Slow MacBook on Battery? Try These 3 Fixes for Speeding It Up Again

Laptop batteries are notorious for their short shelf life. Of course, there are lots of steps you can take that will help to extend your MacBook battery’s lifespan, but eventually, you’ll be measuring its performance in minutes rather than hours.

But while you might be able to deal with deteriorating battery life, what can you do when running on battery is actively impacting your machine’s speed?

Many users have to deal with a slow MacBook on battery. The Apple forums are littered with people complaining about the issue.

Alas, don’t worry. You don’t need to throw your $1,500 laptop in the trash. We’re going to show you how to stop your Mac from running slowly when it’s on battery power. You’ll be back up to full speed in no time.

Apple’s Dubious History With Batteries

Before we explain how to fix the issue, let’s digress a little.

As is now common knowledge, Apple has a questionable history with batteries. In late 2017, the company made headlines around the world when it admitted to throttling the CPU speed of iPhones with old power units.

The cynics argue Apple was trying to hoodwink users into buying a new phone when they actually only needed a new battery.

For its part, Apple said its intention was to prolong the life of its devices. It claims the throttling was a move to prevent unexpected shutdowns as a battery slowly became incapable of supplying peak current demands.

But what about Macs?

There’s not been any concrete proof to suggest the company is taking the same approach with Macs as it does with iPhones, though users on Hacker News provide plenty of anecdotal evidence. The bottom line: older Macs often run slowly on battery power.

So what can you do about it?

Make Sure the Battery Is to Blame

Before you try to fix your issues, you need to make sure your battery is definitely the culprit.

To test your battery, connect your Mac to a power outlet and open the Activity Monitor (the Mac version of Windows Task Manager). Click on the CPU tab and locate the CPU usage graph at the bottom of the window. Make a note of the percentage used.

Now disconnect your charger and look at the graph again. If there’s a sizeable difference between the two figures, your battery is at fault.

3 Ways to Fix a Mac Running Slowly on Battery

Let’s look at how you can remedy the problem of your Mac running slowly when it’s on battery power.

You have three possible fixes to choose from.

1. Remove a PLIST File

The first course of action is to delete a PLIST file. A PLIST file contains properties and configuration settings for apps on your Mac.

There’s one PLIST file on your Mac which tells the computer’s processor to slow down when it detects you’re running on battery. The logic behind the throttling is that you will be able to run your Mac for longer before you need to charge it.

In practice, you’re just going to spend more time waiting for apps to open and processes to complete. The tradeoff is barely worth it.

Thankfully, it’s easy to delete the rogue PLIST file. If you delete it, there won’t be a configuration file telling your Mac’s processor to slow down.

The process for of deleting the PLIST file comes in two parts. Firstly, you need to check your computer’s model number (something you should already know about your Mac). Secondly, you need to remove the file.

To check your Mac’s model, go to Apple > About this Mac then click on the Overview tab. Here, click the System Report button to open a window with much more information about your machine. You’ll see the Model Identifier field near the top of the Hardware entry. Make a note of it, as you’ll need it shortly.

Now let’s delete the offending PLIST file.

To begin, open Finder and navigate to Macintosh HD using the panel on the left-hand side of the screen. If you don’t see it, you can visit Go > Computer > Macintosh HD.

Once you’re in your hard drive’s folder, go to System > Library > Extensions. Next, scroll down and find a text file called IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext.

Right-click on the file and head to Show Package Contents > Resources > Plugins.

In the new list, right-click on ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext and go to Show Package Contents > Contents > Resources.

Finally, locate the PLIST file that corresponds to your previously-noted Mac model number and delete it.

You need to restart your computer to complete the process.

2. Reset Your Mac’s SMC and PRAM

Resetting your Mac’s system management controller (SMC) and parameter random access memory (PRAM) can solve a multitude of issues with your machine. One of these is reduced performance when running on battery.

The process for resetting your SMC varies depending on which Mac model you own. All the processes are based on the same principle of restarting your machine while holding a certain combination of buttons.

Resetting the PRAM is more straightforward. Turn off your machine, then turn it on again. As soon as you turn it on, press Cmd + Option + P + R. If you see the grey startup screen, you did not press them fast enough. As soon as you hear the startup beep for a second time, you can release the keys.

We’ve covered all the methods in more detail in our extensive guide to resetting your SMC and PRAM.

3. Repair Disk Permissions

If the two methods we’ve looked at so far didn’t solve your problem, you could try repairing your disk permissions. Some users have reported that doing so fixed the issue.

To repair the disk permissions, open Finder and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. In the list of volumes in the left-hand panel, choose your machine’s primary hard drive.

Lastly, go to First Aid > Repair Disk Permissions.

And If All Else Fails…

If none of these solutions speed up your MacBook on battery power, you might need to contact Apple directly. Someone from the company will be able to run various tests on your laptop to determine the cause of the issue—the solution might be as simple as buying a new battery.

Check out our guide to contacting Apple’s technical support team if you’re not sure where to start.

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Burst breaks you out of your filter bubble on Reddit

One of the many accusations about the trouble with Facebook – amid its data privacy concerns and enabling of Russian trolls – is that it keeps people locked into echo chambers where access to other viewpoints are limited. This is a common problem across social media, people are beginning to realize. A new app called Burst is experimenting with how to break people out of their bubbles. But its focus is not on Facebook, as it turns out – it’s on Reddit.

In a way, Reddit has a problem with filter bubbles too, given that users choose which subreddits (communities) to subscribe to. That means than in addition to subscribing to something like r/politics, you may also subscribe to r/liberal or r/conservative, where you’ll hear your own viewpoints echoed and reinforced.

What Burst does is combine everyone’s comments and insights into one place. It works by finding everywhere a post has been re-shared across Reddit, then merges all the comments together.

The app is organized like Reddit itself with sections for Hot, Top, Rising, New and Controversial as well as access to your own subreddits when you sign in. To view the comments on a post, you swipe to the left. And to upvote or downvote, you use Force Touch.

Explains the app creator Alex Duckmanton, currently a product designer in Sydney, Burst has exposed him to different ideas.

“In my own use of Burst while testing, I’ve found that even though I see a lot more stuff I don’t agree with, seeing it helps me empathise with other perspectives. It’s my hope that this will help tone down some of the more toxic aspects of political discussion online,” he says.

