Bits: daily tech news bulletin

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has joined forces with its UK and German equivalents in an agreement to prevent tech giants from using mergers and acquisitions to maintain market dominance. In a join statement, the three groups state that stronger control over mergers is required to create room for competition in the market, particularly in new areas of innovation.

Microsoft has added new settings to Outlook that can enforce breaks between meetings in an effort to overcome the problem of wall-to-wall meetings and general digital overload. The setting can make meetings start five minutes after the usual hour or half hour, with Microsoft's own research suggesting even small breaks can have a positive impact when people are feeling overloaded. Now if only they could automatically mute everyone at the scheduled end time to stop overrun that would be good too.

The EU is moving forward with its proposal to impose strict rules upon the use of artificial intelligence. Seen in draft form last week, the plan aims to outlaw the use of AI for general social scoring, the use of remote biometric detection in real-time policing, and more. The rules also demand compulsory transparency obligations whenever AI is used to interact with humans, to generate or manipulate content, like with deep fakes, or to perform social or emotional detection. If the rules go ahead they're expected to have widespread impact on AI technology initiatives across the world.

In Britain, the country's former children's commissioner is taking legal action against TikTok over the collection of personal data about child users. The lawsuit, brought by Anne Longfield, claims the company's collection of personal information, phone numbers, location data and the videos themselves may be illegal in the absence of transparent consent of parents given children cannot give legal consent. The case claims to represent millions of British children. No word on why the case singles out TikTok over Instagram or Snap.

In backyard science, it's the right time of year to catch the Lyrids meteor showers, with the best time to head outside and take a look around one hour before sunrise over the next few days. Expect to catch meteor sightings with the naked eye every 3-5 minutes. Look toward the north to spot them.

In video games, Xbox owners can now play free-to-play games online without needing to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription to do so. The change was flagged earlier in the year by Microsoft, but the change is now officially in the system after a number of recent adjustments to Xbox networking arrangements.

And if you're hunting for something great to play on PlayStation and you had held out on buying Horizon Zero Dawn, the Complete Edition of the game is now free for all PS4 and PS5 owners. Sony's PlayStation at Home program has made a number of games available over recent weeks from its back catalogue for free – you have a few more hours to grab nine others before they exit the offer.

Finally, Australian esports organisation Order, mentioned on Bits recently for Valorant tournament management efforts and a number of team victories, has raised $5.3M in new investments as it aims to establish itself as a local leader in the esports scene. It has also appointed a new CEO, Marc Edwards, and revealed plans for a dedicated facility in Melbourne's Collingwood. The team has a number of big brand partnerships with Puma, Optus, Alienware and Logitech.

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It seems Australian Kmart shoppers can expect to see roving robots while you walk the aisles, with news the retailer will roll out a fleet of robots named TORY in every store by the end of the year. The robots roam the store scanning RFID tags to track stock levels of items to make it easier to keep inventory tracking in order. The robots are likely to do their work outside peak hours, so if you want to see one you might need to stalk the store in quieter periods of the day.

Apple's Spring Loaded event took place in the early hours of today, with major announcements being new iPad Pros and new iMacs based on the company's M1 Apple Silicon processors. The new iMacs look like giant iPads and include seven colours like the early colourful days of the iMac and a big performance jump thanks to the M1. It comes in a new 24-inch screen size that fits into the space of the old 21.5-inch model. Orders go live April 30 for mid-May delivery and the iPad Pro starts from $1,199 and the iMac starts at $1,899.

More from Apple's event, the company launched new Air Tags for tracking objects and keys via Apple's Find My tracking system. Air Tags can be customised with initials or emoji and accessorised to suit keyring, luggage tags or other bag attachments and it uses Ultrawideband tracking to direct you to the tag with detailed direction sensing. Air Tags will cost $45 for one or $149 for a pack of 4, with the leather keyring accessory costing more than the tag at $55 and there's even an Hermes option for $529.

In the living room, Apple updated its Apple TV product to support high frame rate HDR and a new remote that includes a better clickpad control surface that you slide in a circle to scrub back and forth in a more natural fashion than the current minimalistic mess of a remote.

Lastly from Apple, the company is launching a major update to its Podcasts app to include a subscriptions system to allow fans of shows to support creators directly within the app. The Subscriptions option will launch in 170 regions around the world starting in May. Apple will take a 30% cut of subscriptions for the first year and 15% in following years. This will launch with iOS 14.5, which Apple also announced will be arriving next week.

