Welcome to the Tech Mean Red Humbler Tuesday, October 17th, 2023. I'm Brian McCullough today. A new affordable Apple pencil, several fog of war stories surrounding major tech players. Why are tech layoffs suddenly back? Our Meta's Rayban glasses actually good. And is LinkedIn actually the social network you should be investing more energy in. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.
Apple this morning announced a new what they're calling affordable $79 Apple pencil with USB C for charging, shipping in early November and compatible with all USB C iPads. Quoting i more. The company says the new pencil is, quote, ideal for note-taking, sketching, annotating, journaling and more. And features the same matte finish and flat design as the previous model. The new pencil will be available in early November and will work with any iPad that has a USB C port.
One big innovation is that it has an actual USB C for charging rather than a connector like the current models. You simply slide the cap off to reveal the port and then plug in a cable. Apple says the new pencil has the, quote, same advanced pixel, perfect accuracy, low latency and tilt sensitivity. Although it looks like pressure sensitivity didn't make the cut. However, however, will be supported when used with M2 iPad Pro models.
It does have a magnetic attachment for your iPad, but magnetic wireless pairing and charging are reserved for the Apple pencil second generation. As noted, the new pencil costs $79 and is coming out in early November. It'll work with all of Apple's best iPads, including the iPad 10th generation, iPad Air 4th and 5th generations, iPad Pro 11 inch, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations, iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th generations, and iPad Mini 6th generation, end quote.
Another one of these, Cisco says a zero-day flaw in its iOS XE software has been exploited in the wild since at least September 18. Showdown shows up to 80,000 devices could be affected, going ours technical. The previously unknown vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE 2023-2019-8, carries the maximum severity rating of 10. It resides in the web user interface of Cisco's iOS XE software when exposed to the internet or untrusted networks.
Any switch router or wireless LAN controller running iOS XE that has the HTTP or HTTPS server feature enabled and exposed to the internet is vulnerable. At the time this post went live, the showdown search engine showed that as many as 80,000 internet connected devices could be affected. Cisco said that an unknown threat actor has been exploiting the zero-day since at least September 18 after using the vulnerability to become an authorized user. The attacker creates a local user account.
In most cases, the threat actor has gone on to deploy an implant that allows it to execute malicious commands at the system or iOS level. Once the web server is restarted, the implant is unable to survive a reboot, but the local user accounts will remain active. Monday's advisory went on to say that after gaining access to a vulnerable device, the threat actor exploits a medium vulnerability, which Cisco patched two years ago.
The Talos team members said that they have seen devices fully patched against the earlier vulnerability getting the implant installed through an as-of-yet-undetermined mechanism. Omnibus of war-related stories here, Meta identified and fixed a bug after thousands of Palestinian supporters said their posts were suppressed or removed from Facebook and Instagram, quoting the Times.
Meta has cautioned that some posts may be temporarily suppressed or suspended as it in acts measures to deal with a high number of reports of graphic content. In some cases, the company said there were technical difficulties that suppress posts that should have been widely visible. We identified a bug impacting all stories that reshared reels and feed posts, meaning they weren't showing up properly in people's stories tray, leading to a significantly reduced reach.
Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said in a post on X on Sunday. This bug affected accounts equally around the globe and had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content, and we fixed it as quickly as possible. Then sources are telling the Financial Times that Israel compelled Binance to suspend more than 100 accounts since Hamas' attack on October 7th, Binance confirms the exchange quote, blocked a small number of users.
And Israel plans to boycott Europe's biggest tech conference, Web Summit, which is coming up next month, I think, after the events co-founder accused Israel of war crimes and many tech companies pulled out of the event. Quoting tech crunch. Web Summit, the big tech conference brand that runs events in several cities and whose 70,000 person flagship event in Lisbon is taking place next month is running into a wall, a wall of outrage.
Founders, investors, and others from the technology community in Israel have gone ballistic over comments made by the founder and figurehead of Web Summit, Patti Cosgrave, related to the fighting underway across Israel and Gaza, specifically his criticism of Israel's retaliatory actions. On the day of the original attack, Cosgrave was in Dohaq Tahr, the city where Web Summit will be holding its newest event in four months' time.