While political discussions are often a hotbed for trolling and the general social media-induced lack of empathy, an app like Burst can help in other areas, too. For example, notes Duckmanton, a post about the new iPhone might appear in both r/iphone and r/android, in addition to r/apple or r/technology. This allows you to see a wider array of discussions about the iPhone news, than if you only read the comments from one community.

Duckmanton says he began to build Burst when he had some time off from work in the second-half of last year because he’s been concerned about the impact of filter bubbles on social media platforms.

“Filter bubbles aren’t being addressed in a meaningful way by any of the major social platforms,” he says. “The typical response of banning problem users or removing content is a brute-force approach and isn’t long-term or scalable. Outside of that, users are expected to self-manage the content they consume in order to have a more balanced view. It’s not reasonable to expect that of people, and it certainly won’t happen for people who aren’t already engaged in news and politics,” Duckmanton continues.

“We need to create products in such a way that filter bubbles cannot exist because their design fundamentally prevents them,”he adds.

The project is entirely self-funded and is currently supported by ads with the option to remove them via an in-app purchase.

Now that the app is out in the wild, Duckmanton says he’ll see how the community reacts before deciding if he will transition to working on Burst full-time. If it were to take off, however, he imagines a future where a Burst-like app could be built for other platforms – like Twitter. But in the immediate-term, nothing like that is in the works.

Burst is a free download for iOS. A link to sign up for an Android beta is here.

 

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8 Fundamental Selfie Tips for Taking Better Pictures of Yourself

Facebook rewrites Terms Of Service, clarifying device data collection

Facebook is spelling out in plain english how it collects and uses your data in rewritten versions of its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy, though it’s not asking for new rights to collect and use your data or changing any of your old privacy settings.The public has seven days to comment on the changes (though Facebook doesn’t promise to adapt or even respond to the feedback) before Facebook will ask all users to consent to the first set of new rules in three years.

Unfortunately since the changes to the language and structure of the terms are so wide-reaching and the new versions are so much longer, it’s difficult to do a direct comparison of the differences between the old TOS and DUP, and the new versions embedded below.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the expanded, plain language terms are the specifics of how Facebook collects data from your devices. Conspiracy theories about it snooping on people through its microphone, and confusion about it collecting SMS and call log history likely pushed Facebook to give people details about what data its slurping up.

Facebook now explains that:

Information we obtain from these devices includes:

• Device attributes: information such as the operating system, hardware and software versions, battery level, signal strength, available storage space, browser type, app and file names and types, and plugins.

• Device operations: information about operations and behaviors performed on the device, such as whether a window is foregrounded or backgrounded, or mouse movements (which can help distinguish humans from bots).

• Identifiers: unique identifiers, device IDs, and other identifiers, such as from games, apps or accounts you use, and Family Device IDs (or other identifiers unique to associated with the same device or account).

• Device signals: Bluetooth signals, and information about nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons, and cell towers. • Data from device settings: information you allow us to receive through device settings you turn on, such as access to your GPS location, camera or photos.

• Network and connections: information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, language, time zone, mobile phone number, IP address, connection speed and, in some cases, information about other devices that are nearby or on your network, so we can do things like help you stream a video from your phone to your TV.

• Cookie data: data from cookies stored on your device, including cookie IDs and settings. Learn more about how we use cookies in the Facebook Cookies Policy and Instagram Cookies Policy.

Specifically regarding SMS history and call logs, Facebook writes “We also collect contact information if you choose to upload, sync or import it (such as an address book or call log or SMS log history), which we use for things like helping you and others find people you may know.” Though Facebook asked users’ permission for this data, nothing about SMS and call logs wasn’t in the terms of service.

Disappointingly, the new explanation of helping you find friends doesn’t necessarily justify it collecting this data. Meanwhile, just today Facebook confirmed to Bloomberg that it does automatically scan all the text and image content of Messenger conversations to prevent violations of its Community Standards and the spread of spam or abuse. While other tech products like Google’s Gmail scan the contents of your messages for advertising and other purposes, the revelation could scare some privacy-focused users away from Messenger.

Facebook has also clarified how new products it’s launched since the last TOS update like Marketplace, fundraisers, Live, 360, and camera effects work. It explains how every user’s experience is personalized. Facebook also makes it clear that it, WhatsApp, and Oculus (as well as Instagram) are all part of one company. Instagram is now repeatedly mentioned in the TOS and DUP, whereas before it wasn’t even mentioned.

As Facebook deals with a disgruntled public and awoken regulatory bodies, the rewriting of these policies might be perceived as the company trying to cover itself after neglecting to detail how it pulls and uses people’s data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg might face questions about the changes and why they weren’t in place before when he testifies before the House Engergy and Commerce Committee on April 11th regarding protections of users’ data privacy.

But today’s revamp could also give Facebook stronger documents to point to as it tries to prove it doesn’t need heavy-handed government regulation. Switching from a more ‘legalese’ document full of jargon to a more layman’s version could also help it dispel myths or give people more transparency.

If Facebook can give users a better understanding of how it works, it might be able to diffuse privacy scandals and backlashes before they happen.

Facebook updated Terms Of Service – 4/4/18 by Josh TechCrunch on Scribd

Facebook updated Data Use Policy – 4/4/18 by Josh TechCrunch on Scribd

View this document on Scribd

 

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Facebook rewrites Terms Of Service, clarifying device data collection

Facebook is spelling out in plain english how it collects and uses your data in rewritten versions of its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy, though it’s not asking for new rights to collect and use your data or changing any of your old privacy settings.The public has seven days to comment on the changes (though Facebook doesn’t promise to adapt or even respond to the feedback) before Facebook will ask all users to consent to the first set of new rules in three years.

Unfortunately since the changes to the language and structure of the terms are so wide-reaching and the new versions are so much longer, it’s difficult to do a direct comparison of the differences between the old TOS and DUP, and the new versions embedded below.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the expanded, plain language terms are the specifics of how Facebook collects data from your devices. Conspiracy theories about it snooping on people through its microphone, and confusion about it collecting SMS and call log history likely pushed Facebook to give people details about what data its slurping up.

Facebook now explains that:

Information we obtain from these devices includes:

• Device attributes: information such as the operating system, hardware and software versions, battery level, signal strength, available storage space, browser type, app and file names and types, and plugins.

• Device operations: information about operations and behaviors performed on the device, such as whether a window is foregrounded or backgrounded, or mouse movements (which can help distinguish humans from bots).

