• expired

Free 120-Day Trial of The Sizzle (Normally 14 Days) @ The Sizzle

2300

Hello OzBargain! It's me, decryption, and I'm back writing The Sizzle every day. It's an excellent way to get an Aussie perspective on the technology industry. Perfect for local IT workers looking to stay in the loop on tech news - and the best tech deals that pop up on Ozbargain.

No AI/LLM writing. All human, all the time. There's also no ads. No affiliate links. No link tracking. No spying. This is basic human dignity stuff that's abused so often on the internet, but I don't want to read AI slop and I don't want my privacy invaded so I don't do it to my readers.

OzBargain has always been the best way to get new folks reading The Sizzle. I reckon about half of the subscriber base found out about The Sizzle via Ozbargain.

To let everyone know I'm back on the tools, here's a fresh 120-day free trial for you lovely cheapskates. No money required, 100% free for 120-days. Just visit https://thesizzle.com.au/ozbargain.html to start. Deal ends Sunday night.

FAQ

Can I look at The Sizzle before I subscribe? That's what the free trial is for! But if you want to look at some old issues, visit The Sizzle Archive which has everything up until May 2026.

What happened? Where did Cam go? He is over at the ABC as their dedicated AI reporter which left him no time for The Sizzle, so I'm back writing The Sizzle full-time.

What happens when the trial ends? After the trial you are NOT billed. There's no risk you will be billed because I don't ask for your credit card, just an email address. It's up to you to decide if you want to become a paid subscriber.

Can I unsubscribe easily if I don't like it? Absolutely. Click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email I send, confirm that you want to unsubscribe and that's it - no more emails from The Sizzle.

Related Stores

The Sizzle
The Sizzle

Comments

Search through all the comments in this post.
  • decryption.. good to see your still around from the old days of #mactalk

    • Ahh MacTalk, so long ago. I miss it and still really upset with Niche for driving it into the ground. I regret selling it to them.

      • I used to love the daily news every morning and the podcast too (can touch this as well).

        Are you still in touch with Pete, Raj, Benny from Hobart?, Lauren, Russel from Adelaide, perhaps I’m missing a few of the regular contributors.

        Rod at ram city!?

        p.s (profanity) niche and I can’t imagine how livid you must be with them. They drove it into the ground pretty much right away after the sale.

        • Raj and Lauren I talk to regularly, Benny & Russell less so but still keep in touch every now and then :)

      • oh wild, that brings back memories.

        Did you also know MJCP from MacTheMag? I used to work with him on that.

        • I think I met him once or twice back when he was writing for Macworld Australia, probably crossed paths at some press events.

      • I 'member…

        I was in Melbourne over the long weekend and remembered the dinner we had after MacTalk was sold where I met a lot of the site contributors in person for the first time.

        • i was going through my old photos only 2 weeks ago and found some pics from a mactalk meetup. it would have been one of the IRC meetups as they were the only ones i went to

    • Another MacTalk friend here!

  • The Sizzle subscriber here, highly recommended daily newsletter!
    Not just the news and (Sometimes salty 😜) insights, but the deals and random finds on the internet.

    • Thanks for subscribing mate :)

    • +1
      It's the only daily I read top to toe. Current, punchy, but not too long, I'd miss it if it weren't around. Give it a bash.

      • "I'd miss it if it weren't around" - I often wonder if I'm actually making a human level connection with the readers/subscribers of The Sizzle, so this was so nice to read, thank you

        • You sure are making a human connection, I've been a subscriber for a few years and look forward to reading it.

          • @rob2018: Thank you. It's good to know there's people still curious and interested in reading, not just taking whatever an algorithm serves up.

  • am a subscriber, looking forward to it everyday

    • I look forward to writing it everyday! Perfect match

  • Love the siz, well worth it for the tech and the deal pigs!

    • oink (profanity) oink

  • I miss sizzler

    • The toast was the shiz!

    • Just like how I returned to The Sizzle - Sizzler is also returning!
      https://www.realcommercial.com.au/news/sizzler-is-back-austr…

      "Minor Hotel group will open the all-you-can-eat chain at their new NH Collection Hotel at Sydney airport seven years after Sizzler closed its doors. NH Sydney Airport is scheduled to open its doors in 2027."

      2027 Sizzle subscriber meetup location is confirmed.

    • The Sizzle is sent in the afternoon, so maybe you'd like to check it out for free to 120 days to see how it compares to your setup? 20 years of human skill and effort vs. a group of LLMs, which one will you prefer?!

    • What's a sample day look like?

      • There's a 14 day trial. Check it out. Very satisfied long term subscriber.

        • I think they want to see a demo of @i0k-0RU2zd10c's setup (if it's even real). I'm curious too.

    • The value proposition is the snark, which is something that only jaded techies can replicate believably.

      • I've spend decades refining my snark, a billion Nvidia GPUs can't match it.

    • If you're wondering why your friends don't talk to you, I might have some ideas

      • Oof, brutal. I love it.

