Bits: daily tech news bulletin

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The ACCC has given authorisation for Country Press Australia to collectively negotiate with Facebook and Google to receive payments for their news content appearing on their digital platforms. The authorisation allows the group of 160 regional newspapers to engage in discussions together as well as share information on their individual negotiations with the search engine and social network. The authorisation also lets the ACCC avoid moving to a 'designation' step that would start a clock ticking under the media bargaining code that could lead to Facebook walking away from Australia again given its previous comments about its preference to leave rather than be forced into any binding agreement here.

In local battles against scammers, late last week the Australian Federal Police announced it has conducted searches of a business in Wollongong, NSW, to investigate fake tech support services that are allegedly being used to access computers remotely and force victims to buy useless software to fix problems they created on the device. The investigation is part of Operation Rayko, an ongoing effort to takedown these fake Microsoft support services.

Overseas, the EU has charged Apple with anti-trust violations, arguing that it has given its own music service an advantage over competitors by forcing them to use its payment system and taking a cut of their fees. The argument points to an unfair market where Apple can charge a certain price but for a Spotify to compete at the same price it is earning less money because of the 30% charge it is required to give to Apple. The argument seems targeted toward allowing alternate payment gateways in App Store ecosystems.

Up on Mars, the success of the first four flights of NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter has led to the helicopter being given a new mission. Its original month long testing program is being extended a further month, with new tests aiming to explore its capacity to scout ahead of the Perseverance rover and help it identify targets for soil and rock sample collection to be stored for collection and a return trip in future for lab analysis back on Earth.

Elsewhere in US space programs, NASA has told SpaceX to halt work on the US$2.9 billion contracts it was awarded to develop a lunar lander system for the Artemis missions. Billionaire battles seem to be brewing as Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin protested the contract that was award to Elon Musk's SpaceX, with another company, Dynetics, also protesting the deal. America's Government Accountability Office will examine the contract award process and decide on whether changes should be made. Jeff Bezos has made a number of complaints regarding government contracts that were awarded during the Trump era as excluding his companies due to Trump's personal animosity toward Bezos.

In video games, Riot Games, maker of League of Legends and Valorant, has updated its privacy policy to allow it to record in-game voice chat. The company says the aim is to crack down on harassment in its games, and it promises to only listen to audio recordings as part of responding to reports being filed for abusive behaviour and hate speech. The company says if you don't want to be recorded, you will need to turn off your use of voice chat.

Finally, from esports results over the weekend, the Rocket League Championship Series Oceanic Major crowned its winner with Perth's Ground Zero taking out the title over Cringe Society in a clean sweep final, dropping just a single round through the entire finals series. In Rainbow Six Siege, Australia's Six Invitational qualifier Wildcard Gaming has been unable to travel to the event in France, which starts next week. Meanwhile, Pentanet.gg, our representatives at the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational, has travelled to Iceland to compete in the tournament starting later this week.

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The NSW government is proposing personal injury insurance options for gig economy delivery services as part of a consultation by the State Insurance Regulatory Authority. After a number of injuries and deaths to food delivery riders in recent months, options are being suggested to ensure the companies they perform deliveries for are providing appropriate protections for compensation and support while on the job. Submissions are open to provide feedback on the options being put forward until May 28.

In energy science, researchers from RMIT have analysed the capacity of government-owned airports to host large-scale rooftop solar systems as a venue for increased solar capacity in the national grid and found there is enough space to generate enough power to run 136,000 homes. The team found airports are ideal venues for solar with so much clear rooftop space on offer – the study calculated 2.61 square kilometres in total. The study was published in the Journal of Building Engineering.

Google is rolling out a new update for Assistant that will allow users to help train the service to pronounce and recognise tricky names. Right now you can help it pronounce your own name, but with the update you will be able to help it pronounce names of other people in your contact lists. Google says this is for English language only for now with hopes to expand the update to other languages in future.

