As companies seek to reduce the use of virgin plastic in their manufacturing we’ve seen a range of products come out using recycled plastic and other alternative materials. This is not particularly new or exciting, but this article about Logitech’s experimentation with cork did catch my eye. And the reason is very context specific. As readers may know, I was in Lisbon last week and something I learnt while I was there was that Portugal produces half of the world’s cork supply ⟨  Who knew?! I certainly didn’t!⟩ So this random fact was why I didn’t just scroll past this article. Having seen the slew of tourist products made from cork lining the shelves of every souvenir shop in Lisbon, I have a new-found appreciation for the versatility of cork so naturally I was fascinated to see it used for Logitech keyboards, mice and headsets!

This article by Jo Pickup doesn’t really add much to the discourse around ticketing models in the performing arts, but it does reference some research in the United States which suggests that pay-what-you-can models can work for performing arts performances at a low price point. Whether that rings true in Australia is hard to say, but I do agree there is room for a lot more innovation in ticketing in the arts in Australia.

There’s a lot of discussion going on about banning social media and other online content for under-16s but it seems advice to the government has questioned the effectiveness of similar schemes internationally. The advice (which was obtained under an FOI request) states that “no countries have implemented an age verification mandate without issue.” The workability of age assurance technologies, privacy concerns if sensitive documents are used to verify age and the potential to exclude young people from the positive benefits of social media were raised, as is the potential for circumvention of age verification such as by using a VPNAn abbreviation of Virtual Private Network. Learn more  →.

The dominance of the App Store and Play Store are under fire on multiple fronts. In the US the Epic v Google is coming towards a close while the UK has extended regulator powers to enforce rules against tech companies. After their win at trial Fortnite-maker Epic Games await Judge James Donato’s decision on what remedies should be awarded. Epic has asked for a bunch of things, including allowing third-party app stores on Play Store and giving access to Play Store’s catalogue of apps. While this is a big ask, it seems Donato is at least considering it; he’s ordered Google to calculate the costs of complying.

‘Across the pond’ the UK has joined Europe in extending regulator’s powers to promote competition in digital markets without having to go to court. So called companies with strategic market status (SMS) – companies that have “substantial and entrenched market power” and “a position of strategic significance” – can be fine up to 10 percent of the total value of their global revenue for violating the new rules.