On Thursday morning, bad news that many were fearing unfortunately came to pass, with Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie hit by major layoffs from PlayStation maker Sony, its publisher.

The cuts have affected "a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members." Additionally, it's been confirmed that some Sony workers that assist Bungie have been impacted by the workforce reductions as well.

Though the layoffs were, sadly, somewhat expected — Bungie announced the end of Destiny 2's live-service development last month, and it was recently reported that the developer would soon be struck with "significant" cuts — they're no less devastating for the studio's staff, and represent a large cutback of its resources from Sony.

Notably, separate from Sony CEO Hermen Hulst's memo to his employees on the matter, Bungie itself has also publicly shared a letter about the news to its fans and staff members, both former and current. I've embedded the post below, and the text of the letter has been included below that:

With great sadness, we are announcing a reduction in force as we reorganize Bungie.

As the leaders of Bungie, past and present, we recognize Destiny 2 fell short of expectations these past several years. Following our final content update to Destiny 2, and with our future projects still in early incubation, we unfortunately could not continue operating at our previous size.

We know this decision has a profound impact on the people affected, their families, friends, and teammates. While these changes are necessary to best position the studio now and for the future, that does not lessen the difficulty of this moment or the impact it has on those affected.

Later, we will share more about that future with you all but today is not that day.

Today, we wish to extend our gratitude and compassion to every member of the Bungie team who has been impacted and to those who remain.

We hope you will do the same.

— Bungie

This is the third and largest wave of layoffs that Bungie has faced after being acquired by Sony in 2022, with the studio also hit in October 2023 as well as in July 2024. At the time, 155 employees were shifted from the developer's workforce to Sony's as well.

The letter directly references Destiny 2's gradual decline throughout the last several years, which is all but assured to be the primary reason for the cuts we've seen. It's worth noting that recently, former Bungie and Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert asserted that "A lot of money didn't go into Destiny" due to leadership "greed," leading to a lack of valuable resources for the game's development.

She then reported the lack of adequate funding became so severe that the merger between Bungie and Sony was done as an "emergency acquisition," and that if the PlayStation publisher hadn't absorbed the studio, it would have been "very close to shutting its doors."

We may never know the exact truth of what's happened at Bungie, but one thing is clear: the studio's last few years have been quite tumultuous, and sadly, its employees have suffered as a consequence.

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Microsoft has quietly announced that Windows 10's extended support updates program will continue for an extra year, now until October 2027 for free if you sign-in to Windows 10 with a Microsoft account.

Originally, Windows 10's extended support program was only supposed to last one year, until October 2026 for consumers. However, a new support page published by Microsoft today has confirmed that the Windows 10 ESU program will now last until October 2027 instead.

"Windows 10 support has ended. You can enroll in ESU any time until the programme ends on 12 October, 2027. If you’re already enrolled, your coverage will automatically continue through that date—no action needed," says the support page.

All Windows 10 users that are already enrolled in the ESU program will get this extended year of updates automatically. You can enroll in the program for free by signing in with a Microsoft account, or pay for access via 1,000 Microsoft reward points or $30 USD.

Microsoft has likely extended support for Windows 10 by an extra year due to the ongoing RAM crisis, which has pushed new PC prices through the roof making them difficult to justify financially, especially if you already have a working Windows 10 PC.

There are still hundreds of millions of PCs running Windows 10, and with extended support originally ending this October, many people would have been without the latest security patches keeping their devices secure.

The Windows 10 ESU program is vital to ensuring a PC that is connected to the internet is secure. Microsoft is still updating Windows 10 with security patches through the ESU program, and not being enrolled leaves your device open to attackers that might be trying to exploit vulnerabilities in the Windows 10 OS.

The good news is if you're already enrolled in the program, there's nothing you need to do to remain supported until October 2027. Your PC will keep getting security updates automatically until that date.

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Microsoft and Xbox have experienced some high highs and low lows with its video game adaptations over the years, with Bethesda and Amazon's Fallout TV show and 2025's Minecraft movie proving to be huge hits while the live-action Halo TV series and Halo: Nightfall before it left most viewers extremely disappointed.

Overall, though, multimedia projects that draw from Xbox's gaming IPs have enjoyed more of a positive reception in recent years — and according to comments from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and other executives in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, there's "more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before."

"You won't see us try to become the biggest linear provider in the world or anything like that, but I think great games are culture, and culture is entertainment," Sharma explained. "If you think about it, we've got the number two show of all time on Amazon [Fallout], Minecraft was top 5 in 2025, Call of Duty is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it all measures. [There's] more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before."

The claim that the Call of Duty series is larger than Disney and Marvel's massive cinematic universe is a bold one, but from what I can tell, the math does actually check out; reported box office numbers put the MCU's lifetime revenue at about $32 billion, while all signs point to Call of Duty making over $35 billion across 500 million lifetime sales.

Now, you can certainly make the argument that the MCU is bigger in terms of cultural impact, but at least from a fiscal perspective, it does seem like Call of Duty has inched itself ahead of the film franchise that kicked off a renaissance of superheroes on the big screen.

That Sharma is confident enough to state so as fact speaks to Xbox's overall confidence in its video game IPs, and how viable they are as franchises to be adapted into other forms of media. Indeed, there is a Call of Duty movie from Paramount on the way, with the film recently getting its June 2028 release date confirmed.

In this very same interview, Xbox also confirmed that there's a live-action Sea of Thieves movie in the works, provided more details about the upcoming Gears of War Netflix series, and even seemed to express interest in taking another swing at a Halo adaptation.

We know a Wolfenstein show is coming to Amazon, that a Minecraft one is in the works with Netflix, and that a Fallout Shelter-inspired reality competition series is filming as well.

Microsoft's plans for multimedia Xbox projects beyond these are a mystery right now, but one thing is quite clear: the company is very interested in continuing to adapt its big-name gaming franchises to other entertainment mediums, and I have no doubts that we'll see additional shows and movies get announced and made in the coming years.

What are some of the Xbox properties you'd like to see Microsoft try and adapt to TV and film? Let me know in the comments below.

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Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar bet on generative AI isn't paying off as the company expected. Well, at least in the short term. In a not-so-surprising turn of events, shareholders recently sued the software giant, citing that it defrauded them by intentionally overhyping AI (via Reuters).

They further alleged that Microsoft failed to disclose a slump in cloud revenue while continuing to invest billions of dollars in building out AI infrastructure without tangible returns. The complaint was filed in federal court in Seattle by the Michigan-based City of St. Clair Shores Police and Fire Retirement System.

Per the class action lawsuit, Microsoft shareholders alleged that the company fueled investor enthusiasm by portraying a rock-solid partnership with OpenAI, despite its current fragmentation, alongside a strong Copilot rollout. They further contended that the tech giant failed to adequately disclose or downplayed the scale of resources, particularly the substantial financial commitments required to build data centers essential for developing advanced AI models.

However, Microsoft dismissed the shareholders' claims as being without merit. "Microsoft stands by the integrity of its public statements and will vigorously defend itself in ​court,” it added.

In case you missed it, Microsoft’s stock fell 25% in Q1 FY26, putting the company on track for its steepest quarterly loss since the 27% drop in late 2008. But it isn't budging. Microsoft is doubling down on AI, with plans to invest about $146 billion in infrastructure in 2026, which is approximately twice last year’s $88 billion.

Market analysts and experts warned that Microsoft could be facing its worst quarter since the 2008 financial crisis if it continues blowing money on AI that isn't meeting investor expectations for returns.

For Q2 FY25, Microsoft's earnings report revealed 39% revenue growth in its Azure and cloud business, meeting analyst forecasts but down from 40% in the prior quarter, and projected 37% to 38% growth in the first three months of 2026.

It's also worth noting that the company reported $37.5 billion of capital spending in its second quarter, up approximately 66% from a year earlier and above the $34.3 billion projection by analysts.

Elsewhere, Axel Rietschin, a former engineer on Azure Core Compute who worked at Microsoft for a year, and as a Windows Base Kernel engineer for almost a decade, revealed that the company rushed the product to the market to compete with Google and Amazon. Consequently, it led to a talent exodus and lackluster software. AI hype left Microsoft’s cloud fragile and struggling to compete.

There has been concern, especially among residents, about the construction of data centers in their localities, which seemingly prompted Microsoft's "Community-First" AI infrastructure approach, which addresses some of the issues raised by communities themselves, including reducing its water consumption and promising not to increase electricity bills.

More recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the company is developing a new cooling technology dubbed full immersion, which will address the high demand for water by data centers. As such, data centers will now need as little water for cooling as "what a single restaurant would use."

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Despite numerous affirmations that Fable was indeed coming this year, Matt Booty has unfortunately confirmed in a new Xbox podcast that the game has been delayed.

In the podcast, Booty states:

“We talked about Forza Horizon 6 and how the team at Playground is doing really well. Also doing really well on Fable. The game is in great shape. The team feels really good. We're excited about where the game is.

We want to make sure that that game has a window all to its own, so we are going to move it from this fall to February. And again, we really just want it to have its own moment to shine. And related to Fable, we will be seeing more of it in Showcase. So we're going to have plenty for people to see. It really is coming together well, exciting stuff, and then we're going to move to February.”

It's a shame to see, but with how packed this year already is, I'm sure many fans won't mind giving Fable a bit more time in the oven to ensure it's fully ready.

Alongside this announcement, Xbox also posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter), saying:

“This year is packed with incredible games for XBOX players to enjoy, from Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 to Control Resonant, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Grand Theft Auto VI. In order to plan our game launches through the holidays, in a way that works best for players, we’re moving Fable to February 2027 so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves. We’re excited to be giving players a major new look at Fable, as well as our broader lineup, at XBOX Games Showcase on June 7.”

I'm personally more than happy to give Fable the time it needs, but what about you? Are you gutted, happy to wait, or didn't care much for Fable in the first place? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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The first Snapdragon C laptop was just announced, but the PC is surrounded by question marks.

Qualcomm just took aim at Apple and the MacBook Neo by announcing Snapdragon C. The newly announced entry-level processor will power PCs that cost as little as $300, potentially reinvigorating affordable Windows 11 laptops.

Alongside Qualcomm's announcement of the chip, Acer shared details about the first laptop to run on Snapdragon C. The Acer Aspire Go 15 is the first Snapdragon C laptop to be announced, but that title deserves an asterisk.

Acer Aspire Go 15: What we know

The list of what we know is rather short: RAM, storage, screen size, and processor. That last point deserves a caveat of its own, since little is known about Snapdragon C.

Acer shared that the Aspire Go 15 will be available with up to 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage. The laptop will feature a 15.6-inch display, though we don't know that screen's resolution.

Acer promises "dual full-function USB Type-C ports," but it did not share any specifics. Similarly, we know the device will have an HDMI port but don't know which standard it will meet.

The Aspire Go 15 will be powered by a Snapdragon C processor, but that provides fewer details than you may expect.

Acer Aspire Go 15: What we don't know

We don't know the price or launch date of the Aspire Go 15. The Snapdragon C processor will power laptops starting at $300, but we have no indication how close to that mark the Aspire Go 15 will be.

When Apple announced the MacBook Neo's $599 price tag, the tech giant sent waves through the laptop industry. Before the MacBook Neo, anyone wanting a laptop running macOS needed to shop for older or used models. The MacBook Neo changed that and created an arms race for affordable computing.

We're now seeing the response to Apple's affordable offering. Intel's new Wildcat CPUs are affordable chips that will power MacBook Neo competitors. The Snapdragon C looks like it will do the same thing.

I say "looks like" because we don't know much about the Snapdragon C at this point. Qualcomm did not share any technical details about the chip except that the processor does not use Oryon cores.

Snapdragon C-powered laptops should get "all-day battery life," according to Qualcomm, but we don't have any benchmarks or figures.

With Computex around the corner, we may hear more details about the Aspire Go 15.

When will we find out more?

Qualcomm says Snapdragon C devices will debut "later in 2026," meaning we have some time to learn about the processors.

We may hear more details about some Snapdragon C laptops at Computex, which is next week. Acer and Qualcomm will both be at the event.

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Yesterday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand in US District Court in Oakland, California, where he testified about his relationship with Elon Musk, Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, and more. The executive indicated that he has never received a clear explanation from the company's board of directors why Sam Altman was briefly ousted as OpenAI CEO.

At the time, reports emerged suggesting that Satya Nadella was blindsided by the move. He further revealed that he wasn't told about the decision to fire Altman in advance, and was only pulled out of a meeting and informed about the ouster after the fact.

The board members had revealed that Altman wasn’t consistently candid with his leadership, operations, and efforts (via CNBC). However, Satya Nadella dismissed these claims, suggesting that there was more than meets the eye, further indicating that “[t]here may have been some jealousy … coming through.” — “It was sort of amateur city, as far as I’m concerned,” Nadella added.