In videogames industry news, Microsoft has announced it will reduce its cut of revenue from PC games sold through the Microsoft Store from 30% to 12% starting August 1st. The move brings Microsoft into alignment with the Epic Store which has been pushing for better deals for developers since its launch in December 2018. However the change right now only applies to PC games and not games sold on the Xbox. This leaves Steam on its own continuing to take a 30% cut, with its sliding scale reducing to 25% after $10 million and 20% after $50 million.

In meme culture, the Disaster Girl herself has earned US$500,000 this week. Zoe Roth is now 21 but is most famous as a 4-year-old who looks far too pleased about a fire raging across the street. She decided to NFT the original image, taken by her father, and earned 180 Ether or roughly $495,000 and retains the right to 10% of future sales. Cool for Ms Roth, but don't forget that NFTs are still a big digital mess.

In Dungeons and Dragons news, Jeff Goldblum has been announced as a cast member for the next season of the Dark Dice actual play podcast. He is said to be playing an evil elven sorcerer named Balmur who is searching for his daughter's missing locket. The next season of the Dark Dice podcast kicks off on May 12.

And, finally, if you're looking to watch esports this weekend there's plenty to see, with Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League and Call of Duty World League continuing at the global level plus Dreamhack Masters Spring competition continuing in CS:GO. Plus every weekend there's Couch Warriors FGC to watch and you can also register now for Battle Arena Melbourne BAM12 now which takes place May 29-31.

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An Adelaide man has been arrested for replacing QR codes on official COVID-19 check-in signs with alternate codes and, in a unique bail condition has been required to not carry "loose QR codes" anywhere. A QR code scanned by a phone camera can resolve to any online destination, and the man allegedly was replacing the codes with links to anti-vaccination material. He was charged with interfering with operations related to COVID-19, which is a crime under South Australian emergency powers. The man faces a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released its second interim report as part of its digital platform services inquiry, focusing on issues of Apple and Google App Stores and their dominance of digital distribution. In a statement, ACCC chair Rod Sims argues there are significant issues of market power, and the ACCC wants to target a number of issues, including transparency in how apps are made discoverable within the marketplaces, not allowing Apple or Google to use information about third-party apps to advantage their own, and allowing the use of third-party payment services for in-app purchases. The ACCC also wants to force better processes for payment disputes, subscription traps and other app scams. The report is part of the ongoing five year inquiry into digital platforms.

In other Australian digital news, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has chastised Australian Federal Police for a "cavalier" attitude toward telecommunications data, in a report that found the AFP may have unlawfully accessed location information hundreds of times. The Ombudsman found ACT Policing was only fully compliant with access rules for location pings from mobile towers in 9 out of 1,713 cases over four years. The AFP was also under fire for failure to rectify or even disclose the issue after it knew it was in breach of the rules. The issues may bring convictions based on this evidence into question.

CES is set to return to real-life face-to-face action in January 2022, with the Consumer Technology Association naming January 5 to 8 as the dates for the event's return to Las Vegas. The US has been rolling out vaccinations at an impressive pace, but the event's tradition of welcoming the consumer electronics companies and industry members from across the world may be put to the test as the pandemic continues to run out of control in many parts of the world. I still expect I'll be watching along from home again next year.

We've largely tried to avoid NFT discussions here because we have issues with the way the technology currently operates, but a number of major announcements require mentioning. The CEO of Hasbro has indicated the company may consider NFTs for franchises like Magic The Gathering, while an NFT artwork of Chadwick Boseman has come under fire for commodifying the actor around the Oscars after his death last year. The initial flurry of NFT craziness doesn't seem to be behind us just yet.

In entertainment news, someone has posted a review to Rotten Tomatoes that has ruined Citizen Kane's perfect 100% fresh rating. While the review was a new addition, it comes from a 1941 review in the Chicago Tribune from the time of the movie's original release. The film is noted for having received mixed reviews at the time of its release, but the new arrival drops the film to a 99% rating. The only film that remains on 100% certified fresh? Paddington 2.

