The Helpdesk

Welcome to The Helpdesk for Friday, 19th March. Today we catch up on all the stories we missed this week: 

• Federal Liberal MP calls for EV support, ban on fossil fuel cars by mid-2030s 
• Elon Musk crowns himself ‘Technoking’ of Tesla
• AirPods and Apple Watch continue to dominate wearables market but the HomePod has been discontinued 
• Twitter Hacker Pleads Guilty in Florida Court
• Judge rules Google has to face lawsuit that claims it tracks users even in Incognito mode
• Google announces new Nest Hub with Soli 'Sleep Sensing'
• CBA launches Afterpay rival 
• Almost a fifth of Facebook employees are now working on VR and AR: report 

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Vaccine booking website frustrates users 

• GP clinics were inundated with phone calls from people trying to book their Covid-10 vaccine yesterday after the federal government’s online booking website failed to launch. 
• Bookings opened for vaccinations for people in the 1b group yesterday, but the government’s booking page wouldn’t let anyone actually make a booking online. 
• The Guardian reports, “the booking website told them to call their nearest vaccinating clinic to book an appointment, receptionists had told them they could not take any bookings as they has not yet been told by the government how many doses they would be receiving.” 
• Many of those people waiting on hold were in their 80s. 
• At a press conference, Health Minister Greg Hunt insisted the website had not been rushed and was always scheduled to be launched on Wednesday.
• There are a lot of moving parts here… 
• FYI the vaccine booking website – accessed via the Department of Health’s eligibility tool

Instagram Creeps Blocked

Instagram rolling out message restrictions to protect young users

• Instagram now bans adults from messaging teenagers who don't follow them. 
• The app will also now show “safety prompts” to teens messaged by adults “exhibiting potentially suspicious behaviour,” offering options to report or block the users. 
• Instagram is going to give safety notices to teens making sure they know they can restrict, report, and block users.
• The prompt also gives reminders that say “Don’t feel pressured to respond,” “Only share with people you trust,” and “Your safety comes first.”

Amazon’s newest robot cathedral 

• Amazon is building a colossal warehouse in Sydney’s West and it is ready for the robots to move in. 
• The fulfillment centre will be Amazon’s biggest in the southern hemisphere, covering 200,000 square metres over four levels, it is the size of 24 football fields.
• It will be Amazon’s fifth fulfilment centre in Australia, but the first one with the really good robots. 
•  The robots basically do all the heavy lifting and moving the inventory inside the building, and the humans do the picking and the packing. 
• Expected to be completed for the Black Friday sales in November, and will house 11 million items.
• Is this enough for Amazon to go from quietly competing to absolutely crushing retail in Australia? 

Wikimedia wants big tech to pay

Wikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay Up

• For years now, Wikipedia has made freely available a snapshot of everything that appears on the site every two weeks—a so-called “data dump” for users
• Today, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the Wikipedia project in more than 300 languages as well as other wiki-projects, is announcing the launch of a commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. 
• The new service is designed for the sale and efficient delivery of Wikipedia's content directly to these online behemoths (and eventually, to smaller companies too).
• seeking the reaction of Wikipedia’s...
  

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Tinder will soon let you run a background check on a potential date

• Tinder is working with a non-profit called Garbo to help customers find out if their potential dating partner has a criminal record.
• How does it work? Garbo allows people to find out whether someone they are interacting with has a criminal record or other court actions, such as a restraining order with only their name & phone number. 
• The service is expected to be integrated into Tinder later this year 
• BUT Hack, which has been following the Tinder story, have confirmed the feature will not available in OZ 
• Is this just another feature Tinder can charge its users for? 

