Happy Wednesday, I trust your week has been good so far. Here’s what’s been happening in the tech world, with a little sprinkle of fast food as a greasy treat.
1. Meta wants you to pay $2,500 for a VR headset
Meta has revealed the Meta Quest Pro VR headset. With a price tag of $2,449.99, Quest Pro is almost four times the price of Meta’s current headset, the Quest 2, which starts at $630. It packs face-tracking, a 90Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon XR2+ processor and it’s plated in gold (it’s not, you’d just think it was for the price). You can preorder it now, with shipping to start October 25. While we’re on Zuckerberg, he also showed off his Horizon Worlds updated avatar. Spoiler: it still sucks, but it has legs now.
2. We need to talk about the Grimace in the room
Over in the U.S., grown-ups have been going to great lengths to get their hands on an adult Happy Meal, with McDonald’s staff even begging customers not to order the boxed meals due to the extra stress they are placing on workers. With only the highest priority investigations undertaken by Gizmodo Australia, we wanted to see if we were getting our hands on these elusive kids’ meal treats. But alas, not yet. Although, there is something to get a tad excited for:
hey there! at this stage that collab is only available in the USA, we’ll definitely let the team know you’d be keen to see it in Aus though 🙂
— McDonald’s Australia (@maccas) September 28, 2022
3. Government wipes outstanding Robodebt cases
Almost 200,000 outstanding ‘Robodebt’ cases will be dumped and debts wiped, with the ABC reporting the federal government is trying to clear the final remnants of the highly criticised system. The news comes two months after the Prime Minister announced a Royal Commission into the super-flawed Centrelink automated data-matching program, officially named the automated income compliance program, but colloquially known as Robodebt.
4. Your next Uber trip could be in a Polestar 2 EV
Instead of the usual Toyota Camry showing up when you book an Uber, it could soon be a Polestar EV. Yep, Aussies will soon be able to book and ride in an EV Uber thanks to a partnership the ride-sharing platform has inked with Splend, a company that offers a sort-of subscription platform for “owning” an EV. The companies said they’re ready to roll out 500 Polestar 2 EVs to NSW Uber drivers. We love the Polestar 2, so we’re not mad. It follows from Uber’s June announcement to have zero emissions by 2040.
We’re investing up to $26 million to help drive take-up of electric vehicles in AU. We’ll continue to offer a 50% reduced service fee for driver-partners who use battery #electricvehicles until 30 June 2025. T&Cs apply.
Read more in our newsroom post: https://t.co/eucZFxTwFX— Uber Australia (@Uber_Australia) June 8, 2022
5. Crypto.xls
Crypto.com, one of the most high-profile crypto platforms in the world, made an extremely expensive whoopsie last year after a woman living in Melbourne asked the company for a refund. Instead of a mere $100, she got 100,000 times that. Well, a month after the news emerged of the error, a court this week heard that the error came after a worker in Bulgaria, who processed the refund, had entered the wrong numbers into an Excel spreadsheet.
BONUS ITEM: It’s Fat Bear week and there’s a contest underway to find the world’s fattest bear. But, the contest has been rocked by a scandal. Organisers of the comp said a ballot box had been “stuffed” in favour of a brown bear called Holly.
🚨🚨🚨FAT BEAR WEEK SCANDAL🚨🚨🚨
Like bears stuff their face with fish, our ballot box, too, has been stuffed.
— Katmai National Park (@KatmaiNPS) October 10, 2022
Things are all working out, however.
Get ready to rumble in this heavyweight Fat Bear Tuesday matchup! Don’t forget to vote at https://t.co/thJwxpa4kn by 5pm AKDT (9pm EDT) today. #FatBearWeek pic.twitter.com/Ifp1nHJoet
— Katmai National Park (@KatmaiNPS) October 11, 2022
Have a good one.