Elon Musk has accused OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman of defrauding him out of billions of dollars that he invested in OpenAI using a fake humanitarian mission. He also added Microsoft to the fold, claiming that the tech giant helped Altman and Brockman defraud him.

Interestingly, Nadella testified that Elon Musk never reached out about issues with Microsoft's deal with OpenAI, although they have each other's phone numbers. He even showed the jurors an email Musk had sent him, thanking him for financial and computing support for OpenAI in 2016: "Very much appreciated," Musk indicated in the email. "Will make sure that people know about Microsoft's help."

Satya Nadella indicated that Elon Musk didn't raise any issues when the company initially made a $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019. Similarly, he remained quiet when the news broke that Microsoft's investment stake in OpenAI had risen to $10 billion.

Nadella indicated that he was “very proud” that Microsoft took the risk to invest in OpenAI when “no one else was willing” to bet on the ever-evolving technology and OpenAI. The Microsoft executive further revealed that the company took a $15 million loss by letting OpenAI use Azure at a discount to power ChatGPT.

With this in mind, Nadella's testimony in the ongoing Musk v. Altman trial, the billionaire only began complaining about Microsoft and OpenAI's partnership after he filed the 2024 lawsuit. This also seemingly supports the theory and speculation that Musk is a sore loser, as he tries to compete against ChatGPT with Grok.

Nadella was also questioned about his "It wouldn't matter if OpenAI disappeared tomorrow" remark amid tension between Microsoft and OpenAI. "We have the data, IP rights, and all the capability." —"We are below them, above them, around them," Nadella added.

The statement was viewed as "a new war slogan" by some of the executive's fans. While this might be used by Musk's legal team to support his premise about donating $38 million to a charitable cause, only for OpenAI to evolve into a for-profit venture, abandoning its founding mission.

While on the stand, Nadella indicated that he used the statement to calm concerns about Altman's sudden ouster as CEO. "It goes back to me trying to communicate as clearly as possible to customers that they can count on us," Nadella indicated, suggesting that Copilot and other OpenAI products would continue, regardless of OpenAI's situation. We'll see.

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In a rather surprising turn of events, the gigantic social media platform Reddit recently started blocking some mobile users from accessing its website in a blatant attempt to force them into downloading the official Reddit app instead.

While speaking to Ars Technica, a Reddit spokesperson indicated that: "We recently started running a test for a small subset of frequent logged-out mobile users that prompts them to download the app after visiting the site."

As such, if you try to visit reddit.com on your phone, there's a chance you'll see a pop-up asking you to "get the app to keep using Reddit." What's worse, it can't be dismissed. I decided to visit the website on my iPhone, and for now, it still works for me, so the change is likely rolling out in waves.

Reddit claims that the transition from the mobile website will improve its general user experience with better search, a personalized feed, and a better hold on updates from your favorite communities. Based on the complaints lodged by users across multiple subreddits and even X, it's safe to say that the move is unpopular among most of them.

Why Reddit blocked my daily visit to its mobile website. from r/technology

Interestingly, some users leveraged this opportunity to complain about other elements that they don't like about the platform, including its auto-refresh feature, which makes it hard to resurface critical posts once they disappear. Multiple users also complained about seeing repeat posts in their timelines, even after they had already upvoted them.

It seems rather odd that a platform that started as a website wants to fully transition its users to using the app. What about traffic? It doesn't seem like a big deal to Reddit, as is the case with other social media platforms like X and even Instagram. The service seeks to determine whether users who previously used the platform without logging in have a better experience with the app.

"if Reddit forces us to download an app, then I just won't use Reddit anymore," a user indicated. "Dystopian shit," another user lamented in the r/enshittification subreddit. "iI Reddit forces us to download an app, then I just won't use Reddit anymore."

Right now, Reddit boasts approximately 121 million daily active users. However, despite its massive user base, the platform has struggled to establish a clear path to monetization, especially after it went public on the stock exchange a little over two years ago.

The site heavily depends on ad revenue as its bread and butter, which potentially explains its sudden push to convert its users into the mobile app. Perhaps part of the company's broader (if unintentional) "enshittification" to get a better hold and access to track user activity and potentially maximize profit.

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Windows 11 is being revamped, and Microsoft is here to show that it's keeping its promise. Windows K2 is an ongoing effort by the company to improve Windows 11, rebuild user trust, and shake off the negative sentiment surrounding the operating system.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the tech giant is "doing the work required to win back fans across Windows and Xbox." A Windows blog post by Marcus Ash details some of that work.

"Two themes have stood out in my conversations with you. First, you want more transparency. You want to see what we’re doing, understand our decisions, and see progress through shipping. Second, a shared sense of pride. We want to be proud of what we build, and as Insiders, you’re proud to be the first to guide us with your feedback. When we get it right, we celebrate together. When we don’t, you push us to improve."

Since committing to improve Windows 11, Microsoft has restructured the Windows Insider Program, promised fan-favorite features, and started testing some long-awaited improvements. Ash's blog post highlights the following features and changes that have started rolling out to Windows Insiders:

• Clearer controls for Windows Insider features
• Smoother Windows Updates with less disruption
• A simplified UI for inbox apps
• Faster and more reliable File Explorer performance
• More control over widgets
• Improved overall system performance

Since these are all rolling out to Windows Insiders, we've already touched on them. But Ash's post serves as a quick recap that illustrates real change happening at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

One of the first major changes was rebooting the Windows Insider Program. With clearer channels that make sense, transparent options for enabling or disabling features, and a simplified experience for moving between channels, Insiders are more likely to test features and send feedback.

It's smart of Microsoft to revamp the Windows Insider Program first, since ignoring feedback is a large reason user trust in Microsoft eroded.

Looking ahead

Ash teased what's ahead for Windows 11:

"I’m excited to share more on that work later this month, including how we’re improving Taskbar and Start, as well [as] the work underway to enhance Search."

Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden shared that Microsoft will rebuild the Start menu from scratch with WinUI 3. The new Start menu will be up to 60% faster and more responsive.

There will also be more customization options for the Start menu. Microsoft reportedly plans to get rid of ads in the Start menu as well.

It seems like we won't have to wait long to see some of those changes enter testing.

We'll update our Windows K2 status tracker as more features enter testing and roll out to everyone.

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In just 60 days, the Windows Central subreddit — r/windowscentral — has grown to more than 1,000 members (it's actually 1,100+), and the energy there has been incredible. If you haven’t joined yet, now’s the perfect time.

We first announced the new subreddit two months ago and have been slowly ramping up features and content for it, with much more to come.

Reddit gives us something unique: a place where readers, enthusiasts, power users, and longtime community members can talk directly with us and with each other. It’s fast, unfiltered, and built for real conversation. Whether you’re into Windows, Surface, Xbox, laptops, handheld gaming, AI, or the broader PC ecosystem, you’ll find people who share your interests and aren’t afraid to dive deep.

But this subreddit is also part of something bigger.

We’re building a community that doesn’t just react to the news — it helps shape it. Your feedback, your experiences, and your frustrations matter. And as a publication that’s been covering Microsoft for nearly 20 years, we want to make sure your voice is heard by the companies building the products you rely on.

Over the coming months, we’ll be rolling out more ways to participate, including:

• AMAs with editors, contributors, and industry guests
• Community-driven polls and feature requests
• Opportunities to influence what we cover next
• Events and discussions tied to major launches and updates

Not to mention, if you post something cool, interesting, or engaging there ... there's a good chance we're going to share it here for everyone to see.

If you want to be part of a growing, passionate, and genuinely influential community, join us on Reddit. Help us build something that reflects the people who care most about Windows and the Microsoft ecosystem.

👉 https://www.reddit.com/r/windowscentral/

See you there!

Help Shape What Comes Next

We’re building this community with you, not just for you. Tell us what features, tools, or coverage areas you want to see next — whether it’s deeper Windows tips, more Surface reporting, handheld PC coverage, Xbox insights, AI guides, or something totally new.

What should we build for you next? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Xbox has gone through quite the transformation over the past weekend, and it'is going to take time to adjust. The new CEO of Xbox, Asha Sharma, recently sat down with Jez Corden here at Windows Central to discuss her new role, along with comments she made on X, formerly Twitter, about wanting a "return to Xbox".

Sharma has now clarified what that actually means.

In the interview, she explained her thinking, saying, "For me, the spirit of 'Return to Xbox' is about returning to the spirit that the team was founded on, it's that spirit of surprise, it's the spirit of building something nobody else was willing to try — I've heard 'renegade,' 'rebellion,' and 'fun' used".

Sharma also doubled down on hardware, stressing how important it is to Xbox's future. At the same time, she spoke about valuing the 25 years or more that fans have invested in the platform, and how those players remain central to what Xbox is supposed to be.

That is all well and good, but what did you think? It's interesting to see how our readers reacted.

The community is split on Asha Sharma's plan

Community reactions to Sharma’s “return to Xbox” comments, and her follow-up clarification, are mixed. That is, perhaps, not surprising given Xbox’s current reputation and recent leadership changes.

Our recent poll above asked readers how they felt about Sharma’s comments on Xbox hardware. The results currently show a slightly more optimistic outlook, with 36% of voters saying they are cautiously optimistic, followed by 27% who are skeptical.

On our r/WindowsCentral subreddit, one of the top replies argues that many players have already moved on from Xbox to PlayStation or PC. Pulling back from the current multiplatform approach, according to that view, would only alienate more fans.

Several replies agreed with that concern, but not everyone saw it the same way. One pushed back, responding: "If they don't pull out of it, nothing will be an Xbox because the Xbox division will be gone. To make an omelette you need to crack a few eggs."

And “crack a few eggs” may well be what Sharma is prepared to do, if her comments about exclusivity eventually translate into meaningful strategic changes. For context, when asked about exclusives, Sharma actually said:

While some believe it is simply too late to reverse course, others are taking a more optimistic approach. A few users suggest that Xbox could adopt a strategy closer to Sony’s, focusing on timed exclusives rather than launching games day and date on competing platforms. Even those voices admit a full return to strict exclusivity feels unlikely.

That broader sentiment runs throughout the thread. Many want stronger Xbox exclusives to create a clear reason to invest in hardware, yet there is also recognition that the market may have shifted too far for that model to return in its original form.

Of course, there are also more extreme reactions. One user on r/WindowsCentral argues Microsoft should cease to exist entirely, claiming it has damaged Windows and the wider tech industry. Others agreed, though abandoning the platform outright would leave millions of players with libraries and purchases in limbo.

I also have to mention u/Johnicorn, who brought up Scalebound. It seems that even in a post-Phil Spencer era and a broader strategic reset, the calls for a Scalebound revival are never far away. I have to admit that one made me chuckle.

On a serious note, all this taken together, the discussion shows just how divided and emotionally invested the Xbox community remains right now, and that’s just within our community.

It is still early days for Sharma, and we will not truly know what her vision for Xbox looks like until we start seeing actions rather than words. For now, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds and whether Xbox can genuinely rebuild trust and momentum with its fans.

🗨️ Passing it back over to you!

What does “return to Xbox” mean to you? Should Xbox double down on exclusives, stick with multiplatform, or find a middle ground? Let me know in the comments section or over on Reddit!

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Xbox has undergone a major shakeup as CEO Phil Spencer, who ran Xbox for more than a decade, announced his retirement on February 20. His replacement? Nope, not Sarah Bond, the Xbox President who worked alongside Spencer for nearly 10 years. Her leave from the company was also announced at the same time as Spencer's.

Instead, it's Asha Sharma who's filling Spencer's Xbox CEO role. Sharma, who's been with Microsoft for a couple of years after successful runs at Meta and Instacart, has a monumental task ahead, and I can only wish the best personally and professionally.

👉 Exclusive: Talking to new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty — "This team has brought it back before, and I'm here to help us do it again."

But let's turn back to Sarah Bond and her role — or lack thereof — in the new future of Xbox. When the Microsoft memo regarding Spencer's retirement went out, it contained messages from plenty of big names, including Satya Nadella and the new CEO, Asha Sharma. Missing were words from Bond herself.

It's believed that the announcement was rushed due to the story leaking out to the press, which could explain why Bond and her team seemed to be caught off guard. However, according to one report, it was more than just a rushed delivery.

It turns out that Bond's Xbox direction wasn't liked by a lot of Microsoft employees. I'm talking about the "Xbox Everywhere" campaign, which was created a month after Bond took over the Xbox marketing team. According to Tom Warren writing for The Verge, "it was a confusing campaign, and I'm told it offended many Xbox employees internally."

Warren adds that "most of the current and former Xbox employees I've spoken to in recent days are relieved that Bond is leaving Microsoft. I’ve heard from multiple sources that Bond has been tough to work with and built a team structure that meant if you didn’t follow the vision or questioned it, you were out."

Bond was instrumental in the growth of Game Pass, Play Anywhere, and cloud gaming. I don't think she should be taking all of the blame for the "This is an Xbox" campaign that even our resident Xbox aficionado, Jez Corden, said "doesn't make sense."