And finally, Netflix is launching a new 'Play Something' feature to get you over your decision fatigue and just, well, Play Something. The new button has been in testing since last year and aims to automatically start playing shows and movies based on the user's taste. The feature is rolling out worldwide today.

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Australian MP and walking brown-note Craig Kelly wants to introduce laws to stop Facebook banning his effort to consistently lie to Australians and troll the planet via its social media platform. Kelly invoked the concept of freedom of speech, which we have no right to in Australia, and claimed banning him permanently from spreading his brand of viral misinformation is some kind of threat to democracy. The MP used Twitter and various major media services to talk at length about how his freedom of speech had been removed. Kelly now plans to push for legislation to do something or other about his ban from his favourite platform. Let's assume it's to enact a bill of rights for Australian citizens and not just to demand his personal right to scream nonsense online.

It's earnings report season for Silicon Valley companies, which is a good time to point out Bits generally avoids the boring business questions of who raised what, who earned what and stats like EBITDA, ARPU, and growth stats galore. We're here to look at the impacts of all things digital on the world around us and the act of working and living every day. We also don't really do rumours, sticking to substantiated products, services and news that is happening right now or in the very, very near future. If you like all that, keep listening, and go get the Byteside newsletter which is turning into a companion daily newsletter starting next week.

OK, one quick nod to the financials... Microsoft is up 44% year over year, Alphabet is up 35% year over year, and AMD is up 93% year over year. Go read the specialists if you want more of that kind of thing today or in the future.

Spotify has announced a paid podcast subscriptions service, launching today for podcast creators in the USA. Spotify is launching the service with no fees until 2023 after which it will take 5% of subscriptions, a much lower cost to creators than Apple's 30% for the first year and 15% after that. Podcasters will need to use Spotify-owned Anchor to upload their podcasts and can tag any show as 'subscriber only', with episodes available via Spotify and other podcast services. Spotify says it aims to roll the service out for creators worldwide in coming months.

In science, Australian researchers have published a study that finds bushfire smoke concentrations could be monitored using mobile phone signals. The team from Monash University found that radio link fluctuations could be observed and help predict smoke concentration levels at ground level and alongside satellite remote sensing it could help to improve early warnings for resident evacuations and wider firefighting efforts.

In weird entertainment decisions, Saturday Night Live has announced Elon Musk will be hosting the show when it returns to screens in May. The noted not-actor actual-shitposter is expected to read awkwardly from cue cards while looking disappointed when the audience doesn't laugh at the jokes he's flubbing throughout the show. Expect Dogecoin to increase in price and volatility around lunchtime on Sunday, Australian time.

In video games, Fortnite has continued its steady takeover of all of pop culture and entertainment with today's launch of a Neymar Jr skin. The famed Brazilian football star can be unlocked through this season's Battle Pass and includes simple and superhero style skins as well as football emotes and other in-game bling. Other recent arrivals in Fortnite include Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, Lara Croft and Raven from Teen Titans. Keep watching Fortnite if you're wondering how a Metaverse grows via Tim Sweeney's fever dream video game development operation.

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It has been one year since the launch of Australia's COVIDSafe app and after being launched as "digital sunscreen" by Prime Minister Morrison the app has identified 17 cases and 81 close contacts in New South Wales at a cost of just under $7 million. The app has been downloaded 7 million times, with reports suggesting only 3% of those who tested positive for COVID having downloaded the app. Regardless, COVIDSafe was plagued by poor Bluetooth signal management processing that volunteer developers helped to rectify before the problem returned in a major update late last year. The federal government refused to shift to the Apple/Google Exposure Notification Framework because it did not create a central accessible database like COVIDSafe did. Another case study in poor federal government technology projects.

