• Bits: daily tech news bulletin

  • By: Byteside
  • Podcast

Bits: daily tech news bulletin

By: Byteside
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Looking for a rapid rundown of the biggest news across technology, science and digital culture each day? Byteside presents 'Bits' to deliver key headlines every day in under five minutes.

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    Byteside Pty Ltd
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Episodes
  • Where we've been, where we're going

    Where we've been, where we're going
    Jul 26 2021

    Byteside needs to consolidate its focus to give ourselves the best chance of building a sustainable media business. So Bits, unfortunately, has to go back on the shelf. We hope it will return, but whatever happens we thank you so much for your support through its first three months.


    The core Byteside podcast will continue with guest hosts and interviews every week.


    Search 'Byteside' in your podcast app or hit the relevant link below to add it to your app of choice:


    Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/itunes/1482077503

    Overcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast-podcast-player/id888422857

    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1482077503

    Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzA0NzA5ZTVkLWU0ZTQtNDk0Ny1hYmNmLTYyZDM3MmIyZTFiNg

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43tUBmO4DknkGbd4Hw9dlb

    RSS: https://rss.acast.com/byteside


    And get loads more written content at www.byteside.com


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    2 mins
  • Digital capitulation

    Digital capitulation
    Jun 18 2021
    Yesterday afternoon, a major outage occurred that impacted a wide range of Australian institutions, including major banks and their mobile apps, Virgin Australia airlines, Australia Post and more. Soon after cyber attack theories had been raised, it was learned that CDN Akamai had a routing error that impacted around 500 of its customers. All up the incident caused disruptions for around six hours.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/akamai-routing-error-caused-widespread-outages-566103The controversial Online Safety Bill will pass parliament with the Labor party once again claiming to be "not happy" but going to support it anyway. Since before the election in 2018, Labor has held a consistent position of claiming to be upset or disappointed or unhappy with legislation related to important digital protections like privacy, encryption and censorship, but to pass the laws anyway because they never want to open the door to an actual fight over civil liberties. What's the point of an opposition again?https://www.innovationaus.com/labor-not-happy-about-supporting-online-safety-bill/In better local news, Aldi Australia has become the first retailer in the country to power all its operations with 100% renewable power. The German supermarket chain's local operation announced it has achieved the target six months ahead of schedule, using solar installed on its own premises as well as purchased power from wind farms and other renewable energy purchases. According to Renew Economy, Aldi is the 67th biggest user of electricity in Australia, with 555 stores and eight distribution centres. So this really is a great example to the nation on big business getting the right thing done.https://reneweconomy.com.au/aldi-claims-first-place-in-major-retailer-race-to-100-pct-renewables-in-australia/Up in space, China has successfully sent a first crew to its new orbital space station with a team of three astronauts to the Tiangong station where they are setting up living quarters for the next three months. China has said it is open to future collaboration with other nations on its new station which is expected to be in orbit for over ten years. The ISS is scheduled to retire in 2024 though it can potentially be extended out to 2028.https://www.sciencealert.com/first-astronauts-have-just-arrived-at-china-s-space-stationIn entertainment news, Carrie Fisher is set to receive a posthumous Walk of Fame star which raises the question of how on Earth this didn't happen during her lifetime? The easy answer is no one bought one for her to promote a film, which is how it usually happens. Other great names scheduled to be added to the walk in 2022 include Ewan McGregor, Willem Dafoe, Regina King, Francis Ford Coppola, Salma Hayek, and Bob Odenkirk.https://www.themarysue.com/carrie-fisher-is-getting-a-star-on-the-hollywood-the-walk-of-fame/In videogames, Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft's next major patch, Chains of Domination, will go live on June 30, with the next raid opening its doors on July 7. Players will also be able to unlock flying in the patch in that second week and then the next race for mythic world first will kick off on July 14.https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23686104/shadowlands-the-chains-of-domination-content-update-goes-live-june-29For those after some esports to watch this weekend, DOTA 2 is finally feeling the excitement again with the ESL One Summer tournament taking place. We're into the thick of qualifying for The International which did not take place in 2020 so fans are ready and eager for things to get serious once again. Hearthstone also has its Masters Tour Dalaran taking place which you can catch on YouTube, and a reminder that we are just a few weeks away from Battle Arena Melbourne on the second weekend of July for the biggest FGC tournament in Australia.https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/esports/tournament/masters-tour-dalaran/https://www.esl-one.com/dota2/summer/That's your Bits bulletin ...

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    4 mins
  • Amazon hates social media too

    Amazon hates social media too
    Jun 17 2021
    This week, the Western Australian government has introduced legislation to limit the use of COVID check-in app data after the WA Police Force accessed the information in two investigations of serious crimes, which is allowed under the existing rules. To ensure users feel confidence in always using the check-in system, the new rules definitively limit the use of this data to the explicit purpose of contact tracing. WA Premier Mark McGowan told parliament that the new law was only being introduced after the Police Commissioner refused to adhere to a request to no longer access the register.https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-moves-to-plug-legislative-gaps-after-cops-access-check-in-app-data-566021https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-police-refused-request-to-stop-accessing-covid-check-in-app-data-566033In other COVID news, Victoria has now launched its online vaccination booking platform. Until now a hotline phone service was the only way to book appointments, with the online system delayed since the start of the year. Users can now go online via coronavirus.vic.gov.au to check their eligibility and book their appointments.https://www.innovationaus.com/victoria-launches-online-vaccine-booking-platform/Ahead of exciting new Windows 11 news next week, Microsoft has named CEO Satya Nadella as the new Chair of the Board of Directors. The current chairman, John Thompson, has been in the role since Bill Gates stepped down from the position in 2014 at the same time Nadella became CEO. Thompson will remain a member of the board. Meanwhile, leaks seem to indicate the launch of Windows 11 might not be too far behind the big announcements set to be made next week, with fully functional versions of the next generation OS appearing online as part of the leak.https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22537683/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-chairman-bill-gates-john-thompsonSpotify has launched its new live audio chatroom service, Spotify Greenroom, a rebranding of a tool created by Betty Labs called Locker Room. You can log into the service using your Spotify login and find chatrooms related to topics of interest or launch your own chatrooms. The tool will also allow users to record rooms they create to turn them into podcasts. It's yet another reason why Clubhouse is facing greater and greater competition while the overall shine on these audio chatrooms is starting to fade and, as I've said since early on, it really seems more like a feature than a platform. I expect at some point Greenroom will integrate directly into the core Spotify app rather than live out on a limb the way it currently does.https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-06-16/get-to-know-some-of-the-features-in-our-live-interactive-audio-offering-greenroom/Internet advertising machine Facebook is ready to turn the serenity and solitude of virtual reality into a new space to thrust floating advertising units into your enraptured eyeballs, with news it is starting to test advertising inside Oculus headsets. Naturally, the company says it is a "small" test and is all about unlocking new business models for the platform and for the game developers who produce VR experiences. I'm sure the advertising units won't be too awful... at the start... Facebook also says it won't use information from within your VR experience to target ads toward you. Again... that's a "during this test" statement, not a "never" statement.https://www.oculus.com/blog/testing-in-headset-vr-ads/Amidst media investigations into businesses gaming the Amazon user review system to earn high ranking in search results, Amazon has stated in a blogpost that the greatest blame should lie with social media platforms. It might sound like a cop out, and no doubt there's more Amazon could be doing on its own end, but the company's post said it reported more than 300 groups to social media companies in Q1 2020 that were using the platforms to organise campaigns to cheat the review system, yet it took a median time of 45 d...

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    5 mins
Politics & Government Science
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