As some were taking to social media to express shock or sympathy, or in some cases advocating for restraint, some took more critical stances. Cosgrave, for his part, posted data on X of the human cost of the Israel Palestine conflict between 2008 and 2023, it emitted the events and casualties of the weekend. David Marcus said he would never again attend, sponsor, or speak at another Web Summit event.
Quote will refuse to work with anyone who speaks at this conference in Qatar for the rest of my career, chimed in, Keith Rabwa, the Founders Fund partner and entrepreneur, or Egocian, the co-founder and co-CEO of AI21 Labs announced on LinkedIn that he would no longer be giving a keynote at Web Summit. Hard to take this statement at Face Value, given all the tweets at Petty Cosgrave has been liking over the last few days.
I saved several of them on the attached Google Doc said, Josh Coppelman, the founder of First Round Capital. Coppelman separately suggested in a tweet that Cosgrave is in the pocket of Dohaq and Qatar a country that many believe is connected to the financing of Hamas. That was enough to push Gary Tan, the head of Y Combinator over the edge, too.
Quote, I refuse to appear at Web Summit and I'm canceling my appearance, he said, I condemn Hamas and pray for peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people. We've reached out to Tan and Coppelman to ask if they are advising portfolio companies and partners at their firms against also attending. Tan declined to comment and Coppelman has yet to respond.
This is going to be a quick grab bag segment as well because I don't know what else we can say other than I think we should note that it's happening. Typically tech layoffs have been rolling in again, LinkedIn. Plans to lay off 668 staff members mostly from its engineering team after cutting 716 jobs back in May. A source says LinkedIn is ramping up hiring in India, however.
Music storefront bandcamp laid off nearly 50% of its workforce or 58 employees as part of Song Traders acquisition of the company from Epic Games in September and stack overflow laid off more than 100 people or 28% of its workforce to quote significantly reduce its go-to-market organization after doubling its size to more than 500 people in 2022. And as I was putting this segment together, I saw some posts on Twitter that product hunt might be laying off some folks as well.
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Partners and affiliates who have streamed at least once for 45 minutes or longer in the last 30 days are eligible to post stories which are viewable for any of their followers and subscribers on the Twitch mobile app. Unlike Instagram and Snapchat's story feature, which lasts for 24 hours, Twitch stories expire after 48 hours. Streamers who have at least 30 subscribers can post exclusive stories for their subscribers. The feature will roll out to eligible streamers over this week.
In addition to posting photos and text posts to stories, eligible Twitch streamers can also post clips from their channel or another channel. Viewers will be able to react to stories with Twitch emotes and streamers will be able to see views and reaction counts on their stories to track the content that best resonates with their community. There have been several stories like the one I'm about to read to you that I've been sitting on for a while.
So I'm going to use this one as a placeholder for about five others that I could have shared over the last month or so.
But the Financial Times says what lots of people have been saying that some influencers and CEOs are turning to LinkedIn to build their brands and otherwise, which they claim is easier due to less creator competition, a committed user base, and a general feeling that LinkedIn is maybe safer than posting on X. Quote, the Microsoft owned professional networking platform once a home purely to job hunting and networking has become overrun with many of its 930 million users sharing career
focused off an aspirational content in the hopes of building substantial followings.
Initially the realm of select business magnets such as Richard Branson, lesser known marketers, tech entrepreneurs, and even creative such as US rapper Snoop Dogg are now trying to leverage the platform their success at attracting large followings has caught the attention of some high profile chief executives who are also now attempting to build personal brands on the platform and boost the profile of their businesses.
A market has sprung up to help with consultants agencies in house advisors and PR specialists advising chief executives on how to harness LinkedIn. Craig Mulaney, a partner at press relations firm Brunswick Group says LinkedIn has proved to be the single most powerful communication channel for some of the chief executives it works with.