Turning to wider tech news, discussions of Discord being bought by Microsoft have apparently ended, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the company is returning to a plan to go public after turning down Microsoft's offer that was reportedly over $10B. During discussions it is reported that Discord discussed a sale with at least three companies before deciding to continue on its own for now. 

In entertainment, Marvel's Secret Invasion TV series is building an army of casting talent, with news Oscar-winning actor Olivia Coleman and Khaleesi Emilia Clarke will join Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Kingsley Ben-Adir in the Skrull focused show for Disney Plus. No release date has been announced.

And in videogames, longtime Blizzard Entertainment leader Jeff Kaplan is leaving the company after 20 years. Kaplan joined Blizzard as a prominent Everquest raid leader to join the World of Warcraft team before the game launched, eventually leading the WoW team before taking the lead on Overwatch. Leadership on Overwatch 2 will pass to Aaron Keller.

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Australian federal and state ministers have agreed to look at a national system for sharing data and digital identity. The system would allow for unified access to digital services across the country and includes related discussions on the creation of a Commonwealth COVID-19 vaccination credential of some kind. The idea of completely unified personal information has often been met with deep concerns in Australia, and recent changes to leadership structures now sees the federal Digital Transformation Agency under the remit of one of the architects of the robodebt scandal, Minister Stuart Robert, where national data was wilfully misinterpreted to punish Australians on unemployment benefits.

Facebook has upgraded its Transfer Your Information tool to make it easier to export your posts and notes into formats more useful than a giant data dump. Now, the tool can be used to export your history of Facebook posts to Google Docs or to formats suitable for Blogger and Wordpress. Data portability is a big issue for the future of the web and social media, particularly around closed platforms like Facebook.

In other social news, Facebook along with Reddit have both announced upcoming releases of audio room features in a direct challenge to audio-room social service Clubhouse. The debate over whether Clubhouse would be a standout killer service or just a feature is developing quickly, and new statistics suggest Clubhouse sign ups are slowly quickly after excitement peaked in early March.

In science, researchers in China have developed a new cryogel sponge technology that slowly releases stem cells into joints. In testing on mice, the technique has been found to reverse the effects of osteoarthritis, a positive step forward for a condition with only pain relief as a management option for human sufferers.

Up on Mars, NASA's Mars helicopter experiment went off without a hitch, with Ingenuity hovering for 30 seconds and landing again as hoped. Viewers of the livestream got to hear word of the telemetry data coming through to confirm the event had taken place correctly and it was quickly followed by a photograph from the helicopter's navigation camera where you could see its own shadow and then with video footage of Ingenuity's flight from the Mars Perseverance rover.

Microsoft has announced its xCloud game streaming service will arrive on iOS and PC starting later today with access via web browsers. Initial access will be limited to an invite-only beta for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. xCloud streaming has already been testing on Android and Apple had refused to allow it on its App Store because it was in breach of its store rules by allowing access to games that had not been approved for release on the store. Because for some reason what's OK for video streaming is not OK for games...

In other game news, Sony has stepped back from its earlier decision to close the digital stores for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita. Back in March the company said it would close these stores along with the PSP, but a vocal enough backlash from fans has led to a change of heart for the PS3 and PS Vita. Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan said "Upon further reflection, it's clear we made the wrong decision here." The PSP didn't seem to have enough friends out there, because its store will still close on July 2.

And in games for good, NRMA Insurance has teamed up with legendary Minecraft design group Blockworks to develop a special custom-map to explore natural disaster preparedness here in Australia and includes unique Australian animal designs. The Climate Warriors map is available for free through Minecraft Marketplace or Education Edition.

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The ACCC won a major court battle over Google and its location data tracking in the federal court on Friday, with Google found to have "partially" misled Australian consumers. The case by the ACCC argued Google was in breach of Australian consumer law when it continued tracking location data after users had switched off Location History on their Android phones while another Web Activity setting remained on. Justice Thomas Thawley's decision found that some users would have been misled to believe such data would stop being collected with this setting switched off while others would not have, and found Google in breach of sections 18, 29.1.g and 34 of Australian consumer law. 

In other Google battles, last week we mentioned Brave browser opting out of Google's new FLoC advertising technology due to privacy concerns and it seems many others are also declaring they will block the trackers from their browsers. Mozilla's Firefox, Microsoft's Edge, and Vivaldi in the browser space and search engine DuckDuckGo has also released a browser extension to block it for you. So it seems Google and its Chrome browser will be on their own with FLoC.