• Identifiers: unique identifiers, device IDs, and other identifiers, such as from games, apps or accounts you use, and Family Device IDs (or other identifiers unique to associated with the same device or account).

• Device signals: Bluetooth signals, and information about nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons, and cell towers. • Data from device settings: information you allow us to receive through device settings you turn on, such as access to your GPS location, camera or photos.

• Network and connections: information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, language, time zone, mobile phone number, IP address, connection speed and, in some cases, information about other devices that are nearby or on your network, so we can do things like help you stream a video from your phone to your TV.

• Cookie data: data from cookies stored on your device, including cookie IDs and settings. Learn more about how we use cookies in the Facebook Cookies Policy and Instagram Cookies Policy.

Specifically regarding SMS history and call logs, Facebook writes “We also collect contact information if you choose to upload, sync or import it (such as an address book or call log or SMS log history), which we use for things like helping you and others find people you may know.” Though Facebook asked users’ permission for this data, nothing about SMS and call logs wasn’t in the terms of service.

Disappointingly, the new explanation of helping you find friends doesn’t necessarily justify it collecting this data. Meanwhile, just today Facebook confirmed to Bloomberg that it does automatically scan all the text and image content of Messenger conversations to prevent violations of its Community Standards and the spread of spam or abuse. While other tech products like Google’s Gmail scan the contents of your messages for advertising and other purposes, the revelation could scare some privacy-focused users away from Messenger.

Facebook has also clarified how new products it’s launched since the last TOS update like Marketplace, fundraisers, Live, 360, and camera effects work. It explains how every user’s experience is personalized. Facebook also makes it clear that it, WhatsApp, and Oculus (as well as Instagram) are all part of one company. Instagram is now repeatedly mentioned in the TOS and DUP, whereas before it wasn’t even mentioned.

As Facebook deals with a disgruntled public and awoken regulatory bodies, the rewriting of these policies might be perceived as the company trying to cover itself after neglecting to detail how it pulls and uses people’s data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg might face questions about the changes and why they weren’t in place before when he testifies before the House Engergy and Commerce Committee on April 11th regarding protections of users’ data privacy.

But today’s revamp could also give Facebook stronger documents to point to as it tries to prove it doesn’t need heavy-handed government regulation. Switching from a more ‘legalese’ document full of jargon to a more layman’s version could also help it dispel myths or give people more transparency.

If Facebook can give users a better understanding of how it works, it might be able to diffuse privacy scandals and backlashes before they happen.

Facebook updated Terms Of Service – 4/4/18 by Josh TechCrunch on Scribd

Facebook updated Data Use Policy – 4/4/18 by Josh TechCrunch on Scribd

View this document on Scribd

 

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Learn Microsoft Office With These 20 Online Tutorials, Videos, and Courses

If you have never used Microsoft Office or just need help with the basics, there are plenty of resources scattered around the internet. But which is the best way to learn Microsoft Office? Is it free training, a paid class, or a video tutorial?

For beginners as well as those brushing up on their Microsoft Office application skills, here is a big list of options worth checking out.

Online Courses and Tutorials

With both free and paid online classes and instructions, learning Microsoft Office with these tools might be just what you’re looking for. And as you begin, you might like to review our tips for learning about Office 2016.

1. Office 365 Training Center

One of the best ways to learn Microsoft Office is to go right to the source. The Office 365 Training Center provides different options depending on your needs. You can watch video training tutorials for Office 365 or select a specific Microsoft Office application like Word, Excel, or Access. And it’s all free.

2. GCF LearnFree.org

GCF LearnFree.org is another great resource for free Microsoft Office training. You’ll find training for Office 2016 in addition to older versions. Make your selection and then start learning the applications separately. Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint each have tutorials neatly organized by topic as well as Getting Started sections if you’re completely new to it.

(It’s also a good place to find computer courses for beginners on all sorts of toipcs.)

3. Free Training Tutorial

For learning the basics of Microsoft Word and Excel for free, the options on the Free Training Tutorial site are decent and serve as good references. Learn the Excel essentials, jump right into working with formulas, or just find out how to do simple tasks in Word. You’ll see step-by-step instructions with images, making this a good one to bookmark.

And for another handy reference, take a look at our Microsoft Office 2016 quick start guides.

4. GoSkills

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft Office so that you can get certified, take a look at GoSkills. The site offers affordable options where you can pay per class or for a course bundle. You’ll have access to video tutorials, quizzes and tests, a personalized experience, and can learn at your own pace.

5. Lynda.com

With online classes for everything from marketing to software development and beyond, Lynda.com is a terrific place to learn Microsoft Office. You can choose from Office 365 essential classes to those specific to each application. Lynda.com offers a 30-day free trial, so you can check out the experience before subscribing to a plan.

6. Udemy

Udemy is another paid online learning center for various industries and subjects. You can take the nine-course Microsoft Office 2016 training bundle for an excellent start. After that, you can review and pay for individual classes specific to the application and topic. Udemy is a super and affordable resource.

7. Universal Class

Universal Class has a good Microsoft Office 2016 training bundle that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. This option has 70 lessons and over 140 assignments and exams to test what you learn. You can also take individual application classes and review courses for older versions of Microsoft Office if needed.

8. LinkedIn

If you belong to LinkedIn, then you should definitely check out the learning center for Microsoft Office. You can try it out for one month free and then subscribe if it works for you. There are courses for Office 365 and Microsoft Office, plus you can filter the many options by beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

9. edX

On edX, you’ll find several Microsoft-related courses along with a Microsoft Office Fundamentals: Outlook, Word, and Excel class. This one is available for free, but if you would like to add a verified certificate, you can do so for a fee. The class is also part of the Microsoft Professional Program for IT Support if you would like to take your learning to the next level.

10. My Online Training Hub

My Online Training Hub offers individual courses for Word, Excel, and Outlook and a bundle that includes all three. The single classes provide between 20 and 30 hours of course videos and you can review the syllabus or check out a preview before you decide to buy one. The courses will help you learn Microsoft Office versions from 2007 to 2016.

11. Bigger Brains

Bigger Brains offers online subscriptions for individuals and teams for their Office 365 training course bundle. You can learn everything from the essentials to becoming a master. Look through the single application classes if you prefer and be sure to take a minute to review the course lengths, sample videos, and related classes.

