world feel fresh all over again. Meanwhile in Fortnite, Season 7 begins today and I feel like Season 6 just started last week so if you want to get in on the alien invasion action happening over the... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The National Broadband Network has suggested the first major overhaul to how its pricing is structured for resellers, with the existing price structure an eternal point of argument due to the Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) charge which puts excess charges for data consumption onto resellers with no real association to the cost of providing the service. So NBN has tabled a new proposed pricing scheme that removes CVC while increasing base charges, with indexed increases in charges at rates above annual inflation. That's a big catch, and major telcos are cautiously considering the proposal, with the clear concern that a new method of enforcing the same or greater pricing is still far from ideal.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-offers-to-axe-cvc-in-exchange-for-yearly-price-hikes-565579Turning to the pandemic, the system for giving Australians a verification of their COVID-19 vaccinations is now at the ready, with word the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) will be updated as part of every Australian's myGov account and linked with Medicare, with a COVID vaccination certificate available from next week once people have received their second shot. All healthcare providers will be required to upload vaccination data into the system from July onward within 10 days of vaccination taking place.https://www.zdnet.com/article/covid-19-vaccine-digital-certificate-coming-this-week-for-australians/In global tax news with big implications for the tech industry's use of clever accounting to dodge paying taxes, the G7 nations have agreed to a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to build consistency and, with consistency, reduce the incentives to apply complex practices to offshore revenues based on spurious loopholes over where the IP of a company resides.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-06/g7-agrees-to-tax-multinationals-more/100193646Apple has kicked off its second virtual WWDC early this morning with a keynote video event featuring all the big new software updates users and developers should expect when iOS 15, watchOS 8 and macOS Monterey launch later this year. Last year was a major overhaul of the basics, and this year sees a lot of new features big and small spread out across iPhones, iPads and Macs. FaceTime is getting one of the smoothest systems we've seen for syncing music or videos remotely, and you will also now be able to schedule a FaceTime call and share it with Android and Windows friends. AirPods will be able to read notifications, Spatial Audio is coming to AirPods while watching your Apple TV, Siri will be arriving in third-party devices, iCloud is getting VPN and Hide My Email features for free and support for your custom domains for the first time. And in privacy updates Mail will now block tracking pixels and Safari will hide IP addresses to make it even harder for you to be tracked without your consent. Loads more we'll unpack on this week's Byteside podcast (yes, it's back this week).In a dazzling display of optimism, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced he intends to be aboard the first ever crewed flight to space for his space company Blue Origin. The sub-orbital New Shepard flight is set to take off on July 20, and as mentioned in the previous line this is the first EVER crewed flight for the spacecraft, making it an incredibly dangerous endeavour. SpaceX has been sending crews to the ISS multiple times now and even Elon Musk still hasn't decided to take a joyride. And he's crazy.https://www.cnet.com/news/jeff-bezos-will-fly-on-blue-origins-first-crewed-rocket-to-space/In gaming, Dungeons & Dragons has revealed the first details of the next campaign adventure setting, The Wild Beyond The WitchLight, which brings players into the Feywild for the first time in the current 5th Edition of the game. We don't know much yet, but the cover suggests a circus setting that probably has some dark hidden secrets behind the scenes. They have said it will feature a story suitable for ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twitter has officially launched its subscription service today, but only for those of us here in Australia and in Canada. Twitter Blue is available through the iOS version of the app for $4.49/month, but right now you're not getting all that much for your money – which might be part of why it's only launching in two countries to start with. You'll get the ability to 'undo' a tweet, which is essentially a delayed send to give you a moment to reconsider your tweet or check for typos. You also get new bookmarking features and a special reader mode for reading things like long threads. Maybe one day it will have some features worth paying for, but right now it's distinctly underwhelming.https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/introducing-twitter-blue.htmlIn an update on the efficacy of the federal government's COVIDSafe app, the Digital Transformation Agency has clarified some recent numbers given to Senate Estimates last week that were inaccurate and now confirm that the much promoted 'sunscreen' for Australia has identified zero new contacts or exposures in 2021. The app has in total helped to find 17 close contacts in total, with a further 544 identified by manual contact tracers in NSW after the app confirmed someone had been a particular location. The app costs $70,000 per month to run with the cost reducing to $60,000 per month from July.https://www.innovationaus.com/covidsafe-hasnt-found-any-contacts-this-year/The Verge is reporting that Facebook is going to end its policy that protects politicians from being held to the same content moderation rules as others. Historically, Mark Zuckerberg himself has said that Facebook should not police speech by politicians, but the social network