A government report has revealed Australia's anti-encryption laws passed in 2018 have been used 11 times during the 2019-2020 financial year. The laws were used by the NSW Police force seven times, the AFP three times, and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission once. The majority of uses were related to illicit drug offences at seven occasions, with robbery and cybercrime each the reason on one occasion. The further two uses by the AFP were described as being for "all serious offences" but these requests were also revoked before being put to use. Over the same period, requests for access to retained data rose to over 310,000 authorisations.A report by wireless industry analytics organisation OpenSignal has found real world 5G speeds have been performing far better than 4G for Australian users to date. Using data from November 2020 to January 2021, the tests found average 5G download speeds were 240.9Mbps while 4G was 45.3Mbps, making 5G 5.3x faster than 4G. Average 3G speeds were reported at 6Mbps. Average upload speeds were 15.5Mbps for 5G, 8.2Mbps for 4G and 1.3Mbps on 3G. Now we just need 5G to start spreading beyond our major cities.PC manufacturer Acer appears to have been hit by a ransomware attack, possibly via the recent and ongoing Microsoft Exchange server attacks. The Taiwanese manufacturer has not confirmed the situation, but says there is an ongoing investigation underway. It is reported that a $50 million demand has been made to not release internal documents including financial data. $50M makes this the largest ever single demand in such a ransom attack.Instagram says it is working on building a version for people under 13. BuzzFeed News reports that internal messaging at Instagram stated that "youth work" has been made a priority at the Facebook-owned image-based social network. Current Instagram rules forbid users under 13 from joining but many underage users sign up using false date of birth information. Unsurprisingly, the prospect has raised many concerns over targeting pre-teens with such a service and whether it would immediately be seen as illegal under America's Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, known as COPPA.China has reportedly banned Tesla cars from use by military and government over concerns that data could be relayed to US authorities. China has become one of the world's biggest electric vehicle markets, with Tesla selling almost 150,000 vehicles there in 2020, 30 percent of its total worldwide sales. In response to the claims, Technoking Elon Musk denied Tesla would ever do such a thing, stating the company would be "shut down" if it ever allowed its cars to spy on owners anywhere.Gucci has released a 'hyper-exclusive' pair of shoes for just $13.99. The catch? It's a downloadable pair of virtual shoes you can try on via augmented reality or place on avatars in virtual world games like VR Chat and Roblox. Gucci has previously participated in downloadable content in Pokemon GO.From real turned digital to the digital turned real, with the news the Super Nintendo World theme park in Osaka has officially opened after eight months of delays due to the coronavirus. The park, part of Japan's Universal Studios theme park, was originally intended to open in time for millions of visitors to the Tokyo Olympics to get to visit the park but then 2020 happened. The opening includes a number of safety protocols due to the ongoing pandemic, including signs requesting people on rides should try not to scream. Activities in the park include Mario Kart races, Yoshi rides and life-sized question blocks you can punch.Sony Interactive Entertainment has acquired Evo Championship Series, the biggest name in fighting game esports tournaments. Evo co-founders Tony and Tom Cannon were announced to be "closely involved as key advisors" under the new structure, which also revealed Evo will return in 2021 in an online format after the cancellation of Evo's live event in ...

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