Back in Australia, the federal government on Friday announced it has selected 81 regional locations that will receive funding to improve wireless connectivity. A combination of federal, state and local funds will see $180M spent on improved infrastructure to suit the needs of the location, whether mobile coverage improvements or fixed wireless installations. Few details were offered at the announcement, with the government set to play the announcables game to be able to mention the funding as often as possible over coming weeks and months.

In an environmental progress report on Friday, Apple released details of its efforts to achieve a number of its own sustainability goals, from energy programs to changes in its manufacturing processes. The stand out detail is Apple claiming a saving of 861,000 tonnes of copper, tin and zinc ore by no longer including power adapters with its latest iPhones. The decision to leave out a charger came under fire and legal action in some parts of the world.

In tech pioneers, a fond farewell to Chuck Geschke who passed away at the age of 82 over the weekend. Geschke was the co-founder of Adobe Systems back in 1982 and served on its board until last year. He and his co-founder John Warnock created the software that built the desktop publishing revolution in the 1980s and the still critical PDF document format. Stories of his death widely speak of a humble and earnest business leader who will be greatly missed by friends and family.

In space, NASA has chosen SpaceX to fly humans to the moon once more. An exclusive contract has been awarded that will see a SpaceX Starship carry two astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis missions. Timing could be as soon as 2024.

In video games, Amazon has been forced to cancel the Lord of the Rings game it has been working on after a contract dispute with its Chinese development partner. The game was originally announced in 2019 as a free-to-play MMORPG. Amazon is still set to release its Lord of the Rings TV series which is currently filming in New Zealand and costs a reported half a billion dollars for the first season alone.

In esports results, the Nova Valorant tournament run by esports organisation Order resulted in a win for Order's own team which no doubt made for awkward glances for some, while Order also secured a 3-1 victory in the ESEA CS:GO season final against The Chiefs.

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Proposed European regulations on artificial intelligence seek to ban the use of algorithms and AI in a range of context's the directly impact on social and individual use cases. The proposal seeks to outlaw what it calls high-risk AI use, including AI used in algorithms being used in recruitment or credit assessment, those designed to manipulate human behaviour, opinions or decisions, in facial recognition for surveillance, and in social scoring systems, amongst other predictive scenarios as well. Experts told the BBC the draft is vague, full of loopholes and needs a more nuanced approach than high and low risk concepts of AI.

Google Earth, the tool closely related to Google Maps but for exploring the planet via satellite imagery, is adding historical 3D time lapses that show changes in the Earth between 1984 and 2020. The result is an at times shocking view of the effects of climate change. The tool has previously included many 2D time lapses but this is new 3D viewer was developed in conjunction with NASA, ESA, the USGS and the European Commission.

Tesla has come under fire for a surprise and dramatic increase in the price of its solar roof tile business. One customer told The Verge their signed contract for a $35,000 installation was being replaced by a demand for $75,000. Other customers said they had already spent thousands preparing their home for the installations when they received price increases in the tens of thousands of dollars. Tesla says the adjusted pricing is to account for individual roof complexity.

Logitech has officially ended the era of the Harmony remote control. The brand's universal remotes were the standout option for unifying devices in the home under a single controller long before Wi-Fi was embedded everywhere, and Harmony remotes were the most reliable units in a market that could often be flakier than you would hope. For those who own and love theirs, Logitech says it will continue to support the existing remotes for "as long as customers are using it."

In science, researchers have successfully created chimeric embryos that added human stem cells to monkey embryos to study coexistence of animal cells. Controversy runs deep in such studies, with similar pig-human and sheep-human studies conducted in the past. The study concluded within 20 days with all embryos destroyed – only three had survived until that point in the research.

In games, the latest expansion for Magic the Gathering has launched in the digital version of the collectible card game with the physical card version becoming available next Friday. The new set, Strixhaven, is set in a university of magic and includes five colleges with distinct styles of cards to explore. For old school fans of the game, the set includes Mystical Archives, bringing back some classic spells from the past, including some from the very beginnings of the card game in 1993.

In esports, Stage 1 of the APAC region competition for Rainbow Six Siege is wrapping up tonight, after the APAC South stage champion was decided last night and APAC North champion is decided this evening. Team Elevate from Thailand topped the APAC South group in dominant fashion, with Australia's Knights and Chiefs Esports taking 2nd and 3rd. The North division concludes tonight, with top two Cloud9 and Cyclops playing to see who will win the group. Australia's Fnatic had a poor stage, currently sitting fifth on the ladder.

