Reddit is screwing themselves

During an interview with The Verge, Steve Huffman was being questioned if Reddit could give developers more time to implement the API changes. Huffman’s response was “I said we are working with everybody who is willing to work with us, which includes many of the other third party apps. The three you mentioned said they don’t want to work with us and they’re shutting down. I didn’t tell them to do that. We have had many conversations — well, not with RIF, he never wanted to talk to us — but with the others, we were having such conversations, and we’ll work with the others. A deadline is important, otherwise these things just linger and linger and linger.” The bolded portions are what I wanted to talk about. RIF is a popular third-party Reddit app for Android and the bolded statement is entirely false. The developer of RIF, Andrew Shu, has provided The Verge with emails that he and Reddit sent back and forth about changing API costs. As I said before, Reddit charging for API costs is not unreasonable. Even third-party Reddit apps agree. But the API costs that Reddit is now placing on developers is completely unreasonable. Not only is Huffman forcing most third-party Reddit apps to be shut down, he also tried to ruin the reputation of the developers of those same apps. That is slander.

Another questionable tactic is Reddit removing moderator status from subreddits that switched the labeling on their communities to Not Safe For Work (NSFW) in the latest protests against the site. For those who don’t know, when a subreddit is marked NSFW, it doesn’t show any ads. This may be good for users, but it is not good for Reddit. While some of these Reddit accounts were reinstated, Reddit still shouldn’t have done this. The only thing keeping Reddit alive is its’ subreddits and the moderators behind them.

The Australian Federal Court has published documentation about recent litigation faced by Dell Australia over falsifying discounts to consumers. Online shoppers were led to believe they were saving money by purchasing Dell monitors as add-on purchases at a discount. In reality, those monitors were never priced at the rate indicated by the strikethrough price on the product page. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) also provided a screenshot with an example product page of what was displayed to customers, misleading them into purchasing the monitors at full price. The strikethrough price indicated that customers would need to buy the monitor as an add-on to avoid paying the full price. However, these monitors were never priced at the strikethrough rate. The Australian Federal Court has ordered Dell to offer refunds (full or partial) to customers affected by the situation. I am glad to see governments go after companies for falsely marketing their products. I hope the next target is Amazon listings that are at a perpetual discount.

Google may not sell its own Chromebooks anymore, but the company still seems fully committed to ChromeOS. A lot of new features have rolled out in the past, and a big Material You-based redesign is coming soon. To showcase the best Chromebook hardware to go along with ChromeOS, Google is reportedly working on a new “Chromebook X” program meant to collect the best products under one umbrella. To become part of the program, manufacturers will have to fulfill some minimum hardware requirements. Google is said to request a minimum amount of RAM, a good-enough camera for impeccable video conferencing, and potentially a higher-end display. Chromebook X devices also require minimum processor configurations, such as low end AMD and Intel chips. These laptop chips are usually in laptops around the $350 to $500 range, so Chromebook X’s would be somewhere near this price point. The first devices in this program are supposed to launch sometime later this year. I don’t like Chromebooks. They are cheap, slow, and are very expensive to repair. While Chromebooks are mostly used in schools for their low prices, once the support period ends, they become mostly garbage and the school would have to order hundreds of new Chromebooks every 5 years.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Amazon on Wednesday for tricking customers into signing up for its Prime service, and subsequently making it very difficult to cancel their membership. This is the third major action the FTC has taken against the company this year. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon “knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service” and “used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.” The lawsuit continues to allege that Amazon also intentionally made the Prime cancellation process difficult, since Prime subscribers are “critical” to the company’s revenue stream. An Amazon spokesperson told Motherboard in an email that, “The FTC’s claims are false on the facts and the law. The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership. As with all our products and services, we continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience, and we look forward to the facts becoming clear as this case plays out.”

Microsoft has been trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for 7 months now. They were blocked by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, but approved by the European Commission. Last week, a federal court in California issued a temporary restraining order requested by the FTC that basically blocks Microsoft and Activision Blizzard’s deal for the time being. This week’s trial will see the FTC attempt to impose a preliminary injunction on Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. If successful, it would mean Microsoft and Activision Blizzard can’t complete the acquisition while the FTC’s review of the transaction’s compliance with U.S. antitrust law is ongoing. The first day of the Xbox FTC trial was very eventful, with a look into how exclusive Call of Duty marketing deals impacted Xbox, console exclusivity discussions surrounding MachineGames’ upcoming Indiana Jones project, and emails revealing PlayStation boss Jim Ryan’s thoughts on the potential acquisition. Xbox boss Phil Spencer headlined the second day of the Microsoft FTC trial, as he took the stand for nearly the entire session. Lawyers asked the Xbox head about a wide range of topics, including exclusivity plans for The Elder Scrolls 6, how Microsoft was worried Starfield would become a PlayStation exclusive, his commitment to Call of Duty on PlayStation, and more. Even though this is not related, Phil Spencer wore a suit and tie.

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