has also had increasing requests from those in power to silence dissenting voices, creating a power imbalance when the site chooses to adhere to legal requests on one hand and protect misinformation of politicians on the other. The changes may be part of the response to the Facebook Oversight Board that is due on June 5, which demanded Facebook hold all users to the same rules and be more transparent about its decision making processes.https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22474738/facebook-ending-political-figure-exemption-moderation-policyThe EU has announced it will make a unified digital identity service for citizens to prove identity and share documents across the region. The digital wallet will allow Europeans to link ID and personal information like drivers licenses, medical details and bank accounts into a system that can easily be shared and verified in whichever member state they need to work with or live in. Businesses will eventually be required to support the digital identity system across Europe. The first draft framework will be proposed by September 2022.https://www.cnet.com/news/eu-digital-wallet-will-allow-for-easier-more-secure-cross-border-identity-checks/In special Byteside news, we have a delicious giveaway running over on the website right now to celebrate the launch of The Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood expansion next week. Bethesda ANZ teamed up with Melbourne Hot Sauce to create the official 'Hot Sauce of Oblivion'. To enter just visit the Byteside website and go to the competition page where confirming your subscription to the newsletter will get you in the draw. The link is also in the show notes of this podcast.https://www.byteside.com/2021/06/elder-scrolls-online-blackwood-expansion-launch-hot-sauce-giveaway/In other videogames, Hearthstone has a new Wailing Caverns mini-set that released today, with 35 new cards that can be purchased as a full set rather than through random packs. It costs $19.95 or 2000 gold and it'll undoubtedly shake up the status quo...https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/news/23676206/prepare-yourself-adventurer-the-wailing-caverns-mini-set-is-hereWhich leads to esports, with the Hearthstone Grandmasters Season 1 for the year having its finals this weekend acros... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We now have a date for when the next generation of Microsoft Windows will be revealed, with the official invitations going out for the event on June 24, or just after midnight on the 25th here in Australia. CEO Satya Nadella and Product Chief Panos Panay will reveal all. My bet is a shift away from selling boxed Windows software and onto a free new upgrade to a single unified version for all users. We'll find out if I'm right in three weeks time.https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/eventTwo Australian broadband providers owned by the same parent company have been fined by the Australian Federal Court for making misleading claims on NBN evening speeds. The action, brought by the ACCC against Vocus-owned Dodo and iPrimus, found the brands chose the best speeds it had observed on its network to promote its services between March 2018 and April 2019. Justice Murphy said in the decision that the companies chose not to use industry best practice methodologies which it admitted did not give due ground for "Typical Evening Speed" statements. Dodo will have to pay $1.5M and Primus $1M in fines. As noted by ZDNet, the latest ACCC broadband speed report places Dodo and Primus last among all resellers for average download speeds.https://www.zdnet.com/article/dodo-and-iprimus-penalised-au2-5m-for-misleading-nbn-evening-speed-claims/Samsung is starting a new campaign to promote its Galaxy A Series smartphones as 'A for Awesome' with a target toward Gen Z teens and young adults. Normally I wouldn't consider this particularly newsworthy, but the campaign is including some nice profiles of young Australians achieving greatness in their fields, from 16-year-old skateboarder Ethan Copeland, pop duo Cat & Calmell, and social entrepreneur Daniel Flynn. It's also a positive to see a big campaign for more affordable devices. The campaign also includes some Snap AR lens action to get even more of that Gen Z attention.In science, NASA is tired of only having a bunch of cool robots exploring the surface of Mars and is turning its attention back to Venus with not one but two missions planned for later this decade. Announced overnight, the VERITAS mission will orbit the planet to deliver the most detailed map yet of the Venusian surface and search for volcanic activity, while the DAVINCI+ probe will enter the planet's atmosphere to investigate the chemistry of the atmosphere. The missions will launch between 2028 and 2030.https://www.businessinsider.com.au/nasa-discovery-program-new-missions-to-explore-venus-2021-6In entertainment, excitement for pulp adventure fans with word that the fourth Indiana Jones film begins filming next week. Harrison Ford returns with new castmates Mads Mikkelsen and Phoebe Waller Bridge, with shooting to begin at Bamburgh Castle in Britain. Yes, I said fourth film. Let's stick to that story.https://www.avclub.com/hold-onto-your-fedoras-indiana-jones-5-is-in-productio-1847016657Over in Fortnite, the place where the multiverse is slowly but steadily taking shape, as the end of Cahpter 2, Season 6 approaches it seems players are being abducted by aliens at the moment. Given lots of recent excitement over military UFO sightings why not go and get a taste of being hoovered up for experimentation through Epic's Battle Royale?https://www.gamesradar.com/fortnite-aliens-ufos-alien-abduction/Zero Latency, the Australian multiplayer virtual reality arcade experience, has now officially launched its Far Cry VR experience. It's the first partnership with a major franchise and sends players to a tropical island for their VR gaming session. You can book your experience via the Zero Latency website at its centres in Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Perth and Sydney, or at one of its dozens of overseas locations if you're elsewhere on the planet.https://zerolatencyvr.comAnd, finally, retro gaming fans will be checking their wallets now that the Atari VCS launch has been announced. The new conso... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a response to a report on age verification for online gambling and pornography, the federal government has said it will consider whether work on a national digital identity system should be extended to include such verification processes. The Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs recommended that the Digital Transformation Agency explore extending any identity system to include third-party verification tools for online services and the recommendations have been met with "in principle" support.https://www.zdnet.com/article/canberra-considers-its-digital-id-for-use-in-verifying-age-before-accessing-porn/A global meatpacking company, JBS Foods, with operations in Australia, has had its plants shut down in Australia and North America this week after what is now known to be a ransomware attack. This follows the recent attack in on a fuel pipeline in the US which found that even after paying the ransom it was faster to restore from backups than using the decryption process supplied by the attackers. As targets increasingly seem to include critical services like fuel, food and health, governments are being called on to do more to fight back – including taking action against cryptocurrency avenues that are used for ransom demands.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/cyber-attack-on-meatpacker-jbs-foods-is-ransomware-565357In a great example for one possible future of the ridesharing industry, a cooperative of 2,500 New York drivers has created a new company that will give everyone better rates of pay and claims rides will be cheaper for users. It launched this past weekend, with drivers being paid 10% above minimum wages for the industry as well as profit share via dividends to the collective ownership group. Sounds like what ridesharing should actually sound like.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/technology/nyc-uber-lyft-the-drivers-cooperative.htmlMore Computex news, with Nvidia revealing its latest top of the line GPUs with the RTX 3080 Ti cards claiming another 50% increase in performance over the previous flagship 2080 Ti cards that were also a huge leap over the previous era. Nvidia pointed to a lot of new games adding ray-tracing support with Doom Eternal looking particularly shiny. Nvidia also revealed some big advances in how its processing power will be used in enterprise data centres and in AI processing.https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/05/31/computex-keynote/In AMD's Computex news, the company was bullish about its own new RDNA2 GPUs, which it announced will be heading into Samsung smartphones through a new collaboration on Exynos processors, which will enable ray-tracing and variable rate shading on mobile phones. Its new processors will also be heading into new Tesla Model S and X infotainment systems which will deliver processing power not far behind a PS5, enabling people to play the latest AAA games inside the car... which they probably really shouldn't be doing?https://www.amd.com/en/press-releases/2021-05-31-amd-showcases-industry-leading-innovation-across-the-high-performanceIn other tech news, the gaming division of Kingston Technology, HyperX, has been acquired by HP. HyperX has built a big business in PC gaming peripherals like headsets, keyboards and mice. HP has its own gaming brand, Omen, so it will be interesting to see whether the brands remain separate or unify in coming years.https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2021/hp-inc-completes-acquisition-of-hyperx.htmlIn science, wonderful news for Australian fauna with word that Tasmanian devil babies have been born in the wild on mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years. The cute carnivores have been breeding in captivity in a special rewilding project for the past decade and in 2020 the first group was released from captivity into a sanctuary where the first group of joeys have been born.https://www.livescience.com/tasmanian-devils-born-in-australia.htmlFinally, in videogames, the World of Warcraft... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Victorian government purchased a vaccination booking system from Microsoft in January this year for $6M and it is still not in use. According to InnovationAus, the booking system is an existing Microsoft product that was purchased on a six-month contract, which at the time was said to only need fine tuning before launch. Four months later, Victorians are still using a 1800 phone line to make bookings, a system that has not kept up with demand during the 1b expansion phase of vaccination rollout. The issues did not receive much attention until the latest outbreak brought renewed attention to making the vaccination rollout as efficient as possible.https://www.innovationaus.com/victorias-6m-microsoft-vaccine-platform-delays/After the recent changes at CSIRO that saw Data61 drop the trustworthy systems group, UNSW has stepped in to ensure funding for the group continues through the next six months to give it time to build new partnerships and funding – making it even clearer that the team was being dropped with zero notice or support. The team's work on the secure embedded L4 microkernel has been seen as a major breakthrough technology development – a first of its kind, with iTnews reporting the team has had interest in being acquired by companies in China and Singapore. Data61 dropped the team after deciding it did not fit with a new mission of pursuing artificial intelligence technologies as a seemingly myopic new focus.