News Corp Australia signs Facebook deal; Nine reaches agreement

• And a follow up on yesterday’s Media Code story, Facebook has struck content deals with Australia’s two largest media companies — Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Nine Entertainment.
• Details are scarce … 
• Nine, the owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, has also signed a letter of intent with the tech giant for use of its news articles, according to industry sources 
• News Corp signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Facebook for use of news articles from publications such as The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun and videos from Sky News Australia.
• So that’s one less drama for Facebook to worry about. 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/mar/16/australia-news-live-pressure-morrison-listen-women-vaccine-delay-albanese-nationals?page=with:block-60501fa38f08b2dc0e123ffb#block-60501fa38f08b2dc0e123ffb

• The government will amend its controversial online safety bill in the Senate to provide more transparency over how the eSafety commissioner uses their powers, as well as greater review mechanisms over decisions made about content removal, Guardian Australia understands.
• The Greens announced on Tuesday they would vote against the legislation.
• Labor MP Tim Watts expressed concerns about the lack of oversight and transparency. Among the changes will be more reporting from the commissioner about how the powers are used, and an internal review scheme.
• Opinion piece in the Saturday Paper https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2021/03/13/flaws-new-online-safety-laws/161555400011272 

Parliament Is Finally Starting To Understand Video Games

Alex Walker at Kotaku has penned a love letter to three federal Labor MPs. 

• Increased noise and support for the video games industry, particularly from Labor MPs Susan Templeman, Josh Burns and Watts, is at least an encouraging sign. Watts’ support for the sector is well pronounced, but the other members have interesting touchpoints with the video game industry as well.
• Burns electorate covers the main areas of Melbourne that...
  

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Qantas begins trialling vaccine passport app

Justin Hendry, IT News

• Qantas is looking at introducing a vaccine passport app in preparation for the return of international travel.
• iTnews reports that the airline is testing the CommonPass app on repatriation flights which logs whether a passenger has either tested negative for COVID or has been vaccinated. 
• CommonPass is not the only app being trialled. Qantas is also testing one developed by the International Air Transport Association. 
• While the app will be limited to international repatriation flights, the airline will at some point integrate the functionality into its app.
• Qantas hopes to resume international travel from late October with passengers requiring COVID vaccinations to board flights.

Culture Amp revenue soars, as workplaces face burnout challenge

Yolanda Redrup, AFR: 

• Despite fears the COVID-19 pandemic would put a handbrake on employee engagement software company Culture Amp’s growth, the $US700 million ($903 million)-valued company has recorded one of its best years yet, with revenue climbing 64 per cent.
• Former AMP Bank CEO Sally Bruce is now helping lead Culture Amp. Eamon Gallagher
• Figures lodged with ASIC for the 12 months to June 30, 2020, showed Culture Amp benefited as workplaces around the world were forced to grapple with burnt-out employees and low morale during COVID-19 lockdowns.

ACCC watching the clock tick as Facebook lags Google in striking news media deals

Asha Barbaschow at ZDnet

• A fortnight after the media code passed through Parliament, Facebook has only signed a revenue deal with one large organisation. Chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims was asked if there was anything that could be done to move this along.
• During a recent senate inquiry he said: "I'm happy to give it a bit more time and therefore not do anything at the moment.” 
• According to media reports, Nine and News Corp are close to reaching deals with FB 

Netflix password sharing clamp-down could be pandemic bad news

Jason Gurwin at The Streamable 

• Earlier this week, some Netflix subscribers began to notice that it might be a bit harder to “borrow” someone’s password.
• In the prompt, customers are told that “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.” In order to continue, they need to verify the account with a E-mail or Text Code, or create a new account with a 30-Day Free Trial.
• 
  

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Australia extends tech giant probe to Google and Apple browser domination

ZDnet: 

• With the News Media Bargaining Code out of the way, the Australian government has moved its tech giant battle to the browser scene, keeping Google in its crosshairs while putting Apple under the microscope.
• Led by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the new battle is focused on "choice and competition in internet search and web browsers".
• The consumer watchdog on Thursday put out a call for submissions, with a number of questions posed in a discussion paper [PDF], centred on internet browser defaults.
• It claimed Apple's Safari is the most common browser used in Australia for smartphones and tablets, accounting for 51% of use. This is followed by Chrome with 39%, Samsung Internet with 7%, and with less than 1%, Mozilla Firefox.

