Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 10/17 – Is LinkedIn… Good Now?

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

A new “affordable” Apple Pencil. Several “fog of war” stories surrounding major tech players. Why are tech layoffs suddenly back? Are Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses good? And is LinkedIn actually the social network you should be investing more energy in? Sponsors: Hatch.co/ride Mindbloom.com/techmeme, promocode Techmeme Links: Apple unveils brand new 'affordable' Apple Pencil that costs $79 and has a USB-C port (iMore) Actively exploited Cisco 0-day with maximum 10 severity gives full network control (ArsTechnica) Social Media Users Accuse Facebook and Instagram of Suppressing Pro-Palestinian Posts (NyTimes) Israel orders freeze on crypto accounts in bid to block funding for Hamas (FinancialTimes) Web Summit derailed by founder’s public fight with those supporting Israel in Hamas war (TechCrunch) Microsoft-owned LinkedIn lays off nearly 700 employees — read the memo here (CNBC) Twitch launches stories for streamers (TechCrunch) Influencers and CEOs take their brands to LinkedIn (FT) Meta's $299 Ray-Ban smart glasses may be the most useful gadget I've tested all year (ZDNet) 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 Tech meme right home for 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? Are 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 USBC for charging, shipping in early November, and compatible with all USBC 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 USBC port. One big innovation is that it has an actual USBC for charging rather than a connector like the current models. You simply slide the cap off to a laptop 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. Hover, 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. work with all of Apple's best iPads, including the iPad 10th generation, iPad Air, fourth, and fifth, and fifth, and fifth, and fourth, and fourth, and fourth, fifth, and sixth generations, and iPad Mini, sixth generation, end quote.

Another one of these, Cisco says, a zero-day flaw in its iOSXE software has been exploited in the wild since at least September 18th. Shodan shows up to 80,000. devices could be affected. Quoting R's Technica. The previously unknown vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE 202023-2098, carries the maximum severity rating of 10. It resides in the web user interface of Cisco's iOSXE software when exposed to the internet or untrusted networks. Any switch router or wireless land controller running iOSXE 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 18th. 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, end quote. Sort of 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 enacts measures to deal with a high number of reports of graphic content. In some cases, the company said there were technical difficulties that suppressed 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 fix it as quickly as possible, end quote. 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 event's co-founder accused Israel of war crimes and many tech companies pulled out of the event. Quoting TechCrunch, 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, Patty 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 Doha, Qatar, 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 acts of the human cost of the Israel-Palestine conflict between 2008 and 2023. It omitted 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 Rabois, the Founders Fund partner and entrepreneur. or Egochen, 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 Koppelman, the founder of first round capital. Koppelman separately suggested in a tweet that Cosgrave is in the pocket of Doha and Qatar, a country that many believe is connected to the financing of Hamas. that was enough to push Gary Tan, the head of Wycombinator over the edge too. Quote, I refuse to appear at Web Summit and am canceling my appearance, he said. I condemn Hamas and pray for peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people, end quote.

We've reached out to Tan and Koppelman to ask if they are advising portfolio companies and partners at their firms against also attending. Tan declined to comment, and Koppelman has yet to respond, end quote. 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. weirdly, 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 band camp 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. And another one of these two, Twitch has launched stories, quoting TechCrunch. 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 accounts on their stories to track the content that best resonates with their community, end quote. 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 linked in 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 wants a home purely to job hunting and networking has become overrun with many of its 930 million users sharing career-focused, often aspirational content in the hopes of building substantial followings. Initially, the realm of select business magnates such as Richard Branson, lesser-known marketers, tech entrepreneurs, and even creatives such as U.S. rapper Snoop Dog 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 Mullaney, 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, end 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. Building a approach. file 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 Pesculus, an advertising veteran and chief executive of A.J.L. Advisory, while CEO's 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, end quote. And finally today, I mentioned recently that those new Rayban smart glasses meta announced earlier this month seemed interesting to me. Like, what if meta quietly produced 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 Rayban are exactly that, premium glasses that can do smart things. They're as stylish and iconic as every

other pair of Rayban. They can also capture photos and videos, play music and podcasts when paired to your phone, and have a built-in meta AI to answer your most curious questions. For many, including myself, that makes the meta Rayban 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 spectacles 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-Mepixel 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's 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 Insta 360 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-ray band glasses isn't perfect, though. The 12-machixel camera doesn't handle dynamic range as 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 Rayban smart glasses are just decent sounding Bluetooth headphones. They sound better than the stories I tested two years ago, but not by much. Meta 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 stares 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 eight full charges or 32 hours of additional battery life. The new metaray-ray-band smart glasses feel more like traditional eyewear and less like glasshole wearing one. ones from a decade ago. That's a win in my book because with the RayBan 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 assistants, 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, end quote. Nothing for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.