In Sunday’s segment on Sky News Australia (Weekend Edition with Jaynie Seal) we took a look at the latest round of layoffs by Google’s parent company Alphabet. The tech industry has already seen tens of thousands let go over recent months so what does that mean for consumers? The tech giants went on a hiring blitz during the pandemic – for good reason – but with a recession looming and profits reducing, staff numbers are being reduced. However … there’s one company that’s not shedding staff like the others.
MAC MINI OFFERS BEST BANG FOR BUCK BUT MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS FIRST!
The new cheap Mac mini is amazing value at A$999. It blows Windows PCs away with the M2 chip but my strong advice is to change 256GB SSD storage to at least 512GB SSD storage. This will increase the price by $300 for a total of A$1299. This will make a huge difference to the life and performance of your Mac Mini. In fact – any new Mac for that matter. You will need a monitor and keyboard but it’s worth it!
OPPO A17 NOW AVAILABLE
The first local phone announcement of the year is the OPPO A17. The entry level phone comes in at A$259. It’s cheap but looks sharp with its fake leather and contemporary design. It has a 50MP AI main camera, 5MP selfie camera (surprisingly OK), 5000 mAh battery, 64GB of onboard memory which can be expanded to 1TB via microSD card. The data/charging port is micro USB not the preferred USB-C. All up though this is a nice entry level smartphone from OPPO.
GOOGLE ADDS SYDNEY FERRY RIDES TO STREET VIEW
Street View on Google Maps is ideal for checking out buildings while making your way through the city but now you can check out the sites of Sydney Harbour from one of the city’s iconic ferries. This ‘ferry’ special offers a virtual tour of Sydney Ferries docked at Circular Quay and a trip across the harbour on the Manly and Taronga Zoo services.
To produce this unique collection, Google combined nautical and engineering expertise to troubleshoot and find creative solutions. They navigated tumultuous weather conditions, sea motion and experimented to find the right vantage points to install the cameras.
Whether you’re planning your commute or admiring the scenery, these new virtual experiences are accessible on both desktop and mobile.