Amaysim to acquire 150,000 Circles Life customers in Australia

Local telco Amaysim has announced that it’s acquiring the Australian-based customers of Circles Life, a fellow mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that uses Optus network technology.

Labelled a “strategic expansion” to add to Amaysim’s existing 1.7 million customers, more than 150,000 people are expected to transition over from Circles Life.

“This acquisition not only strengthens our position in the Australian telco market but also enables us to offer more Aussies the same customer-centricity, exceptional value, and outstanding customer service that define Amaysim,” said Vir Nath, VP of Amaysim.

“As Circles Life customers transition to amaysim plans over the coming months, they can look forward to accessing additional features, including 5G, unlimited data banking, and a dedicated customer service team.”

A regular among Australia’s cheapest SIM plans, Amaysim sells phone plans and, as of September 2024, NBN internet. Optus acquired Amaysim in 2021 but the MVNO operates as a standalone telco.

According to a press release, the transition between Circles Life and Amaysim will automatically happen over the next few months. Existing Circles Life customers don’t need to do anything for the changeover to take effect. An FAQ section on Amaysim’s website futher explains that Circles Life “will not continue to have mobile customers in Australia” following the acquisition.

At the time of writing, Circles Life’s cheapest phone plan without discounts starts at $15 per month, including 6GB of data. Amaysim, on the other hand, starts at $22 for a 28-day prepaid cycle, inclusive of 10GB.

A benefit of the customer acquisition spruiked by Amaysim is the availability of 5G connectivity on higher-priced plans. Circles Life only offers 4G plans, so transitioning customers will theoretically be able to get faster download speeds in 5G areas.

If you’re keen to assess your options, here are the current cheapest prepaid SIM plans in Australia:

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Gyro sensor in new Samsung soundbar optimises your home audio

Fresh from debuting its new TVs at CES 2025, Samsung has revealed two of its premium Q-Series soundbars coming this year.

Succeeding last year’s flagship model, the Samsung HW-Q990F comes with a couple of notable changes. Samsung has reworked this year’s top-end model with tweaks to its dual active subwoofers, which are said to produce better bass performance.

Easily the most visible upgrade is to the Samsung HW-Q990F’s subwoofer unit. Adopting a more cube-like design, it’s roughly half the size of the accompanying subwoofer from 2024. Aside from taking up less space, Samsung claims “minimising resonance” is another benefit of its smaller footprint.

If you struggle to hear dialogue when watching TV, the soundbar’s “Active Voice Amplifier Pro” aims to make dialogue clearer by reducing background noise. Maybe it’ll make Tenet easier to understand.

Samsung HW-Q990F soundbar. Image: Samsung.

Next on the list is the Samsung HW-QS700F soundbar. It’s designed to be versatile, supporting both wall-mounting and TV cabinet configurations. To support this design, the HW-QS700F includes a built-in gyro sensor that figures out whether you’ve arranged it vertically or horizontally. The main reason it does this is so the soundbar can tweak its sound accordingly.

Like many Samsung speakers, both soundbars support the brand’s Q-Symphony feature. Compatible speakers with this feature can connect and play audio in unison, which is said to produce a fuller sound.

For example, you can use the speakers on both your Samsung TV and soundbar system simultaneously, helping boost dialogue clarity and bass impact. Meanwhile, a Samsung Music Frame behind you could also join in, generating a surround sound-like experience.

Neither soundbar has a confirmed price or release date in Australia yet, aside from a “first half of 2025” window. For now, there’s a landing page where you can register your interest in the upcoming home entertainment range.

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Apple pauses major AI feature after high-profile blunders

Apple Intelligence hasn’t had the smoothest of launches. For one, it wasn’t ready for the initial iOS 18 update, needing more time in the oven before unleashing a series of heavily advertised AI features. Then Apple Intelligence incorrectly summarised a BBC headline following the UnitedHealthcare shooting, casting significant doubts over the feature’s accuracy.

Now, in light of these prominent errors, Apple is pausing AI-generated summaries on news headlines until the company can sort things out.

As reported on 9to5Mac, Apple has taken the drastic step of disabling AI-generated notification summaries on “News and Entertainment” apps as part of the iOS 18.3 beta. Apple intends to restore summaries in the future but, for now, it’s going on hiatus.

