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'More illegal than a penny-farthing bicycle': Girt by CNET podcast 51

This year's "hot Christmas gift" stalls on the grid, 3D printing bans get proscriptive, your phone might be your driver's licence and we say congratulations to two decades of PlayStation in Australia.

Nic Healey Senior Editor / Australia
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
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Nic Healey
2 min read

Thinking of joining the cool kids and getting one of the so-called hoverboards this Christmas? You might want to check with your state government first. NSW's Roads Minister Duncan Gay has warned parents (and the young at heart) that self-propelled balanced boards are actually illegal to use on footpaths and roads, leaving you to cruise up and down long hallways.

Also illegal, not that you were likely to popping one into anyone's Christmas stocking, are 3D printing blueprints for firearms and "prohibited weapons". It has always been illegal to actually print and own such things, but the new laws mean that 3D printing enthusiasts can't even check out the blueprints out of interest. It's a significant change to the existing laws.

Still on the legal side of the fence, NSW plans to have digital driver licenses on your phone by 2018. These will be an opt-in arrangement (you can always keep the plastic cards) but it's already opening up a can of worms when it comes to state borders, flat batteries and the joy of handing police offers and pub bouncers your unlocked phone.

In nicer news, PlayStation celebrates 20 years in Australia this month. While last year saw the official 20th for the venerable console family, it was November 1995 when Australians could first walk into a shop and pop down AU$695 of their hard earned cash. That's around AU$1,130 these days. Makes you realise just how far we've come when you can get a PS4 for AU$479.

Finally, the new Lumia 950 and 950 XL are available for pre-order now. They're not cheap, but are they what Windows has needed to make the next leap into becoming a popular phone operating system?

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"And cancel Christmas!"

Driver's licence? There's an app for that

Two decades of PlayStation

New Lumia phones