Apple to Stop Breaking iPhone 13 Face ID After Screen Replacement

Earlier in November, we learned that Apple had engineered the iPhone 13 in a way detrimental to Right to Repair. Currently, if Apple doesn’t “bless” your iPhone 13 screen replacement, iOS deactivates Face ID. Now, the iPhone maker has told The Verge it’s backing down on that requirement. A software update is coming to make things a lot easier. Repair technicians replacing iPhone 13 screens won’t have to worry about that microcontroller.

Apple tells The Verge it will release a software update that doesn’t require you to transfer the microcontroller to keep Face ID working after a screen swap.

Report Shows Instagram Getting Ready to Launch Subscription

App analytics platforms Sensor Tower and Apptopia show that Instagram is preparing to launch a subscription service.

Both Sensor Tower and Apptopia track the mobile app ecosystem, which includes monitoring chart movements, app engagement and gathering app marketing intelligence data, among other things. But they also track the other less noticeable changes that apps tend to make — like rewriting their App Store descriptions, swapping out their screenshots, or — as in this case — adding new in-app purchases to their App Store listings.

Samsung Teases Apple With Cleaning Cloth Offer

Samsung is never one to avoid teasing Apple, and they’ve done so again regarding the infamous US$20 cleaning clothiMore reported on its latest offer.

In a move that seems to be part of the German Galaxy Club, Samsung customers can apply to get their very own cleaning cloth sent through the mail and they won’t have to spend a penny. They’ll need to be quick, though — there are only so many freebies to go around. First spotted by Galaxy Club, the offer is presumably taking aim at Apple and its own Polishing Cloth. No surprises there — Samsung is never shy when poking fun at Apple, whether it has a point or not.

Proctoring Apps For Schools is Mass Surveillance for Kids

In an op-ed for Teen Vogue, writers from Fight For The Future argue that test proctoring apps that many schools use is mass surveillance of minors.

Remote proctoring software is, essentially, spyware that students are forced to install, typically as a browser plug-in or a computer program. Invasive features like keystroke logging, screen recording, network traffic monitoring, and video and audio recording are common. Many of the programs also collect tons of biometric data through eye-movement tracking and facial recognition.

Billie Eilish 'Was Excited And Scared' About Apple TV+ Doc

Billie Eilish spoke about the Oscar-contending Apple TV+ documentary The World’s a Little Blurry at an event moderated by Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. She described the emotions she felt being followed by cameras for three years, Deadline reported.

“I was excited and scared and nervous, and worried and hopeful,” she told attendees at a post-screening Q&A. “It was not acting, I wasn’t playing a character. It was real life footage of my life… It was a very real and good interpretation of my three years that you were filming it, or however long it was, and it’s really scary. It’s hard to tell anybody a lot of information about your life, let alone put it on a platform for literally anyone in the world to see.” Millions have seen it, noted Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s creative director, who moderated the discussion. Billie was joined on stage by Cutler and by her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, who feature prominently in the film. The only family member missing (apart from dog Pepper and cat Misha) was Finneas O’Connell, Billie’s older brother and songwriting partner.

Report: How Pinterest is Ruining the Internet for Everyone

Chris Stokel-Walker isn’t happy with Pinterest and writes how the company has ruined image search for internet users.

Beloved by moodboard aficionados and wedding planners alike, the platform is hated by rank-and-file web surfers. It’s not that it doesn’t have its purpose; it’s just that it intrudes on the search experience of pretty much everyone who doesn’t want to use it.

I have Pinterest to thank for one thing. My annoyance, and eventual hatred, spurred me to move to a standardized data curation system in which I store files in my own folders and not inside Pinterest’s putrid platform.

Police Called on Parents Who Built an Open Source School App

Parents in Stockholm built an open source version of a school app that didn’t work properly. The school called the cops on them.