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/unsw-gives-dumped-data61-sel4-research-group-funding-lifeline-565274It's Computex week, which means we miss visiting Taipei but we're still getting news from the likes of Acer, Asus, Gigabyte, Nvidia and Intel. Today we see the latest 11th Gen Core updates from Intel with new U-series mobile processors for its thinnest, lightest designs. Recently we got the new chips for gaming laptops so this is the latest we'll find in many new Intel Evo branded laptops that deliver great performance in ultrathin bodies with 'all day' battery life.https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/better-processor-thin-light-laptops.html#gs.28en9vChinese hardware manufacturer Xiaomi has unveiled a new HyperCharger technology that can charge a large 4000mAh battery in its Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra smartphone in just eight minutes, and even charge in just 15 minutes over a wireless charge pad. If you've ever forgotten to put your phone on charge before going to bed, this kind of tech can make a big difference when you've just got 10 minutes before you have to run out the door.https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/30/22461435/xiaomi-fast-charging-world-record-200w-wired-120w-wirelessAmazon is quietly launching a new feature to allow Amazon devices to share their internet connections with other nearby Amazon devices that are not part of your own network, and it has some worried about everything from privacy to bandwidth. The feature, called SideWalk, is quietly opt-out, so users need to know to go and switch it off in their system settings to avoid being included in the plan. SideWalk seems to only be launching in the USA at this time. Amazon does seem to have clear security protocols in place around this technology and at some point in the future we do have to embrace mesh networks for the full power of 5G and internet of things technologies to take root, so I'm not against seeing this happen as long as the right processes and protections are in place?https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/amazon-devices-will-soon-automatically-share-your-internet-with-neighbors/TCL has launched its new TV range this week, with its latest refresh bringing integrated Google TV across the new range, as well as mini LED and quantum dot tech in the backlighting systems. Dolby Vision is also supported, including a Dolby Vision IQ tech that reads the lighting in the room and adjust the HDR picture output to suit the conditions. Here at Byteside we'll continue to tell people to ignore 8K TVs for the forese... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The amazing service that lets you check if accounts related to your email address have ever been compromised, Have I Been Pwned, is moving to an open source model to allow for greater collaboration with the wider cybersecurity industry. Created by Australian Troy Hunt and managed largely on his own since inception, the changes are allowing organisations like America's FBI to add its discoveries to the database to allow for greater transparency of who and what has been compromised. If you don't already have the website bookmarked, you really should. It's a handy way to show people just how many times their personal details have already leaked to the darker parts of the internet.https://www.zdnet.com/article/have-i-been-pwned-goes-open-source/The NSW Police Force has announced it is Australia's first enterprise customer of the SpaceX Starlink satellite broadband service. Starlink launched in Australia very recently and offers speeds between 50 and 150Mbps, faster than NBN Skymuster satellite services. The initial rollout in Australia covers Victoria and the southern regions of NSW. iTnews reports that the NSW police deal may include mobile use in a new concept police vehicle design.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-police-signs-up-to-starlink-satellite-internet-service-565225In a court case in the USA, documents have revealed just how overtly Google has tried to make privacy settings difficult for users to access. The Arizona attorney general sued Google last year over illegal location data collection, and internal documents discovered during the case show the company viewed the use of privacy settings as a "problem", and that led to moving settings deeper into the system settings to make them harder to find. The documents also suggest Google also pressured Android partners to keep these privacy settings as concealed from users as possible. In one quote a Google staffer says: "So there is no way to give a third party app your location and not Google? This doesn't sound like something we would want on the front page of the New York Times."https://www.businessinsider.com.au/unredacted-google-lawsuit-docs-detail-efforts-to-collect-user-location-2021-5If you're not entirely put off by that Google story, there's good news for Chrome browser users. The latest update, version 91, is now up to 23% faster thanks to some changes in the way it executes Javascript – it actually spends less time 'optimising' the code, after finding that the optimisation step was taking longer than just getting the code executed. A better balance gives a faster result. Just remember that if you have 50 jillion tabs open sometimes you do need to restart your browser to make sure it gets the updates it needs to keep running faster and, very importantly, get any security bugs ironed out. Also don't forget you can get all the best bits of Chrome without the privacy invasive Google parts through the Brave browser.https://blog.chromium.org/2021/05/chrome-is-faster-in-m91.htmlIn science, Japan has announced it plans to send a robot to the moon and in true Japanese style it is sending a transformer. The cute robot was designed by the Japanese space agency JAXA along with input from Sony and toy-maker Tomy, with a ball-shaped robot for easy transport that will then pop open to allow a camera system to take pictures of the lunar surface for soil analysis. Here's hoping the toy version won't be too far behind the official mission.https://www.engadget.com/japan-transformer-moon-robot-171933181.htmlOn the red planet, NASA's Curiosity rover has captured images of a rare cloud cover event on Mars, making for some weirdly familiar photos. Analysis suggests the clouds were very high up in the Martian atmosphere and were likely made of carbon dioxide ice crystals – think dry ice floating in the sky.https://www.engadget.com/nasa-curiosity-rover-cloud-photos-202447024.htmlFinally, in esports, the Valorant Masters tournament wrapped up overnight, the f... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia's Human Rights Commission has tabled a report to the federal government with recommendations on the place of technology in today's human rights environment, with the report urging all tiers of Australian government to pause the use of facial recognition and AI technologies in any area that has decision making power about individual members of society. Human Rights Commissioner Ed Santow told parliament that protections and transparency measures should be put in place before such tools are used in areas of such personal impact. The three year investigation made 38 recommendations in all, including the recommendation that an AI Safety Commissioner role should be created to oversee such tools in Australia.https://www.innovationaus.com/hrc-calls-for-an-ai-safety-commissioner/A survey of global CIOs conducted in March this year has found that three in four still feel less than fully prepared to tackle the digital transformation journey that was thrust upon most organisations during the pandemic. Most critically, the Genpact research found that only 30% of CIOs said that technology was involved with managing employee safety and wellbeing, ranking HR last in a priority stack even in the midst of such a transformation in how and where staff is now operating in the corporate environment.https://www.genpact.com/lp/digital-transformation-cio-research-ngFor Twitter fans, the company has announced that users can now join Twitter Spaces from the desktop version of the app as well as from web browsers, making it easier to listen in on these new audio room chat sessions. They cannot yet create a new Spaces session from these platforms. Also at Twitter, the pricing of subscription service Twitter Blue has been revealed – we took a look in the iOS App Store and now see a local price of $4.49 listed as an in-app purchase. Still no word on exactly when there'll be a button to activate this purchase, and what features they're going to offer to make it worth the price.In battery tech, there's another metal taking aim at industry leader Lithium to improve both the cost and storage density of the rechargeable market. Researchers have found that Zinc holds the promise to be both cheaper and safer than Lithium-ion tech, but it's been a tough road to scale them up from their primary use in tiny single-use cells used to power things like hearing aids. A story in Science points to the rapid research advancement to overcome the obstacles and put this far more readily available metal to smarter work.https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/batteries-used-hearing-aids-could-be-key-future-renewable-energyTaiwanese tech giant Acer announced its latest hardware line up overnight. Lots of new devices running the latest Intel 11th-gen Core processors as well as models with the AMD 5000 series chips. The ConceptD laptop range for designers looks particularly impressive, with clever convertible designs targeted toward creating art directly on the screen with up to 4K Pantone-validated displays in my favourite screen ratio 16:10. Also the new Acer Aspire Vero incorporates recycled plastics through its manufacturing process and uses more recycled paper in its packaging. Plus gaming fans have lots of new Predator hardware to drool over too.https://www.acer.com/ac/en/AU/content/nextatacer-2021Home fitness technology company Zwift is partnering with the IOC to run an official Olympic Virtual Series Virtual Cycling event running throughout June. Cycling's world governing body is also involved, with Zwift users able to participate in mass virtual rides through the platform along with special podcast rides with some of the world's greatest cyclists, including Australia's own Anna Meares. Zwift is a different take on home exercise programs, more like a massively multiplayer online game where you ride or run in shared virtual environments – the company recently launched a new island inspired by the Japanese countryside called Yumezi. If you're ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Commonwealth Bank is set to trial a feature that will let its customers view the balances of all their accounts within the CommBank app – including balances of accounts at other banks. Under Australia's new Consumer Data Right, which officially became law last year, open banking rules do allow customers to share data with additional financial services at their choosing. CDR was focused on finance at launch but energy and telco industries will soon also have to offer visibility into other apps on behalf of customers.https://www.zdnet.com/article/commonwealth-bank-customers-to-see-balances-from-other-banks-in-app/The studio with a James Bond movie sitting on the shelf after holding it back due to the pandemic is now set to become part of the Amazon empire, with news the internet giant will buy MGM Studios for US$8.45 billion. Amazon has invested heavily in original productions, so the MGM move seems aimed at bolstering its catalogue of content that it won't have to license to use. MGM also plays host to a lot of classic movies, which you can often find in greater supply on Amazon's streaming service than others. The buyout may not be smooth sailing, however, with some in the US government saying they want to look at what it means for industry competition.https://www.vox.com/recode/22451787/amazon-mgm-james-bond-streaming-netflix-analysisUSB has unveiled its next major update, with USB-C 2.1 aiming to support larger powered devices over the same simple port. The update makes no changes to data speeds or other features, just the move to increase power supply from 100W maximum to 240W. The option will be known as Extended Power Range, or EPR. This tier of power