It's interesting to see what our readers think about this story.

Windows Central readers react to Sarah Bond's Xbox departure

Reactions to Sarah Bond's departure and the ensuing reports about employee dissatisfaction are all over the place.

On our Windows Central subreddit, the top comment demonstrates concern over whether or not Play Anywhere will stick around now that Bond is gone.

Comment from r/windowscentral

One reply to this comment points out that Bond's job was to broaden the Xbox ecosystem, whether employees liked it or not, and that Asha Sharma will likely be tasked with the same objective.

The topic of Sharma's AI background is also mentioned. There are concerns that Sharma was given the lead Xbox role in order to better implement AI in gaming, which doesn't sit well with a lot of people.

Comment from r/windowscentral

Plenty of comments make a positive case for Bond's time at Xbox, pointing out that "she didn't work in a silo" and that "there is no way she was able to unilaterally decide on the everything is an Xbox strategy."

Another commenter suggests that Bond is being scapegoated, as there's no way that there weren't higher-ups who needed to sign off on these types of "unusual and risky" strategies.

Over in the article's comments section here on Windows Central, the discourse is largely divided down the same line, with some understanding the logic behind canning Bond and others worrying that the new execs won't do a better job.

One reader states that "Xbox moving toward multiplatform is actually what saved the brand," while another says that they "really like the product" that Bond and Phil crafted. On the flip side, some say they won't miss Bond while also believing that an AI executive isn't the right answer.

Our poll attached to the Sarah Bond report asks readers' reactions to Microsoft's major Xbox shake-up, and the current front-runner with 37% of the votes is "Concerned — losing Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond is a lot at once. In second place, with 28% of votes, is "Neutral — too early to tell what this means for Xbox."

We probably won't ever know exactly what happened behind the scenes at Xbox, but one thing is clear. There's a lot of concern over the past and future of the platform, and it will be very interesting to see the path that Xbox takes under the guidance of the new CEO.

🗨️ Let me know what you think!

Have something meaningful to add to the Xbox conversation? Worried about the future? Worried about the past? Let me know in the comments section!

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

As Editor‑in‑Chief of Windows Central, I’ve spent years watching our community evolve—through comment sections, Discord servers, Twitter threads, and every corner of the internet where people gather to talk about Microsoft, Windows, Xbox, Surface, AI, and the broader PC ecosystem.

But Reddit has always been a special kind of space: fast, conversational, self‑organizing, and brutally honest in a way that keeps coverage sharp and communities vibrant. That’s why launching our new subreddit, r/windowscentral, feels like the natural next step in strengthening the relationship between our newsroom and the people we serve.

Reddit users already know the value of a well‑run community. Subreddits thrive when they become hubs—places where news breaks quickly, where analysis gets challenged and refined, and where people with shared interests can actually talk to one another rather than shout into the void. Following Windows Central on Reddit taps directly into that energy. It gives you a front‑row seat to the stories we’re covering, the debates we’re having internally, and the trends we’re tracking across Microsoft’s ever‑shifting universe.

One of the biggest advantages of joining the subreddit is speed. Reddit is where conversations happen in real time. When Microsoft drops a surprise Windows build, when a new Surface leak appears, when Xbox makes a move that sets the gaming world on fire—our coverage will be there, and so will the community’s reactions. You can jump into the thread, add your perspective, challenge ours, or help surface angles we should be exploring.

That kind of feedback loop makes our journalism sharper and more grounded in what real users care about.

Another reason: visibility matters. The tech media landscape is changing fast, and platforms like Google are shifting in ways that make it harder for independent outlets to reach the audiences that rely on them. Reddit gives us a direct line to readers without an algorithmic middleman. When you follow the subreddit, upvote posts, or participate in discussions, you’re helping more people discover our reporting. That support translates into a healthier, more sustainable Windows Central—one that can keep producing the news, reviews, and editorials you depend on.

There’s also the community factor. Windows Central has always had a passionate readership, but Reddit lets us bring those voices together in a way that’s more dynamic than a comment section. You can share your setups, troubleshoot problems with other enthusiasts, post memes about Windows updates breaking something again, or dive into deep technical threads about hardware, AI, or gaming performance. It’s a place where novices and power users can coexist, learn from each other, and build something that feels genuinely collaborative.

And finally, following the subreddit is simply a great way to stay connected. We’ll be sharing behind‑the‑scenes insights, polls, AMAs, editorial debates, and community‑driven prompts that help shape what we cover next. If you’ve ever wanted a more direct line to the newsroom—or a place where your voice can influence the direction of the site—this is it.

So if you’re a Reddit user, I’d love to see you join us at r/windowscentral. It strengthens the community, supports the site, and gives you a seat at the table as we navigate the future of Microsoft, Windows, and the tech world together.

Thanks for your continued support, especially as we approach our 20th anniversary in 2027!

8:55 AM ET: Reddit is operational again, but not at full capacity. A fix is being monitored, and most functions have returned.

A significant chunk of the web went dark this Monday morning, as AWS downtime took most of the internet with it. Productivity apps like Zoom, Slack, and even popular games like Fortnite and Palworld were offline, or at least partially broken, as Amazon's server platform responsible for hosting the apps, services, and platforms suffered severe errors and outages originating from the East Coast of the United States.

The official AWS Service health page reported "significant signs of recovery," but its status shifted between "degraded" and "impacted", with the globally popular social media giant Reddit seemingly among the worst affected. The platform's home page, several of its subreddits, and even individual posts are regularly reporting a "too many requests" error message.

"Your request has been rate limited" isn't a particularly unique error, as it can be a legitimate response to users who have (even accidentally) flooded Reddit's servers, but this time, it's almost certainly related to Amazon's server downtime. The official Reddit Status page explains how its servers are "experiencing Issues with Reddit Infrastructure" despite a 100% uptime report — so the servers are up, they just aren't working properly.

It hardly needed any introduction, but Reddit nevertheless stands as one of the most popular "forums" for like-minded hobbyists, dedicated experts, and everything in between. Of course, that includes Windows users, and popular subreddits including r/Windows are out for the count.

Naturally, we have a gigantic collection of Windows 11 guides that answer practically every question and offer fixes for the most common bugs users might experience on their PC. However, Reddit remains a fantastic measuring stick for the popular consensus on Microsoft's operating system and everything connected to it.

Be honest — how many times have you ended a web search query with "reddit" in an attempt to find a more human angle? I get it, I do the same thing. Now that Reddit is down, it becomes even clearer how much of the web is AI-centric, with auto-generated summaries (often reportedly scraped from Reddit itself) and diversions away from genuine content. Still, Reddit recognizes the "elevated level of errors" and claims to be looking into the issue.

Over the past few years, technology has evolved into new realms that we never thought would be possible, including how we interact with the internet.

With the emergence of AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or even Microsoft Copilot, users are changing how they use the internet, and increasingly becoming more reliant on bite size, well-curated responses to queries rather than defaulting to traditional search engines like Google and Bing.

A former Google engineer claimed that the company had bigger fish to fry with OpenAI's "temporary prototype" search tool, SearchGPT than the antitrust ruling that deemed it an illegal monopolist in search. Interestingly, multiple studies suggest that the youthful population are using AI tools as their go-to source for information.

Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that he doesn't do Google searches anymore. He admitted that people have placed a high degree of trust in ChatGPT, yet it tends to hallucinate. "It should be the tech that you don't trust that much," the executive added.

Generative AI tools scrap their information from human-generated content and package it as their own with attributions tucked at the bottom of the page. However, a report suggested that top AI labs, including Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic won't be able to develop advanced AI models due to a lack of high-quality content for training.

The result? Poorly researched and misleading content. Even Reddit's co-founder Alexis Ohanian seemingly shares the same sentiments. While appearing in a recent episode of the TBPN podcast, the executive indicated that much of the internet today is dead. He indicated that it's due to the rise of bots and quasi-AI.

However, the executive shared an interesting idea that could potentially help make the internet more human:

"I think we‘ll see a next generation of social media emerge that’s verifiably human because it’s all going down in the group chats now—that is not novel tech. There’s got to be some next iteration of that, because that’s where all of us are getting our, really, best info now."

Ohanian further indicated that people are increasingly turning to apps for real human connection and interaction, with group chats notoriously becoming popular to serve this need. That said, AI has also begun infiltrating these platforms.

As it stands, the executive claims these group chats were the golden standard, but they weren't "novel tech."

Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemingly echoed similar sentiments, suggesting that the dead internet theory could become a reality within the next three years as bots and AI increasingly flood the web.

"I never took the dead internet theory that seriously, but it seems like there are really a lot of LLM-run Twitter accounts now," added Altman.

AI and bots are undoubtedly causing an unwelcome change on the internet, making it difficult for users to decipher what's real from what's fake.

Last year, a report emerged suggesting that top AI labs, including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, would be unable to develop next-gen AI models due to a lack of high-quality content for training.

While top executives in the landscape, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, dismissed the claim, citing that "there's no wall" to the development of advanced AI models, Anthropic recently found itself between a rock and a hard place over copyright infringement-related issues with Reddit.

Reddit filed a complaint in a Northern California court against Anthropic, claiming that the AI lab used its data to train its models without authorization or compensation. The social news and discussions website alleged that Anthropic unlawfully used its data for commercial purposes more than 100,000 times since July 2024.

While speaking to TechCrunch, Reddit's Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Ben Lee indicated:

“We will not tolerate profit-seeking entities like Anthropic commercially exploiting Reddit content for billions of dollars without any return for redditors or respect for their privacy.”

As you may know, Reddit has a licensing deal with Google and OpenAI, which allows the companies to leverage the website's wealth of content and discussions to train their flagship AI models. Interestingly, both companies are subject to certain terms designed to protect the user's interest and privacy.

Reddit reiterated that it doesn't have such an agreement with Anthropic, the developers of Claude AI, as highlighted in the filed complaint, suggesting that the AI lab is acting in bad faith. Reddit indicated that it reached out to Reddit to relay the message, but the AI lab reportedly "refused to engage."

According to Anthropic spokesperson Danielle Ghighlieri:

“We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Reddit claimed that Anthropic has no regard for the website's rules or users. Instead, "it believes it is entitled to take whatever content it wants and use that content however it desires, with impunity."

As such, the website is requesting a court order to bar Anthropic from scraping its data without authorization or compensation. In addition, it is also seeking compensatory damages and restitution for the gains Anthropic made by illegally scrapping its data.

The issue of copyright infringement is not uncommon in the AI landscape. Microsoft and OpenAI have been dragged to court several times over the same issue, but they argued that copyright law doesn't necessarily prohibit the training of AI models using copyrighted content.

Even CEO Sam Altman admitted that it's impossible to develop ChatGPT-like tools without copyrighted content. This isn't the first time Anthropic has been in the spotlight over copyright infringement. Last year, three authors filed a lawsuit against the lab after Claude AI allegedly stole their copyrighted content on a "large scale."

• Reddit recently launched Reddit Answers.
• It's a new AI-powered search experience for the platform.
• Reddit Answers is rolling out to a limited number of users.

Ever since Google was deemed an illegal monopolist, competition in the search landscape has seemingly gotten stiffer. A former Google engineer warned that the company would have bigger fish to fry with competitors like OpenAI's temporary prototype search tool SearchGPT.

The engineer further indicated that Google should be more focused on emerging competition than monopolistic ruling coupled with the pending regulation from the US antitrust watchdogs.

Now, Google may have more competition to deal with in the search landscape following Reddit's launch of a new AI-powered search tool. Reddit Answers is designed to make it easier for users to find information on the social networking platform.

Like other AI-powered products like Copilot, Google's AI Overviews, and more, Reddit Answers will generate detailed and curated responses to queries alongside links to the source. However, unlike other products that use cross-platform sources, Reddit Answers will link back to Reddit's communities and posts as its source.

Reddit Answers is rolling out to a limited number of users in English in the US. The company plans to roll out the tool to more regions and in more languages in the future. It can already be accessed on the web and iOS as the company continues to work on the Android version.

According to Reddit:

“People know that Reddit has answers, advice, and perspectives on almost anything they're looking for, and AI-powered search is part of our longer-term vision to improve the search experience on Reddit – making it faster, smarter, and more relevant.”

The Verge's Jay Peters had the opportunity to try out Reddit's new AI-powered experience and detailed it as follows:

"There’s a big box to ask a query, but the initial Reddit Answers page also floats a bunch of suggested searches you can click on, like “favorite Nintendo character of all time,” “best mystery novels of 2025,” and “tips for flying with a baby for the first time.

I clicked that last one, and the tool quickly pulled together a list and some bulleted suggestions with hyperlinks on the text and an arrow to click to see the source of the information. When you click either, a sidebar pops up showing the exact post where the information comes from."