YouTube Videos

Maybe you’d rather follow along with a video than take an official Microsoft Office training course. Here are several YouTube channels with training videos that make learning Microsoft Office easy.

12. Learn iT! Training

The Learn iT! Training YouTube channel offers a nice variety of tutorials including a Microsoft Office 2016 Beginners Tutorial. In addition, you can select from videos specific to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for various versions of Office.

13. Technology for Teachers and Students

Technology for Teachers and Students has a good mix of video tutorials for learning Microsoft Office as well as each application itself. You can also learn about Sway, OneNote, OneDrive, and get help with intermediate and advanced topics for the many Microsoft products.

14. Sali Kaceli

For another great set of YouTube tutorials, take a look at Sali Kaceli’s channel. You’ll find in-depth videos that take you through each Microsoft Office application. You can then get into specifics such as working with address books in Outlook or calculating percentages in Excel.

15. Teacher’s Tech

The Teacher’s Tech channel is packed with detailed Office tutorials for beginners and above. In addition to the Microsoft Office desktop applications, you can learn about Office Online. There are also videos for Office Lens, Microsoft Sway, and OneDrive if you want help with those products as well.

16. Skills Factory

Skills Factory has several tutorials for each application within Microsoft Office 2016. They are geared towards beginners and are each less than 15 minutes long, so you can learn quickly and follow along easily.

17. Microsoft Mechanics

Microsoft Mechanics offers specific topic tutorials for Office 365, Microsoft Office 2016, and Office Online. You can check out an overview of Office, get details on the Office experience, or jump right into how to use each application in a variety of ways.

18. HowTech Tutorials

HowTech Tutorials has a channel dedicated to Microsoft Office training. Not only can you learn how to use the tools but get into specifics for each one. Once you learn the basics, you can get into creating charts in Excel working with pages in Word.

19. Professor Adam Morgan

Originally for his students, Professor Adam Morgan decided to make his video tutorials public to help others. View the options for beginners for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, and Outlook. Then take a peek at certain topics like formatting in Word or importing data in Excel.

20. eTop Technology, Inc.

The eTop Technology, Inc. YouTube channel offers an array of tutorials for learning Office 365, Microsoft Office 2016, and older versions of Office. Most videos are short and right to the point, making it simple for you to do the basics in the Office applications.

Learning Microsoft Office Is a Click Away

No matter how you prefer to learn Microsoft Office, whether it be an online class or a useful video, these options have you covered. Check them out and see which one fits you and your needs the best.

You might also take a look at our guide to Microsoft Office 2013 and our article on managing your Office 365 subscription.

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7 Great Open-Source Desktop Apps Available on Android

We’re big fans of open-source software here at MakeUseOf. It’s free, secure, and flexible. Indeed, we love it so much that we’ve previously covered some of the best open-source Android apps and open-source desktop apps.

But what about open-source apps that straddle the divide between the two platforms? Finding open-source software with both desktop and Android versions is not as common as you might think.

Nonetheless, some apps are available on both, including some of your all-time favorite desktop software. If you’re curious to find out which desktop apps have made the leap to Android, keep reading.

1. Firefox

On the desktop, users are spoiled for choice when it comes to open-source browsers. There’s Chromium, Brave, Midori, and Konqueror, to name just four.

But the best of the bunch is unquestionably Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox has been around since 2002. In that time, it’s grown to become one of the world’s most popular browsers. At the start of 2018, it boasted 12 percent of the market share according to StatCounter. That makes it the second most-used browser in the world behind Chrome.

The open-source Android version of the app has all the features you’d expect from a quality browser, including tracking protection, cross-device syncing, a vast number of add-ons, and a password manager.

Download: Firefox (Free)

2. VLC

VLC is one of the best media players in the world and is available on all major operating systems. It might hard to believe, but the app is now approaching its 20th birthday after launching way back in 2001.

VLC started as a university project in Paris. The app was intended to be a client/server system that could stream videos from satellite dishes across a campus network, but it quickly grew to be much more.

The app’s ability to play just about any video, audio, or subtitle file you throw at it has won the software acclaim around the world.

VLC is also adored by people who oppose the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA); it can play CSS-encrypted videos despite the lack of a CSS decryption license. It also includes the libdvdcss DVD decryption library, which is legally restricted in many countries.

Download: VLC (Free)

3. DuckDuckGo

Most people have now heard of DuckDuckGo. It’s a search engine with a strong focus on privacy and security.

Of course, you can access the search engine through any browser. However, due to the desktop browser extensions and the company once offering a standalone app for Windows, it makes this list.

Critics will point at DuckDuckGo and say it’s not entirely an open source app. It’s a fair accusation; the app’s core code remains closed. However, it’s mainly due to licensing issues and APIs.

In DuckDuckGo’s defense, the app becomes closer to becoming entirely open source every day. The company is even looking for volunteers to help move the open source project along. If you’d like to lend a hand, reach out and let them know.

Download: DuckDuckGo (Free)

4. KeePass

KeePass is one of the best alternatives to LastPass. And, unlike its more well-known rival, the app is entirely open source.

When it comes to password managers, security is naturally a vital component. KeePass does not disappoint. It offers AES and Twofish encryption, an SHA-256 hash for the master key components, protection against dictionary and guessing attacks, process memory protection, and a whole lot more.

It’s important to note that the Android ports of KeePass (there are three to choose from) are unofficial. But don’t let that put you off. We recommend KeePassDroid, as it boasts almost exclusively five-star reviews and has been downloaded more than three million times.

Download: KeePassDroid (Free)

5. Freeciv

Who doesn’t love to spend a few hours playing Civilization every now and again?

You can argue about which Civ game is the best in the series for hours, but for pure nostalgia, you cannot beat the historic Civilization 2.

Freeciv uses Civ 2 as its base. Much like OpenTTD is based on Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Freeciv is almost identical to the 1996 classic.

The game is entirely open source and has a growing team of contributors who roll out frequent updates, though the Android version hasn’t seen an update in years. Like its predecessor, you start life as a tribal leader in 4000 BC and play until you either conquer all the other players or until someone colonizes space.

The Android version of the game is an unofficial port, but it works well. It’s more enjoyable played on a larger tablet screen than on a phone.

Download: Freeciv (Free)

6. WordPress

If you want to build a website, there’s a good chance you will turn to WordPress. According to the latest data, it powers 30 percent of the world’s top 10 million pages. For comparison, its nearest competitor—Joomla—only controls a little over 3 percent.

