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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