Microsoft and newspapers join forces to fight Google

Google accuses Microsoft of 'naked corporate opportunism'

• Google repeated how its against “proposals that would disrupt access to the open web,” believing that link taxes “hurt consumers, small businesses, and publishers.”
• The company then makes the case that Microsoft’s participation in the discussion is not being done in good faith, with “self-serving claims” that are “just plain wrong.”
• They have paid out a much smaller amount to the news industry than we have. And given the chance to support or fund their own journalists, Microsoft replaced them with AI bots.

Split Screen: How Different Are Americans' Facebook Feeds? – The Markup

Apple sues former employee for stealing trade secrets, leaking information to the media

Apple is taking legal action against its former materials lead, Simon Lancaster, over allegedly leaking trade secrets to the media. The lawsuit accuses Lancaster of abusing his “position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits.”

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Roblox Soars 43% on First Day of Trading as Gaming Booms

• The games industry had a bumper year last year, with the launch of two new consoles and people locked indoors for a good chunk of the year
• A record $56.9 billion was spent on gaming last year in the United States, up 27 percent from 2019, according to the NPD Group
• That all set the stage for Roblox first day of trading, which saw its shares jump by 43% 
• Roblox is fascinating story - it was started 16 years ago and launched 14 years ago, so it is hardly an overnight success, but it’s still niche enough that many people wouldn’t have heard of the company 
• The game is sort of like a online version of Minecraft - while minecraft can be played online, you do need to build your own server, so that’s a barrier for most people 
• Roblox allows users to create their own minigames that others can play. Many of the games have been built by kids who grew up with the game, and know it back to front 
• One developer, Anne Shoemaker, 21, said she had earned more than $500,000 from the platform, most of it since the pandemic began. She has used some of the money to hire two employees and a dozen contractors, she said.

Epic expands app store fight even further with new legal claim against Google in Australia

• Epic Games is continuing its worldwide fight against Google & Apple’s app stores. 
• The gaming company has started legal proceedings in Australia against Google, alleging Google is breaching Australian consumer law by abusing its control over the Android operating system.
• The legal claim follows a similar action against Apple in Australia filed last November, and Epic’s legal fight against app stores now spans the European Union, the UK, and the US
• At the heart of the matter...Epic says it’s unfair Google and Apple take 30% cut of app revenue and app makers need alternative app stores or alternative in-app payment systems.

Facebook Seeks to Dismiss Antitrust Suits, Saying It Hasn’t Harmed Consumers 

• Meanwhile, Facebook wants the antitrust cases against it to be dismissed. 
• FB filed two motions this week asking courts to dismiss the lawsuits filed by the FTC and a coalition of state attorneys general last year. 
• It’s the first move from Facebook’s lawyers in what will be a long legal back-and-forth. 

Fire breaks out in OVH building in Lille, France 

• Millions of European websites were taken down after a fire destroyed parts of a major data centre. 
• The data centre was located in Strasbourg, in eastern France, and is operated by OVHCloud, a french alternative to AWS and Microsoft Azure. 
• Why is a fire in your data centre bad? 

Tech’s War With News Outlets Flares as U.S. Lawmakers Ready...

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Peloton is coming to Australia

• Cult fitness brand Peloton is coming to Australia
• The exercise tech company has often been described as “the Apple of Fitness”, due to it’s very shiny marketing, and full stack of hardware and software
• The exercise bikes feature a large screen for streaming workouts 
• Bikes will start at AU$2,895 - with a $59 a month subscription on top of that
• Peloton’s announcement follows a massive December quarter for the company, which saw its revenue grow 128% to AU$1.38 billion
• The launch is expected in the second half of this year

Twitter is taking on Clubhouse, Substack and Patreon with new products

• The Verge has a profile on Twitter’s Kayvon Beykpour -head of consumer product
• No new information here, we’ve talked about all the various new products Twitter is working on, including Spaces, and Super Follows
• Still, it’s a really thoughtful interview and one that product managers and owners should listen to or read 
• Kayvon talks about needing to shift the culture at twitter from one resistant to change, to one that embraces it. 

