Good morning, happy Friday! Let’s dive into today’s tech news
1. Soccer fans and players data leaked
Football Australia has accidentally leaked players and fans’ data by leaving plain-text AWS keys hardcoded into the HTML pages of its subdomain, according to CyberNews. The information included personal data of ticket buyers and players’ contacts and documents – like passports – were leaked. In a statement released, Football Australia said it is “aware” of reports of a possible data breach and is investigating it as a priority. “Football Australia takes the security of all its stakeholders seriously. We will keep our stakeholders updated as we establish more details.”
2. Amazon has a “record breaking” holiday season
It is currently results season for the tech giants, and overnight Amazon announced its fourth quarter results where the e-commerce giant recorded $US170 billion in revenue, a 14 per cent growth from the previous year. These results are better than expected from analysts especially during a tough year for the tech business as inflation and staff cuts impacted the business. Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO said this was a “record-breaking Holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon.” In the earnings call, Jassy acknowledged not only the “meaningful revenue” but the “continued invention and customer experience improvements across our businesses”.
3. Aussies impacted by FTX scandal could get their money back
It’s a good day for Aussies who lost money in the FTX crypto scandal. According to The Australian, 30,000 Australians will be getting their money back from the disgraced crypto firm. Since the company has ceased to rebuild itself, FTX’s lawyers have said the crypto company has opted for a liquidation which will allow it to repay its customers “in full”. Negotiations between creditors and investors have been ongoing since the FTX filed for bankruptcy in 2022.
4. Close to 30,000 tech workers lost their jobs in January
There is no doubt that the past 12 months have been bloody tough for tech workers, ever since January 2023 a majority of the tech giants have let some of their staff go. Layoff tracker, Layoffs.fyi tweeted that in January 2024 alone, nearly 30,000 staff have been let go, the most since March 2023. Layoffs.fyi has a comprehensive list of how many people were let go from which companies, and goodness me, it’s a tad depressing.
5. The countdown is on for Vision Pro
Apple has begun a countdown on its homepage to when consumers can buy the Apple Vision Pro. As of publishing, there were less than 14 hours to go where users could check out the specs or pop in a pre-order. Mashable reported overnight that the apps can also be seen on the App Store. The reviews have already begun trickling in and people are quite impressed by the headset with some calling it the “most advanced” and consumer-ready AR headset, despite its lack of apps. If you’re itching to get your hands on one now, I guess you can always go to Kogan.
BONUS: It seems like the Community movie is happening and Donald Glover aka Troy Barnes is “all in”!
Donald Glover confirms the #Community movie script is done
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) February 1, 2024
“I’m all in”
(via @etnow) pic.twitter.com/77hrHbiJf0
Enjoy your day, have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday!
Image: Apple