In a crisis that's often the time when it's hardest for the CEO to get their point of view across, particularly if the media doesn't agree with their perspective so LinkedIn acts as a direct channel to their employees and investors and quote. Another benefit to having a platform on LinkedIn is the ability to attract staff according to a 2022 report by Brunswick. When applicants are researching a business they might join, they look first at the company website then the CEO's LinkedIn page.
Having a profile on the platform is made easier by the relatively small number of influencers also known as creators making it less competitive. At the same time the user base is committed. Nobody's going to ever challenge LinkedIn because our whole network is there. Says Lou Peskielis, an advertising veteran and chief executive of AJL advisory.
While CEOs main objectives on LinkedIn are to craft their corporate images, the influencers they look to for tips are turning the platform into a livelihood, monetizing audiences indirectly through brand deals and speaking gigs, advertising back newsletters and courses. And finally today I mentioned recently that those new Rayband smart glasses meta announced earlier this month seemed interesting to me.
What if meta quietly produce the first reasonable stab at actual glasses that have just a touch of smartness? Well, June 1 at ZDNet says the $299 smart glasses from meta are the most useful gadget he's tested all year. Quoting from his review, the new smart glasses made in partnership with Rayband are exactly that premium glasses that can do smart things. They're as stylish and iconic as every other pair of Rayband.
They can also capture photos and videos, play music and podcasts, win pair to your phone, and have a built-in meta AI to answer your most curious questions. For many, including myself, that makes the meta Rayband a seamless lifestyle fit, one that is less drastic than, say, meta's other new on your face gadget, the Quest 3. After spending a weekend with the latest wearable, I'm preparing to switch to the spectacle's full time. Here's why.
Even with the cameras, speakers and various modules tucked beneath the frame, all of which are made visible thanks to a new transparent finish that meta is offering, the smart glasses are surprisingly lightweight and fatigue only kicks in the first time you put them on. Other key improvements with the new Rayband smart glasses include a 12 megapixel ultra-wide camera that's capable of capturing sharper photos at 3024 by 4032 pixels and 1080p videos at 1440 by 1920 resolution.
Note that both formats are scaled for portrait capturing as the ideal use case for the glasses is vertical content sharing on meta social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. That content sharing capability includes live streaming, which you can now start up with just a few taps on the wearable. I typically rely on an Insta360 GO3 to record point of view footage when I'm at product briefings and trade shows.
So being able to capture footage simply by looking around is especially beneficial for me. I've also found the smart glasses practical when I'm driving and want to record a scenic view or need a second camera on top of my dash cam in case of an accident. Video recording on the meta-rayband glasses isn't perfect though. The 12 megapixel camera doesn't handle dynamic ranges flawlessly as a smartphone or action camera, the sky tends to get blown out as shown in the video demo above.
And the aggressive video stabilization means there's the occasional stutter when the software doesn't stitch the shakiness properly. Still the glasses camera is reliable enough to capture the general essence of moments, which is what this whole thing is about, right? Besides the photo and video capturing aspect, the new rayband smart glasses are just decent sounding Bluetooth headphones. They sound better than the stories I tested two years ago but not by much.
But it tells me that the one key area of improvement is a new directional output that greatly reduces sound leakage. But I can't lie when I say I still felt guilty listening at higher volumes in public. The grim stare made it clear that the sound isolation wasn't perfect. Before I wrap I'd like to give a nod to the new charging carrying case for the smart glasses. It still serves as a wireless charger when the glasses are slotted in.
But it's also significantly slimmer than the previous version with a leather booklet style instead of the hard cushion snap on capsule, Meta says it's 32% lighter than the last model which I believe and gives the glasses 8 full charges or 32 hours of additional battery life. The new Meta Rayband smart glasses feel more like traditional eyewear and less like glass hole wearing ones from a decade ago.
That's a win in my book because with the Rayband smart glasses Meta isn't trying to impress tech geeks like me with out of the world experiences though it somehow did thanks to the practicality of it. Instead the Meta glasses focus on the essentials like Bluetooth music listening, AI voice assistance, hands-free photo and video capturing and more.
Features that should entice a more mainstream audience, preferably folks who have already become accustomed to paying $200 and more for prescriptions and shades. Nothing for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.