In other esports, Overwatch League returns this weekend for 2021, and for Valorant fans, you can tune in this weekend to the Order NOVA Invitational playoffs and the Grand Final taking place in Sunday at the Order Army Twitch channel.

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Australian hacking company Azimuth Security has been revealed as the company that gave the FBI the tool it needed to hack the iPhone of the San Bernadino shooter in 2016. The battle between the FBI and Apple went to court as Apple refused to build a backdoor into iPhone security systems, and the case was suddenly dropped in March 2016. At the time another company was believed to have assisted law enforcement, but The Washington Post and Vice have both reported the Sydney-based company used a series of exploits to perform the task.

Samsung has unveiled it is set to run a new 5G network in Australia, based on 5G mmWave technology. Samsung Network Business will commence as a network vendor this year, and the company already operates 5G networks in a number of other countries, including Japan, Korea, Canada, the US, and New Zealand.

HP has announced its Instant Ink program is now available in Australia. The subscription service lets owners of recent and future model printers sign up to a monthly plan that sends ink anytime replacements are needed, with pricing based on the number of pages you want to print each month. Prices start from $1.99/month for 15 pages with a rollover of up to 45 pages, Or $9.99/month for 100 pages with 300 pages of rollover, or for small businesses $39.99/month for 700 pages. HP says it aims to remove the fuss of buying inks at a store, with new inks arriving at your door before you run out and old cartridges are sent back for return and recycling.

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has listed to the NASDAQ stock exchange in the US, achieving a stock price of US$328 at the close of trading. The company's market cap reached over $100B before slowing to $88B by the end of the day. A good reminder that the gold is almost always in the picks and shovels.

Researchers at the University of Washington are conducting a study to see if Apple Watch is capable of detecting respiratory illnesses like the flu and the coronavirus. The study is focused on the Seattle area and if participants get sick during the six month program they will be sent a home testing kit to see what illness they have caught to help assess what data points may help predict future cases.

Parallels Desktop software has received an update to support Apple Silicon and allow users to run Windows 10 ARM Insider Preview and to run Intel-based apps as well. The update also claims a 30% increase in performance compared to Windows 10 virtual machines on an Intel Core i9 processor, and uses 2.5x less power than on an Intel-based MacBook Air.

YouTube is running a pilot program to allow content creators to upload alternate audio tracks to offer dubbed language options on their videos. A recent video by YouTube superstar MrBeast was uploaded with a Spanish language dub. Similar to captions, users can toggle language from within an Audio Track menu.

Nvidia has announced it has had a very big quarter for GPU sales, with pandemic-related demand, gaming system upgrades and cryptocurrency mining leading to a 70% increase in its earnings over the same period last year. However, for anyone in the market for a new graphics card at the moment, the company expects it will be supply constrained throughout 2021 so expect them to be hard to find and for prices to stay high.

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The NSW government has announced plans to work with Sydney quantum computing company Q-CTRL to look at innovation opportunities around the state's public transport networks. In particular, the idea is to look at ways quantum computing could assist in real-time updates during congested periods, like during events like New Year's Eve. Q-CTRL is a commercial operation that spun out of Sydney University.

Google has been preparing to rollout a new alternative to third-party tracking cookies in web browsers but many privacy-focused services are already pushing back. Google calls its new system FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) and says it is interest-based advertising and is privacy-friendly. However this week makers of the privacy-focused web browser Brave, which is based on the code Google's Chrome browser is based on, has stated it will block FLoC in its browser, arguing FLoC is harmful to web users, it will tell sites about your browsing history and make you easier to be tracked across the web. Brave argues Google is driving a false concept of privacy which needs to be defeated. Other organisations, including Electronic Frontiers Foundation, have similarly come out strongly against FLoC.

Another security story today, as researchers found that WhatsApp makes it all too easy to deactivate someone else's account even if they have two-factor authentication switched on. This doesn't let someone take over your account, but as a way to disrupt your access it's very serious. The problem allows someone to fail to setup WhatsApp using your phone number, but then by contacting support they can have your account deactivated – by using any email address at all. The issue has been flagged with WhatsApp so hopefully a fix will arrive soon.

Spotify has announced a new hardware unit to make it easier to enjoy Spotify in your car. And it's called Car Thing. The Car Thing is launching in the US-only as a limited release, but what makes it noteworthy is tactile features alongside voice commands to make it easy to use without looking. There's a big knob and a smaller back button, plus four preset buttons that will launch assigned playlists or podcasts. Being what Spotify calls an exploration, odds seem likely this will never reach Australia.

