Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 06/04 – iPad Pro Rumors And WWDC Pre-Hype

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Is MagSafe charging coming to iPads? Is the Biden administration actually cracking down harder on China than the Trump administration did? Is the recent slate of ransomware attacks the new normal or the sign of something bigger brewing? And, in the weekend longreads suggestions, we meet a guy who’s job is to negotiate with ransomware hackers. Sponsors: Cybereason.com Metalab.com Links: Apple Working on iPad Pro with Wireless Charging, New iPad Mini (Bloomberg) Facebook to end special treatment for politicians after Trump ban (The Verge) Biden Expands Trump-Era Ban on Investment in Chinese Firms Linked to Military (New York Times) Exclusive-U.S. to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism, official says (Reuters) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How to Negotiate with Ransomware Hackers (The New Yorker) Inside The ‘World’s Largest’ Video Game Cheating Empire (Motherboard) The NFT Market Has Collapsed, Oh No (Kotaku) Armed Low-Cost Drones, Made by Turkey, Reshape Battlefields and Geopolitics (Wall Street Journal) Developer relations (Marco Arment) Apple WWDC 2021: iOS 15, new MacBook Pros, and what else to expect (The Verge) Subscribe to Spacecasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Friday, June 4th, 2021. I'm Brian McKell. Today is MagSafe charging coming to iPad? Is the Biden administration actually cracking down harder on China than the Trump administration did? Is the recent slate of ransomware attacks, the new normal or the sign of something bigger brewing? And in the weekend long read suggestions, we meet a guy whose job is to actually negotiate with ransomware hackers. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Mark German, Apple Scoop Friday. Mark's sources say Apple is working on a new iPad Pro with MagSafe charging as well as a glass back for release in 2022, as well as a redesigned iPad Mini for release later this year. Quote, domain design change in testing for the iPad Pro is a switch to a glass back from the current aluminum enclosure.

The updated iPad Mini is planned to have narrower screen borders while the removal of its home button has also been tested. For the new pro model, the switch to a glassback is being tested in part to enable wireless charging for the first time. Making the change in material would bring iPads closer to iPhones, which Apple has transitioned from aluminum to glassbacks in recent years. The company is testing a similar MagSafe system for the iPad Pro as it recently introduced for iPhones. Wireless charging will likely be slower than directly plugging in a charger to the iPad's Thunderbolt port, which will remain as part of the next models. As part of its development of the next iPad Pro, Apple is also trying out technology called reverse wireless charging.

That would allow users to charge their iPhone or other gadgets by laying them on the back of the tablet. Apple had previously been working on making this possible for the iPhone to charge AirPods and Apple Watches, end quote. And as for the iPad Mini, note that this would be the first iPad Mini redesign in six years. sources are telling multiple outlets this morning that Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to most other users, and they might announce it as soon as today, quoting the verge. The change which Facebook is set to announce as soon as Friday comes after its oversight board, an independent group funded by Facebook to review its thornyest content rulings,

affirmed its decision to suspend former President Donald Trump, but critiqued the special treatment it gives politicians, stating that the, quote, same rules should apply to all users, end quote. The board gave Facebook till June 5th to respond to its policy recommendations. The changes are notable for Facebook since it historically has taken a hands-off approach to what elected officials say on its service. Company executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have said that they shouldn't be in the business of policing speech by politicians. They've argued that such speech is already the most scrutinized in the world, that private company shouldn't censor what politicians say to their citizens, end quote.

So I'm telling you about this now in case they announced these changes as a late on Friday news dump. As Robert Evans tweeted, quote, what I interpret from this is that Facebook had concluded banning Trump did not hurt their bottom line and probably helped it by making people less angry slash agitated. That's the only reason they'd roll out more accountability to other politicians, end quote. And as Srivam Vig tweeted, quote, Facebook's free speech rules are a caste system. The politicians who have the power to regulate Facebook are the highest subcast of Brahmins, end quote. Earlier in the year, we were wondering if the Biden administration would continue the tech cold war with China or not. Well, this is an interesting development. President Biden has issued an order banning U.S. investment in 59 Chinese tech companies that aid surveillance substantially.