The work started at the end of November 2020, just days after Stockholm’s Board of Education was hit with a 4 million SEK GDPR fine for “serious shortcomings” in the Skolplattform. Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, Sweden’s data regulator, had found serious flaws in the platform that had exposed the data of hundreds of thousands of parents, children, and teachers. In some cases, people’s personal information could be accessed from Google searches.

A Drone Tried to Attack a Pennsylvania Power Station in 2020

Wired published a fascinating story of a unknown person who used a drone to attempt to short circuit a power substation last year.

The operator of the Pennsylvania drone appears to have attempted a less brute-force approach. But efforts to hide the operator’s identity may have contributed to their failure to connect with the intended target. By removing the camera, the joint bulletin says, they had to rely on line-of-sight navigation, rather than being able to take a drone’s eye view.

A Collection of Concept Art From Apple TV+ Show 'Foundation'

Kotaku has put together a collection of concept art from the science fiction show Foundation on Apple TV+.

That comes across pretty quickly watching the show, but it’ll be even clearer here as we take a look at a variety of artists’ contributions to the series, from Paul Chadeisson’s trademark ship designs, to the costume design of WETA’s Adam Middleton.

This isn’t a collection of everything from everyone who worked on the show, but it does give us a cross-section of pieces, covering characters, environments, and weapon and ship designs, all of which I think look cool as hell.

Apple Offers Fix For macOS Monterey Bug Bricking Some T2 Macs

When macOS Monterey was rolled out, an issue arose whereby some Macs with T2 chips were bricking. 9to5Mac reports that this has now been resolved.

Now, Apple says it has identified an issue affecting the T2 security chip that caused this problem and is rolling out a fix to prevent it from happening in the future. In a statement, Apple explained (via Rene Ritchie): We have identified and fixed an issue with the firmware on the Apple T2 security chip that prevented a very small number of users from booting up their Mac after updating macOS. The updated firmware is now included with the existing macOS updates. Any users impacted by this issue can contact Apple Support for assistance. To prevent this problem from occurring to additional users, Apple has rolled out an updated version of the bridgeOS firmware that runs on the T2 security chip. Users already impacted by the problem are instructed to contact Apple Support for assistance.

Investor Roger McNamee Calls for Imprisoning Executives for Criminal Charges

Roger McNamee is calling for criminal probes into Facebook and imprisonment for executives. Specially, he believes investigations into six areas should happen, such as:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission should look at Facebook’s failure to disclose information about its business. Facebook allowed human trafficking on its platform and was “paid to enable it to happen.” Facebook’s management was “complicit” in the “Stop the Steal” campaign which led to the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

Apple Fitness+ Chief Hints at Content in More Languages

Apple Fitness+ became available in 15 new countries earlier this week. The executive running the service, Jay Blahnik, has also hinted in an interview with O GLOBO, spotted by 9to5 Mac, that it could offer content in a wider range of languages in the future.

Jay Blahnik says that Apple is “open to the possibility of investing in Portuguese content with Brazilian professionals”…Whether English could be a problem for non-natives, Blahnik says they “talked a lot with users and I think people are really looking forward with the ability [to try] these practices and meditations in the instructor’s language. People want to hear their voice intonation and not a dubbed version.”

Rare Apple-1 Going to Auction With US$20k Starting Bid

A rare Apple-1 computer, hand-built by Steve Wozniak, is up for auction, AppleInsider reportedThe sale will happen later this month, with bids opening at US$200,000.

The Apple-I, which is being put up for auction by John Moran Auctioneers and Appraisers, was hand-build by Steve Wozniak. The specific model in question is known as the “Chaffey College” Apple-I because it was purchased by an electronics professor at the school in 1976 and sold to a student. According to the auction listing, the computer is made up of an original “NTI” motherboard sporting Sprague 39D capacitors, original power regulators, and rare “Circle D” ceramic capacitors. In addition, the lot includes an Apple Cassette Adapter and is housed in an original ByteShop Apple-1 koa wood case with a Datanetics Keyboard, the connecting cable and power supply, a 1986 video monitor.

iPhone Game Controller 'Backbone One' Announces Subscription for New Users

Backbone One is a game controller for iPhone that plugs into the device’s Lightning port. The company announced new features, which includes a subscription service called Backbone+.

