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4 weeks ago | 
startupdaily.net | David Braue |Simon Thomsen |Michelle Grattan |John Hawkins
The policy change – which was announced in a recent email to customers – will see Echo users blocked from enabling the ‘Do Not Send Voice Recordings’ option, which preserved privacy by forcing the devices to process their commands on the device. From 28 March, however, this option will be disabled and replaced with a new option that only requires Amazon to delete the recordings from the cloud – eventually.
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1 month ago | 
startupdaily.net | John Hawkins |Simon Thomsen |Michelle Grattan
Tuesday’s budget is a cautious and responsible response to the cost-of-living pressures facing voters. As noted ahead of budget night, many of the major spending initiatives had already been announced. But, in the only major surprise, there are income tax cuts for all income taxpayers. Even if we need to be patient. The new tax cuts only start in July 2026, with a second round in July 2027. And as Treasurer Jim Chalmers himself said, they are “modest” cuts.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
startupdaily.net | Simon Thomsen |John Hawkins |Tom Williams |Warwick Donaldson
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services developmentStore and/or access information on a deviceYou can choose how your personal data is used.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
startupdaily.net | John Hawkins |Tom Williams |Simon Thomsen |Warwick Donaldson
Freshly elected US president Donald Trump has exercised his usual degree of modesty and named his newly launched cryptocurrency or memecoin, $Trump. And like the man himself, the coin’s price is extraordinarily volatile. The price ran up to US$75, fell below $60, went back to $75, fell below $40, then rose back to $60 and had fallen to $31 at the time of writing. And this was just in two days. It has now been joined by a $Melania coin, promoted by his wife.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
startupdaily.net | Frances Goh |Simon Thomsen |John Hawkins |Tom Williams
CES 2025 wrapped up on Friday, concluding a whirlwind week of groundbreaking technology. From futuristic vehicles to AI-powered gadgets, this year’s event showcased innovations that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible. As the world’s largest tech conference and the ultimate launchpad for consumer technology, CES never fails to inspire. While there was an overwhelming volume of tech on display, here are some of the biggest announcements, launches, and concepts that stole the show this year.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
theconversation.com | John Hawkins
You may have seen stories the Australian dollar has “plummeted”. Sounds bad. But what does it mean and should you be worried? The most-commonly quoted exchange rate in the Australian media has long been the Australian dollar/US dollar rate. On Tuesday midday it was at 0.62, meaning one Australian dollar can be exchanged for 62 US cents. In late September 2024 an Australian dollar had been worth 69 US cents, so it has lost 10% in a little over three months. What is the forex market?
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Dec 30, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | John Hawkins
Economists may sometimes sound like they are speaking a language out of this world. But perhaps there are lessons about economics from a galaxy far, far away. The Star Wars saga – the science fiction trilogy of trilogies that spun out of the original 1977 movie – tells the tale of a small group of rebels, led by the brave and wise Jedi Knights, who fight against a corrupt empire. The films earned more than US$10 billion at the box office.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | John Hawkins |Selwyn Cornish
On Thursday night, after a whirlwind day in Canberra, the Senate finally passed the federal government’s long-delayed amendments to the Reserve Bank Act. The reforms will create two separate boards for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) – one will be focused on monetary policy, the other on governance. The idea of having two boards emerged from a landmark independent review of the Reserve Bank, which reported back in March last year.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | John Hawkins
Lower petrol prices and an electricity rebate have contributed to a further fall in the quarterly measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index. The rate in the September quarter dropped to 2.8%, putting it for the first time within the Reserve Bank’s target range of two-point-something since the March quarter of 2020. The fall was broadly in keeping with market expectations, and keeps low the likelihood of an interest rate cut this year. The next Reserve Bank meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.
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Oct 16, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | John Hawkins
Lucky Loser tells the story of Donald Trump’s less-than-stellar business career and how he was able to misrepresent it as a success. It is written by New York Times investigative journalists, Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig. Both have won Pulitzer Prizes for earlier analyses of Trump. Another badge of honour is Trump sued them – and lost. They are by no means the first writers to expose the Potemkin village that is Trump’s business empire.