Google's AI Overviews stacks miles behind in comparison

Google offers an iteration of Reddit's AI-powered answers feature. Google's AI Overview feature has received backlash since it was launched. It started when the tool bizarrely recommended eating rocks, glue, and potentially even committing suicide, despite acquiring exclusive rights to Reddit content to power its AI.

The company quickly addressed the issue by implementing several policies, including triggering restrictions for queries where AI Overviews were deemed unhelpful. Google shifted the blame for the bizarre incident to a 'data void' of contextual topics coupled with faked screenshots.

Despite Google's blatant attempt to address the AI feature's issues, it was spotted making an erroneous mistake in October. It listed a game developer's personal phone number as the main contact for a studio he hasn't worked at for over eight years. The error led to the developer receiving an irate phone call from a parent complaining about content in a game their child plays that he worked on.

Reddit's new AI-powered feature isn't Google's only problem. In November, OpenAI launched ChatGPT search to compete with Google by providing fast, clear, and direct answers to queries featuring relevant web sources. Before its launch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman indicated there's room to make search better than it is. Following its release, users have started branding the AI-powered search engine as "Google's killer."

What you need to know

• Last week, it was reported that Reddit was blocking Bing, but not because it had an exclusive deal with Google.
• Google’s deal with Reddit is reportedly worth $60 million, and as a result, it can use its AI tools on Reddit to enhance Google search results.
• Now, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says Microsoft refuses to negotiate with them and that blocking Redmond has been a “real pain in the ass.”
• Ironically, OpenAI’s new SearchGPT does agree with Reddit and can show search results.

Another week and more drama between modern tech giants Microsoft and Reddit (and we’ll throw OpenAI and Google into the mix). Last week, it was reported that Microsoft’s Bing search engine is not surfacing AI-powered summaries (or, at least, not as much as it used to) because it did not reach a deal with Reddit to use the data.

However, while that is accurate, the original Reddit PR comment implied that there were negotiations between Microsoft (and AI search rivals Anthropic and Perplexity). The companies merely had not reached a deal, noting, “… We have been in discussions with multiple search engines. We have been unable to reach agreements with all of them, since some are unable or unwilling to make enforceable promises regarding their use of Reddit content, including their use for AI."

Now, Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman is being blunter, claiming in a recent interview with The Verge that Microsoft refuses to negotiate with the massive online site, suggesting that it doesn’t want to pay a dime for the data.

That’s a very different spin from "unable to reach agreements". 

Microsoft has not responded to The Verge about the claim so far, leaving some skepticism on the table until it does.

Moreover, Huffman says it’s “a real pain in the ass to block these companies” from scrapping its site for data to train its AI. For its part, Microsoft is respecting the robots.txt standard which blocks companies like Microsoft from scrapping Reddit’s data.

Where all of this goes remains to be seen.

If Microsoft wants to be taken seriously as a search engine, ignoring Reddit and giving users one more reason to use Google will seem counterintuitive to growing marketshare.  On the other hand, once Microsoft reaches a deal with Reddit, it will likely have to deal with all digital publishers (including Future plc, owner of Windows Central), which is a great thing for publishers but bad for Microsoft’s bottom line since it is getting all the data for free.

Even Microsoft's big AI partner, OpenAI, is able to use Reddit's data as Huffman notes it reached a deal with the company earlier this year for its recently-unveiled SearchGPT engine.

Indeed, investors are getting a bit antsy with Microsoft’s heavy investment in AI but with little return. And companies like OpenAI are feeling a financial pinch as the cost of scaling outpaces the adoption of recurring revenue streams as consumers see little value. A recent study indicating that 30% of AI projects might be abandoned after proof of concept by 2025 also does not help the case.

So, will Microsoft end up paying? We'll have to wait and see.

What you need to know

• Reddit has blocked Bing from crawling the social media site.
• The change took place on July 1, 2024, after which Microsoft's AI tools had to stop crawling Reddit to index content.
• It appears that all search engines apart from Google are now unable to scrape Reddit for data, which means those search engines cannot show results from Reddit's website.

Bing will no longer show search results from Reddit. If you navigate to Microsoft's search engine and try to filter results to be from Reddit or simply include Reddit in a search query, you will not be presented by any results from Reddit's website from the past week. The same thing happens if you try to get Reddit results from DuckDuckGo or other non-Google search engines.

Reddit now includes a robots.txt file that says sites are not allowed to scrape data from the website. You can check out the specific page that mentions scraping to see the code in question.

Microsoft confirmed the change in a statement to Search Engine Land:

"We respect the robots.txt standard. Bing stopped crawling Reddit after they implemented their updated robots.txt file on July 1, which prohibits all crawling of their site.”

Despite the change file, Google is able to display search results from Reddit. A Reddit spokesperson told The Verge that Bing being blocked is not related to Reddit's partnership with Google:

"This is not at all related to our recent partnership with Google. We have been in discussions with multiple search engines. We have been unable to reach agreements with all of them, since some are unable or unwilling to make enforceable promises regarding their use of Reddit content, including their use for AI."

Note that the spokesperson did not deny the existence of a partnership between Google and Reddit, just if the partnership is the reason for Bing being blocked. Google's deal with Reddit was reportedly worth $60 million and provides Google with real-time access to content from Reddit. 

A blessing in disguise?

Bing, and other search engines, have always been handy for searching topics on Reddit. In the past, I've found searching for content and adding "Reddit" to the search or specifically filtering results to be from Reddit has been effective. Search engines are often better at finding content than Reddit's built-in search functionality.

While crawling Reddit may be useful for finding specific Reddit threads or content, Bing not having access to Reddit may be a blessing in disguise when it comes to generating responses with AI. When Google gained the rights to use Reddit content for its search engine, Google recommended people eat glue to keep cheese on a pizza. Reports that Google recommended a depressed person jump off a bridge were worrying. Google also suggested people consume rocks daily, which is not sound health advice.

Thank you to Liam (@djsonicwarrior on X) for the tip about Bing being blocked by Reddit.

What you need to know

• An emerging report indicates that Reddit is in the middle of a megadeal with an unnamed large AI company worth $60 million yearly.
• The deal could potentially allow the company to use the content from Reddit to train its AI models. 
• More details about the deal, the company's identity, and what it intends to do with the content it gets from Reddit remain unclear.

Generative AI is a hot topic in the technology landscape as more companies continue to warm up to it and integrate it into their workflows. In the past year and change, we've seen people using AI to unlock new heights and tap into new opportunities across education, medicine, computing, and more.

While this is impressive, there's a growing concern revolving around the safety and privacy measures in place to prevent AI from spiraling out of control. Adding to this, there's also the issue of companies like Microsoft and OpenAI stealing using copyrighted information to train their models.

At the beginning of this year, Microsoft and OpenAI were slapped with lawsuits over intellectual property theft by The New York Times and two non-fictional authors. The companies argue that copyright law doesn't forbid the use of copyrighted material to train AI models. 

Interestingly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that it's virtually impossible to create ChatGPT-like tools without using copyright material, further indicating that restricting the training of these tools to copyright-free material would create AI chatbots that cannot meet the average user's minimum requirements. 

The copyright restrictions explain the increase in reports of chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT getting dumber and Microsoft Copilot's (formerly Bing Chat) decline in accuracy. As it happens, a large AI company is reportedly in the middle of a new licensing deal with Reddit worth "about $60 million on an annualized basis," according to a spot by Bloomberg.

The deal could potentially lead to the unnamed company using Reddit posts to train its AI models, though details revolving around this deal remain slim and left to speculation. Reddit harbors credible information across its subreddits coupled with comments and interactions from avid users. As such, it's a gold mine and credible tool that can be leveraged to further enhance and improve the capabilities of LLMs. 

Compensation at last, but at what cost?

For what seems like an eternity, companies like Microsoft and OpenAI simply lift information from websites and package it as their own in bite-size form, with little regard for referencing to the source or even compensation.

It's only last year in December when it was reported that OpenAI was in the middle of a megadeal with German publisher Axel Springer, which will see it part tens of millions of euros in 3 years (A first, if you ask me). In return, the tech company will have access to articles (archived and current) from the publisher to train its AI models.

However, it remains uncertain what kind of reception this will get. Reddit has had its own fair share of issues and challenges over the past few years. You might remember last year's fiasco when the company announced its plans to start charging for access to its APIs. A move that led to thousands of forums being shut down in protest of the move, which consequently led to the crashing of the site.

What you need to know

• Reddit, a popular news aggregation and discussion site with over 50 million daily active users, is "going dark," with most of its subreddit communities choosing to enter private mode.
• Users are doing this to protest upcoming Reddit API price increases that will make it impossible for third-party app and bot developers to afford and maintain their services.
• Most users consider third-party Reddit apps must-haves, as the official app is clunky, slow, and laden with ads. Moderators also say bots are critically important for detecting and removing large volumes of inappropriate content.
• The "Reddit Blackout" is expected to last until June 14, though many subreddits plan to stay private indefinitely until Reddit's administration makes concessions.

Whether you've looked up answers to questions online, searched for communities and discussions to join, or simply like to keep up with the latest news stories, we're willing to bet good money that you've visited Reddit. Since it was founded in 2005, the forum site has become an invaluable resource for many, with over 50 million users using it actively on a daily basis. Right now, though, the vast majority of its subreddit communities have "gone dark" by entering private mode, a setting that stops people from being able to see the posts within.

You're probably wondering why this is happening, so let us explain: the Reddit Blackout is a protest against the site's plan to raise its API (Application Programming Interface) pricing that was announced on May 31. The new costs are so high that they'll force popular third-party Reddit apps like Apollo, BaconReader, Narwhal, Sync, and others to shut down at the end of June, with developers saying they'd have to pay well over $1 million per month just to keep the lights on — a price they simply can't afford. 

These apps are widely considered to be must-haves if you browse Reddit often, as they're designed to be clean, fast, and snappy, and often offer lots of nifty customization options. The official Reddit mobile app, by contrast, has long been criticized for its large size, slow speed, and the high number of ads it presents to users.

Notably, these costs will apply to many automated bots as well. These bots are used by subreddit moderators to detect and remove spam and NSFW (Not Safe-For-Work) content, as well as the accounts posting it. Therefore, many users are concerned that if bots become unaffordable, it will become significantly harder to keep inappropriate posts in check.

The community wrote an open letter to the site's administration in an effort to call attention to the issues that the new policy will bring, but so far, dialogue with Reddit's staff hasn't gone well. This is ultimately what prompted the Reddit Blackout protest, which is expected to last from now until June 14 for most subreddits. Some, though, have indicated they'll stay private indefinitely until Reddit makes concessions. You can learn more about the protest by heading to this post on the r/Save3rdPartyApps subreddit, which is ironically one of the few subs not in private mode right now.

The list of subreddits participating in the protest is incomplete and continues to grow, but among them are some of Reddit's largest communities. These include r/funny (40+ million subscribers), r/gaming (30+ million), r/memes (20+ million), and countless others across a wide range of themes and topics.

Reddit goes down during Reddit Blackout

While much of Reddit is blacked out due to the protests, the site itself is supposed to work normally. That, however, wasn't the case recently, as Reddit went down for roughly an hour and a half. Now, though, the site seems to be back online and can be used as you usually would.

It's unclear what the cause of the outage was. Perhaps the issue was caused by the blackout protest somehow. In any event, we'll keep this section updated with the latest information if the site goes down again.

What you need to know

• A massive group of subreddits are protesting Reddit by 'going dark' for at least 48 hours.
• Multiple Microsoft and Windows-focused subreddits are shut down temporarily as part of the Reddit Blackout.
• The protests are in response to Reddit increasing the cost of accessing its APIs, which has widespread effects on third-party apps, bots, and moderating content on the platform.

If you logged onto Reddit this morning, you likely noticed your timeline looks very different. Several of the biggest subreddits and hundreds of smaller ones are currently protesting in what's called the "Reddit Blackout." The protest involves subreddits shutting down from June 12, 2023 for 48 hours. Some have committed to staying blacked out longer.

Several Microsoft and Windows-related subreddits are part of the protest, including r/Windows, r/Windows11, and r/Windows10. The r/windowsinsiders, r/WindowsHelp, and r/MicrosoftTeams subreddits are also dark right now. Some communities, including r/Microsoft, are not part of the protest.

The protests are in response to Reddit increasing the cost of accessing its APIs. The price change resulted in the death of many popular third-party Reddit apps, including Apollo and Reddit is Fun.

Twitter user @FullMetaDuchess shared a graphic that runs through the context of Reddit's actions and the resulting protest.

Third-party apps provide a wide range of features and functionality that are not available through the official Reddit apps. For example, Reddit does not support features for those who are visually impaired.

Many moderators use third-party apps because they offer functionality that is not available through the official Reddit apps, such as fighting spam, captioning images, and managing subreddits.

Due to the Reddit Blackout, Microsoft and Windows-related news from the community may slow down a bit for a couple of days. Enthusiasts often turn to Reddit to share advice, ask for help, and break news.

