This Week’s Highlights: Bidding Farewell to Entry-Level Subscription Plans & Advanced Smartphone Repair Techniques

This was another busy week for tech news, with changes coming to iPhone repairs, Netflix, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

The Big News

Fire TV Just Turned Its Beautiful Screensaver Into Ad Space

Ambient Experience will now show an occasional ad banner.

Authy May Have Just Leaked Your Phone Number

Twilio, the company behind Authy, confirmed hackers were able to access phone numbers belonging to Authy users.

Meta Quest Headsets Are Now More Like the Apple Vision Pro

Meta headsets now have free-floating app windows, starting with the v67 software update.

Meta

Microsoft’s Office Web Apps Have a Fresh New Design

Word, PowerPoint, and Excel on the web are now a bit easier to use.

Netflix is Starting To Kill Off Its Basic Plan

If you still had Netflix’s original Basic plan with no ads, you’ll soon have to upgrade to a more premium plan or deal with ads.

You Could Brick Your Pixel 6 With a Factory Reset

Google calls this a “known issue” and is currently searching for a solution.

Linux Mint 22 Beta Is Now Available

It has an Ubuntu 24.04 base, changes to the system applications, and a lot more.

Linux Mint

Proton Drive Now Has a Google Docs Clone

More than just end-to-end encrypted files.

Microsoft Excel’s Web App Just Got a Massive Overhaul

Create inserts, freeze panes, and move elements with a single mouse click.

Hackers Are Targeting This Router, and D-Link Won’t Patch It

The D-Link DIR-859 reached end of life in 2020 and should be replaced.

The Other Stuff

You might remember Nike’s self-lacing Adapt BB shoes that were released in 2019. Nike just announced that the shoes are now discontinued , and the mobile app used for some functionality will be removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The shoes won’t be completely useless without the app, but it’s yet another example of products becoming worse when the connected apps are shut down.

ChatGPT also had another fun incident this week. For a while, typing “hi” would cause the chatbot to print out its own instructions for communicating with users, as well as guidelines for the DALL-E image generator. Just another day in generative AI world.

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