While chip manufacturing shortages continue, the move toward smaller, faster, more efficient chips has not. Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC, one of the dominant chip makers of the past decade's smartphone revolution, has released an update stating it is on track to move to 4 nanometre and even 3 nanometre scale production in 2022, with 2 nanometre development and even smaller progressing well. A tough year ahead for availability but good to know that isn't slowing down next generation processor scales and the even more amazing chips they will bring.

Apple has released the latest updates for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch this morning, which includes a major overhaul to how tracking and privacy work for apps. Now you will be asked if you want to allow an app to track your activity across other apps and websites. Facebook has been fighting against these changes, saying they will hurt small businesses that rely on Facebook for targeted advertising. Which is a way of saying that Facebook relies on tracking you everywhere you go online to deliver cheap targeted advertising. Our usual suggestion is to wait a day or two before you update to make sure there's no hidden bugs lurking out there.

Also in Apple updates, macOS 11.3 has been released, which includes a suite of its own updates and improvements. Most importantly, it includes a patch for a zero-day security flaw that would allow apps to run without triggering any security prompts or warnings. So make this update a high priority.

Facebook has rolled out a new music player in its app that allows Spotify music and podcasts to be streamed directly through the Facebook app. The mini player can be embedded in posts and then it will drop to the bottom of the screen and continue streaming directly within the app rather than taking you out to Spotify. At a technical level, it seems the Spotify app is still managing the audio, so if you don't already have Spotify installed you won't get the fancy new experience. As with most new features on Facebook, it takes time to propagate across billions of users so it will slowly reveal itself over coming days.

For design fans, a hat tip to the gorgeous set design used for yesterday's Academy Awards ceremony. The event was very different to recent shows, taking place in an intimate, COVID-safe setting within the amazing Art Deco environment of Los Angeles Union Station. The set was designed by architect David Rockwell with an aim to harken back to the style of early 1930s ceremonies. If you don't watch the Oscars, check out photos of the room where it happened. It was top shelf Hollywood glamour.

In video games, Capcom is releasing a special 60-minute demo this weekend for the upcoming Resident Evil Village release. The demo was originally going to be available for just 24 hours, but after very reasonable complaints the company has extended the demo to run from May 1st to May 9th. The full game's official release date is May 7, that's Friday week.

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Sad news in the infosec world, with news security researcher Dan Kaminsky died over the weekend at age 42. In 2005 he uncovered the Sony BMG Rootkit debacle, and in 2008 he found and disclosed design flaws in the fundamental infrastructure of the entire internet. He is widely remarked upon as a lovely, conscientious, compassionate and supportive member of the community who will be deeply missed.

If you're a casual crypto investor wondering what happened to your portfolio over the weekend, a sell-off wiped $200B off the markets after reports suggested US President Biden may increase capital gains taxation rates. The sell-off caused Bitcoin to fall below US$50,000 while cryptocurrencies across the board generally saw large drops in value.

Also in the US, Apple failed to have a court case dismissed over the definition of the word "Buy" in its iTunes Store. The case argues the word is misleading because access can be terminated at any time and is therefore not ownership. Two cases related to the argument are currently underway, with one focused on the question of misleading use of "Buy" while another relates to an AppleID that was terminated with US$25,000 worth of iTunes, App Store and other purchases in the account. Interesting arguments that are fundamental to our experience of digital stores of all stripes today.

In space, astronauts have been sent to the International Space Station over the weekend on a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, marking a third successful launch for NASA in 11 months using SpaceX rockets and capsules. The launch took place Friday and arrived at the ISS on Saturday. The four astronauts will spend six months aboard the space station while the previous crew will return to Earth later this week aboard the Dragon capsule.

Another shout out to our Martian friends, with news NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter has performed its third flight overnight. This time the drone flew 50 metres from its point of origin and then back again. The footage from the Perseverance rover only shows the first slice of the flight now that Ingenuity is starting to perform longer flight tests around the area. Ingenuity tests will run for another few weeks before the project concludes and Perseverance will move onto other missions on the red planet.