throughput will allow for devices like 4K monitors to be directly powered over USB-C as well as to let higher powered gaming laptops to move onto the USB-C standard for power supply.https://www.cnet.com/news/usb-c-power-upgrade-delivers-a-whopping-240w-for-gaming-laptops-and-other-devices/Facebook has announced it will limit the distribution of all posts from personal accounts that regularly spread disinformation. It's important to remember I am sharing that headline in the year 2021 and not back in 2015 and it is definitely a thing Facebook announced this week. Better late than never, but also it doesn't include politicians because they live outside its rules yet share the dirtiest lies of all. Another reminder that Facebook is a blight on civilised discourse.https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/26/22455076/facebook-misinformation-individual-users-hiding-postshttps://about.fb.com/news/2021/05/taking-action-against-people-who-repeatedly-share-misinformation/In hardware launches, the latest Nokia Android phone hits the market on June 3. The Nokia X20, made by HMD Global, is touting two-day battery life alongside its quad camera system and 5G. The phone also comes with three-months of screen replacement warranty and because it runs nice, clean stock Android OS it gets three years of updates guaranteed and it doesn't have as much cruft as some other brands throw into their handsets. The X20 can be pre-ordered now at JB Hi-Fi and will be sold there as well as Officeworks, Big W and Harvey Norman and it'll cost $599.https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_au/nokia-x-20In videogames, Minecraft Dungeons has just launched its latest downloadable expansion, Hidden Depths, sending your heroes under the ocean to deal with the forces of corruption. We gave Dungeons a great review – think of it as family friendly Diablo and you're in the right place. The game is also celebrating an anniversary event starting today, which includes special trials and rewards over the next two weeks.https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-dungeons-turns-onehttps://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/hidden-depths-dlc-out-nowFor PC gamers, there's been a lot of new keyboards announced in recent days – especially in sizes that won't eat up your entire desk. HyperX has released its Al... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Bits, your daily tech news bulletin, for Wednesday, May 26, I'm Seamus Byrne.The Victorian government has passed an extraordinarily backward new law overnight, adding a new per kilometre charge for electric vehicle drivers in the state. Aside from the horrible choice to start charging taxes on a class of vehicle that Australia desperately needs to better promote to improve environmental outcomes on our roads, the 2.5c per km fee has to be manually tracked and reported via a website, adding a level of nuisance and friction to those who are leading the way with EV adoption. Penalties will apply for anyone who fails to adhere to the new reporting system. We try to avoid editorialising here in the daily bulletin, but this is a terrible decision at a time when every measure to ease a transition toward reduced carbon emissions is required to save the planet.https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bills/zero-and-low-emission-vehicle-distance-based-charge-bill-2021https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/consumer/2021/05/17/victoria-ev-tax-cash-grab-lobby/Microsoft's Build 2021 conference is happening this week, but the biggest news of all may be being held back for a little later on. During his keynote address, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella teased that a very big new update for Windows is coming soon. Quote: "Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade... I'm incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows." With a "very soon" also used, perhaps we'll learn more around the time the next major update to Windows 10 drops in June, which includes much discussed updates to system icons, system default fonts and other UI features.https://www.windowscentral.com/satya-nadella-teases-big-updates-coming-soon-windows-build-2021In other operating systems, Google has officially put its third operating system Fuchsia into the real world, with news the Google Home Hub has been updated to be based on the Fuchsia OS. There's been no fanfare around the shift and for years the Fuchsia team has been working to put the system into different aspects of the Google ecosystem, so this quiet push to the original Nest Hub (and not the second gen version either) is an interesting move.https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/google-launches-its-third-major-operating-system-fuchsia/Imaging giant Epson has announced a partnership with National Geographic to promote the need to protect the world's permafrost regions, collaborating with its explorers and researchers to encourage us all to find ways big and small to fight climate change. The announcement arrives alongside Epson's launch of its latest Heat-Free Technology for its ink-jet printers, which sees a big reduction in energy consumption, especially compared with laser printers. The new range of EcoTank printers includes new six-colour photo printer models at up to A3 size that skip the old ink cartridges to deliver thousands of prints with a lot less fuss.https://www.epson.com.au/heat-free-technology/https://www.epson.com.au/v2/ecotank/In video games, news from late last week we missed saw a major announcement for fans of competitive modes of Overwatch, with news that Overwatch 2 will be shifting the game from 6v6 to 5v5. The game is dropping a second tank class from the standard team composition and while it might not seem like much on the surface it will see a huge shift in the style of play typically seen in the game where tanks and shields have slowed the regularity of kills in the game's modes. Overall this single announcement gives Overwatch 2 the biggest boost in appeal as it will significantly change the flavour of PvP in the game.In local esports, the ANZ Premier League of World of Tanks wrapped up over the weekend, with North Sydney Sentinels taking out the title against the Brisbane Bulldogs at a final event at Fortress Melbourne. Overseas, the Valorant Masters is underway this week in Iceland, the first major international... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The NSW government has announced the digital driver's license available through the Service NSW app has been adopted by over half of all eligible drivers. Launched in November 2019, Minister for Digital Victor Dominello announced that three million drivers, 53% of all licensed drivers in the state, have now added a digital license to their app. The digital license is now accepted by police in every Australian state and territory and other states are now launching similar options. NSW still recommends drivers carry their physical license when travelling beyond NSW borders.https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-than-half-of-nsw-drivers-have-adopted-a-digital-licence/A report into how Australian copyright infringement routines have changed has been published by the federal government with some interesting findings. The report, published last month, surveyed over 2,400 internet users aged 12 and over, and found that the majority of those who had encountered ISP blocked piracy websites simply gave up on the content – including not accessing it via legal means either. 59% took this approach, while 21% said they found a legal route to access what they were looking for.https://torrentfreak.com/when-aussies-face-a-blocked-pirate-site-59-simply-give-up-dont-try-legal-options-210520/https://www.communications.gov.au/documents/2020-consumer-copyright-infringement-surveyRegulators are finally getting involved in the cryptocurrency arena and it looks set to test the limits of investors and speculators in the blockchain world. Last week the US Treasury announced all crypto transactions worth over $10,000 must be reported to the country's tax service, the IRS. China has also begun to hone in on a crackdown, with some of the world's biggest Bitcoin mining operations based within its borders. Ars Technica reports the Chinese government is close to issuing an outright ban on mining. Prices of the top currencies have been highly volatile over the past two weeks, most a long way down from all-time peaks in mid April but still fluctuating wildly from day to day.https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/05/china-advances-its-war-on-bitcoin-cracks-down-on-mining/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/05/crypto-payments-above-10000-would-be-reported-to-irs-under-treasury-plan/Over on YouTube, the classic viral video "Charlie Bit My Finger" will now be deleted from the site after the owner of the video sold an NFT of the clip and earned US$761,000. Its owner said they were already considering removal after the video was flagged as 'made for kids' by YouTube, so the NFT sale apparently puts an end to the video's journey from amusing clip to 884 million view juggernaut. Of course, I'm sure no one will ever see it on YouTube ever again because no other account would ever repost such a clip. That never happens on YouTube.https://www.tubefilter.com/2021/05/24/charlie-bit-my-finger-nft-sale-removed-from-youtube/https://youtu.be/_OBlgSz8sSMElsewhere in the battle for digital dominion, demands for social media platforms to be accountable for misinformation have been growing in recent years, but now some legislators are pushing back against platform efforts to remove or label content as misleading. Florida has just pushed a new law that aims to ban platforms from suspending politicians, like Trump, and allows them to sue platforms for doing so. Meanwhile in India, Twitter has seen its offices raided by police as the government demands answers on why a government spokesperson's tweet was labelled as "manipulated media". A knife edge time for balancing freedom of speech with outright lies from politicians.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/delhi-police-raids-twitter-india-offices/articleshow/82912102.cmshttps://www.businessinsider.com.au/florida-republicans-want-fine-social-media-companies-banning-politicans-2021-4Microsoft has updated its Xbox Cloud Gaming app for Android to add support for dual-screen devices, turning half the scr... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CSIRO's digital division, Data61, is in the midst of another restructure that is seeing 70 jobs lost from the research organisation. One of the victims of the changes is the loss of a world-leading team that has developed a highly secure computing microkernel, seL4. According to reports, the team has been disbanded with staff either exiting Data61 or being moved into an AI division. Members of the team were told last week it no longer fits the agency's strategic goals. The seL4 work will continue through an independent body.https://www.innovationaus.com/data61-dumps-world-class-sel4-security-team/ABC iView has begun an advertising campaign that tells users they will soon be required to create an account to continue using the public broadcaster's streaming service. The ABC says the requirement will be in place in July and is aimed at improving personalisation of the service for better recommendations, creating watch lists, and tracking of which shows and episodes a user has or has not watched. But privacy advocates decry not maintaining an optional approach, and that in the end the best security is to hold as little personal data as possible.https://www.innovationaus.com/abc-may-lock-out-iview-users-for-personalisation/Spotify has added offline music downloads for users of the Apple Watch. A lot of apps seem to have had a hard time getting Apple Watch audio downloads up and running, so it's a great milestone to see Spotify get support in place. It makes it easy for Spotify users to leave their phone behind when going out with just their Watch for exercise or just wanting to operate a little