The Lighthouse IT Podcast - September 9th, 2022
This week, Matt & Griff discuss how Oracle was hit by a Class Action lawsuit, LastPass's source code was breached, Starlink partnering with T-Mobile to provide cell signal anywhere, Pinterest's Shuffle app goes viral, Snap laying off 20% of their staff, Deep sea messaging, Android apps going cross-platform, and more!
Listen here!
News
LastPass Source Code Breach
- Highly recommended password manager LastPass has sent the world into fear.
- Hackers took portions of the source code by gaining access to where the SC resides, which is kept separately from customer or employee data.
- Should I drop it? Not quite.
Musk Makes Mudge Make Case
- Well not surprising, Elon Musk has subpoenaed Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, whom we discussed last time on the pod. Peiter is the whistleblower for Twitter that witnessed "egregious deficiencies, negligence, willful ignorance, and threats to national security and democracy" at Twitter.
- Musk, currently trying to get out of his Twitter deal, obviously, looking to make as much possible stick against Twitter to be free and get his $44bn back.
Oracle Hit with Class Action over ID Graph
- ID Graph aggregates and analyzes the data of billions of people. Yeah that's right, billions and is able to document trends and information to an unprecedented amount of data.
- It's a long road, to win and they've filed in California (who has a state data protection act out there), but whatever happens will take lots of time.
Telesystem to Acquire Cybersecurity Provider Threat Protector
- Rich enough to buy Threat Protector, too poor to hire someone to set up their HubSpot account properly.
SpaceX's Starlink has quite the past couple weeks here on Earth
- SpaceX has announced in the past two weeks two very cool strategic deals.
- The first is equipping cruise ships with Starlink. If you've ever been on a cruise, I don't need to tell you why this is awesome.
- The second is T-mobile is creating hardware that uses Starlink for internet and calling (texting too!)
- (Apple too has apparently completed testing hardware for satellite-to-cellular as well)
ByteDance quietly launches search app in Wukong, China
- You know, where Google is banned
- ByteDance's promise of no ads on Wukong could be seen as a swipe at market leader Baidu, which has faced years of controversy over paid listings.
- The app is the TikTok owner's second go at a dedicated search product (called Toutiao Search), which comes within days of Tencent shutting down its Sogou search app
Pinterest's collage-style video "mood boards" are going viral on TikTok
- The app allows you to take images, cut out portions you like and place them into a collage, then animate and send it out.
- Despite being in invite-only status, Shuffles, Pinterest's app for making collages, has quickly climbed the app charts on Apple and Google stores.
- They got popular because users used them as "mood boards" and set them to music, posted them on TikTok and shared them.
- (First launched in late July 2022)
- This goes nicely with the updates and changes that Pinterest has been making, like turning their platform into more of a shopping app.
Snap is planning to lay off approximately 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees
- The team working on ways for developers to build mini apps and games inside Snapchat will be severely impacted.
- Another team that will see layoffs is the hardware division, which is responsible for its AR Spectacles glasses and the Pixy camera drone that was recently canceled after being on sale for just a few months.
- It entered March of 2020 with roughly 3,427 full-time employees and ended last quarter with 6,446.
- Snap's business hasn't fared well coming out of the pandemic, thanks to recession fears and the trouble it had navigating Apple's crackdown on ad tracking across iOS apps.
- Snap's user base has continued to grow strongly — it has 347mil daily users, which is more than Twitter at 238mil daily users — but it has managed to turn a profit only once since it went public in 2017.
- Snap's stock price has declined nearly 80 percent this year
Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo is about to enter the U.S. and challenge Amazon
- Pinduoduo (launched in 2015) climbed the ranks of China's e-commerce industry to become one of the country's biggest, even though it launched years later than established rivals like Alibaba.
- This month, Pinduoduo will attempt to replicate its disruptive success in the U.S.
- They plan to follow the model set by Chinese fast-fashion firm Shein to attract American consumers.
- The firm quickly found a niche in China's e-commerce market by bringing more social and video game-like elements to online shopping.
- Their "group buying" model proved particularly popular as well. Customers were given the option to buy products directly or they could recruit their friends to purchase bulk orders directly from manufacturers to reduce the cost.
Deep Sea Messaging
- AquaApp uses the speaker and microphone on any phone to send messages under water.
- It also has statistical tones to help correct/adapt for environmental factors (such as sound reflection or other interferences)
- Just make sure that you put on a waterproof case.
Android Apps go Cross-Platform?
- Google is working on a cross-platform SDK that would enable devs to discover nearby devices, connect, and host app experiences through those devices.
- For instance, imagine creating a food order from one phone and allowing everyone to contribute from their own phones instead of passing the device. Or sharing photos between Android and iOS.