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Facebook has been hit with one crisis after another recently. On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed that it allowed companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix, to access user’s personal data to a far greater extent than those users were aware of. Normally, such a stream of scandal would put a CEO and Board Chairman like Mark Zuckerberg under serious pressure to resign. However, as Emily Stewart explains on Vox, Facebook’s structure means Mr. Zuckerberg is unlikely to go anywhere, anytime soon.

There have long been questions about whether too much influence within Facebook has been placed with Zuckerberg and, among some investors, pushes for him to renounce his position as chair of the board. But because of the way Facebook’s shareholder structure is set up — and the number of shares Zuckerberg holds — there’s no way for anyone to force him out.

Some 2018 iPad Pros were shipped with a slight bend in their aluminium chassis. However, Apple told The Verge that this is not a defect. The company said it is a side effect of the manufacturing process. Apple insisted that the issue will not get worse over time, or have a negative effect on the device’s performance.

It’s an issue that seems to be more pronounced on the LTE model, as there’s a plastic strip that breaks up the iPad’s flat aluminum sides; it’s where the antenna line divides two sections of metal that some users have noticed a bend. Apple did not say the perceived flaw is strictly limited to the cellular iPad Pro, however, and some buyers of the Wi-Fi model also claim to have encountered it. Even if only cosmetic, the issue is out of character for Apple, which has rooted its reputation in manufacturing devices with best-in-industry fit and finish

The Times writes: “The African grey parrot has become so adept at giving orders to Amazon’s smart speaker system while his owner is out that he uses it to play songs, tell him jokes and even order treats.” I wonder if the parrot instructs Alexa to open the smart home door so Amazon can bring the food to the cage.

For many of us, being paid to play video games is the ultimate dream job. However, a new piece in Wired showed its not all it is cracked up to be. Professional gamers on Twitch play and stream for hours without a break to try and keep fans happy and the money coming in. And it has caused health issues, including serious back pain.

Professional streamers (and gamers more generally) tend to get the same health issues as office workers, who are also desk-bound for eight hours at a time. But they also share some problems with rock climbers and musicians, who put plenty of strain on their hands and wrists through repetitive motion.

The iPad Pro has a lot to recommend it. However, it is missing one key feature, according to Jon Gruber on Daring Fireball – split keyboard mode. Mr. Gruber said that the larger the iPad, the more helpful split keyboard mode is and he does not understand why the biggest iPad in the range does not have this feature.

I want to type with my thumbs, iPhone-style, and can’t, because my iPad is too big. And I have relatively large hands and I’m using the 11-inch iPad Pro, not the 13-inch one. I’m not even sure Craig “Fleshy Palms” Hockenberry could thumb-type on a 13-inch iPad Pro.The bottom line is that because I want to thumb-type, I type better on-screen with my iPhone than I do my iPad, and I can type better on an old iPad than my new one that cost $1,000. This is just baffling to me.

During the last few weeks, Apple sent a number of push notifications to iOS users. The latest, sent yesterday, told users that Apple Music is now available on the Amazon Echo. 9to5Mac had a look at the purpose of the messages, and whether Apple is violating its own guidelines.

What’s interesting about Apple’s choice of push notifications is whether or not they are “targeted” in anyway. For instance, it’s clear why almost everyone received the Kendall Jenner Carpool Karaoke alert, even if they had expressed no interest in the Carpool Karaoke series. In the case of the Apple Music + Amazon Echo notification, it’s unclear how Apple would target users.

At Mashable, Chris Taylor writes: “Which of the trillion-dollar company’s beautifully-designed devices would a jaded Apple fanboy like me most miss, if I was forced to switch to competing products?” The author goes on to describe the many features, engineering design decisions, freedom from imposed ads and user interface of the Apple TV 4K. It’s one of the best articles I’ve seen that makes the iron-clad case for this wonderful product from Apple.

Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York closed nearly two years ago. There is no confirmed date for when it will reopen. 9to5Mac looked through various public statements to try and work out how long it may be until the famous cube reopens its doors.

The glass cube did return this past spring, but as October and November passed without an announcement, it became clear that the project had likely fallen behind schedule. At this point, it’s essentially impossible for Apple to reopen the store before the end of the year. Construction delays are not unprecedented, but for eager Apple fans, the reason for the delay is likely much less interesting than the actual reopening date. As of December 14th, New York City residents passing by the construction site report that much work remains to be done on the plaza surrounding the store. The cube’s Apple logo has not yet been reinstalled and Apple’s temporary store is still in service.

LONDON – UK telecoms regulator Ofcom announced on Tuesday that it will auction two new spectrum bands towards the end of 2019 or in early 2020. It vowed to tackle the “patchy” cellular reception suffered by those living in rural areas of Britain. The Telegraph reported that that the winners of the spectrum auction will have to improve cellular coverage for 140,000 homes and offices.

The communication regulator’s Connected Nations report found that only 66pc of the UK has complete 4G coverage from four operators, up from 49pc last year. While 83pc of urban homes and offices have complete 4G coverage, the figure for rural premises is less than half that (41pc). In some remote parts of the country, there is no coverage at all. To tackle this, Ofcom announced on Tuesday that it will auction two spectrum bands in later 2019 or early 2020.

The U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General (DOD IG) released a rather terrifying report on Friday. It outlined some major cybersecurity flaws in U.S. ballistic missile systems. An article from ZDNet explained that the DOD IG found “no data encryption, no antivirus programs, no multifactor authentication mechanisms, and 28-year-old unpatched vulnerabilities,” amongst other issues.

DOD IG inspectors found that IT administrators at three of the five locations they visited had failed to apply security patches, leaving computers and adjacent network systems vulnerable to remote or local attacks. Investigators found that systems were not patched for vulnerabilities discovered and fixed in 2016, 2013, and even going as far as back as 1990. The DOD IG report is heavily redacted in this particular section, suggesting that MDA administrators are still patching these flaws.

Doctors are licensed. Some construction engineers are licensed. Health departments can pull the permit of an unsafe restaurant to operate. It’s all for public safety. The same goes for AI. This article discusses how “Using artificial intelligence in sensitive areas like criminal justice and healthcare should be regulated.” It goes further.

For instance, workers at Google criticized the search giant’s executives for considering signing a Defense Department contract that involved helping the government use image-recognition technology for military-purposes. Amid the backlash, Google dropped out of a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the agency, citing its internal policies against using machine learning for warfare and surveillance.

Microsoft has urged “thoughtful government regulation” of facial recognition technology. All this is something to watch.

In May, Apple recognized that some iPhone 7 and 7 Plus devices running iOS 11.3 or later had a problem with their microphones. For a time, Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers would fix the problem for free. However, since July, MacRumors has been contacted by a number of people complaining that they are now being charged for the repair. The repair costs $300 on out-of-warranty devices.

The exemptions abruptly ended in July of 2018, though, when Apple deleted its internal document related to the microphone issue and prevented free repairs from being processed through its service portal. Since then, many Apple retail and support employees have refused to acknowledge the policy ever existed. MacRumors has received several emails from affected customers since we published our article in July, but there has been little we can do to help. Apple did not respond to our original request for comment, so we’ve followed up today.