Telstra has been hit with a $50M fine by the ACCC for what it called unconscionable conduct in selling expensive mobile plans to indigenous customers who could not afford them. In a number of Telstra stores, the company was found to have pushed contracts onto 108 Indigenous customers who did not understand and could not afford the plans they were being sold. Many spoke English as a second language while others were unemployed or had limited income, and the ACCC found Telstra store staff even misrepresented contracts as being 'free' as well as manipulated credit assessments. On average, the customers found themselves thousands of dollars in debt. Along with the fines, community organisation Reconciliation Australia has cut ties with the telecommunications giant.

Flinders University researchers have been working with traditional owners in Arnhem Land to investigate the evolution of ancient rock art using machine learning technologies. According to a report by ZDNet, the technology aimed to assist in the understanding of chronology of rock art in the region with the hope to remove human bias in interpretation. The study's results were in agreement with traditional techniques, which was seen as a positive for the ongoing development of the machine learning technique for wider use in rock art analysis.

Group communication platform Discord is introducing a new Clubhouse-like feature, Stage Channels, which adds another option to the company's existing range of audio channel options. The mode makes it easier to put a small group of speakers front and centre while a larger group listens to the conversation. Workplace communication platform Slack has also recently announced it is developing a Clubhouse-style tool.

Microsoft has discontinued its Cortana voice assistant app for iOS and Android. First launched in 2015, the app has been updated a number of times but failed to challenge Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple's Siri. More widely, Cortana has been removed from a number of embedded options including a smart speaker and Microsoft's own Surface Headphones. Microsoft aims to continue Cortana as a service on Windows desktop. The name Cortana came from the AI featured in the Microsoft owned Halo game series.

In entertainment, reports suggest that NBCUniversal is considering ending distribution deals with HBO and Netflix for its movies and instead making them exclusively available through its own streaming platform, Peacock. As the streaming space becomes more competitive and companies aim to build audiences for their own platforms, many expect such decisions to become more common in the years ahead. NBCUniversal has already made similar decisions with its TV shows, such as making the US edition of The Office exclusive to its own platform in America.

In other streaming news, Netflix has signed a deal to secure the rights to two sequels to the Rian Johnson Whodunnit Knives Out featuring Daniel Craig's detective Benoit Blanc solving further mysteries. The deal was reported at US$400M but Netflix has disputed that number.

In videogames, Hearthstone's shift into the Year of the Gryphon has taken place, with sweeping changes to the base card sets - replacing the previous Basic and Classic sets with a new free Core set, while creating a new Classic mode to play the game the way it was when it first launched in 2014. Plus, the latest expansion, Forged in the Barrens, is now available.

Meanwhile, in Fortnite, meme lovers will be pleased to discover the game's April Fool's special feature is the arrival of the weird CG man from the Stonks meme is available to purchase as a character skin for one day only.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.