Hasta La Gadget!

In the past, if Face ID on your iPhone ever failed and needed to be replaced, Apple would essentially replace the entire device. It is a bit of a waste since only one module is spoilt, but that was the process that Apple undertook at least until now.

According to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors, the good news from an environmental standpoint is that it appears Apple has figured out a way to replace Face ID without having to replace the entire iPhone. The memo is basically Apple telling all authorized technicians that they will soon be able to have access to a new TrueDepth Camera service part.

This will contain all the necessary components to replace Face ID such as the front camera modules, meaning that technicians will only need to replace that part of the iPhone instead of giving customers a brand new iPhone. In the memo, Apple says that this will help reduce the number of whole-unit repairs and will help towards the company’s commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of their products.

This is also good news for customers whose iPhones may no longer be under warranty because replacing a module could be cheaper compared to having to replace the entire device, although we have no idea how much this module replacement will cost.

Apple Will Soon Be Able To Repair Face ID Without Replacing The Entire iPhone

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Tumblr may have introduced ads to user blogs several years ago, but it’s now happy to take them away for a price. The social media site has launched an ad-free option that removes the marketing from microblogs for $5 per month, or $40 per year. You’ll have to set up the feature on your computer through your account settings, but the zero-ad experience will be available on mobile devices as well.

The offering comes less than a year after Tumblr gave bloggers the option to charge for access at prices ranging from $4 to $10 per month. At the time, Tumblr saw the addition as modernizing the site for a younger audience, particularly creators eager to get paid.

It’s too soon to say how successful this will be. Tumblr is effectively asking customers to pay to remove ads that weren’t necessarily there before. Tumblr’s 2018 adult content ban didn’t exactly help the site’s popularity, either. However, this might be appealing if you’re a fan of Twitter Blue and other subscriptions that let you remove at least some ads — you don’t have to put up with a cluttered experience if you don’t want to.

Facebook has brought back its profile lock feature, this time for users located in Ukraine. The tool was previously released in 2021 for users in Afghanistan.

Social audio app Clubhouse is adding a text chat function to its voice rooms, it announced Thursday. Similar to what you see in Discord or a Zoom call, users who don’t want to speak can write out their opinions in the room’s chat channel. While it may seem counterintuitive for an audio-only app to also feature text, it’s a change that some users have been gunning for. Especially in extra-large rooms or rooms dominated by a few celebrity speakers, an in-chat function may be the only way some people can join the discourse.

But a chat function can also be a moderation nightmare, as anyone who has spent a few minutes on Twitch can attest to. Clubhouse has laid out a few ways for creators to keep their rooms from flying off the handle. Creators can appoint mods to delete messages and kick out disruptive users from the room. You can also report messages that violate Clubhouse’s user guidelines to the platform. For those who would rather keep their rooms audio-only, the in-chat room function is optional. Creators can opt-out of in-room chat when they create their room. And if you choose to record your room’s audio, the written chat log will also be saved.

As social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit add Clubhouse-like features, Clubhouse is starting to resemble the rest of social media. Once only available as a mobile app, Clubhouse last month rolled out a way for people to listen to conversations on their desktops. Users can also send direct messages to each other with Backchannel. As live voice chat rooms become less of a novelty, Clubhouse will likely have to get creative in order to keep up with competitors.

There’s a new Batman film in theaters next week, but in a shocking twist, it doesn’t show the death of his parents. That Bruce Wayne’s parents are killed in cold blood is, of course, a key component to the character, so it’s mentioned—but for the first time in a while, we don’t actually see it happen.

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