expanding on an earlier order issued by President Trump, quoting the New York Times. By rewriting that earlier order to include firms engaged in making and deploying the surveillance technology used against Muslim minorities like the Uyghurs and dissidents in Hong Kong and in the Chinese diaspora around the globe, it intensifies a commercial and ideological battle between Beijing and Washington, one that Mr. Biden has termed the struggle between, quote, autocracy and democracy, end quote. As described by senior administration officials on Thursday, the new order will prohibit American companies and companies based in the United States from investing in the stock of publicly listed Chinese companies on the list or in debt issued by those firms. The ban will extend to

investing in funds that in turn invest in those companies. Those funds will have a year to unwind their investments. Under the new executive order, the list of Chinese firms affected by the ban will be put together by the Treasury Department, which has long experience in issuing sanctions rather than by the Pentagon, end quote. And it's happening again, according to various outlets. Cox Media Group is apparently suffering a ransomware attack as live streams for Cox Radio and TV stations are going down around the country, as Brian Honan tweeted, quote, health services, gasoline pipelines, food providers, and now communication services all hit in the past. few weeks and all deemed critical infrastructure. Ransomware is a clear and present danger and needs

appropriate responses from governments, end quote. Yeah, when you list those categories like that, what I'm starting to wonder about is not so much if this is the new normal for everybody, but if this is maybe a prelude to something worse. Like, it sort of feels like the raptors testing the wires and fencing in Jurassic Park to probe for weaknesses. Well, the U.S. DOJ says, it is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the colonial pipeline hack, quoting Reuters. Internal guidance sent on Thursday to U.S. Attorney's offices across the country said information about ransomware investigations in the field should be centrally coordinated with a recently created task force in Washington. It's a specialized process to ensure we track all ransomware cases regardless of where it may be referred in this country so you can make the connections between actors and work your way. up to disrupt the whole chain, said John Carlin, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Justice

Department. To ensure we can make necessary connections across national and global cases and investigations and to allow us to develop comprehensive pictures of the national and economic security threats we face, we must enhance and centralize our internal tracking, said the guidance seen by Reuters and previously unreported. The Justice Department's decision to push ransomware into this special process illustrates how the issue is being prioritized, U.S. officials' sense. said, quote, we've used this model around terrorism before, but never with ransomware, said one official. The process has typically been reserved for a short list of topics, including national security cases, legal experts said, end quote.

Time for the weekend long read suggestions. And, well, this is timely. How about a long read from the New Yorker about a dude whose job it is to literally negotiate with ransomware hackers? quote. For the past year, Minder, who is 44 years old, has been managing the fraught discussions between companies and hackers as a ransomware negotiator, a role that didn't exist only a few years ago. The half-dozen ransomware negotiation specialists and the insurance companies they regularly partner with help people navigate the world of cyber extortion, but they've also been accused of abetting crime by facilitating payments to hackers. Still, with ransomware on the rise, they have no lack of clients. Minder, who is mild and unpretentious and whose conversation is punctuated by self-deprecating

laughter, has become an accidental expert. While I've been talking to you, I've already gotten two calls, he told me when we video-chatted in March. The man who reached out to him in November explained that the attack, the work of a hacking syndicate known as Reval, had rendered the company's contracts and architectural plans inaccessible. Every day the files remained locked was another day the staff couldn't work. They didn't even have an IT person on staff, Minder said. The company had no cyber insurance policy. The man explained that he had been in touch with a company in Florida that had promised to decrypt the files, but it had stopped replying to his emails. He wanted Minder to negotiate with the hackers to get the decryption key. The people who reach out to me are very upset, Minder told me. They're very, very upset, end quote. Next, I'm noticing that purely by accident, I guess the long reads this week that I've selected are kind of

all pretty dark, or at least on the dark side. How about this piece from motherboard that goes into the largest video game cheating empire in the world? Chicken Drumstick made more than $70 million selling cheats for PUBG mobile. I always assumed that cheating in gaming was a problem for gamers, but this made me realize the actual economics here. Quote, games like PUBG or Warzone attract some of the best players in the world, and winning games is incredibly hard. Losing because you get killed by a cheater is an infuriating experience, and if it happens often enough, can quite literally drive away a game's player base as people

leave for games that have fewer cheaters. It's a negative spiral that can kill a game, an employee of a video game company with knowledge of cheating organizations told motherboard. If players leave the games, especially the free-to-play games, ones such as Apex Legends, Warzone, or PUBG, where players are more likely to buy cosmetic items, if they can, keep playing, it hurts the publisher's bottom line. For this reason, cheating is an expensive problem for game developers, many of whom have dedicated anti-cheet teams who try to detect and ban cheaters and try to patch the vulnerabilities they were exploiting. Despite game makers' best efforts, cheating is still a problem in online games because players want cheats and are willing to pay

for them, which fuels a lucrative industry. Seven years ago, a cheat developer claimed he was making $1.25 million a year. More recently, a hacker revealed that For 20 years, he had been living off of cheating and exploiting vulnerabilities in games. Video game companies have sued several cheatmakers claiming millions of dollars and losses, and in some of these lawsuits, judges have ordered cheatmakers to pay back millions, end quote. I don't endorse the glee with which this writer is talking about this subject here, but Kataku checks in with the NFT market, and again, it's sort of bleak, noting that the market for NFTs by various measures have collapsed by about 90% from their peak,

