🔥 Unmasking Amazon's Dark Patterns!

🔥 Amazon Accused of Tricking Customers with Dark Patterns in Prime Subscriptions

If you’re an Amazon Prime member and have been trying to cancel your subscription, you’re not alone.

The FTC is suing Amazon for using dark patterns to trick millions of customers into subscribing to Prime and making it hard for them to cancel.

Dark patterns are sneaky ways of making you do things you don't want to, like buying extra stuff or sharing your data. Amazon allegedly used warnings, discounts, and a complicated cancellation process to keep you hooked on Prime.

This lawsuit marks the FTC’s most significant step yet against business practices that harm consumers using psychological gimmicks.

Rapid Rundown

• 🚨 FTC sues Amazon for using dark patterns to trap Prime members.

• 😠 Amazon allegedly used warnings, discounts, and a complicated cancellation process to keep customers hooked.

Apple Invites Developers to Shape the Future with VisionOS SDK for Vision Pro

Hey, are you ready create the next Angry Bird phenomenon?

Apple just announced that its visionOS software development kit is now available for developers who want to create content for Vision Pro.

The SDK is available at least half a year before the headset officially goes on sale in the U.S. for $3,500. Apple is hoping to drive excitement around the system by having a stocked App Store by the time it arrives in early 2024.

The SDK is built on top of familiar dev tools and Apple is hoping to lower the barrier of entry for existing developers. Apple will also open “developer labs” in various cities next month to help developers test their apps on the hardware.

Rapid Rundown

• 🍎 Apple launches visionOS SDK for Vision Pro headset.

• 🕶️ Apple aims to have a rich App Store for the $3,500 AR/VR system by early 2024.

💰 Twitter is Paying its Google Cloud Bills Again

Twitter has finally resumed paying Google Cloud for its services.

Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, helped get the relationship back on track and the two companies are negotiating a broader partnership that could include advertising and Google’s use of Twitter’s API.

Musk has been supportive of the new direction in the relationship. Twitter has paid Google Cloud about $200 million to $300 million per year and largely uses it for data analysis and machine learning.

Rapid Rundown

• 💰 Twitter resumes paying Google Cloud after a hiatus.

• 🤝 Twitter and Google explore a wider partnership involving ads and API.

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