Taking even further steps, iOS 18.3 includes more disclaimers that the Apple Intelligence feature is in beta. 9to5Mac‘s coverage elaborates that notification summaries will be italicised to help them stand out more from standard notifications, while a “may contain errors” warning appears in Settings.

Apple Intelligence summary faux pas

Getting the headline of a sensitive news story wrong is a big deal. In a worst-case scenario, someone might place the blame on the publication instead of the tech company actually at fault.

Even in low-stakes situations, I’ve seen my fair share of Apple Intelligence stuff-ups. Ranging from mildly annoying to barely comprehensible, I’ve mainly left the notification summaries on for entertainment value as opposed to genuine utility.

Take, for example, the following AI summary of a Discord chat between friends.

Call my friend “Melissa” at your peril. Screenshot: Chris Button.

There is no one who goes by the name “Melissa” in that chat. If someone attempted to use that name for the person the notification refers to, they’d likely end up six feet under.

There are other, some distinctly not-safe-for-work, examples I’ve seen of Apple Intelligence’s amusing errors. More often than not, AI-generated notification summaries omit context, tone, and, concerningly, crucial details from a chain of messages.

I’m not the only one worried about the impacts of a pervasive technology not ready for public consumption. WhistleOut Australia‘s Alex Choros recently put generative AI on notice for its eyebrow-raising rollout.

If anything, Apple’s concession is a reminder to trust independently verified sources of information, not unreliable technology cobbled together with the digital equivalent of sticky tape.

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Your LG TV is now an Xbox too, with cloud streaming

Among the CES 2025 chaos, LG recently announced that its TVs will soon be able to play Xbox games without the need for a separate console.

Like Samsung’s TVs in 2022, LG TVs will support cloud streaming games via an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. The upcoming service adds to LG’s existing support for the Nvidia GeForce Now service, which lets you stream PC games you own to other devices.

LG hasn’t confirmed when the Xbox app is coming to its TVs yet, or which TV models it’ll work with. We do know, however, that it’s part of a new “LG Gaming Portal” launching soon. When it launches, you’ll be able to access the Gaming Portal from the TV’s home screen and access various games and cloud streaming apps in a centralised location.

For reference, an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription sets you back $22.95 per month in Australia. Since the subscription service’s inception, Microsoft’s goal has been to grant access to games it publishes on the same day they launch. For example, subscribers can play games like Call of Duty Black Ops 6, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the upcoming Avowed without purchasing them separately.

PlayStation, meanwhile, approaches its own subscription service, PlayStation Plus, differently. Many of its self-published titles do appear on the service but not at launch. Instead, games including God of War Ragnarök are only available to subscribers some months post-release.

PlayStation still doesn’t currently support cloud streaming of its games in Australia, while Xbox does. Although this means Xbox’s streaming platforms have more prominence locally, on Samsung and soon-to-be LG TVs, it’s likely not a priority for PlayStation. That’s because its PS5 console has sold more than 65 million units, compared to sub-30 million for the Xbox Series X and S combined.

With LG TV support on the horizon, it adds further intrigue to Microsoft’s platform-agnostic “This is an Xbox” campaign.

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Tapo’s futuristic vision of a smarter home is compelling

Keen to make the smart home smarter, Tapo demoed a clever range of devices at CES 2025 aimed at improving security, cleaning, and your home network.

Taking a look at Tapo’s CES stand, several gadgets left a strong impression. For one, the brand’s dual-lens security camera looks like a great way to provide more comprehensive home security. On top, the camera has a wide-angle lens, good for capturing a wide field of view, while there’s a telephoto-like lens underneath.

These lenses work in tandem, detecting motion and panning to record any action. Most security cameras only give you one angle to work with, so it’s helpful to see both a wider picture in addition to a zoomed-in image to clearly see more details. This way, you don’t miss out on any potential happenings inside or outside your home.

Another neat device was the Tapo RV70 Pro Ultra, a high-end robot vacuum with up to 18,000Pa of suction power and the ability to purify dirty water into clean reusable water. Adding a twist on the conventional docking station design, it has a colour touchscreen so you can control the robot directly from the dock.

Tapo has also added a few new wrinkles to its smart locks and video doorbell systems. Fingerprint scanners and codes are standard features, but the palm-reading tech is an interesting evolution. Tapo’s upcoming smart locks can read the veins in your palm when you hover your hand in front of it, akin to using facial unlock on your phone.

