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YouTube price spike, period tracking apps and AI-powered barbies

Plus: Forget Siri, Apple has made an even BIGGER mistake

Author

Cam Wilson
June 13, 2025

Edition 2352

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The News

It’s getting real expensive for families to put YouTube on the dinner table

The price of YouTube Premium Family is increasing to a frankly absurd $40 a month, the second increase in just 18 months. People on places like the Sizzle Forum, Slack and OzBargain all report getting told that they’re going to be slugged nearly $500 a year (!!!) to avoid ads, download videos and have background play on YouTube for up to six family members. It’s really hard to stomach this price considering this is nearly twice the November 2023 price of $23/month. I just looked up the Netflix and Spotify subscriptions, and the comparable cost would be $50 a month for family plans of both so… I guess that’s just how much these things cost these days? So much for cord-cutting being cheaper.

Funny way to thank me

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Period tracking apps are a data gold mine

The use of menstrual tracking software has hit an all-time high at the same time as governments and police around the world are trying to access app data, a new report has found (MCTD). The UK’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy — yes, Minderoo as in Australian rich guy Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s Minderoo — put out the report The High Stakes of Tracking Menstruation which points out all the reasons that leaving development and research about period tracking software to the private sector is a really bad idea. It suggests ideas like having publicly-owned apps and ensuring that period tracking data is considered medical data legally so that it gets the same protections. Until then, there are options like drip which actually look — sorry for the sledge — surprisingly beautiful for an open source app that locally stores all data.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

An AI-powered Barbie… what could go wrong?

Barbie-maker Mattel is going to launch its first “AI-powered product” this year after inking a deal with — who else — OpenAI (Reuters). We don’t know any of the details yet but it’s fair to say that even mentioning “Barbie” and “AI” in the same sentence has people thinking about all the ways this could be very creepy. US tech journalist Casey Newton cited two previous examples of software-powered dolls — one Barbie and one Barbie-like doll called My Friend Cayla — that were made and withdrawn after fears about surveillance (Platformer, $). For me, the bigger issue is my deep fear about how AI companies are making products designed to make people reliant, even addicted to them. Now think about that except when it’s a young, developing kid playing with their Barbie. Scary.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

  • With six months until the teen social media ban, Australia still hasn’t figured out how it’ll work (Crikey, $) 

  • The ASX has flogged off its stake in Digital Asset Holdings, which it invested in as part of its disastrous attempt to build a blockchain-based replacement for its CHESS system (Rohan Pearce) 

  • Australia has ‘no alternative’ but to embrace AI and seek to be a world leader in the field, industry and science minister says (The Guardian Australia)

  • The Northern Beaches Women's Shelter hones focus on tech-enabled abuse (ITNews) 

  • Paws and effect: US government vaccine site muzzled by AI furry content (Cyber Daily AU) 

  • Taking Action Against ‘Nudify’ Apps (Meta)

  • Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire and burn risks (The Verge)

  • Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft — and people are paying anyway (TechCrunch)

  • Canva to job candidates: Thou shalt use AI during interviews (The Register)

  • Apple’s 10 Biggest Challenges, From AI to Tariffs (Bloomberg, $) 

  • Apple Targets Spring 2026 for Release of Delayed Siri AI Upgrade (Bloomberg, $)

  • Apple’s Spin on the Personalized Siri Apple Intelligence Reset (Daring Fireball)

  • My Mac Contacted 63 Different Apple Owned Domains in One Hour - While Not is Use (App Addict) 

  • Inside a Dark Adtech Empire Fed by Fake CAPTCHAs (KrebsonSecurity)  

  • Google says Android Open Source Project not being ‘discontinued’ amidst Pixel change impacting custom ROMs (9to5Google) 

  • Microsoft’s new Copilot Vision can ‘see’ your apps on Windows (The Verge) 

  • US-backed Israeli company’s spyware used to target European journalists, Citizen Lab finds (AP) 

  • Brazil's Supreme Court justices agree to make social media companies liable for user content (Reuters)

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

Forget Siri, Apple has made an even bigger mistake

As previously mentioned, the reaction to Apple’s announcements at WWDC this week ranged from “seems ok” to “disappointing”. But amid all the focus on AI and Liquid Glass etc., we missed one enormous change.

They flipped the Finder face. 512 Pixels’s Stephen Hackett has a good post noticing the change, and tracking it through its history.

“I know I am going to sound old and fussy, but Apple needs to roll this back,” Hackett wrote. Completely agree

Unholy

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electrical & electronics

Computing

Mobiles

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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