lighter during the day.https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/21/22447222/spotify-adding-feature-music-downloads-offline-apple-watchTwitch has been inundated with popular hot tub streams in recent weeks, with some streamers using a loophole in rules around 'contextual attire' to wear skimpy bikinis in paddling pools they've setup in their streaming rooms. On Friday, to better accommodate such activity while managing wider user and advertiser expectations, Twitch announced a new "Pools, Hut Tubs, and Beaches" category exclusively for these kinds of streams. The company admits it is a first step solution to manage controls for viewers and advertisers while not being overly censorious toward streams that can be seen as sexually suggestive.https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2021/05/21/lets-talk-about-hot-tub-streams/In entertainment, talk of a Highlander reboot is heating up as word emerges that Henry Cavill is in talks to tackle the lead role. The new film is set to be directed by Chad Stahelski, who directed the John Wick films. Whether the lead role will hold to the name Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod remains to be seen. Just remember, they only ever made one film.https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2021/05/21/lets-talk-about-hot-tub-streams/In esports, China's Royal Never Give up aka RNG won the Mid-Season Invitational event in League of Legends overnight, while in Rainbow Six Siege the Six Invitational in Paris was won by Ninjas in Pyjamas, defeating Team Liquid in a tight 3-2 series win. Three of the top four teams were Brazilian, showing the regions dominance in the game.https://dotesports.com/rainbow-6/news/nip-defeat-liquid-in-si-2021-grand-final-cementing-brazilian-rainbow-six-siege-dominanceAlso at the final, Siege announced the next season of the game, Operation North Star, will add a new operator to the game, Thunderbird, a healing defender, as well as a rework to the Favela map and more active play after death with control over drones and better camera controls. Operation North Star launches in June.https://www.dexerto.com/rainbow-six/rainbow-six-operation-north-star-details-operator-map-rework-1555554/That's your Bits bulletin for Monday. I'm Seamus Byrne from Byteside, thanks for joining me. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After two years of teasing us with a stunning new display concept, LG has announced that you will soon be able to place an order for its amazing rollable OLED TV. It's an amazing piece of technology, with the screen disappearing into a cabinet that is also a large speaker cabinet for the television. The TV also offers a Line View that opens the screen just a small way to show things like music track information and photo galleries. Starting in July, those with $130,000 to spare can place their order for a custom unit to be made and delivered to their home. And LG says they know there's a queue of folks ready to buy one. It's an amazing piece of tech and I thank these early adopters for buying them so one day we can all get a cheaper model in future.After taking its verification program into a secret bunker for a long time, Twitter has announced it is rolling out a new verification program for users of the platform that will include categorisation of the account, whether as government, entertainment, news and journalism, sorts and gaming, and more. The option to get verified will become available directly within the app's account settings area.https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/relaunching-verification-and-whats-next.htmlIn entertainment, one of the biggest action titles to ever go direct to Netflix, Army of the Dead hits the streaming service tonight. No exact timing offered, just that it launches 'today' but we expect if you settle in after dinner you should be able to find it. It's a Zack Snyder fest with an all out zombie invasion of Las Vegas and it should be a rollicking good time if that sounds like your thing. It's at 74% on Rotten Tomatoes which sounds like a great score for this kind of schlock fest.The most epically successful Dungeons & Dragons live play show, Critical Role, has revealed that its second campaign will come to an end with the conclusion of its current story arc. The team is heading into a final battle with a former teammate and DM Matthew Mercer revealed this will indeed wrap up the campaign. The Mighty Nein campaign began in 2018 and has run for 138 episodes so far, while the first campaign, Vox Machina, ended after 115 episodes. While it may bring an end to the campaign, Mercer did say it is unlikely to be the end of the story.More fun stories today, this latest sees Lego announce it will release a special 346-piece set called "Everyone Is Awesome" to celebrate diversity in all its forms. The set presents a rainbow flag alongside the trans flag colours plus black and brown colours, with 11 monochrome minifigs that line up across the model. The set will sell for $60 and launches on June 1 to coincide with Pride Month.https://www.cnet.com/news/lego-everyone-is-awesome-set-celebrates-lgbtqia-community-in-time-for-pride/Turning to esports, this weekend sees a huge line up of major international events in esports, with the final stages of the Rainbow Six Siege Six Invitational taking place in France, while the League of Legends Mid Season Invitational will also crown a champion on Sunday night. And for Overwatch League fans the next phase of its competition, dubbed the June Joust, kicks off with a format that excludes some heroes from the selection pool to shake up the meta.If you're after something you can compete in yourself, Red Bull has just announced a 2v2 CS:GO tournament with registrations opening today. It's called Red Bull Flick, with Steel Series and AOC (the monitors, not the politician) partnering up on the competition that will feature custom maps designed for map control game modes in a futuristic map setting. Sign up and start practising this weekend! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.