Tech News: 5 Things to Know in Australia Today

Tech News: 5 Things to Know in Australia Today

Good morning, hope you’re well. Here are five things happening in the tech/climate world today we thought you should know.

 

1. YouTube handles are go

YouTube has today introduced handles, touted by the Google-owned platform as a “new way for people to easily find and engage with creators and each other”. Over the next month, YouTube will notify creators when they can choose a handle for their channel. It’ll also mean users can tag a handle in a comment, like on other social media sites. The circle jerk continues with social media platforms copying each other.

2. Melbourne climate activists apologise

Yesterday, news emerged that a group of climate change activists in Melbourne glued themselves to a prized Picasso painting. Well, late yesterday, the group apologised. As reported by AAP, a 59-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman were arrested but released without charge on Sunday for tampering with the artist’s 1951 anti-war painting known as Massacre in Korea at the National Gallery of Victoria. The woman is reported as saying, “People can believe we’re idiots all they want and maybe we are idiots,” followed by “we feel bad about it and we are so sorry”.

3. Tom Cruise, but in space

First we had billionaires like Jeff Bezos calling his trip to space “the best day ever”, now we have lowly millionaire Tom Cruise teasing a movie filmed on the International Space Station. It appears that the actor is inching closer to becoming the first civilian to do a spacewalk after Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Donna Langley told the BBC that sending Cruise to space is among the studio’s mission, and shared more details about the project.

4. Microsoft is hosting a ‘Fall’ event

Fall, the season named as such due to LEAVES FALL in the Northern Hemisphere, is the name Microsoft is again going with this year for its end-of-year product drop. The Microsoft Fall Surface event is set to happen on Wednesday, October 12 at 10 am ET, which translates to a cool 1 am on Thursday, October 13 for us down under. You can watch via the official Microsoft landing page, but as for what to expect? We’re thinking a new Surface Pro 9 and a new Surface Studio.

5. Free stolen credit cards for everyone

Over the weekend, the stolen credit card marketplace called BidenCash announced they were offering a free giveaway of 1,221,551 credit cards, promoting the leak on multiple other sites. As the local dealers say, the first hit is free, though in this case such a leak could have meant free money for any user who managed to snag a card. Researchers are still looking into the leak, but early reports show many of the cards could have already been reported to the card issuers.

BONUS ITEM: A pharmacy in Texas took to Facebook to respond to an incident in which a teen reportedly stole and ate a Lil’ Nitro — described as “The World’s Hottest Gummy Bear” — and almost immediately suffered the consequences. I have one of these at home as a shelf ornament, shall I eat it?

Enjoy your day.


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