We'll keep our finger on the pulse of Windows and Microsoft news through all the channels that are still live, so you don't miss any big stories during the Reddit Blackout.

What you need to know

• Reddit's recent rule change will increase the cost of accessing its API for third-party apps.
• Some developers have stated the costs of accessing Reddit's API will cause their apps to be "dead in 30 days".
• Massive communities, including r/videos, r/lifeprotips, and r/reactiongifs, plan to 'go dark' for at least 48 hours to protest the changes.

Reddit is one of the internet's largest and most notable forum communities with more than 50 million daily active users, but they may have upset a large chunk of that user base with new API rule changes. Following ill-advised footsteps from years previous, Reddit announced that it would be charging for API calls made by third parties, and the decision may lead to the shuttering of many beloved apps used by its diverse ecosystem of communities.

The API rule changes are not just financially risky, as Reddit has also announced that access to NSFW (Not-Safe-for-Work) content via API will no longer be an option. Without access to NSFW posts through API calls, the bots commonly used by moderators will no longer be able to filter problematic content. This has led Reddit's moderation community to band together with third-party app developers to protest the changes, as detailed in an open letter to Reddit's admin.

Don't Let Reddit Kill 3rd Party Apps! from r/Save3rdPartyApps

Christian Selig, the developer behind the popular Reddit third-party app Apollo, has said that the price changes to Reddit’s API calls would cost him nearly $20 million a year to keep the app afloat. The developer behind Narwhal has reported similar pricing, stating, "Unfortunately, it looks like narwhal will be dead in 30 days because it would cost me 1-2 million a year which I obviously do not have” [sic].

In response to the pricing concerns from developers, a Reddit employee posted in the r/Redditdev community with claims that Apollo was “less efficient than its peers and at times has been excessive.” Selig fired back that Apollo was not inefficient so much that it was popular, which was the justification for its high number of API calls. Apollo has been downloaded more than 4 million times since 2021.

Among the communities going offline starting June 12, a large portion of gaming and PC hardware-related subreddits will join the protest. This includes r/minecraft, which has more than 7.4 million members; r/pcgaming, with 3.2 million members; and r/gamedev, with its community of 1.1 million.

The shutdown of such a wide array of gaming communities will also come on the heels of major gaming showcases, including Summer Games Fest, the 2023 Xbox Showcase with Starfield Direct, and the Ubisoft Forward showcase. This is a time of exceptionally high traffic for Reddit as gamers congregate within their preferred communities to share clips and discuss the titles highlighted during these showcases.

The list of subreddits going dark is still incomplete and continues to grow as more communities agree to support the protest. The blackout will begin on June 12 and will initially last for 48 hours. However, many communities have agreed to remain dark if Reddit does not reconsider or otherwise address their position on the changes for API pricing, while others have planned to remain shuttered indefinitely.

What you need to know

• Reddit user ExoGeniVI shared screenshots of their Windows 11 desktop on the r/Windows subreddit, mimicking the default Windows 2000 theme.
• It was made possible with StarDock WindowBlinds, an app that customizes Windows 10 or 11 desktops alongside a user-made theme.
• The custom Windows 2000 theme was initially shared on WinClassic, a forum dedicated to bygone editions of Windows, created by user prozad94 in 2021.

As excited as I am for the future of Windows 12 and the possibilities for Microsoft to advance its world-leading operating system, I'm hopelessly hooked on nostalgia thanks to the heavy use of older versions during my childhood. User ExoGeniVI shared screenshots on Reddit of their Windows 11 desktop overhauled to resemble the solid-gray theming of Windows 2000, alongside installations of Internet Explorer 5.5 and Office 2000.

It made me feel warm and fuzzy but it wasn't a complete surprise. After all, I already use the same app responsible for theming Windows 10 or 11, Stardock WindowBlinds. The real icing on the cake included period-accurate software and games, with classic gems like Fallout and RealPlayer Basic gracing the desktop for a strong hit of nostalgia. Combining WindowBlinds with a theme shared on WinClassic by user prozad94 makes for a gross yet heartwarming trip down memory lane, and I'm here for it.

Despite the recent shutdown of Internet Explorer for modern platforms, the ancient 5.5 version miraculously still works, depending on your definition of the word. ExoGeniVI explained in the comments that although it can load many basic websites, it will never last as a daily driver. Still, it's a testament to Microsoft's efforts in backward compatibility, even if it mainly acts as a sort of museum antique than an actual tool.

Seeing Clippy spring back to life, albeit with busted transparency effects replaced by a garish pink square, was a delight, especially given my recent desire for the classic digital assistant to make a comeback. It's worth pointing out that although Stardock WindowBlinds offers simplistic variations on this retro theme, the sheer effort made by ExoGeniVI to customize Windows 11 to this insane degree was by no means painless, forcing them to run a complete system restore twice after some unfortunate missteps.

Windows 10 and 11 aren't explicitly designed to be personalized to this degree, hence the need for third-party software to wrangle your desktop into a desired aesthetic. However, I use a basic Windows XP-inspired theme on a secondary Windows 11 machine to remind me of happy memories made with the longest-serving desktop computer from my teenage years.

You'll need more than Stardock WindowBlinds to complete the authentic retro look, but it's currently the most straightforward method for instant theming satisfaction. I might be the odd one out on the Windows Central team, but I still adore the plain, boring, and flat-out colorless stylings of Microsoft's past. It's great to see others sharing the same love.

What you need to know

• Reddit recently relaunched a digital canvas called Place that allows users to collaborate to create content.
• Subscribers to the r/Place subreddit can swap out pixels on the canvas to create artwork.
• A group of Windows fans has added a taskbar to the bottom of the shared canvas.

Windows enthusiasts have added a taskbar to Place, a large digital canvas hosted by Reddit. First introduced in 2017 as an April Fool's Day joke, Place lets anyone swap out a pixel on a canvas. Through online collaboration, many people have come together to create pieces of art. Reddit relaunched Place on April 1, 2022.

As you would expect from any project that relies on the collective mind of the internet, Place has had a broad range of images appear since it went live on April Fool's Day. Everything from Star Wars prequel memes to sports teams logos have appeared on the canvas. Windows enthusiasts took to Reddit to add a familiar part of the operating system to Place, the taskbar.

At the time of publication, there is a taskbar spanning across most of Place along the bottom of the image. This could change, of course, since Place is still allowing people to make edits. At least for the time being, it appears that the collective mind of Reddit has agreed to let Windows fans keep the taskbar.

Rather than replacing the pixels added by Windows fans, Reddit subscribers have started creating artwork within the taskbar in Place. Icons for Internet Explorer, Linux, and League of Legends have appeared.

Place is set to stop allowing collaboration today, April 4, 2022 at 7 PM ET.

What you need to know

• An official Reddit app is now available in the Microsoft Store.
• It's a progressive web app that provides the same interface as installing the Reddit website through a browser.
• The official Reddit app is available on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Reddit is one of the world's most popular websites. It has an almost unlimited list of communities ranging from technology and news to the most niche topics. Now, people can browse Reddit through an official app on Windows 10. The app arrived in the Microsoft Store earlier this week and is a progressive web app (PWA).

Since the new Reddit app is a PWA, its interface will be familiar to anyone that's browsed the site on the web. While the experience provided through the Reddit app in the Microsoft Store is identical to what was already available, its arrival is still good for Microsoft. The company wants people to take the Microsoft Store seriously, so any big-name additions help meet that goal.

Reddit is one of many big-name sites and services to add an app to the Microsoft Store. Since the announcement of Windows 11, Zoom, OBS, Canva, and several other well-known apps have appeared in the Microsoft Store. While the Reddit app arrived after the announcement of Windows 11, it is also available on Windows 10.

If you don't like the official Reddit app, there are some popular third-party alternatives. I reviewed Reddit client Legere back when it launched in 2019. Readit is another popular Reddit app that's been around since the days of Windows Phone.

What you need to know

• Reddit users are making a list of features they believe are missing on Windows 11.
• Many of the listed features appear in previous versions of Windows.
• Windows 11 is still in development, so Microsoft may release some of the requested features.

Windows 11 will launch later this year, and while it improves upon Windows 10 in many areas, some believe that it's missing some features. A Reddit thread lists several features and options that people believe are missing from the new operating system.

Koken_halliwell shares the list of features they believe are missing from Windows 11:

• Drag and drop to Taskbar to open files with taskbar apps (WTF were they thinking when removing this??!). This is one of the main reasons that is preventing me to upgrade my everyday work PC.
• Move the Taskbar to whatever side we want (I use the left one).
• Combine only when the Taskbar is full (I need to see labels to work properly/efficiently). Also not combine at all for users who prefer it like that.
• Remove those ridiculous new "requirements" (I've tested myself my "unsupported" laptop works WAY better and faster with W11 than it ever did with W10). Not to mention the environmental disaster it's gonna supose to our already destroyed planet. And BTW despite I can, not everyone can afford a new computer just because MS wants to play [b*tchy].
• Folders in start menu.
• Opening another instance of an already running app by shift-clicking the icon in the Taskbar (I think it's ctrl+shift+click how I made that work in W11).
• Permanently remove the Recommended section and leave all that blank space for the pinned apps (I've always liked the idea of having an apps drawer in Windows besides the apps list). Maybe an option to swap the apps list for an apps drawer would be great (which will directly show up once you press the Windows button).
• I don't want her back but it's a shame the way Cortana ended and how useless she was in comparison to Alexa or other assistants. Anyway if she makes a comeback it should be 100% optional.

Commenters in the thread also mention a better way to set default apps, adding the option to uncombine folders and apps in the Taskbar, and supporting offline accounts for Windows 11 Home.

Since Windows 11 isn't finished, some of these features may make their way to the OS. Some features, like the option to move the Taskbar to any side of the screen, are more likely to arrive than Microsoft getting rid of the minimum requirements for Windows 11. That being said, we'll have to wait and see to find out what Microsoft has in store before Windows 11 comes out.

What features do you believe are missing from Windows 11? Do you think Microsoft will release any of the features people on Reddit are asking for? Let us know in the comments.

Reselling: Consumer right, or menace to corporations? That's the question underpinning every gray market on the internet, especially when it comes to software.

It doesn't matter what software it is: If it comes as part of a promotional bundle or is available as a key, it will be bought, sold, and traded online. There are numerous online venues for that sort of thing, ranging from eBay to extremely shady places such as G2A. But there's only one place with virtually no rules where your purchasing of a good is equivalent to attending a cyber garage sale: Reddit.

On the surface, Reddit is a place for dumb memes and arguments about politics. And, even if you scratch past the surface, that's still what the site's about. But if you dig deeper, you'll find communities for anything you could imagine, including those dedicated to buying and reselling legal copies of games and software for way, way below the manufacturer suggested retail price.

This series of subreddits, which will be defined as the Reddit gray market for the sake of conciseness, trade keys in exchange for other keys, gift cards, money — you name it. If someone wants feet pics in exchange for a copy of Outriders, it'll happen. Mind you, that sort of oddball transaction is just a hypothetical example, but if the buyer and seller are both up for it, anything goes.

Now, that might not sound too crazy (relatively speaking) in and of itself. But what if you could get Outriders on day one of its launch for a few bucks, or even just pennies? What if you could do the same with Resident Evil Village or any other AAA game on day one of its release?

That's where the gray market gets interesting. Thanks to numerous factors, including bundles and promotions saturating the market with copies of new AAA games and Redditors with little care for economic norms, just about anything can be yours for any price — if you find the right trader.

The Reddit gray market: How it works

As mentioned above, there are alternatives to Reddit — see eBay, or the G2A and Kinguin types of sites. Those will be discussed later on. But none of them hold a candle to what can be achieved via the Reddit gray market.

Here's how it works:

1. Traders acquire bartering ammo. This can take the form of free games bundled with GPUs, CPUs, and general gaming hardware ("buy an RTX notebook, get Outriders free," "buy an Intel Core i9 processor, get Marvel's Avengers free," and so on and so forth), leftover game keys gathered from sites such as Humble Bundle or Fanatical, Microsoft Office licenses, or anything else you can imagine being traded on a digital storefront. There are also subs for trading physical hardware if you want to bring real-life shipping logistics into the mix.
2. Traders find interested parties who are game to swap goods with them. The rules of what can be swapped are more or less nonexistent once both parties take the deal to private messages or chats, so you can imagine what kind of deals are possible. Want to swap your Steam trading cards for an actual AAA game, or some bizarre digital knick-knack for cryptocurrency? It's all doable.
3. The trade commences and, ideally, both parties get the goods they want at ridiculously low prices. However, as you might figure with a wild west marketplace such as Reddit, there are absolute boatloads of scammers and con artists looking to take advantage of rookies.

