Amazon says no to remote work

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy you call full return to work in early 2025. 15 months ago, employees were expected to work in the office three days a week. Employees will now be expected to be in the office five days a week, with work from home only suitable for unforeseen circumstances. Big Tech executives have defeated orders to return to the office, but have proven unpopular among some tech workers.

US technology giant Cisco has let go of thousands of workers in its second round of layoffs in 2024. The technology and networking company will cut its workforce by 7%, or about 5,600 employees. The cuts follow early layoffs in February, which saw about 4,000 workers let go. In August, Cisco published its latest full-year earnings report that saw “the second strongest year on record.” Are you affected? We would love to hear from you.

iPhone 16 Pro Max it’s a $1,200 vision for a smarter future, according to TechCrunch’s Brian Heater. There are plenty of new things to look out for across the iPhone 16 lineup, including a new camera control button, the A18 Pro chip, a major Siri makeover, and a slew of Apple Intelligence features. But are the features – and the FOMO – really enough to warrant an upgrade?

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News

The next big thing – literally: Snap’s new Spectacles bring immersive AR to developers for $99 a month. Spectacles, which are actually quite large, represent the middle ground of AR hardware design that lies somewhere between headsets and wearable smart glasses. Read more

Citi bike rush: Some smart people have found a profitable way to take advantage of Lyft’s Citi Bike “Bike Angels” program by “switching the station.” Lyft criticized the practice, but only after other bike angels were able to make thousands of dollars a month. Read more

Hello, iOS 18: iPhone users can now upgrade to iOS 18 and customize their home screens, text for Android users easily with RCS support, and scroll through their photos in the new tabless Photos app. But don’t expect a ton of AI features just yet. Read more

Reject modernity, 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 offers a familiar look to previous iterations of the iOS Photos app. Read more

Your Discord messages are more secure: Discord has announced that audio and video calls within the platform will now be end-to-end encrypted, meaning that even Discord won’t know what users in those conversations are talking about. Read more

Mozilla bids farewell to various: Mozilla has announced that it will end its server testing on Mastodon. Users will be able to download their data or migrate their account to another Mastodon server before Mozilla.social is permanently shut down on December 17. Read more

John Mulaney praises Dreamforce: As part of the time-honored tradition of using tech bros in comedy, John Mulaney closed out Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference with a 45-minute set filled with multiple roasts aimed at San Francisco’s tech culture and AI. Read more

Sam Altman is leaving the OpenAI security committee: Sam Altman is leaving the internal commission OpenAI created to oversee “critical” security decisions related to the company’s projects and operations. The committee will be an “independent” board monitoring group instead. Read more

Never pay for airplane Wi-Fi again: United Airlines is partnering with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring its Starlink internet service to all its fleets. For the first time, United passengers will be able to access Wi-Fi for free – although they will have to wait until 2025. Read more

Analysis

LinkedIn games are fun, actually: It seems like everyone has games now. The New York Times lit a match with its ever-popular Wordle and Connections. Netflix has gotten in on the fun with its lineup of shows. And now LinkedIn has entered the arena with daily puzzles to accompany you in your job search. While LinkedIn games are actually a lot of fun, Amanda Silberling wanted to understand the science behind why we love these quick, once-a-day brainstorming sessions. Read more