Perhaps surprisingly, many people don’t realize that the software is free and open source.

Previously, only the content management part of the software (WordPress.org) was open source. However, in late 2015, the fully-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.com) also became open source. Developer Automattic rewrote the entire app from scratch to facilitate the change.

The Android WordPress app supports both WordPress.org and WordPress.com. It lets you write, edit, and publish posts, as well as manage your site and check statistics.

Download: WordPress (Free)

7. Tribler

Tribler is an open-source BitTorrent client. It’s the result of a partnership between Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology.

The app’s biggest strength lies in its anonymity. The developers have created a custom Tor network which includes encryption, onion routing, and hidden seeding.

Like many of the best BitTorrent clients, you can start watching videos before the download has finished and search for content to download from within the app’s interface.

The Android app does not offer P2P downloads. Instead, it lets you interact with other Tribler users. You can take advantage of NFC to send videos to each other, send encrypted live broadcasts to your friends, and provide live streaming to your followers on Twitter.

Download: Tribler (Free)

Open-Source Apps Are Great, But Not Required

Open-source apps are usually excellent, but they’re not for everybody. If you’re not interested in going completely open source, it’s always good to remember the advantages of proprietary software.

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4 iPhone Apps That Make Retouching Photos Easier Than Ever

Retouching has long been a standard practice in professional photography, but you don’t need to learn how to use Photoshop to make your selfies look better.

All you need is the right mobile photo retouching app and a bit of practice. The hardest part of retouching your headshot is knowing when to stop making adjustments.

In an endless sea of iPhone photo retouching apps, only these four are worth your time.

Advice on Using These Apps

You should feel free to edit and share your photos in any way you see fit. At the same time, you shouldn’t feel compelled to use photo retouching apps unless you really want to. Don’t let anyone tell you that your pictures don’t look good enough, or that using an app to edit a photo is inherently bad. It’s not.

With that in mind, some of these apps require a little more restraint to avoid results that can seem overdone. In particular, warping certain features will also affect background objects like straight lines. From a photo editing standpoint, the more natural and true to life your edits appear, the better.

Remember: how you choose to present yourself on social media is up to you, and only you. There’s a huge amount of pressure associated with the image we project on networks like Facebook and Instagram. This pressure has always existed in some form or another.

Though retouching apps emerged alongside this trend, that doesn’t mean they are inherently bad.

1. Best Premium Retouching App: Facetune

It might not have been the first iPhone photo retouching app, but it’s arguably the best. Facetune includes a whole range of tools in one purpose-built package. It’s designed from the ground up to augment your facial features, and it’s yours for a one-off fee.

You won’t find a better assembly of tools for the job. You can whiten your teeth, smooth over your skin, highlight details like eyes, and correct blemishes with patch healing. There’s a liquify effect that allows you to reshape your features, plus skin tone adjustment, selective defocusing, and some built-in filters.

Facetune includes a tutorial for each tool, complete with video showing the effect in action. There are a ton of included pictures to try out, and not a single in-app purchase or subscription in sight. You can undo changes and preview the original image while you work.

Best of all, since Facetune holds your hand while performing edits, you don’t need to show quite as much restraint as you do with the other apps on the list. It’s harder to create a monster, but it’s still fun.

Download: Facetune ($4)

2. Best Free Retouching App: Photoshop Fix

If you like the look of Facetune but aren’t into paying $4 for the privilege, Photoshop Fix is the app for you. This version of Photoshop isn’t quite as straightforward as Facetune is. You’ll need to learn how to use a few of the included tools before you put them to best use.

Adobe includes a good range of retouching tools, and you don’t need a Creative Cloud subscription to use any of them. The Lighten tool is great for teeth whitening, the Smooth tool makes light work of uneven skin, and correcting spots and blemishes is easy with the Healing brush.

The real standout feature is Adobe’s Liquify tool, which allows you to make subtle (and not-so-subtle) adjustments to your features. Use it to widen a smile or tuck your chin, but don’t go too far and keep an eye on any straight lines or objects in the background.

You’ll also get some handy basic photo editing tools, a saturation brush, selective defocusing, vignetting, and a standard paint brush. You’ll need a (free) Adobe account to use this one.

Download: Photshop Fix (Free)

3. Worth Consideration: Pixlr

Pixlr is a web-based photo editor, and this is the iOS version of that web app. It’s completely free, with no in-app purchases or restrictions. Like Photoshop Fix, this isn’t purpose-built face tuning software. You’ll be left to your own devices when applying edits.

There’s a brighten tool for whitening teeth and a darken tool to add contrast or deepen shadows. You can retouch skin with the smoothing tool and fix blemishes with the healing tool. There’s also a blur brush for selective defocusing, and red eye removal if ever you need it.

Since Pixlr is more of a general photo editor, you’ll also get some more standard tools that are great for all kinds of editing. You can add filters, overlays, or stylize your image with the included presets. There’s also a good number of frames and text effects, which might come in handy sometime.

Download: Pixlr (Free)

4. Worth Consideration: Photo Editor by Aviary

Aviary is an ordinary photo editor, but it includes a few tools which make it a perfect selfie-retouching app. The standout feature is a foolproof teeth whitener, but there’s also red eye correction, blemish removal, and selective defocusing too.

You can use the blur tool on skin with decent results, or sharpen eyes and other features to draw attention to them. Additionally, auto-enhance scene modes designed for night and portrait shots might help somewhat.

Unfortunately Aviary lacks a liquify tool, so you can’t make warp adjustments to your image. Combined with the full set of standard photo editing tools, though, Aviary is a great app to keep around.

Download: Aviary (Free)

Other iPhone Retouching Apps We Tried

There are a lot of photo retouching apps available on the App Store, but the vast majority aren’t worth your time. Most are free with in-app purchases, others use a credit system to limit free usage, and some even have a subscription model.

You’ll want to skip the freemium Facetune 2 since paying $4 for the standard version is a better deal. Microsoft’s two “enhanced” iOS cameras, Pix and Selfie, are lacking in features. ModiFace Photo Editor has not been optimized for larger iOS devices, so the interface is ugly.

That developer’s other app, Modiface Live, is better but ultimately more of a toy for trying out cosmetics than a serious photo tool. Facetune and Photoshop Fix remain the best options.

And don’t forget these tips for taking a great selfie!