Amazon is working on a new robot

• Amazon has more than 800 employees working on a new Alexa powered home robot, with the code name Vesta
• There’s not a huge amount of detail on what the robot may do, but it is described as being about “the size of two small cats” that roams around the house & will have multiple cameras and screens 
• Internally, the project has caused some grief due to delays and redesigns, with some worried the device will have limited “mainstream appeal” - or even worse, become another complete dud, like the Amazon Fire Phone 

Pete Evans Is Back On Facebook, Which The Company Says Is Fine

• Celebrity chef and expensive lamp seller Pete Evans is back on Facebook 
• In November, Facebook banned the page “Chef Pete Evans” for continually breaking the platform's rules on spreading covid and vaccine misinformation. 
• Evan’s new page is there to support Evan’s senate race, and is called, Pete Evans – Senate – Great Australia Party’
• “Facebook has a recidivism policy that prohibits people from creating new Pages that are similar to ones that were removed for violating the platform’s rules.” 
• But in this case, Facebook seems to think Pete Evans Potential senator is very different to Pete Evans Chef. 

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Google alternative 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/03/08/after-building-googles-advertising-business-this-founder-is-creating-an-ad-free-alternative/

• Forbes has a good profile on Srid-har Ramaswamy, a former Googler who is now CEO of search engine start up, Neeva
• Neeva users will pay between $5 and $10 a month to get the search results without ads
• Ironically, Ramaswamy used to be head of Google’s ad division 
• The company has just 45 employees, over a dozen from Google
• Still a long way from being a competitor, but worth keeping an eye on 

Esafety

• The esafety bill is moving it’s way through parliament, and commissioner  Julie Inman Grant has made it clear that she won’t be going after nudity or sexual content on sites for sex workers
• Sex Industry groups were worried they would become swept up in the new esafety laws - but Inman Grant has said there will be exceptions for sex workers 
• In the US, when a simialr law made advertising sexual services illegal, many sex workers complained this made the industry far more dangerous. 
• Meanwhile, Gizmodo has asked is this the return of the porn face scanner by stealth,,? 
• 
  

Sex industry ‘not my concern’: eSafety Commissioner defends proposed new powers

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/03/the-online-safety-act-could-bring-in-the-porn-face-scan-by-stealth/ 

https://www.afr.com/technology/tech-sector-warns-of-dangers-in-rushed-online-safety-laws-20210305-p5788h 

Another streaming service is coming to Oz 

• Paramount+ will launch in Australia later this year 
• Owned by US media conglomerate ViacomCBS, the streaming service launched in the US and parts of Latin America last week.
• It’s not totally new - Paramount+ replaces/supersedes CBS All Access which currently operates as 10 All Access here in Australia (because remember that CBS bought 10 a few years back for super cheap)
• The service will also have shows from MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and VH1, as well as some original series. 

Q. What do you think a streaming service needs to succeed in Australia? 

Q. How many streaming services will people subscribe to? Is there such a thing as coming too late to the market? 

Wtf is discord? 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-social-network-without-ads-discord-defies-convention-11615199401

• The Wall Street Journal has a great story on Discord today, the little social network that could 
• The service went from 60m monthly users at the start of 2020, to 725m users today 
• Discord started as a gaming chat service, popular because of its small resources and low lag 
• Discord is similar in look...
  

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https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/imac-pro/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-04/nintendo-plans-switch-model-with-bigger-samsung-oled-display

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