Videogame history at the Oscars today, with the best short documentary award going to Colette, produced as an in-game feature of the VR game Medal of Honour: Above and Beyond. The film looks at the history of French resistance fighter Colette Marin-Catherine, one of the last surviving members of the French resistance. It is the first time a videogame has won any award at the Oscars, so congratulations to Respawn Entertainment, who also makes Apex Legends and in recent years also made Jedi: Fallen Order.

In global esports results, the Mythic Dungeon Invitational global finals in World of Warcraft were won by Echo over the weekend. The Europeans won in dominant fashion, never dropping a dungeon on their route to victory. They defeated Perplexed in the final, a second European team showing big regional dominance.

Closer to home, the E-League FIFA 21 tournament over the weekend saw Newcastle Jets top the ladder after two big days of matches, closely followed by Western Sydney Wanderers. In Valorant, the Order Army took out the Closed Qualifier Grand Final and wins first seeding in the Oceania Tour Stage 2 finals. 

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Russia has confirmed it plans to leave the International Space Station after 20 years of co-operation in space. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, confirmed the Russian space agency intends to exit the ISS in 2025 and is working on developing its own orbital station with a target launch of 2030. Russia also recently signed an agreement with China to develop a separate station to orbit the moon.

In better news from space, the NASA Perseverance rover has successfully converted CO2 to oxygen in an experiment on Mars yesterday. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment, known as MOXIE, pulled carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and converted it into enough oxygen to keep an astronaut alive for 10 minutes. An exciting proof of concept for potential human missions in the future.

From one Moxie to another, with the CEO of secure messaging app Signal, Moxie Marlinspike, revealing that one of the key tools used by law enforcement to hack smartphones is itself incredibly insecure. Signal's CEO got access to a Cellebrite device and not only found it featured a number of poor programming errors that made it prone to attack, he showed how easy it was for him to set a phone so that if it was scanned by a Cellebrite unit it would force code to execute and potentially alter the unit, or reports generated by the unit – creating a big question over the integrity and validity of Cellebrite as reliable legal evidence. Hacking the hackers is always entertaining to watch.

A product testing outlet in the US has shown how a motivated driver can easily fool a Tesla into driving with no one in the driver seat. Consumer Reports took a Model Y to a test track and got it driving in Autopilot mode by buckling the seat belt under the driver when they first got into the vehicle and adding a weight to the steering wheel to simulate the weight of a driver's hands. They could then slide into the passenger seat and speed up in the already engaged Autopilot mode. Other manufacturers have been adding features that monitor the driver's attention while they use assisted driving modes.

Australia's own Rode microphones has launched a new software package to turn its NT-USB mini microphones into a powerful podcasting studio wherever you need one. The new RodeConnect software is free for Mac and PC and allows four NT USB-mini microphones to connect via USB and record through a virtual interface a lot like the hardware Rodecaster Pro I'm recording this bulletin through right now. It even makes it easy to add remote callers into recordings or to include music or effects too. And that price again – free.

Sony has confirmed a new Video Pass for PlayStation Plus subscribers is being trialled in some parts of the world. Right now, that place is specifically Poland. 20 movies and TV shows from Sony's own studios are being made available there. PlayStation is removing purchase and rental of a large library of video content from the platform later this year, so an integrated free offer from Sony's own back catalogue would make a lot of sense.

In other video games news, this weekend you can dive into the new MLB The Show 21 baseball game and Nier Replicant which have both launched this week, while Blizzard has kicked off a further round of the Diablo Immortal alpha for lucky testers in Australia. I'm one of those lucky people.

And if you're still shopping around for games to play, Steam has just launched deeper Categories to its digital games store. Top level categories like action, RPG and strategy now have seven sub-genres to help you find exactly what is a fit for your specific tastes. There are also theme categories to help you find horror, sci-fi, mystery or other games, and special sections for finding games to match the multiplayer, co-op, party game or single player support you're looking for.

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