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Google matches 100 percent of its power consumption with renewables

When you look at the number of datacenters the hyperscale companies are developing worldwide, it can be a little frightening from an energy usage standpoint, but Google announced today that it acquired enough renewable energy to match 100 percent of its power consumption in 2017. That’s good news, but it’s not as good as using 100 percent renewable energy.

The distinction is important. Think of this kind of purchase like a carbon offset. For every bit of polluting energy, they buy a corresponding bit of renewables. It’s not ideal, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Urz Hölzle, Google’s senior vice president for technical infrastructure announced the milestone in a company blog post this morning. “Over the course of 2017, across the globe, for every kilowatt hour of electricity we consumed, we purchased a kilowatt hour of renewable energy from a wind or solar farm that was built specifically for Google. This makes us the first public Cloud, and company of our size, to have achieved this feat,” he wrote.

While bragging, he could even take a swipe at rivals that Google was the strongest company in this regard, having purchased three gigawatts (3GW) of output from renewable energy projects to the tune of $3 billion in energy investments. That’s the kind of competition we need to see more of.

He even included a graph to prove his point (and who doesn’t like visuals?).

Of course, the ultimate goal would be to use 100 percent renewables to power its vast network of datacenters around the world, and Hölzle acknowledges that. “We say that we “matched” our energy usage because it’s not yet possible to “power” a company of our scale by 100 percent renewable energy. It’s true that for every kilowatt-hour of energy we consume, we add a matching kilowatt-hour of renewable energy to a power grid somewhere,”

The company does hope one day to acquire all of its energy requirements from renewable sources, but until then this program is a way of giving back. “This program has always been a first step for us, but it is an important milestone in our race to a carbon-free future. We do want to get to a point where renewables and other carbon-free energy sources actually power our operations every hour of every day. It will take a combination of technology, policy and new deal structures to get there, but we’re excited for the challenge,” he wrote.

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Tinder begins testing its first video feature, Tinder Loops

Tinder is getting into video. On Wednesday, the popular dating app will begin testing its first video-based feature, Tinder Loops, with iOS users in Canada and Sweden. The company says it will evaluate how users respond to Loops before making a decision to roll it out to other markets.

As you may have guessed by the name – “Loops” – the feature isn’t focused on traditional video, but rather on a shorter, almost GIF-like looping video format that’s been popularized by apps like Instagram’s Boomerang and, before that, Twitter’s Vine. In Tinder’s case, Loops will be just two seconds long, and can be added to users’ profiles alongside their photos.

The company says it decided to test videos because it believes videos can show more of users’ personalities, and that can increase people’s chances of getting right-swiped (liked, that is). It suggests the videos could be used for showing off your favorite activities – like shooting hoops or cliff jumping. But it’s likely that Tinder users will find other use cases for looping videos beyond that.

Loops represents the next step in the evolution of our classic profile,” said Brian Norgard, Chief Product Officer at Tinder. “With the addition of video, users have a new way to express themselves while also gaining key insights into the lives of potential matches. Whether it’s dancing at a concert, doing cartwheels on the beach, or clinking glasses with friends, Loops makes profiles come alive. We anticipate Tinder Loops will lead to even more matches and conversations and look forward to seeing how our users creatively adopt the feature,” he added.

More realistically, looping videos may better show people as they are – not hidden behind a soft photo filter or snapped from a classic MySpace angle. And that could lead to less surprise on first dates, as people will have already gotten a better sense of who they’re meeting, as well as how they like to have fun.

But at only two-seconds long, Loops are not as intimidating as posting a “real” video for users who are more shy.

To try the new feature, iOS users in the supported markets will be able to go to their profile, then tap the “Add Media” button to upload a video. Once the video is selected, you can drag the time strip to select the part you want to loop, preview it, and post it to your profile.

Tinder Loops currently supports only videos or Live Photos imported from your iOS Camera Roll. It doesn’t allow users to capture Loops directly from the app.

Alongside the option to add Loops, a subset of users in the test markets will also be given the ability to upload nine photos (or Loops), instead of just six. That could encourage more uploads of Loops as users won’t have to remove their existing photos to give the feature a try.

Tinder would not be the first dating app to dabble with video.

Starting last year, a number of its rivals began to support video in various contexts, as well. Hinge started allowing users to add videos up to 30 seconds long to their profiles; Match and Bumble announced Stories-like features involving video (BumbleVID didn’t pan out); and Zoosk tried video in a separate app, Lively, which has since pivoted to trivia. Integrating video, it appears, is not that easy.

The feature’s launch comes at a time when the competition between modern dating apps has been heating up. Specifically, Tinder and Bumble’s battles have gotten nasty, with Tinder suing Bumble over patents, and Bumble suing Tinder back for fraudulently obtaining trade secrets. Tinder also recently said it would roll out a ladies-first option in its app, which is the thing Bumble is best known for.

Now, with Loops, Tinder is differentiating itself further from the rest of the pack. Whether or not users will respond, however, remains to be seen.

Loops is rolling out today to the supported test markets.

 

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Tinder begins testing its first video feature, Tinder Loops

Tinder is getting into video. On Wednesday, the popular dating app will begin testing its first video-based feature, Tinder Loops, with iOS users in Canada and Sweden. The company says it will evaluate how users respond to Loops before making a decision to roll it out to other markets.

As you may have guessed by the name – “Loops” – the feature isn’t focused on traditional video, but rather on a shorter, almost GIF-like looping video format that’s been popularized by apps like Instagram’s Boomerang and, before that, Twitter’s Vine. In Tinder’s case, Loops will be just two seconds long, and can be added to users’ profiles alongside their photos.

The company says it decided to test videos because it believes videos can show more of users’ personalities, and that can increase people’s chances of getting right-swiped (liked, that is). It suggests the videos could be used for showing off your favorite activities – like shooting hoops or cliff jumping. But it’s likely that Tinder users will find other use cases for looping videos beyond that.

Loops represents the next step in the evolution of our classic profile,” said Brian Norgard, Chief Product Officer at Tinder. “With the addition of video, users have a new way to express themselves while also gaining key insights into the lives of potential matches. Whether it’s dancing at a concert, doing cartwheels on the beach, or clinking glasses with friends, Loops makes profiles come alive. We anticipate Tinder Loops will lead to even more matches and conversations and look forward to seeing how our users creatively adopt the feature,” he added.

