Apple’s latest Mac mini, smart home devices and more on sale today

Let’s begin today, one more time with deals, and can you believe we still have the Samsung trade-in deals that are just too good to be true? The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is still $1000, the Galaxy Note 20 is $450, the Note 20 Ultra is $750, the S20 starts at $420 for the FE and goes up to $915 with the Ultra, and the Galaxy Z Flip 5G is $650, again with an eligible trade-in device. The new M1 Mac Mini is currently $50 off. This means you can get the 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage model for $849, or $699 if you can live with 256GB of storage. If you want a powerful Intel MacBook Pro, the 16in is currently $400 off, leaving the Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $2399. Moving on to iPads, the latest 12.9in iPad Pro is $350 off, leaving it at $799 along with a pair of Audio Technica Earbuds for free. If you’re looking for headphones, the Sony WH-1000XM4’s are $72 off, leaving them for $278 which is a pretty good deal. Jabra’s Elite 85T are $30 off, leaving them at $200. We have other deals on over-the-ear headphones, other Earbuds, TVs and more in the links in the description.

New legislation in EU would promote competition and protect users from big tech companies

Let’s talk about big companies vs small companies, for two segments actually so bear with me here. The European Union just passed a new legislation that prevents big companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook to self-preference. This means that if you search up a keyword on the App Store for example, the search cannot preference apps made by Apple over third party apps. Other changes include that, these companies will be obliged to allow users to uninstall all pre-installed apps and the performance metrics will be have to be shared for free advertisers and publishers. If they fail to comply with these rules it will result in hefty fines that go as high as ten percent of the company’s worldwide annual turnover. All of these changes are happening to allow smaller companies and developers to have more of a fair chance to compete in today’s landscape. These haven’t been fully approved yet but, they will reportedly come into force faster than usual so, we’ll see what happens one they come in to effect. That said, good one EU, we do need more developers to stand a chance if we want technology to go beyond just a few companies.

Facebook targets Apple over privacy policy update, Apple says users must get a choice

Moving on, let’s talk about my least favorite company, Facebook. Last week we talked about how Craig Federighi made some statements on Apple’s upcoming privacy features which have made other company’s like Facebook mad. Well, it looks like Facebook is really mad. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Facebook has attacked Apple in a series of full-page newspaper ads that claim that Apple’s changes around data gathering and targeted advertising are bad for small businesses. These ads will run in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post with the headline “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses anywhere”. Finally it notes that Apple’s changes to iOS 14 will curb the ability for company’s like Facebook to gather data about users to ply them with advertising. So, it looks like Facebook is trying to do what Epic did but, Epic’s efforts at least actually helped the small businesses and not them primarily. If you missed it last week, Craig said that if company’s didn’t comply to the new guidelines, they would be kicked out of the App Store, like Epic did. It’s just funny how Facebook needs to pay for newspaper ads to influence consumers. What, your social network isn’t big enough?

Apple to release lower-priced AirPods Pro ‘Lite’ without noise cancellation

Let’s keep talking Apple but don’t worry, no more drama. Yes, today was finally AirPods Max day for me, and let’s just say they rumble a lot. That said, let’s shift the focus on to regular AirPods as, we’ll be reportedly getting new AirPods and AirPods Pro this year. According to a new report from The Elec, Cupertino is working on some AirPods Pro Lite which will simply be marketed as the 3rd Gen AirPods. The reason as to why they’re called “AirPods Pro Lite” is because they are tipped to feature the same design of the Pros, but without bringing the “Pro” feature which is Active Noise Cancelling. They’re reportedly developing a new System-in-Package for these which brings the H1 chip. Apparently they will go under quality verification this year, allowing for production to start in 2021 but we have no word on when we’ll actually be getting these. The price will reportedly be around 20% less than the Pros as they won’t bring their main feature. We’ll see as, I think they could be a nice addition to their March Event, but you can’t deny Apple has made their AirPods launches mostly silent and independent.

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Samsung denies Galaxy Note series discontinuation rumors

And finally, the hottest news today have to do with Samsung and their most beloved lineup. Rumors have been intense, but not just of the S21, we also have heard that the Galaxy Note might finally be no more. All of the rumors pointed to Samsung moving their focus on to foldables, and adding the S Pen to the Galaxy S, for those of you wanting to replace the Note with a more conventional device. Well, very official sources claim that it’s not going to happen. TM Roh, the president of mobile business just discredited all of the rumors hinting that the Galaxy Note would be discontinued. To quote him again, yesterday he mentioned that they have payed attention to people’s favorite features from the Note and that they will add them to other devices. Now, the report also claims that the Galaxy Note isn’t coming to an end any time soon. But, it is still very likely that the S Pen is expanding to both the S Line and the Z Fold line. The thing about it is, it’s already December, there’s still no codename for the phone, no rumors, anything.. But the company claims that we’ll still be getting one

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