The whole process can, if both parties are keen and efficient, take less than 60 seconds. Not bad, right? And again, let's say you have a few leftover Steam keys from an IndieGala or Fanatical bundle — keys you're never going to touch, each with values of a few pennies or dollars. If you find an inpatient enough trader who wants those games and happens to have a promotional copy of a major, brand-new AAA title handy (like an NVIDIA-bundled copy of Outriders), then you can get ludicrous returns on your initial investment.

That "buy low, sell high" philosophy is all it takes. If you're crafty, you can keep re-trading games (a few pennies or dollars' worth of Humble Bundle leftovers, for example) for higher-value games until, all of a sudden, your three spare copies of Yoku's Island Express turn into a series of deals that result in you getting Resident Evil Village. That sort of thing takes time, timing, and skill, but it's possible.

The Reddit gray market: Risks and consequences

From the trader's perspective, there are two major dangers: Scammers and the companies from which legal software is acquired.

Scammers use a laundry list of tricks to bait newcomers into handing over valuable game keys and product licenses, including:

• Private messaging instead of commenting on public trade posts (because they're banned from the respective subreddit and can't comment).
• Imitating trustworthy traders with near-identical accounts.
• Forging duplicate versions of reputation pages where trustworthy users log their successful trades (similar to eBay buyer/seller feedback pages).

Given the ingenuity of the Reddit community, scammers invent new methods rapidly and at random. Still, the above items are easy ones to look out for (especially with regards to forged pages — you can check to see if the URLs they send you are static phonies or are actually bound to Reddit.com). There's also a trusty tool that a ton of communities on Reddit use in unison with each other to track and ban every scammer they come across, dubbed the "Universal Scammer List."

As for the other major danger to traders — the companies providing the goods themselves — they're not as easy to avoid. Companies such as NVIDIA and AMD have done their best to curtail reselling of promotional game copies by requiring hardware verifications and direct account sign-ins before a promo game can be acquired. Yet, even with keys placed behind multiple obstacles or keys being taken out of the equation altogether, traders still find ways to get these games to buyers and sellers via increasingly crafty workarounds.

Some companies take it further than just making things hard for traders, though. Some companies want to punish them. Take, for example, Humble Bundle, which is one of the core sites used to acquire tradeable games. Not too long ago, reports started cropping up concerning Humble Bundle outright banning users that it connected with trading activities and revoking keys thereafter, even if they'd already been redeemed by the trader's buyer.

Worse, those bans reportedly meant that if the user had keys in their Humble Bundle account they hadn't yet used, they'd be locked from them permanently. So even if they planned to use a few of them for personal use rather than trading, Humble Bundle would keep the funds spent on acquiring them while also cutting off access from the product paid for. It was a scary time in trading circles, by all accounts, with claims that the company was violating consumer rights laws as well as EU digital license reselling laws.

Why might Humble Bundle go so far in its efforts to end trading? It could be becaus reselling affecting the business' bottom line. After all, Humble depends on developers and publishers parterning with it. If those devs and publishers see their games ending up on reselling sites where they don't get even a penny of revenue from sales, and they determine Humble is at the center of the distribution headache, then why would they keep partnering?

Recently, Humble briefly made it so that charitable contributions on its site could only go up to 15% of each purchase's total price. That was a far cry from the previous options, which enabled up to 100% to go to charity for certain sales. Due to backlash, Humble almost immediately reverted to its original model, but the fact that such a change was envisioned in the first place says quite a bit.

Some attribute the change to "greed" on the part of Humble's current ownership (IGN). Still, there is another perspective: Have Humble sales gone down so much because of re-trading-spurred partnership losses that business realities are forcing the company's hand?

Humble Bundle's recent actions may have nothing to do with traders, but what if they do? After all, why have NVIDIA and AMD gone to such lengths to prevent promotional copy reselling, if not because the consequences on their ends are unsavory?

AMD, Intel, and Humble Bundle did not respond to requests for comment on this story. NVIDIA declined to comment. In response to questions regarding the reselling and trading of legally obtained licenses and keys of Microsoft products such as Windows operating systems and MS Office, a Microsoft representative sent a link to a Microsoft security blog post about counterfeiting and fraud.

The Reddit gray market: The people behind the digital curtain

What do a Polish food R&D worker, an Indian neuroscience assistant researcher living in Japan, and a Croatian in the paper-making business all have in common? They like to trade on Reddit.

Though it's possible to talk about the gray market as an amorphous body of ants raging against a corporate machine and manufacturer-suggested retail prices, it's not fair to the humans who make the gray market possible. They're regular people who just want to play some games and acquire digital goods at a price within their budget.

Take, for example, /u/dinkomaricic. He's from Croatia and has an occupation making the paper that's used in card boxes. He's not a commercial reseller or anyone looking to take advantage of economic systems for excessive gain — he simply wants to play legal copies of games at a price he can afford and has been doing so via trading for two years.

When asked about his stance on trading, given that it tends to violate companies' Terms of Service (such as Humble Bundle's), he kept it frank with me.

"I understand it's against T.O.S., but (biiiiiiiiiiig BUT), when those same publishers want to charge me 60€ for a new game & my monthly pay is 600€, then I have a problem with their T.O.S.," dinkomaricic said, raising a key point in defense of the gray market: In a world where even official regional pricing isn't enough sometimes, why shouldn't a person buy from a reseller to obtain a legal copy of a game? The alternatives are piracy or not having the software at all. Neither of those will have the publisher-side benefit of boosting the game's activity, analytics, and player count on, say, Steam.

dinkomaricic also had some choice words regarding major publishers and their pricing schemes, bringing up Activision CEO Bobby Kotick's supposed $200 million stock bonus amid mass layoffs at the company (as reported by Kotaku) when citing why he doesn't care about big companies' bottom lines. He mentioned he treats indie games differently when deciding how much he's willing to pay.

User /u/docxfamas, an Indian dental surgeon turned Osaka-based neuroscience assistant researcher after multiple slipped discs made practicing dentistry too physically taxing, had similar sentiments to dinkomaricic with regards to the benefits of trading. Speaking as someone who's been trading since 2017, he argued that Reddit's market allows people access to games at an affordable rate while helping bundle buyers dispose of games they're not going to use.

"Gaming companies have already got their share of money via trader when he buys the bundle/promo, and they actually get users who will play their game," docxfamas said, pointing out that a person who seeks out the game via a reseller is more likely to actually play and enjoy it than someone who just happens to end up with a key for it as part of a larger bundle.

When asked about issues with trading, he cited one that few others mentioned, pointing out that "the developer might revoke keys over disputes with the distributor and there is no proper way for users to compensate the other users." As with the mention of Humble revoking keys earlier, at the end of the day, the end recipient has no recourse if anything goes sideways since they didn't go through official channels to procure the product in the first place.

When asked about companies' Terms of Service and their efforts to suppress trading, docxfamas stated that suppression would possibly result in these companies losing him as a customer. "I probably will stop buying bundles altogether if they bring a full stop to game trading via their efforts." He added that he doesn't want the companies to stop their services, but he feels he has the right to do what he wants with the products he's paid for.

This presents an interesting dilemma for companies such as Humble Bundle. Do they dare risk alienating paying customers on the chance that said customers cost them more in reselling operations than they're worth to the bottom line?

I also spoke with the Polish food R&D worker /u/The1WhoKares, who's been trading since 2013. He explicitly mentioned Humble Bundle's banning practices and violation of EU digital reselling and trading regulations. However, he was upfront about the impact trading might have on companies.

"For publishers, game selling companies like Humble Bundle, etc. I don't see a positive at all," he said. "Consumers can trade or buy a game on /r/SteamGameSwap for a fraction of its price instead of buying it for $60 from Steam."

An Australian college student who goes by /u/AmiableAustralian also had thoughts on the negative side of trading. "I know of a few traders who buy dozens of games a day here for possibly the lowest prices around, only to sell them [...] using gray market resellers such as G2A or Kinguin for a tidy profit. It is clear to see how that can lead to the devaluation of game developers' hard-earned creations, and I am very sympathetic to their plight."

He also said something similar to docxfamas, pointing out that reselling crackdowns may have unintended consequences if applied indiscriminately and disproportionately.

"I do understand that reselling can severely damage companies, but I question whether in their attempt to prevent this damage they have overdone it on measures to crack down on reselling, as I question the damage that a small-time trader who only trades their legitimately purchased game for other legitimately purchased ones does."

He added a note about his impact on Humble's bottom line. "For me in particular, trading has benefited Humble Bundle, a service I am subscribed to. By being able to trade the games, I am not particularly interested in for ones I am has enabled me to stay subscribed to the service every month, even though more often than not in recent months, I would pause the service."

I spoke to many others who highlighted similar items to all of the above, including a Ukrainian freelancer who cited Humble's recent key revocation actions and violations of EU anti-monopoly hearing verdicts as grounds to say that "we are even" when it came to violating the company's terms of service. He said he started trading for personal game acquisitions around 2014 but eventually tried to make a profit as well.

The mention of trading for profit is not only where companies likely see the biggest issue, but so do some other traders because of what it does to the gray market. Meet Denis Joseph, a teacher from Prince Edward Island. Though most interviewees preferred to have their Reddit names used for this article, he went the opposite route.

"I feel like the scene has been taken over by a few people who run a monopoly on trades, taking all the fairly priced options for reselling, while leaving the common scraps for others," Joseph said, stating that he no longer participates in it as a result of the waning appeal.

I spoke with one of those large-scale traders, who replied on condition of anonymity, since revealing either their Reddit or real name in-article would potentially impact them in a tangible way. Off Reddit, they're an Arizonan web designer. On Reddit, they're a big trader of six years.

"Some traders, like me, profit from reselling, but the vast majority of users are just being resourceful and trading for what they want using whatever resources they have, and sometimes saving a buck," they said.

When asked about the morality aspect of violating companies' Terms of Service, they highlighted Humble Bundle's war on resellers. They said they didn't think that the Reddit gray market "impacts companies, game publishers, or game developers enough to be considered a threat or something they should invest resources into combating. If anything, it spreads awareness of sales, bundles, new games, etc., and it allows users who can't afford or obtain certain games to have an option if they have leftovers or unwanted games themselves."

If there was but a single thing that was universally agreed upon by all interviewed, it was that scammers abound and are the worst of the worst. There was palpable disdain from lots when discussing the types of people who would steal from folks just trying to get a new game or piece of software.

The Reddit gray market: Beyond Reddit

Reddit's not the only game in town. You can get insane software deals on other sites, the difference there being that companies are far more likely to get problematic item listings taken down before any real sales can be accrued.

Take, for example, eBay. If you strike at the right time, you can snag a Windows license or Office key for ridiculously low prices. You can even grab the latest editing software, up to and including sought-after Adobe products, for a few dollars apiece.

But those listings will go away quickly after they're posted, and if you don't get in in time, your opportunity is lost. They tend to originate from sellers in regions that benefit from huge regional pricing differentials, who then use said differential to sell to people in wealthier countries for dirt-cheap rates while still making a profit. Actions such as these are usually caught fast and swiftly moderated.

It makes sense that sites with more regulations and oversight will have more swift moderation. Therein lies the real benefit, and curse, of Reddit's gray market. It's not quite the same as, say, G2A, where the odds of a developer being hurt are high because keys are bought and sold en masse likely via stolen credit cards. Still, it's also not as judiciously monitored as the big sites wholly dedicated to sustainable market operations.

The Reddit gray market: Good, bad, or gray?

It's hard to tell how much corporations truly care about the little guy reselling goods since no company is keen on admitting how much money they're losing to a couple of fellows on eBay or Reddit. Perhaps the cost is negligible, and resellers are little more than a speck on the overall radar. Or, maybe they're a headache too big for certain business entities to feel confident publicly addressing.

But when weighing how corporations feel, it's worth thinking about how much good these gray markets do for ordinary people all across the globe, be they bargain hunters from Prince Edward Island or papermakers from Croatia who have to deal with a new game costing one-tenth of a month's income. Many people aren't in it for commercial purposes; they simply want to afford and enjoy software legally. And when all's said and done, is that truly such a bad thing?

What you need to know

• Reddit has unveiled Reddit Talk.
• It's a feature that allows communities to have live audio conversations.
• The feature will be opt-in at its start.

Ever wish you could say something to a Redditor that doesn't quite translate over text? Well, the wait's almost over now that Reddit Talk is on the way, Reddit's new live audio conversation feature.

The new feature was announced today on Reddit (via Engadget). There's already a waitlist for it on the announcement thread, in case you're a moderator who wants to be able to interact via a live voice call with your community. It's worth noting that only mods will be able to start Reddit Talks during the feature's testing phase, though Reddit has plans to expand the ability to host talks to "other trusted community members."

Reddit Talk is testing its customization features so hosts can choose different emojis and background colors for the sake of variety and community-specific flair. However, only time will tell what the full extent of said customization options really is.