More realistically, looping videos may better show people as they are – not hidden behind a soft photo filter or snapped from a classic MySpace angle. And that could lead to less surprise on first dates, as people will have already gotten a better sense of who they’re meeting, as well as how they like to have fun.

But at only two-seconds long, Loops are not as intimidating as posting a “real” video for users who are more shy.

To try the new feature, iOS users in the supported markets will be able to go to their profile, then tap the “Add Media” button to upload a video. Once the video is selected, you can drag the time strip to select the part you want to loop, preview it, and post it to your profile.

Tinder Loops currently supports only videos or Live Photos imported from your iOS Camera Roll. It doesn’t allow users to capture Loops directly from the app.

Alongside the option to add Loops, a subset of users in the test markets will also be given the ability to upload nine photos (or Loops), instead of just six. That could encourage more uploads of Loops as users won’t have to remove their existing photos to give the feature a try.

Tinder would not be the first dating app to dabble with video.

Starting last year, a number of its rivals began to support video in various contexts, as well. Hinge started allowing users to add videos up to 30 seconds long to their profiles; Match and Bumble announced Stories-like features involving video (BumbleVID didn’t pan out); and Zoosk tried video in a separate app, Lively, which has since pivoted to trivia. Integrating video, it appears, is not that easy.

The feature’s launch comes at a time when the competition between modern dating apps has been heating up. Specifically, Tinder and Bumble’s battles have gotten nasty, with Tinder suing Bumble over patents, and Bumble suing Tinder back for fraudulently obtaining trade secrets. Tinder also recently said it would roll out a ladies-first option in its app, which is the thing Bumble is best known for.

Now, with Loops, Tinder is differentiating itself further from the rest of the pack. Whether or not users will respond, however, remains to be seen.

Loops is rolling out today to the supported test markets.

 

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iOS could detect when you hover you finger over the screen

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple could be working on new gestures for its iPhones. In addition to normal touch gestures, iOS could detect when you hover your finger over the screen to trigger some actions.

When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, he spent quite a bit of time demonstrating the multitouch interface. You could touch the screen with your finger without applying any pressure, which was already something new back then. You could also swipe your finger on the screen, use multiple fingers in order to pinch to zoom or rotate a photo.

Starting with the iPhone 6S, Apple also introduced another gesture with 3D Touch. By applying some pressure on the screen, you can preview a photo or an email, open a shortcut menu and more. The iPhone detects multiple levels of pressure so that you can first preview and then open a document.

According to Bloomberg, upcoming iPhones could also detect touchless gestures right above the display. It’s unclear how Apple plans to use those new gestures when it comes to software implementation. This feature won’t be ready for this year’s new iPhones.

Bloomberg also says that Apple has been experimenting with curved iPhones. But they won’t look like the Samsung Galaxy S9 as Apple is thinking about a banana-shaped iPhone from top to bottom.

Finally, Bloomberg confirms KGI Securities’ report about this year’s iPhone lineup. Apple is working on three new devices — an updated iPhone X, a new iPhone that looks like an iPhone X but is cheaper thanks to an LCD display, and a larger version of the updated iPhone X.

The larger version could feature a 6.5-inch OLED display. This number seems insane given that the first iPhone only had a 3.5-inch screen. But people spend so much time on their phone that there should be a market for this huge phone.

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Sarah Lacy launches Chairman Mom, a social platform for working mothers

Sarah Lacy, founder of media site Pando, has unveiled her newest company, Chairman Mom. The subscription-based startup aims to provide resources to working mothers, and ultimately set them up to succeed in all areas of their lives.

“One of the things that’s actually pretty distinct for us is we focus really on the woman, not the children,” Lacy told TechCrunch. “There’s a lot of sites where you can get a lot of answers of what’s a great pre-school or where’s a restaurant that is kid-friendly. and a lot of things are always very kid-centric. We’re really woman centric.”

At launch, Chairman Mom is focused on one key functionality: a question and answer platform. Every day, Chairman Mom’s team of three curates two questions — one about life and one about work — from the community to feature on the site for answers and discussion. These questions can range from “How much do you get paid?” to “What’s the best way to handle harassment at work?” to “What should I do if I think my spouse is cheating on me?”

“The goal of each thread is to get that mom the best answer,” Lacy said. “It’s really not to have an open discussion board of everyone’s views on that topic.”

What makes Chairman Mom different from the likes of other social media sites is its emphasis on using real names while also offering anonymity. Real names are required to sign up but community members can ask and respond to questions anonymously. There is also no up-voting or direct messaging.

“We don’t have things that have created tribalism and fights on other mom networks,” Lacy said.

The goal with Chairman Mom is to rebrand what working mothers and what working motherhood represents, Lacy said. Before Lacy first became a mother, she heard horror stories about what to expect, she said. Some people, for example, told her to expect to feel like a failure at home and at work. But that’s not what it was like for her, Lacy said.

“I was shocked at the disconnect between that and what happened when I actually had kids,” Lacy said. What happened when I had kids was I became better at everything. I became more ambitious, I wrote more quickly, I was so much better as a manager. I was so much more productive. You really have this amazing ability to prioritize what’s important.”

Lacy went with the name Chairman Mom to “telegraph in charge and maternal,” she said. It was important to her, she said, for the name not to conjure up any connotations of shame around pregnancy and motherhood.

“It’s even a step beyond ‘I’m not ashamed,’ but like ‘No, this is our source of power,'” she said. “Something that just sounds so declaratively in charge but also maternal. And it’s still called the chairman of the board. And it’s this idea of we’re overthrowing a patriarchy. This is a man’s world that we’re overthrowing and we don’t have any illusion about that fact.”

Chairman Mom costs $5 per month for access to its community of honest answers to questions about working motherhood. By having people pay to access the platform, one hope is that trolls won’t pay actual money to troll, Lacy said. The platform is also free of advertisers and intends to remain that way, Lacy said.

Chairman Mom is not the only startup targeting mothers. There’s Peanut, which is a Tinder-like experience for finding other moms to hang out. There’s also Winnie, which helps parents find kid-friendly places and access other resources that may be helpful to parents.

Lacy said she recognizes Chairman Mom has competitors, but also recognizes that “it’s such a massive market no one’s building for,” she said. It’s so massive, Lacy said, that she envisions seeing “a handful of billion-dollar consumer internet companies that are geared toward women.