In products we can buy, Microsoft has launched its new Surface Laptop 4 along with a headset, speaker and webcam to up its in-house conferencing game. Options on the laptop include AMD Ryzen processors as well as Intel Core, though not the newest Ryzen 5000 series which many would have hoped for. Microsoft maintains its uniquely tall 3:2 screen size here and is claiming up to 19 hours battery life on this latest rollout.

On Mars, NASA has had to delay the first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter after pre-flight tests revealed the need for a software update. The flight had been hoped to take place last weekend and then today, but the delay is expected to be into next week at this stage. Good luck up there, team.

Google has announced it is shutting down its Google Play Movies and TV app from smart TVs including Samsung, LG, and other brands. If you own movies or TV shows through the Google platform you will now be directed to access it all through the YouTube app.

Finally, there's a new Transformers toy that needs a mention, with Hasbro unveiling the new Optimus Prime Auto-Converting Programmable Advanced Robot. Yes, as the name suggests it does the transforming all by itself, along with voice commands, driving features and its own app. If you want it, you'll need US$700 to get it.

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Food delivery business Menulog is set to roll out an employee model for delivery drivers in Australia in a big move to change the poor labour practices of the gig economy. Contractor models have been found to pay less than minimum wages and created poor working conditions and job security. The employee program will begin in the Sydney CBD and the company will work with the Transport Workers Union to set its pay rules.

After LG's recent decision to exit the smartphone market, the company has announced a 'three year pledge' to deliver Android OS updates for owners of its handsets that are still out in the market. The promise aims to ensure every owner of its premium model devices will get three major Android system updates from the year they purchased the device. This includes G-series, V-series and VELVET devices from 2019 onward and LG Style and K series phones from 2020.

Microsoft has acquired speech technology company Nuance, most famous to many for its Dragon Naturally Speaking software products that enabled high-quality speech to text ahead of many others. The company owns a number of other AI technologies in the space, and was where Apple's Siri originated – even more interesting in light of Microsoft's reduced focus on its AI assistant Cortana. The deal is said to be US$19.7B, Microsoft's fourth big acquisition in recent years after buying game developer ZeniMax, business social network LinkedIn, and software developer platform Github.

Nvidia opened its GTC conference overnight, announcing its first CPUs for data centres. NVIDIA Grace CPUs are Arm-based and NVIDIA boasts the processors will be 10x faster than today's fastest servers for AI, neural networks and high performance workloads. NVIDIA also announced new RTX graphics processors for desktops, laptops and workstations for high-end use by artists, designers and engineers.

In science, researchers at the Australian National University have applied adaptive optics technology to a new laser system for identifying and removing space debris in Earth's orbit. The system mounts to telescopes and beams visible light to create artificial stars out of space junk for easier identification and removal.

In entertainment, Sony has made a deal with Netflix that will break the Disney+ stranglehold on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The deal will see many Sony films go exclusively to Netflix after cinema release for 18-months, and will include Spider-Man and Venom sequels as well as a further Marvel-based film, Morbius. It will also make Netflix the place to find the Uncharted film and Ghostbusters Afterlife.

Security research group The Secret Club announced it found a remote code execution flaw in Source Engine video games from developer Valve. Source Engine games include the popular esport shooter Counter Strike Global Offensive. Secret Club says it was reported to Valve five months ago with no response. The flaw is triggered through a Steam invite and loading an infected game server. In the absence of a fix, players are encouraged to disable messages and invites from non-Steam friends.

Finally, Australia's most successful esports professional, Ana, is returning to OG to get back into DOTA 2. Ana, originally from Melbourne, has won DOTA's The International twice, part of the only team to have ever achieved the feat in the world's most lucrative esports tournament. The team won in 2018 and 2019 and Ana had retired from the team after the second win. After a recent poor performance by OG at the Singapore Major, Ana's position in the team opened up again and the team announced his return over the weekend.

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Vodafone Australia was hit by a nationwide outage on Friday that lasted from around 11am to after 9pm Eastern time. Vodafone acknowledged both calls and data were being affected on its 4G network, though no specific description of what went wrong has been offered yet.

Google has accidentally revealed an internal project that allowed it to use data from past ad purchases on its advertising platforms to win bids when buying ads for itself. In documents submitted as part of an anti-trust case against Google in Texas, an unredacted document revealed Project Bernanke helped the company make $230M in 2013 by putting its own tools at an advantage over others through access to its own internal data. Control of both selling and buying within its dominant ad platform is seen as a major aspect of Google's monopoly power in the search advertising market.