Backbone+ gives players access to: Exclusive perks, like free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, other service free trials, in-game items, and many more perks to come. Access to the revamped Backbone app, including the trove of new features above as well as future ones.

All new users will also automatically receive 1 year free of Backbone+ membership with their purchase of Backbone One. It renews after 1 year at $4.17/mo billed annually (about the cost of a latte).

Silly millennials, it’s only one coffee a month!

M1 Mac mini vs. Mac Pro: a Surprising Outcome

Tech video blogger Max Tech decided to test how well the 2020 M1 Mac mini could stand up against a 2019 Mac Pro. The results are astounding, considering the Mac Pro costs $15,000 compared to the $899 Mac mini. While the Mac mini is beat out on most benchmarks, it held its ground in real-world tests. In fact, the Mac mini outperforms the Mac Pro in compiling Xcode projects. It’s also faster at HEVC video stabilization. When viewing and processing Canon R5 10-bit video footage, the M1 Mac mini blows away the Mac Pro. It’s also slightly more responsive in Lightroom Classic despite having to run the app through Rosetta. The Mac Pro does beat the M1 mini in many Final Cut Pro tasks, but it has much higher memory specs. In the end, Max Tech says, “For most video editors, the M1 is just fine in Lightroom.”

Phlebotomy Training Specialists Exposes Student Data in Breach

Led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, vpnMentor’s research team discovered a data breach from Phlebotomy Training Specialists.

Unfortunately, the company was storing the complete records of 10,000s of students nationwide on a single, open cloud account. In this case, Phlebotomy Training Specialists was using an Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 bucket to store data it collected from students, staff members, and people applying to its courses. S3 buckets are an increasingly popular enterprise cloud storage solution. However, users must set up their security protocols manually to protect the data stored therein.

Facebook Moves to Cancel its Facial Recognition System

Facebook announced it will cancel its facial recognition system responsible for cataloging its billion-strong user base.

Our technology will no longer automatically recognize if people’s faces appear in Memories, photos or videos. People will no longer be able to turn on face recognition for suggested tagging or see a suggested tag with their name in photos and videos they may appear in. We’ll still encourage people to tag posts manually, to help you and your friends know who is in a photo or video. This change will also impact Automatic Alt Text (AAT), a technology used to create image descriptions for people who are blind or visually impaired. AAT currently identifies people in about 4% of photos.

The above quote is probably the only useful part of the self-congratulatory update.

Mozilla New Home Page and Other Features for Firefox Mobile

Mozilla updated its Firefox browser for Android and iOS, bringing a new home page, recent searches grouped by topic, and other features.

Based on user feedback we designed the new Firefox homepage and organized it in a way that helps you jump right back into what you care more about, saving you time and headspace, and removing the visual clutter that can often leave us feeling overwhelmed.

Beware of Fake Job Ads That Can Steal Your Identity

Fake job ads are on the rise, a report says on Tuesday. Scammers use peoples’ Social Security Numbers to sign up for unemployment benefits.

That means scammers may need help from their victims — and sometimes they go to elaborate lengths to mislead them. Some fraudsters recreate companies’ hiring websites. One fake job application site uses Spirit Airlines’ photos, text, font and color code. The phony site asks applicants to upload a copy of both sides of their driver’s license at the outset of the process and sends them an email seeking more information from a web address that resembles Spirit’s, with an extra “i” (spiiritairline.com).

Zoom Tests Advertising for Users on Free Plan

Zoom announced on Monday that it will begin piloting advertising for users on the free Basic plan.

For this initial program, ads will be rolled out only on the browser page users see once they end their meeting. Only free Basic users in certain countries will see these ads if they join meetings that are hosted by other free Basic users.