Chairman Mom has been in private beta for the last month or so, with “several hundred” people using it. Chairman Mom has raised a $1.4 million seed round led by Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate Ventures and Tim Connors from PivotNorth Capital, with participation from Greylock Discovery and Precursor Ventures.

 

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The Best Ways to Remote Control Kodi From Your Couch

Facebook to exclude US users from some privacy enhancements

There’s no way to sugarcoat this message: Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg believes North America users of his platform deserve a lower data protection standard than people everywhere else in the world.

In a phone interview with Reuters yesterday Mark Zuckerberg declined to commit to universally implementing changes to the platform that are necessary to comply with the European Union’s incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Rather, he said the company was working on a version of the law that would bring some European privacy guarantees worldwide — declining to specify to the reporter which parts of the law would not extend worldwide.

“We’re still nailing down details on this, but it should directionally be, in spirit, the whole thing,”  Reuters quotes Zuckerberg on the GDPR question.

This is a subtle shift of line. Facebook’s leadership has previously implied the product changes it’s making to comply with GDPR’s incoming data protection standard would be extended globally.

Back in January, COO Sheryl Sandberg said the company would be rolling out “a new privacy center globally” — putting “the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data”.

A spokeswoman for Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch today that the changes it revealed late last month — including finally reducing its historical settings sprawl from 20 screens to just one — were what Sandberg was talking about in those earlier comments. Ergo, even those basic tweaks are a direct result of the EU regulation.

However that universal privacy center looks to be just one portion of the changes Facebook needs to make to comply with the new EU standard. And not all these changes are going to be made available to US and Canadian Facebook users — per Zuckerberg’s remarks.

In a blog about the new privacy center late last month, Facebook flagged additional incoming changes to its terms of service — including “commitments” to users, and the language it uses to explain how it’s processing people’s data.

It said these incoming changes would be “about transparency”.

And indeed transparency is a key underlying principle of GDPR, which places requirements on data controllers to clearly explain to people what personal data they intend to collect and for what exact purpose — in order to gain informed consent for processing the data (or, if not consent, another valid basis is required for the data processing to be legal).

What’s less clear is exactly which portions of GDPR Facebook believes it can safely separate out for users on its platform and not risk accidentally mishandling the personal data of an international user — say who might be visiting or living in the US — thereby running the risk of privacy complaints and, ultimately, financial sanctions (penalties for violations can be very large under GDPR).

I’m quite mystified how Facebook is going to reliably distinguish among EU and non-EU users, in order to build separate tiers of GDPR-compliant granular, revocable opt-in consent controls from another tier of opt-out consent controls.

— David Carroll (@profcarroll) April 4, 2018

Facebook did not respond to additional questions about its GDPR compliance intentions so we can but speculate at this stage.

It’s even just a risky strategy in pure PR terms. As we wrote in January in our GDPR explainer: “[S]ome US companies might prefer to swallow the hassle and expense of fragmenting their data handling processes… But doing so means managing multiple data regimes. And at very least runs the risk of bad PR if you’re outed as deliberately offering a lower privacy standard to your home users vs customers abroad.”

Safe to say, the calls for equal application of GDPR in the US have started already…

This is a test by Zuck to see how much Americans and Congress will demand of Facebook.

We should rise to this test and demand equal application of GDPR in the US (from all major tech companies).

This is concrete and can be done right now since it’s already built for Europe. https://t.co/wSG8BknJeE

— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) April 3, 2018

On the speculation front, consent under GDPR for processing personal data means offering individuals “genuine choice and control”, as the UK’s data watchdog explains it. So perhaps Facebook isn’t comfortable about giving North American users that kind of autonomy to revoke specific consents at will.

Or maybe Zuckerberg is unwilling to let Americans ask for their personal data in an adequately portable form — so they could go and plug it into a rival service. (Though it does already let users download their data.)

Or it could be that Facebook isn’t comfortable with what GDPR has to say about profiling — which is, after all, the core of the company’s ad targeting business model.

The regulation’s transparency requirements do extend to profiling — meaning Facebook will need to inform (at least its international) users they are being profiled when they use the platform, and explain what it means for them.

So perhaps Zuckerberg thinks Americans might balk if they really understood how pervasively it tracks them when it has to explain exactly what it’s doing — as indeed some Facebook users did recently, when they found out Messenger had been logging their call and SMS metadata, for example.

The EU regulation also places some restrictions on the practice of using data to profile individuals if the data is sensitive data — such as health data, political belief, religious affiliation and so on — requiring an even higher standard of explicit consent for doing so.

And of course, with the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal, we’ve seen how massive amounts of Facebook data were expressly used to try to infer US voters’ political beliefs.

Let’s not forget that Facebook itself ploughs its own resources into engaging politicians to use its platform for campaigning too. So perhaps it’s worried it might risk losing this chunk of elite business in the US if American Facebook users have to give explicit consent to their political leanings being fair game for ad targeting purposes. (And when many people would probably say ‘no thanks Mark; that’s none of your business’.)

But, as I say, we can but speculate what kind of GDPR carve outs Zuckerberg has planned for users on his home turf at this stage. The regulation comes into force on May 25 — so Facebookers don’t have long to wait to play a game of ‘spot the privacy standard discrepancy’.

What’s most curious about the Facebook founder demurring on an universal application of GDPR is the timing of it — in the midst of arguably the company’s biggest ever privacy scandal.

Facebook responds to data misuse

And if he feels North Americans’ privacy can be handled as a backburner consideration even now, by revealing he plans to work really hard to make sure domestic Facebook users are given second tier privacy status below everyone else in the rest of the world, well, you have to question the authenticity of his recent apology for the “mistakes” that he claimed led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Facebook was actually warned over app permissions in 2011, as we’ve reported before. Yet it did not shut down the developer access that was used to pass personal data on 50M+ Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica until mid 2015. So, frankly, if that was a mistake, it was a very, very, slow moving one.

Some might say it looks rather more like reluctance to comply with data protection standards.

Here’s one of the core architects of GDPR — European MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht — asking the key question now: How long will consumers in North America take being put in privacy coach class? Over to you…

#Facebook CEO #Zuckerberg announces that his business will apply EU‘s #GDPR to Ireland representation only. That means the whole world will benefit from high EU #privacy protection with the exception of Canada and the U.S. How long will consumers over there take this?

— Jan Philipp Albrecht (@JanAlbrecht) April 4, 2018

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