In the legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, internal emails reveal that senior Apple Executive Phil Schiller believed releasing Apple's iMessage app for Android would hurt the company. Epic aims to build a picture of a monopolistic Apple and argues this means it is a known point of 'lock in' for users. In the US, apps like WhatsApp have not caught on as widely as elsewhere in the world so many more Apple users do stay within the iMessage app.

A study by researchers at University of Southern California has found that job advertisements appearing on Facebook have a gender bias. Their analysis showed Facebook was using existing skews in gendering of job types and company demographics to show ads on a gender skewed basis. A similar test of LinkedIn found that the business-focused social network was actively ensuring its job ads were displayed with no such gender skew.

In Earth science, researchers from Southern Cross University have found a methane-eating bacteria in Australian paperbark trees that may have potential for cutting down greenhouse gases. The discovery found the microbes are abundant and mitigated a third of methane emissions from paperbark – a result of new research into methane emissions caused by trees.

In the oceans, researchers are finding more species of fish are migrating away from the equators as seas grow too hot. The problem could see mass extinctions in ocean environments as diversity is reduced in equatorial regions while the growth in diversity elsewhere will include invasive actions and see other species reduce in numbers or die off. The study suggests that, apart from the importance of climate change mitigation, changes to fishing and mining is critical to help manage these problems.

In games, Bloomberg has reported that Sony is focusing its PlayStation developers on blockbuster games only at the expense of riskier, quirkier projects. The report says there will be no Days Gone sequel, while another studio is working on a full remake of The Last Of Us just 8 years after the original and less than three years since the release of the Remastered version for PS4.

And finally, Pentanet GG won the inaugural LCO series defeating Peace 3-1. The team will represent the Australian region at the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational in Reykjavik, Iceland starting May 6. 

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Senior members of the Australian government have been targeted in phishing attacks this week, with news Health Minister Greg Hunt and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham have been attacked, as well as Australian ambassadors overseas. The attackers impersonate the officials on WhatsApp and Telegram services, contacting people from their stolen address books to find out about people living in Hong Kong. The AFP continues to investigate and is educating MPs on how to deal with phishing attacks.

Component shortages continue to grow in impact, with a report from Nikkei Asia that Apple MacBook and iPad production is being delayed due to shortages of parts like mounting components and display parts. Apple is known to run a very tight supply chain that avoids warehousing, so while devices are set to remain available the report suggests some production plans are being delayed until later in the year. 

Optus has announced a new feature for its phone and broadband customers that will offer a simple app interface to shut off internet access across both mobile and Wi-Fi for a set period of time. Dubbed Optus Pause, the tool in the My Optus app will allow choosing devices and a time period after which connectivity will be restored – a helpful idea for some who need to enforce some offline time in their lives.

Australian researchers have published a study on using drones to herd sheep as a positive improvement over traditional methods. The research out of UNSW Canberra and published in Scientific Reports found that drones that approached carefully while emitting certain tones could herd sheep with less stress on the animal. Drones are already in use on farms, but this research helps understand the positive impacts on animal welfare.

During an online presentation at the Game Developers Conference recently, Intel has announced a new AI tool that aims to remove toxic language from a livestream in real-time. It's called Bleep, and the settings screen shows options for a series of sliders that control how much toxic language is OK across fields like misogyny, racism, sexism and more. There's even a toggle for the N-word. If only we could deal with the toxic culture that created a need for something like this in the first place.

Lenovo has announced its latest gaming smartphone, the Legion Duel 2. The phone features multiple USB-C ports that can be used simultaneously to fast-charge the device's huge battery in just 30 minutes, as well as two cooling fans to let the phone run its processors at high speeds while gaming. It's a beast of a handset and for those wondering if it's overkill, remember that mobile has become the primary gaming platform across many parts of the world – the Legion phone is part of a competitive market with Asus and Xiaomi also eager to win.

In esports, the League of Legends LCO Grand Final will take place at 6pm Saturday night, with the top two teams of the Split, Pentanet.gg and Peace, set to face off. The final series saw the Chiefs make a big run into the semi-finals from the bottom of qualification, but Peace held them off to secure their place in the final. You can watch the best of five match live on Twitch.

This weekend also sees the final of the Asia Pacific Predator League taking place, with events in both PUBG and DOTA 2. Australia's Team Immunity is expected to place highly in the PUBG final, taking place Sunday afternoon. 

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