Tesla Model 3 Price Drop; Gmail Blocking 100 Million Spams Daily; Angela Ahrendts Leaving Apple; E-Ticketing Exposed Some Airline’s Passenger Info; Microsoft Build 2019 Date & Location

You can now be driving a Tesla Model 3 for a base price of $35 grand…after government incentives. Engadget.com reports that Tesla found that by dropping the referral spiff that got owners free use of Superchargers for referring friends who bought, they have been able to chop $1100 across versions. the mid-range battery option Model 3 is now $42,900 before incentives, the long-range version is $49,900, and the performance option version Model 3 is still an eye-watering $60,900. Elon Musk says they are doing everything they can to cut the base price BEFORE incentives down to $35,000…but says in a Tweet “It’s a super hard grind.”

In a big plus for Gmail users, Google has applied its in-house machine learning framework…TensorFlow…to your mail, and it is now blocking an extra 100 million spam emails per day. Theverge.com says that Google had already been blocking 99.99 percent of spam, but the AI framework will give them a better crack at screening out that last stubborn .1 of a percent. Google says TensorFlow also helps users to better personalize their spam filtering.

Another one bites the dust. Yes, another head of retail is leaving Apple…this time, Angela Ahrendts, whom Apple recruited from Burberry. According to arstechinca.com, Ahrendts, who joined Apple in2014, will leave in April “for new personal and professional pursuits.” Apple also announced that Vice President of People Deidre O’Brien will take over Ahrendts’ responsibilities running retail and adopt the title Senior Vice President of Retail + People.

E-Ticketing is great…it makes it so much easier to get through the hassle of making it from the curb at the airport to your plane. Now, a downside…at least for some. Cyberscoop.com reports that some personally identifiable information from fliers may have been hacked when email was sent to the customers. It includes names, boarding passes, passport number and flight numbers. The weak spot is a check-in link, and if affects Southwest, Air France, KLM, Vueling, Jetstar, Thomas Cook, Transavia and Air Europa. Wandera notified all of those lines several weeks ago, and none seem to have acted, so heads-up!

Microsoft segues back to their home area for Build 2019. Zdnet.com says they will be holding the event in Seattle on May 6th through the 8th. It will be at the Washington State Convention Center. The event again overlaps with Google I/O (which runs May 7-9.) Microsoft’s premiere developer event session list probably won’t be revealed until near the date, but the agenda should be posted later this month.