Good morning, we hope those of you with a public holiday yesterday enjoyed the extra day off. A few things have happened in the tech world since we last spoke, so here they are.
1. Australia Post now delivering…internet
Australia Post has launched its first home internet service, Australia Post Broadband. The service uses the NBN Co network and includes eight different month-to-month plan options, with no lock-in contracts. The cheapest plan will set you back $54 a month (11Mbps), and the most expensive, $154 a month (250Mbps). I’d rather their ‘innovation’ be opening shopfronts outside of business hours but here we are.
2. Bruce Willis keeps his face
Bruce Willis was back in headlines last week as news broke that the actor had seemingly sold the rights to his face to Deepcake, a Russian AI company specialising in deepfakes. Willis’ representatives, however, are contesting these reports. In a statement shared with the Hollywood Reporter, Willis’ representatives stated that the actor “has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company.” Willis’ representatives did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for further comment.
3. Brissy delivery drone crashed and left many without electricity
An unmanned delivery vehicle, operated by Wing — a subsidiary of Alphabet (parent of Google), landed on power lines in Brisbane and fried itself with 11,000 volts of electricity. As a result, more than 2,000 homes and businesses briefly went dark on Thursday in the Browns Plains region. Power was restored for most customers in 45 minutes, with 300 without power for three hours.
4. Tesla’s $20,000 Optimus unveiled
Elon Musk hates the spotlight, doesn’t he? Over the weekend, Musk revealed a prototype of a humanoid “Optimus” robot that shares some AI software and sensors with its cars’ Autopilot driver assistance features. At the start of Tesla’s 2022 AI Day presentation, Musk acknowledged that they had “a guy in a suit” last year but promised something much more impressive this time around. Musk predicted it could hit a price of “probably less than $20,000”.
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022
5. Aussie spacecraft came down to Earth as a fireball
This weekend marked a milestone for Western Australia’s Binar Space Program as its first satellite Binar-1 lived up to its name. Binar is the word for “fireball” in the Noongar language and according to a report from The Conversation, Binar-1 became a real “Binar” as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the weekend. Although the chance of it being seen over Australia was low, with the right amount of luck it would have appeared as a shooting star in the night sky. It was launched to the International Space Station on August 29 2021 aboard a SpaceX resupply mission and deployed from the station’s Kibō module.
BONUS ITEM: This is what happens when celebs think crypto is a good idea.
WATCH: Kim Kardashian has agreed to settle charges of unlawfully touting a crypto security and to pay $1.26 million in penalties and associated fees https://t.co/AMKaWCG2GP pic.twitter.com/PiwRDUVOSs
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) October 3, 2022
Enjoy your Tuesday.