        • When my next bill is due I'm going to imagine that I'm feeding you tokens.

          • @buthidae: Today's issue is about 1700 tokens, which at Optus 4.8 pricing is US$0.0425 for the output.

            But you need to feed the LLM articles for it to read to make the summary. There's usually around 2000 unread items in my feed reader each morning and lets say each item is around 600 words each - that's 1.2m words. If each word is about 2.5 tokens, that's 3 million input tokens - US$15.

            Opus is pretty expensive, so if you use a cheaper Chinese LLM on Openrouter, like DeepSeek V4 Flash, you're paying US$0.30c for the input and the output is basically a rounding error. So A$0.43 per issue of The Sizzle.

            There's around 240 issues per year of The Sizzle, which at 43c each, is A$103.20 using DeepSeek.

            I only charge A$60 a year. So I'm cheaper than the LLM. I think I'm better too.

            • @decryption: I’ve always enjoyed your snark better than AI’s smoke-blowing, too! I’m a former MacTalker as well.

              • @buthidae: Another MacTalker! There's dozens of us, haha

      • But my chat bot friend loves me …

    • I don't pay for the news articles, I mean even apple news could spew that up. I pay for the insight and perspective that comes from an actual human who has an interesting and often expletive ridden point of view on them. Bargain IMO.

      • I'm interesting! :)

  • Do I work in IT? Not at all
    Do I love reading the sizzle all the same? Absolutely
    Glad to see you back 🫡

    • It's good to be back! Good to know there's some non-IT workers reading. Hope it helps round out your knowledge of tech.

  • I heartily endorse this product and/or event.

    • Your endorsement is greatly welcomed!

  • The sizzle is my favourite thing to land in my inbox. It's perfect in being genuine curated content and insightful summaries of key things happening at the moment (with a tech slant).
    I feel swamped by bullshit with so much in my inbox, reading the sizzle is like a balm to my brain - real, short reads that are thoughtful.
    Definitely recommend signing up for a no risk 4 month trial - a no brainer bargain to me.

    • I try to be as anti-bullshit as possible. There’s so much out there, I don’t need to add to it!

  • Not sure why people are complaining, it's free and no credit card info required. you don't have to use your main email if you don't want. The sizzle is not a new service trying to harvest your info.

    Tbh this beats having to check my newsfeed and read through all of the junk.

    • Yep, can use a burner email very easily, I honestly don't care as long as the email goes somewhere a person reads it! It's also very easy to unsubscribe if after a few issues you think it's shit and want to stop it arriving in your inbox.

  • Read my first free email today:

    • find it hard to believe that the NBN RSP AI agents can actually deal with real problem that are beyond "have you tried turning it off and on again" scripts. Glad I am not with those RSPs.
    • needs more swearing
    • WWDC refined snark detected
    • More swearing!? Sounds like a challenge.

  • Quality newsletter, would recommend.

    • Thanks mate :)

  • Solid newsletter, crazy not to take a free trial like this, I’ve been a paying subscriber for years now, brilliant daily email.

    • Appreciate your support all these years! You've literally fed and clothed me, haha

  • Love the sizzle! I use it at work events to start conversations with people I haven't met, if it's gotten a little quiet. Keep it up, decryption!

    • Beautiful - that's actually the main reason I started The Sizzle 10+ years ago. I noticed my mates were out of touch with tech news because they had more important things to do (family, work, life in general) so I wrote this email to keep them somewhat involved so when they talked to their colleagues or friends they at least had some clue what other people are talking about.

  • Winamp Winamp Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass

    • Enjoy the Winamp Skin Museum: https://skins.webamp.org/

      • Literally went to the NCM in Melbourne over the weekend because of a recommendation in the Sizzle (OK, the new exhibition wasn't that great, but all the museum stuff upstairs is awesome) and I was able to show my 14 year old son Winamp in the recreated internet cafe!

        • I still haven't had time to get out to the other side of town and visit the NCM :(

  • Honestly, the best email newsletter ever - it's so good to get an overview of tech with an Aussie skew while cutting through all the fluff
    - been a paid subscriber for a few years

    • Appreciate the support - best newsletter ever is nice to hear :)

  • Have worked in IT/Telco for 20+ years
    Have been a Sizzle subscriber for many, many years
    I subscribe for the very unique take on the same news I see and hear everywhere else

    • Thank you for subscribing for so long and keeping me going!

  • I've subscribed but got no email confirmation or newsletter?

    • It's working… Google loves spamming shit or otherwise delaying delivery 😆

      • Fingers crossed it doesn't end up in your spam folder next week, haha - if it does a small tip is to add my email address (anthony@thesizzle.com.au) to your contacts and I think that does something to give Gmail a signal that emails from me might not be spam.

        • Thanks for the heads up 👍

          You know this might sound strange but we might be really good friends 😅

          • @cobknob: I am friends with many Sizzle subscribers :)

Login or Join to leave a comment