Continuing the AI theme of CES, Tapo showcased more of its natural language voice features and app functionality. For example, you can ask the phone app to show you footage of package deliveries, and it will retrieve any relevant footage.

For a full rundown on Tapo’s upcoming gear, watch our YouTube video to see it all in action.

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Melbourne to get early look at Nintendo Switch 2: How to register

Keen Melbourne gamers will be among the first in the world to try the newly announced Nintendo Switch 2 as part of a global tour. Thanks to the “Nintendo Switch 2 Experience”, a lucky select few will be able to go hands-on with the yet-to-be-launched games console.

Melbourne is the only Australian location included in the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience, with the city set to host the preview session on 10 and 11 May 2025. Taking place at Centrepiece, an events venue in Melbourne Park, the event isn’t a walk-up affair.

Entry requires earning a place via a random-chance ballot, so there’s a bit of luck involved.

How to register for the Melbourne Nintendo Switch 2 Experience

For the chance to attend the hands-on session, make sure you’ve got a Nintendo Account. Anyone interested in trying the Switch 2 likely already has an account, but it pays to be sure. if you don’t have one, they’re free to make.

You can then register for the ballot online between 18 January at 11:00 AM AEDT and 26 January at 11:59 PM AEDT. Information on the registration website confirms that you can register individually or for a group of up to four people. Children can attend the event but registrations need to come from someone aged 18 or older.

A separate FAQ section of the site includes a few more details worth keeping in mind. One of the main ones is that it doesn’t matter when you register; everyone has an equal chance of being selected to attend.

Advertised by Nintendo as “a guaranteed opportunity to have an early hands-on gameplay experience with some of the newest, upcoming games on Nintendo Switch 2”, attendees will get “3 hours and 30 minutes” of game time.

We’ll likely learn more about Nintendo’s public preview event on 2 April, when the next Nintendo Direct airs. Who knows, perhaps we’ll see a new Mario Kart revealed by then? Most importantly, we might know the release date of Nintendo’s anticipated console.

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Nintendo Switch 2 announced with bigger screen & controllers

After a long wait, the Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been announced. In a brief reveal trailer uploaded overnight, Nintendo debuted its new hybrid console, succeeding the popular original Switch that launched in 2017.

Exact specifications aren’t available yet, but the video showed off a larger screen, bigger Joy-Con controllers, and a new-look dock for connecting to a TV. Aside from size, the biggest notable change is the magnetic connection for the controllers. Instead of clicking into place via a rail, the Joy-Con snap onto the Switch 2 via magnets, seemingly promoting easier alignment and removal.

As previously confirmed, the Nintendo Switch 2 is backward compatible with its predecessor. That means it can play previously-launched games, including physical cartridges and digital releases. However, as clarified in the Japanese company’s announcement, “certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible” with the new console. More details about these games are expected closer to launch.

The console has big shoes to fill, following one of the most popular video game consoles of all time. As of Nintendo’s most recent financial reporting period, the Switch has shipped more than 146 million units over its lifetime. In terms of overall sales, that places it third overall behind the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2.

Nintendo Switch 2 release date and price

Among several other details, a big omission from Nintendo’s announcement was any release date or price confirmation. Instead, a follow-up Nintendo Direct dedicated to the Nintendo Switch is scheduled to air on 2 April 2025 to reveal more details.

As an indication, the original Switch model retails for $469.95 in Australia, while the more recent OLED model costs $539.95. Nintendo also released the Switch Lite in 2019, a smaller version of the console without detachable controllers, for $329.95 in Australia. While nothing more than pure speculation, expect the Switch 2 to cost more than the first console.

Image: Nintendo.

For now, Nintendo announced plans to tour globally and show its new hardware prior to launch. Tour dates run through June 2025, making it likely that the Nintendo Switch 2 release date will be in the second half of the year.

Australians can register for a ballot online for the chance to try the Switch 2 in Melbourne on 10 and 11 May 2025. Set to take place at Centrepiece in Melbourne Park, registrations for the event open on 18 January at 11:00 AM AEDT, and closing on 26 January at 11:59 PM AEDT.

Nintendo also teased a new Mario Kart in the announcement video. Without confirming anything, the trailer included footage of an unknown Mario Kart track to demonstrate some gameplay.

Following the announcement, plenty of questions remain. All we can do now is wait until April.

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