As is mentioned in the Reddit Talk announcement thread, this feature has the potential to play a big part in how the site handles Ask Me Anythings (AMAs), which are sessions where someone of importance — relative to a given community — is asked questions by the community and answers them candidly. Reddit's AMAs vary from hosting major celebrities to adult film stars to random folks with interesting experiences to share, so which of them will remain in standard text form will be interesting to see.

One concern raised by /u/Crashdoom in the Reddit Talk announcement thread is that if any important AMAs happen via Reddit Talk, will someone have to voluntarily transcribe what's said to preserve the conversation, given that one of Reddit's main appeals is its "forever" quality that's made possible by the site's textual nature? Reddit's product lead for creators /u/signal mentions that "Once a talk ends, the Reddit post for the talk will exist (with upvote counts and comments) but users won't be able to listen to the conversation." Hence, the question of how dialogues will be preserved remains up in the air.

It remains to be seen how Reddit Talk will shake out, as well as whether it'll be competitive with Discord's Stage channels feature, or Clubhouse, the app that started the whole live audio chat frenzy in the first place.

What you need to know

• A number of popular subreddits have been vandalized with Trump 2020 messaging.
• Reddit says an investigation is underway "related to a series of vandalized communities."
• It appears compromised moderators may be the source of the attacks.

Reddit is investigating a number of hacked subreddits that were vandalized with pro-Trump messaging.

As reported by The Verge:

A spokesperson from Reddit told The Verge that it was investigating "a series of vandalized communities." According to the statement, Reddit believes the source of the attacks "were compromised moderator accounts" and is "working to lock down those accounts and restore impacted communities."

As the report notes, the full scale of the attack is unclear, but a list on the Subreddit drama page lists more than 50 accounts including:

• /r/49ers
• /r/Avengers
• /r/bostonceltics
• /r/Dallas
• /r/Disneyland
• /r/EDM
• /r/podcasts
• /r/rupaulsdragrace
• /r/space

According to the post, redtaboo has verified that "none of the accounts that were compromised had 2fa enabled at the time". In a Reddit moderator post the company said:

Reddit says it has since started messaging affected communities.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has introduced Reddit account linking for Xbox Live on PC.
• Xbox Live and Reddit account linking allows users to display account credentials on their profile via the Xbox Game Bar and Xbox beta app for Windows 10.

Microsoft has rolled out new Reddit account pairing capabilities on Xbox Live, merging its gaming platform with the news aggregator and social site. It joins a steadily growing range of third-party social networks and services already mergeable with Xbox profiles, including Facebook, Steam, and Discord. The integration allows users to showcase their Reddit credentials direct from Windows 10's revamped Xbox Game Bar and Xbox beta application.

Reddit account linking is currently bound to Windows 10 PCs, pairing with the Xbox Game Bar and new Xbox app. Amid the continued expansion of PC gaming efforts, including Xbox Game Pass, the overlay and app have become experimental platforms for future Xbox Live features. As a result, Xbox Live is rapidly evolving as a social hub for Xbox gaming, likely to be reflected on consoles as Xbox Series X approaches.

The integration provides the opportunity to display your Reddit account on Xbox Live, indicated by a small icon for your profile card. Reddit profiles will similarly gain a new badge once linked, while automatically subscribing to the official Xbox Insider subreddit. However, account linking currently features no sharing capabilities, as seen with some social networks on Xbox Live.

The new Reddit account linking feature is now live for those Windows 10's May 2019 Update, via the new Xbox Game Bar and Xbox beta app.

No matter what you love, there's a subreddit for it. From news to memes, Reddit feels like the pulse of the internet. Legere is a third-party Reddit client that allows you to enjoy more content without jumping around. It has built-in support for YouTube videos, Imgur albums, and webpages that are all common types of content on Reddit. It also supports a long list of Windows 10-specific features such as Live Tiles, Timeline support, and actionable notifications.

Legere has a free version as well as pricing tiers that range up to $10. The app is in beta so you might run into some bugs, though I had no issues during my testing.

All-in-one Reddit

Legere

Free

Bottom line: Legere is an impressive Reddit client that supports external media. As a result, you don't have to leave the app to enjoy the web.

Pros:

• Supports external web content directly within the app.
• Has many Windows 10-specific features.
• Supports multiple accounts.

Cons:

• Has a crowded design.
• Has a complex pricing system.

• See at Microsoft

What you'll love about Legere

Legere is one of the apps that came out as part of the Launch event a few weeks ago. These apps have a theme of fitting popular services into well-built Windows 10 applications. Legere certainly fits into that trend with its native-UWP design, support for Windows 10-specific features, and its support of many Reddit features. It's a comprehensive client with a unique look.

Legere supports multiple Reddit accounts, the new sidebar for subreddits, and has support for multireddits. Browser through content is easy with touch or a mouse thanks to the columned design of Legere. It also supports customizable touch gestures so you can upvote a thread with a swipe.

One of the best things about Legere is how well it supports external media. YouTube videos, Imgur albums, and webpages can all be rendered directly in the app. These are three of the most popular forms of sharing content on Reddit and not having to jump into a browser or a separate app to view them is great.

On the Windows 10 side of things, Legere supports a long list of features. You can reply to comments with actionable notifications, view videos in a smaller window using Compact Overlay mode, jump back into a specific thread with Windows Timeline support, and view content at a glance with Live Tiles. The developers of Legere did a great job infusing Windows 10-specific features into Reddit.

What you'll dislike about Legere

Legere does a lot of things well, but the interface feels crowded. The app presents a lot of content at once and has quite a few navigation shortcuts, but I feel like there's often too much on the screen. This can be alleviated a bit by hiding the sidebar and minimizing menus, but it's still a lot to see at once. Threads also have quite a bit of color accents that I think make the app look too busy. These are all subjective, and other users might have a different take. I like the options that Legere presents when it comes to navigating the app but would prefer some additional options to make it feel more minimal.

Should you try Legere?

There's no shortage of Reddit clients on Windows 10, but I think Legere does enough to warrant a look. Its seamless support of external media makes it a great way to browse Reddit. Its support of Windows 10 features is refreshing as well as many developers don't support Windows 10 as thoroughly as Legere.

If you browse Reddit a lot, I'd definitely give Legere a try. It has a free version that illustrates what the app is about well and then you can purchase the additional features that you'd like.

What you need to know

• The Edge team is doing a Reddit AMA.
• They're taking questions on Edge with Chromium.
• The AMA started at 2:30 PM ET on June 13th.

What's the internet without strong opinions on every little thing? Well, it's a bastion of cat photos. Luckily this is not that as the Microsoft Edge team is hosting a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA).

The topic is not so much the old Edge browser that is slowly being phased out, but that swanky new version based on the Chromium open-source project.

From the AMA description, the focus is quite clear:

If that sounds like your thing, follow this link to reddit to get started. We'll see about following up a round-up later with the team's more interesting answers should there be any.

I love Reddit. It's one of the websites I'm on the most, but its dated interface can hurt your eyes. The blocky layout, the dated design, and the overall feel of Reddit almost seem purposefully ugly in 2018. ReddPlanet is a third-party Reddit client that has all the community goodness without any of the eyesore of a design.

It also adds features that make it easier to stay on top of your posts and comments.

The app is available for free on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Xbox One, and HoloLens.

Download ReddPlanet from Microsoft Store

Beautiful layout

Reddit already has excellent content if you know where to look, but the design of Reddit leaves a lot to be desired. ReddPlanet fills your screen well with your Reddit feed on the left with the associated webpage or content showing up on the right. You can elect to turn on large previews to help you know which posts are worth your time and view content directly within the app.

Photos load well and you can watch videos directly within the app if you'd like. Overall, it makes the browsing experience faster while also showing you more previews and content to help you not miss anything. ReddPlanet supports favoriting posts to help you recall anything you've liked in the past.

There are also little touches that make the app feel polished such as smooth animations. You can customize the layout to fit your needs including changing accent colors and deciding if the navigation bar is blurry or not.

Enhancing Reddit

In addition to looking great, ReddPlanet also has a number of features that enhance the Reddit experience. If you use myTube!, you can opt to have YouTube videos open through the third-party YouTube client.

You can also receive notifications through Windows 10 to help you stay up to date with your posts and comments. A common phrase on Reddit is that the real detail is always in the comments. I read comments more than I read original posts usually. Using ReddPlanet makes it easy to know when someone has replied to a post or comment so you can pop back into the thread.

Overall thoughts on ReddPlanet for Windows 10

ReddPlanet is an excellent Reddit client, right up there with high-ranking competitors like Baconit and Readit. It has a nice layout, notification support, and lets you customize its design.

The attractive and flexible look of ReddPlanet is espeicially nice because Reddit has an ugly interface that seems needlessly dated. ReddPlanet drags that into the 21st century.

The only small knock is that it can occasionally have hiccups with performance and that it doesn't support multiple Reddit accounts.

Pros

• Beautiful layout
• Notification support
• Customizable
• Free

Cons

• Occasional performance hiccups
• Lacks multiple user support

Download ReddPlanet from Microsoft Store

Reddit, one of the world's most popular websites, announced on August 1, 2018, that it experienced a security breach in which some user data was compromised.

The breach mostly affects Redditors that have been on the site since 2007 or earlier, but even if you made your account at a later date, you should still keep reading as there's a chance some info was still exposed.

What happened?

Between June 14 and June 18 of this year, Reddit says an attacker "compromised a few of our employees' accounts with our cloud and source code hosting providers." Although two-factor authentication was set in place, it was done so via SMS and the attacker in question was able to capture the codes using an SMS intercept attack.

The attacker was unable to get write-permissions to Reddit but did manage to obtain read-access to certain site systems.

While doing so, Reddit notes that the attacker obtained:

With that database backup, usernames, salted + hashed passwords, email addresses, public content, and private messages were obtained (only if you had a Reddit account between 2005 and May 2007).

Additionally, the attacker also acquired:

What you can do to protect yourself

None of that's great, but thankfully, Reddit's already working to make sure any potentially affected users are protected.

If your account was created between 2004 and May 2007, Reddit's currently sending out PMs/emails with further instructions on what to do. Furthermore, any accounts that were active during this time are being forced to reset its password.

Even if Reddit doesn't force you to reset your password, doing so anyways is a good idea just to make sure all of your bases are covered. If you're not yet using a password manager, now's the time to change that.

Furthermore, two-factor authentication is something that everyone should be using by now. And, if you have the option, always use this with a token-based system rather than over SMS.

Why you (and your family) should be using 2FA and a password manager

Speaking at today's Everyday AI event, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced a new partnership with Microsoft. Through the partnership, Reddit and Microsoft will leverage AI tools to integrate Reddit content in searches, including answers from one of the platform's signature draws, Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions.

In a new post on the Bing blog, Microsoft explains that the new Reddit integration is part of a new AI-powered Intelligent Search feature for Bing. The feature is intended to make interacting with Bing more natural, Microsoft says, by more quickly surfacing answers to your questions with comprehensive information. Essentially, this boils down to a mix of neural network magic to verify answers and surface more information from multiple sources on the initial search page.

As part of Intelligent Search, Microsoft's partnership with Reddit will let it leverage the community of millions in a few different ways, at least initially. From Microsoft:

• While already in Bing, when you search for a specific Reddit topic or subreddit, like "Reddit Aww", Bing will surface a sneak peak of the topic with the top conversations for the day from Reddit.
• When searching for a general topic that is best answered with relevant Reddit conversations, Bing will surface a snippet of those conversations at the top of the page so you can easily get perspectives from the millions of Reddit users.
• Bing will be the place to go to search for Reddit AMAs, Q&As with celebrities and every day heroes hosted by the Reddit community. On Bing you can discover AMA schedules and see snapshots of AMAs that have already been completed. Simply search a person's name to see their AMA snapshot or search for "Reddit AMAs" to see a carousel of popular AMAs.

Other Bing enhancements announced today include a more interactive conventional search experience to help you narrow down what you're looking for, as well as a more intelligent image search. The conventional search improvements will use conversational AI to help provide better answers based on past searches. Users can also clarify questions with topic options to refine your search. The image search enhancements, on the other hand, use object recognition to help you search within images or surface interesting information about landmarks or objects in photos.

These new features are rolling out now in the U.S., Microsoft says, with other markets to come in the future. You can learn more about Intelligent Search at Microsoft.

Not only are gamers outraged over the aggressive microtransactions and loot crates, but it seems that the developers aren't doing much to alleviate concerns. For example, after the recent finding that it took dozens of hours to unlock a hero, the game makers lowered the unlock requirements but also lowered the amount of credits earned.

Today, Star Wars: Battlefront 2's Executive Producer John Wasilczyk, Associate Design Director Dennis Brannvall, and Producer Paul Keslin hosted a Reddit AMA where they answered a lot of questions about the game. The three discussed future plans as well as issues surrounding the microtransactions. Here's a collection of some of the more memorable comments.

When asked about the game's progression system, Executive Producer John Wasilczyk said the following.

