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Submission + - DuckDuckGo Browser Now Blocks Most YouTube Ads (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: DuckDuckGo has added built-in YouTube ad blocking to its browser, allowing users to skip most pre-roll and mid-roll ads while watching videos on the YouTube website. The feature is enabled by default on Windows, macOS, and iPhone, with Android support rolling out by default soon. DuckDuckGo says it uses community-maintained filter lists from the uBlock Origin project, along with its own compatibility rules, to keep pace with changes to YouTube ad delivery. While the feature will likely be welcomed by users tired of interruptions, it also raises questions about YouTube Premium and how creators are compensated when ad revenue is bypassed.

Submission + - Microsoft Deliberately Bricking All Office for Mac 2019/2021 Installations (osnews.com) 2

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: MacOS users who opted to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for macOS back in 2019 or 2021, eschewing the Office 365 subscription, so you could keep on using Office 2019/2021 forever if you wanted to. Just like in the old days.

Consumer Rights Wiki reports:

"Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion (2026) is a scheduled remote degradation of perpetually-licensed Microsoft Office software for macOS and iOS, set for July 13, 2026 when a license-validation certificate used by the Office apps expires.[1] After Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support in October 2023, Microsoft assured customers their installed apps would "continue to function."[2] The July 13, 2026 conversion instead drops the apps into a Microsoft-defined "reduced functionality mode," in which files can be opened and viewed but not edited or saved.[1][3] By May 30, 2026, the original 2023 end-of-support page had been re-dated and rewritten on Microsoft's site; the "continue to function" clause was removed.[4][2]" https://consumerrights.wiki/w/...

Microsoft’s advice to the users they’re stealing from is to keep using the applications as mere viewers, switch to the free Office 365 web applications, pay for a 365 subscription, or buy a brand new regular copy of Office 2024. None of these make any sense, and clearly, all of this should be illegal, but it’s not because the software industry is a clown show.

Submission + - New Lawsuit Against Amazon: 'Subscribe and Save' Program Actually Costs You More (msn.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: A married couple claims in a new lawsuit that Amazon duped them — and leagues of other U.S. customers — into signing up for its popular "Subscribe & Save" program under the guise that they'd save money on automatically recurring purchases... In some cases, the lawsuit claims that customers were paying more for the exact same items through the Subscribe & Save program than they would be if they bought the items from other sellers on the site. That was true even when the up to 15% discount that the subscription program offers was calculated into the final purchase price, according to the suit. The Seattle law firm that filed the May 15 lawsuit says that Amazon’s business practices amount to “deceptive,” “misleading” and “bait and switch tactics.” The firm is seeking class-action status in U.S. District Court for western Washington, a move that could potentially draw tens of millions of Amazon customers from across the U.S. into the litigation...

[The suit says the plaintiffs' first order of espresso coffee grounds was $16.60.] When their order auto-renewed a few months later, the price had gone up to $17.04. A few months later, it rose to $21.25. Then in October 2024, the price increased to $28.69 — about $12 more than the Hermans had paid at the beginning of their subscription, according to the lawsuit. [The discount can be as little as 5% or up to 15%, Amazon told Oregon Live in a statement, noting customers do receive an email showing "applicable savings" before the orders ship. But...] The suit says Amazon gave the Hermans little notice to cancel the order or to shop around because it notified them of the latest price increase in an email at 8:54 p.m. — the same night it processed their order and charged them.

The suit says if the Hermans had been given the time to shop around for a better price, they would have found that another Amazon seller was charging $25.90 — or $2.79 less — for the identical item. Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save Terms & Conditions” page tells customers that it “may change the price for a Subscribe & Save subscription at any time for any reason....”

The analytical group Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says about 25% of U.S. Amazon customers are enrolled in the Subscribe & Save program.

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