Mark Zuckerberg Launches His Tech Manifesto, Echoes Tim Cook's Call for U.S. Version of GDPR

After months of criticism, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted “four ideas to regulate the internet” Saturday. Like Apple CEO Tim Cook, he called on lawmakers to pass data protection legislation akin to the EU’s GDPR. Mr. Zuckerberg also said he wanted to see privacy legislation as well as third-party standards to judge harmful content.

I believe it would be good for the internet if more countries adopted regulation such as GDPR as a common framework. New privacy regulation in the United States and around the world should build on the protections GDPR provides. It should protect your right to choose how your information is used — while enabling companies to use information for safety purposes and to provide services. It shouldn’t require data to be stored locally, which would make it more vulnerable to unwarranted access. And it should establish a way to hold companies such as Facebook accountable by imposing sanctions when we make mistakes.

 

Apple Products in China Get Major Price Cut

Apple slashed the cost of products in China by as much as 6%, CNBC reported Monday. The price drop affected iPhones, iPads, Macs and AirPods. It followed a VAT price cut for manufacturers like Apple in the country. Apple’s revenue shortfall in the final quarter of 2018 was attributed to lower than expected sales in China.

The price cuts can be seen on Apple’s website. For example, the entry-level iPhone XR now costs 6199RMB, 4.6 percent lower than on March 29, when Apple listed 6499RMB as its price. Apple’s high-end iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max models each got a 500RMB price cut. According to Apple’s customer service, anybody who has bought an affected product from Apple in China within the past 14 days can receive a refund for the difference in price.

Grammarly Celebrates 10th Birthday With Mission to Help us Communicate Better

Grammarly, the spelling and grammar checking application, celebrated its 10th birthday Monday. It also happens to be one of my favorite productivity tools. After a decade saving users from embarrassing typos, the company told Fast Company’s Harry McCraken that it now has a wider mission – to help people communicate better.

Like every tech company, Grammarly sees itself as having a higher calling. “It’s important to write well; it’s important to write accurately,” says Brad Hoover, the company’s CEO. “But fundamentally, the problem we’re solving is so much bigger. Communication is something that most of us do from an early age, and it both binds us together as people and tears us apart. And a tool set that helps people bridge those gaps, and connect those dots, and communicate what they mean, really does have the promise to fundamentally change how the world works.”

Sign up for 4 Months of DirecTV Now, Get a Free 4K Apple TV

DirecTV Now is offering customers a free 4K Apple TV when you prepay for four months of service.

4K Apple TV (32 GB): Ends 4/30/2019. New sub’s only. Must prepay first four months of service at full price. Requires minimum $50/mo. subscription before taxes. Device and prepayment are nonrefundable. New subscribers only. Online orders will be shipped via FedEx ground to address provided. Allow 1-2 weeks for delivery. Offer limited to 1 per DIRECTV NOW account; 2 per shipping address. Not combinable with select offers. 4k HD not avail. w/DIRECTV NOW.

Deep Dive into Mail, Gmail Bugs, Cool Stuff Found & More – Mac Geek Gab 755

Mail was the Deep Dive topic this week, and then the Gmail/Gsuite/macOS 10.14.4 bug happened, so Mail gets a double dip and you’re gonna love it. Then it’s on to perhaps the best AirPods alternative we’ve found… for just $30. More Cool Stuff Found plus your questions answered rounds out the episode. Press play, learn, and enjoy!