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2247. Gizmo Glastonbury wrap, Telstra getting Starlink texting, Australian teens victims of deepfake abuse

Plus: How long do fitness new year's resolutions last according to big data?

Author

Cam Wilson
January 10, 2025

Issue 2247 - Friday 10th January, 2025

Hello! As the bug crushing continues, let me share what I hope will be a regular feature: a Sizzle forum post from me about where I explain what goes into running the Sizzle.

In Today’s Issue

  • Gizmo Glastonbury wrap

  • Telstra getting Starlink texting

  • Australian teens victims of deepfake abuse

  • Here’s how long the gym will be busy according to big data

  • Plus cheap Edifier bluetooth speakers, Samsung S36GB Curved Monitor, amaysim and Vodafone prepaid start kits, Bang & Olufsen Beoplay wireless gaming headphones, Apple Watch Series 10, and Macbook Air 13 Inch with M2 Chip.

The News

Gizmo Glastonbury wrap

As 2025’s Consumer Electronics Show draws to an end, let’s show some gratitude for the annual event’s wide range of delights. I mean, where else do you get a company like Sony showing off its exxy first EV and a trailer for the return of its prestige zombie show? There’s way too much to cover off in much depth here, so let me link you to the best stuff: Autonomous vehicles were actually the least exciting bit of the car tech on show but US manufacturers were nowhere to be seen. Robot vacuums are getting cheaper and growing arms and legs. There were the standard new laptop and TV releases, but nothing to write home about. And then there’s the good, bad and weird products that don’t fit anywhere else.

Telstra getting Starlink texting

Telstra customers will one day be able to send text messages via Starlink and, later on, voice and data, the telco announced yesterday. It’s not a huge surprise given Telstra’s existing relationship with SpaceX’s satellite internet company. The telco still needs to test it before rolling it out, but at this rate it might beat Optus which announced the same thing back in 2022 but has yet to go live (apparently due to US bureaucratic hurdles). As someone who’s lived and worked in regional Australia — shout out to Geraldton — Telstra’s mobile coverage still remains the gold standard and you have to imagine this will help plug the gaps. But I gotta say, I do feel a little uneasy of increasingly relying on Elon Musk-run companies given his hobbies.

Australian teens victim of deepfake abuse

I expect this will soon barely be news because of how commonplace it is becoming becoming but another Australian teen has been caught allegedly creating explicit deepfakes of other students. NSW Police are investigating fake social media accounts made featuring the non-consensual sexual imagery distributed online. A federal law was passed last year criminalising sharing this kind of stuff, one that the UK is looking to emulate, but that’s only acting on something after the fact. The uncomfortable truth is that it is stupid easy for anyone with a smartphone to create realistic images and videos of people doing anything, and I think that’s horrifying. It’s so accessible that teens with barely formed brains are victims of its abuse and are using it to abuse others. We can talk about lofty ideas about how tech can be used but the reality is that deepfake video technology is overwhelmingly used to abuse people. The genie’s long out of the bottle but jeez I wish it wasn’t. (As a tangentially-related palate cleanser presented without comment: “Carlton president Luke Sayers claims that a graphic photo of a penis posted from his X account wasn’t him”).

Oh, Also

Here’s how long the gym will be busy according to big data

If you’ve found yourself needing to elbow your way through a crowd at the gym since January 1st, I have some good news. The fitness app Strava has crunched the numbers and found the average date that people give up on their new year's fitness resolutions (defined as the most common date for an activity break): January 14. It’s a cute use of data but it also reminds me of when 20 year old Canberran, Nathan Ruser, figured out that Strava’s public heatmap of their user’s data showed the location of secret US military bases. Oops! I checked in with Nathan and asked what he thought about it all a few years later.

“It certainly made national security people more aware of their digital footprint and, from what I've told, is still used now as an example in a lot of countries. It's also made me personally more cautious and aware of making sure that I'm not sharing more than I'm happy to on a variety of platforms - eg on places like iNaturalist (give it a try for all your irl Pokemon needs), for insects at my apartment I'll manually generalise it to like the meshblock level. I’m concerned about it the most in domestic violence contexts at the moment, where I worry that an abusive partner / stalker may be aware of things like this but the person they are stalking is not,”

Nathan Ruser via X DM

Bargains

The End

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.

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