Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is requesting Full return to the office by early 2025. For the past 15 months, employees have been required to work in the office three days a week. Now, employees will be required to be in the office five days a week, with telecommuting only permitted in special circumstances. Big Tech executives have defended the return-to-office mandate, but it has proven unpopular with some tech workers.
US technology giant Cisco has laid off thousands of employees. In the second round of layoffs in 2024, the technology and networking company will cut its workforce by 7%, or about 5,600 people. The cuts follow a previous layoff in February that left about 4,000 employees. In August, Cisco released its most recent annual earnings report, which called the company’s “second-strongest year on record.” Are you affected? We’d like to hear from you.
iPhone 16 Pro Max According to TechCrunch’s Brian Heater, the $1,200 iPhones are offering a glimpse into a more intelligent future. The iPhone 16 line has a ton of notable new features, including a new camera control button, the A18 Pro chip, a major overhaul of Siri, and a slew of Apple Intelligence features. But are these features and the FOMO really enough to warrant an upgrade?
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tidings
The next big thing is literally: Snap’s new Spectacles give developers an impressive AR experience for $99 a month. In fact, the Spectacles, which are quite large, represent a middle ground in AR hardware design, somewhere between a headset and a pair of portable smart glasses. Read more
City Bike Side Job: Some creative minds have found a profitable way to leverage Lyft’s Citi Bike “Bike Angels” program through “reverse flipping.” Lyft condemned the practice, but only after some Bike Angels were able to make thousands of dollars a month. Read more
Hello, iOS 18: iPhone users can now update to iOS 18 and customize their home screens, send texts to Android users more easily with RCS support, and scroll through photos in a new, tab-less Photos app. But don’t expect too many AI features just yet. Read more
Reject modernity and embrace tradition: With the release of iOS 18, some users are missing the look and feel of the iOS Photos app before the update. That’s why LateNiteSoft has introduced Photon Library, a new app that brings back the familiar look and feel of the older iOS Photos app. Read more
Discord messages just got more secure. Discord has announced that voice and video calls made within its platform will now be end-to-end encrypted, meaning even Discord won’t be able to see what users are talking about in a conversation. Read more
Mozilla says goodbye to Federverse. Mozilla has announced that it will end its experiment with running servers on Mastodon. Users can download their data or migrate their accounts to other Mastodon servers before Mozilla.social is shut down completely on December 17. Read more
John Mullaney slams Dreamforce: Following a long tradition of using tech luminaries as comedic fodder, John Mulaney closed out Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference with a 45-minute talk show full of revelations about San Francisco’s tech culture and AI. Read more
Sam Altman leaves OpenAI’s safety committee. Sam Altman is leaving the internal committee that OpenAI created to oversee “critical” safety decisions related to the company’s projects and operations. Instead, the committee will become an “independent” board oversight group. Read more
Stop paying for in-flight Wi-Fi: United Airlines is teaming up with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to roll out Starlink internet service to its entire fleet. United passengers will be the first to get free Wi-Fi, but they’ll have to wait until 2025. Read more
analyze
LinkedIn games are actually fun. It seems like everyone has a game now. The New York Times has lit a match with its popular Wordle and Connections. Netflix has gotten in on the fun with its own game list. And now LinkedIn is getting in on the action with a daily puzzle to help you find a job. LinkedIn’s game is actually pretty fun, but Amanda Silberling wanted to understand the science behind why we love these quick, once-a-day brain teasers. Read more
