Bits: daily tech news bulletin Byteside

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/1482077503
Overcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-player/id888422857
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1482077503
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzA0NzA5ZTVkLWU0ZTQtNDk0Ny1hYmNmLTYyZDM3MmIyZTFiNg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43tUBmO4DknkGbd4Hw9dlb
RSS: https://rss.acast.com/byteside
And get loads more written content at www.byteside.com
Get our weekly newsletter at newsletter.byteside.com
gB6CmVjBdiLNerFIgqfY

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 aca

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.

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

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

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. Se