which was what, a mere weeks or so ago. Quote, that peak, May 3rd, saw $100 million in crypto-collectable sales in just one day. There has been just 19.4 million in sales in the past week. NFT art sales are even lower, plunging from single days with millions in sales to just 3 million in sales globally for the past week. and that's including both primary and secondary sales. The number of active NFT wallets, the accounts being used to purchase the tokens, has fallen from over 12,000 to 3,900, end quote. And this is for sure dark, but also worth noting. I've read several articles now, and I think I've even shared a couple, but military minds around the world are increasingly coming to think that

battlefield strategy has fundamentally changed recently, in a way we haven't seen since maybe the advent of mechanized infantry. In short, cheap drones can basically allow even the smallest factions to punch above their weight. They might even be making the tank somewhat obsolete. This is quoting from the Wall Street Journal. Smaller militaries around the world are deploying inexpensive missile-equipped drones against armored enemies, a new battlefield tactic that proved successful last year in regional conflicts, shifting the strategic balance around Turkey and Russia. Drones built in Turkey with affordable digital technology wrecked tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as air defense systems of Russian protégés in battles waged in Syria, Libya, and Azerbaijan. These drones point to future warfare

being shaped as much by cheap but effective fighting vehicles as expensive ones with the most advanced technology. China, too, has become a leading war drone exporter to the Middle East and Africa. Iran-linked groups in Iraq and Yemen used drones to attack Saudi Arabia, at least 10 countries, from Nigeria to the United Arab Emirates have used drones purchased from China to kill adversaries, defense analysts say. The implications are game-changing. U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a speech last year, citing Syria's heavy losses to Turkish drones, flying alone or in a group. These drones can surprise troops and disable poorly concealed or lightly defended armored vehicles, a job often assigned previously to expensive warplanes. The drones can stay

quietly aloft for as much as 24 hours, finding gaps in air defense systems and helping target strikes by warplanes and artillery, as well as by firing their own missiles. Militaries, including the U.S. are upgrading air defense systems to catch up with the advances seeking methods to eliminate low-budget drones without firing missiles that cost more than their targets. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is also developing Skyborg and Valkyrie, low-cost autonomous aircraft that are part of an innovation program. Quote, our adversaries are already fielding technologies that will hold our legacy platforms at risk,

an Air Force official said in a statement, end quote. And I don't know if this is dark, but I hadn't realized Marco Arment had gotten quite so radicalized until I read this. Ahead of WWDC on Monday, Marco posted an essay to his blog that, among other things, said, quote, to bully and gaslight developers into thinking that we need to be kissing Apple's feet for permitting us to add billions of dollars of value to their platform is not only greedy, stingy,

and morally reprehensible, but deeply insulting. At WWDC next week, these same people are going to try to tell us a different story. They're going to tell us how amazing we are, how important our work is, and how much they value us. And for thousands of Apple employees who've made their great products and platforms that we love, including the hundreds of engineers presenting the sessions and working the life, It'll be genuine and true, but the leaders have already shown us who they really are, what they really think of us, and how much they value our work, end quote.

Finally, speaking of WWDC, it is kicking off on Monday, so the usual warning that Monday's show will be an hour or more late posting. But if you're the type of person who likes to get hype ahead of things, you can play, I don't know, WWDC bingo or something. Check this piece from the verge outlining what we might be able to expect on Monday. Here are your bingo pieces. iOS 15 announces including improvement to notifications and I message. As Chris hinted at, maybe the messaging wars are hotting up. Major updates to the home screen on iPadOS, including putting widgets wherever you want.

But the big ticket items to look out for, will we see new MacBook pros? Will they include everything on my wish list? Could we see new Mac minis or a new MacBook Air? How about, and this is the big one, more than any other rumor. Take a look at those invites that Apple sent out for WWDC. You see how apps seem to be reflected in those cartoon characters' glasses. This is WWDC, of course, which is ostensibly for developers, so might Apple make their first announcements around their AR and VR ambitions?

so that developers can at least start thinking about developing for that. Maybe a one more thing. We'll see on Monday. One weekend bonus episode coming at you this weekend. It's a taster of SpaceCass content you'll see. Speaking of SpaceCast, you don't have to wait for that. By the time you hear this, Brady Dale's next space should be up in the feed. And sometime tonight, the new Geekout Weekly will be up as well.

So if you haven't done so yet, check out Spacecasts on the podcast platform you're listening to me on right now. Hours of fresh tech conversation available to you. So do subscribe. Talk to you on Monday.