It's unclear when the daily limits from Arcade mode will be removed but at least DICE promised to remove them eventually. Hopefully, it won't take too long because right now it's a little unfair. The mode is a great way to grind credits without having to worry about losing in multiplayer matches when pitted against players with better Star Cards.

The developers were also asked about the negative reaction due to the aggressive microtransactions. Wasilczyk commented on that as well by saying the following.

There are easier solution to make it right but there's obviously the issue of balancing turning the most profit with giving players a sense of satisfaction. Hopefully DICE will be able to achieve a better balance soon.

Aside from promising changes, there are cosmetic items coming to the game as well. They'll also be available through microtransactions so keep that in mind. Associate Design Director Dennis Brannvall said the following in regards to that.

Hopefully in the future the microtransactions will be more cosmetic-based than the pay-to-win type they currently are.

While there were numerous other unresolved questions about when players can expect these changes or when we would hear about future updates, Producer Paul Keslin ended by saying that DICE is open to a dialogue with players. This is the first step in repairing their relationship. He added the following.

Hopefully the developers will fix the issues soon as they seem to be well aware of the problems. Instead of having endless discussions and promises, DICE need to push out patches immediately. That will do more to repair their relationship and reputation than anything.

• See at Microsoft
• See at Amazon

Keep an eye on WindowsCentral.com/Gaming for all the latest in Xbox and Windows 10 gaming, accessories, news, and reviews!

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is ready to answer more of your burning questions with a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) later today. Rather than sticking with a typical announcement, however (what would be the fun in that?), Gates put out a rather bizarre promo video parodying Saturday Night Live's David S. Pumpkins sketch from Halloween (via Gamespot). Check it out below:

The AMA session is set to kick off on Reddit right away at 9 a.m. PST / 12 p.m. EST. Click here to find the start time in your time zone.

This isn't the first time Gates has done a Reddit AMA, having done his last in March 2016. It's certain that a wide range of topics will be covered, so if you have any questions for the Microsoft founder in mind, be sure to head over to Reddit and get ready to pose queries of your own.

Ask Bill Gates anything at Reddit

With the ever-growing number of apps and games in the Windows Store, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what's out there.

For that reason, every Friday we showcase some apps that have piqued our interest. They may have been in the news recently, they may be new to the Windows Store, or they could simply be old apps that we just stumbled upon.

They are the 5 Intriguing Apps of the Week.

ProShot

ProShot has been long-time photography favorite on Windows Phone, and now there's a brand new version for Windows 10 for PC and Mobile.

If you aren't familiar with ProShot, it can be used as a replacement camera app for your device. Built from the ground up, this new Windows 10 app gives you incredible control over your camera's controls as well as offers plenty of post-production features.

Switch between automatic, manual, and semi-manual modes for focus, exposure, flash, ISO, shutter speed and white balance. The camera offers an optional on-screen grid and three kinds of horizon leveling. You can also set your pictures to JPEG or RAW output.

ProShot features plenty of video recording features as well. Choose between 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1 resolution and HDR or auto-HDR modes. It can operate at multiple resolutions, frame rates, and at up to 4K and 60fps.

And that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Anyone who knows their stuff about photography will appreciate all that ProShot is capable of.

Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download ProShot from the Windows Store

Evernote

The folks at Evernote have delivered their newly-revamped note-taking desktop app for Windows 10 and is worth every bit of the wait.

Create notebooks with individual entries that can be typed, handwritten with your stylus, or recorded with your microphone and/or webcam. Snap photos or attach files to accompany your notes. You can make tags to associate with your entries to make it easier to search and organize your projects.

Or share them with a friend or coworker, so they can add their thoughts and make changes. There's even an in-app chat feature that lets you communicate with them directly, making collaboration a snap.

Your notebooks sync to your online account and then become accessible from any other device that you have Evernote installed on. It also ensures that your data is safely backed up in the cloud.

Evernote is a powerful tool for staying organized, taking notes, collaborating, and more. It's one of the most well-known names in the world of productivity tools, and now it's available for your Windows 10 device.

Available for Windows 10 PC.

Download Evernote from the Windows Store

Matissa

Photo effects apps are all the rage right now with people posting their Prisma and Vinci creations all over social media. Now you can Matissa's name to the mix of tools you can use to bring new pop to your photos.

Like other apps of its kind, Matissa is incredibly easy to use. Just choose a picture from your device or snap a new one with your camera. Then simply cycle through the different filters and choose the one you prefer.

Once your masterpiece is ready for the big time, you can either save it to your device or share it to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also use the Windows Share feature to choose other apps from the list.

There's a lot to like about Matissa. Firstly, it offers more than twenty different effects options, with more being added regularly. It's also fast, taking literally about a couple of seconds to show you your augmented image.

And finally, it's free to download for any Windows 10 device.

Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download Matissa for Windows 10

Reddit Enhancement Suite

The Reddit Enhancement Suite isn't exactly an app, rather it's an extension for Microsoft Edge. But hey, you can find it in the Store and it's awesome, so we are going to count it.

The suite is a set of tools that makes the Redditor's browsing experience even better by making things more seamless and easy to use. For instance, the extension enables a host of keyboard shortcuts for efficient navigation without your mouse or trackpad. There's also a nightmode to reduce eye strain when Redditing in low light.

And RES offers even cooler features than that, including one-button toggling between Reddit accounts, color-coded tagging of users that you follow, and "never ending Reddit," which allows you to just keep scrolling through the next page of a subreddit without ever having to click the "next" button.

With the Reddit Enhancement Suite, you'll also get inline image viewing that incorporates posted photos and albums, including Imgur, into your current view without having to open them in a separate windows or tab.

The Reddit Enhancement Suite has been a favorite extension of Firefox and Chrome-toting Redditors for some time, and thankfully, Edge lovers can reap the benefits as well.

Available for Windows 10 PC.

Download Reddit Enhancement Suite from the Windows Store

Sunset Bike Racer

One of my all-time favorite games on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, and ever, was Excitebike, a side-scrolling motocross game that had you speeding and jumping over crazy obstacles in a race against the clock.

Sunset Bike Racer not only recaptures the fun of that classic title, but adds to it with better graphics, crazier terrain, and cool tricks that Excitebike players never got to perform.

Use your keyboard or touchscreen to speed your way through a silhouetted world by accelerating, boosting, and tipping your bike forward and backward to avoid falling victim to physics. But it isn't all about speed, as you'll occasionally have to strategically brake to stay upright.

The goal is to hit the finish line in a certain amount of time, earning up to three stars depending on how well you do. If you fail to make the mark, you'll need to run the course again, this time with a ghostly version of yourself running with you to show you how you stack up against your previous try.

Successful runs and in-air stunts will unlock levels and upgrades to your bike. You can also purchase these upgrades from within the app using real money.

Sunset Bike Racer brings old school arcade racing fun together with challenging reflex-based gameplay for a fun and frustrating freestyling free-for-all. Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download Sunset Bike Racer from the Windows Store

Be sure to check out our other selections from previous weeks. Have a great weekend!

Do you have an app you want us to highlight? Drop us an email at tips@windowscentral.com with "5 Intriguing Apps" in the subject line.

Developer Caleb Keith has ported the app to Xbox One bundled with some of the latest features that arrived in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. With the latest UWP version of Readit, you can easily transfer your entire session between different Windows 10 devices, whether it's your phone, your console or your PC.

Readit for Xbox One also allows you to remove the TV safe-zone border that some apps are currently using on the console. Here's a quick look at how it runs on Xbox One.

Readit on Xbox One is completely free without ads and supports the vast majority of the features it has on PC. Some of the features aren't available due to UWP restrictions on the console — a few missing capabilities include image saving, Live Tiles, wallpaper and lockscreen features. These are missing now, but should Microsoft allow for UWP support for these features in the future they could easily be enabled for Readit on the Xbox One.

For now, navigating Readit on Xbox One requires the use of a joystick cursor. Keith has discussed creating a bespoke UX for the Xbox One, with inputs optimized for controller use. Additionally, background audio support will be available in a future update for YouTube videos handled by the app.

Readit is one of the greatest examples of the power of the Universal Windows Platform. From the fact you can transfer the state of your app between devices with a single click, to the synchronizing of account information in the cloud. Readit is easily one of the most fully featured and intuitive Reddit solutions out there (and a major source of personal procrastination.)

If you haven't already, you can download Readit on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile using the link below. On Xbox One, either search for Readit in the Xbox One's app store or if you've downloaded it previously, it should be in your 'Ready to install' tab under your Games & Apps.

Download Readit from the Windows Store

Readit, the popular third-party Reddit app for Windows 10 PC and Mobile, has been updated to version 5.7.5.0. Among other things, the new version now has a black splash screen and support for the Vietnamese language.

Here's what's new and what's been fixed in this latest Readit version:

• Splash screen is now black
• Added Vietnamese as a supported language
• Updated all translations to the most recent versions
• Fixed some link parsing bugs
• Fixed direct to comments for desktop UI
• Fixed links opening multiple times when only clicking them once (and causing multiple viewers to open, etc.

Let us know what you think of this small but solid update to Readit in the comments!

Download Readit from the Windows Store

Readit, the popular third-party Reddit app for Windows 10 PC and Mobile, has been updated to version 5.7.0.0. Among other things, the app's dark theme is now even darker than before.

Here's what's new and fixed with this latest Readit update:

• Darkened back up the dark theme a bit more, if you don't like it, please use the legacy dark theme. Unfortunately I will never find a balance that will make everyone happy. Darkened chrome color. Darkened unread post color a bit
• Translations updated across app. (Settings landing page. Inbox, Profile) Other missing translations fixed Still not quite 100% strings translated such as certain setting names in individual settings pages. Some languages were not updated, if you notice missing strings with identifier names in your language you can contribute at poeditor.com to finish the translations and I will update them in app
• App is now available in Russian, Turkish and Polish
• Fixed graphical issue (when using small thumbnails) when pressing and holding on a post, you must now release your finger now for the context menu to appear though
• Fixed open post/comments on other device not working sometimes with mobile UI on phones/tablets/desktops
• Fixed return to top button being visible when viewing post content in some scenarios
• The username and subreddit are now ordered the same in the post list as in swipeview for small thumbnail UI
• Fixed overlapping bar on top of post viewer in profile
• The status bar color on mobile now matches the chrome color
• Fixed status bar in light theme

Download Readit from the Windows Store

With the ever-growing number of apps and games in the Windows Store, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what's out there.

For that reason, every Friday we showcase some apps that have piqued our interest. They may have been in the news recently, they may be new to the Windows Store, or they could simply be old apps that we just stumbled upon.

They are the 5 Intriguing Apps of the Week.

Nebo

Nebo is handwriting and drawing app for Windows 10 PCs and tablets.

Just pick up your stylus and start writing on your screen and Nebo will instantly begin recognizes the words that you write down. Double-tap and Nebo will instantly convert them to text.

Nebo also incorporates gestures to help you with editing and formatting. For instance, you can scribble over your mistakes to erase them, draw a line between words or letters to make a space between them, or create a new paragraph by swiping down. The app also recognizes bullet points and numbering and will automatically format them.

Nebo is capable of much more than writing, too. You can draw diagrams, like org charts, which the app will turn into graphics, or write equations and watch them turn into text. You can also import pictures to annotate, or just sketch freehand.

All of your writing and drawing is neatly organized into individual color-coded notebooks within the app. And anything you create in Nebo can be exported to Microsoft Word, shared, or viewed in your browser.

Nebo is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to take notes, jot down ideas, plan out ideas, or just plain doodle.

Available for Windows 10 PC.

Download Nebo from the Windows Store

Share Across Devices

Share Across Devices is an innovative app for any device running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

Whether it's your computer, phone, tablet, Xbox One, or even HoloLens, Share Across Devices lets you copy text or hyperlinks from one to the other.

Copy what you want to share and paste it into the app. You will see a list of your other devices that you also have it installed on. Choose your target device, and there you go.

When sending plain text, Share Across Devices will load your selection into the other devices clipboard. But with links, the app will automatically open the target's web browser, even if its locked. Since the app's release, the developer has also added the ability to choose target apps instead, like TubeCast for YouTube links.

Share Across Devices is still in its early stages, but it's an exciting glimpse into just what is possible with the future of Windows 10 and developers' ingenuity.

Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download Share Across Devices from the Windows Store

Reddunt

If you are a fan of Baconit, the open source Reddit client for Windows 10, then you may be interested in taking a look at Reddunt. Reddunt uses Baconit's solid open source foundation and adds to it with its own cool features.

Since it's based on the same source code, you'll find many similarities to Baconit, like a user-friendly design, easy browsing, and just about any functionality you could want in a Reddit app. You can cruise subreddits with or without an account, see comments, etc.

The developer of Reddunt's focus is on optimization and leveraging Windows 10's native features. There's a full screen mode to make the most of your browsing and Feedback Hub integration to mainline your input directly to the dev.

For those of you on Anniversary Update builds of Windows 10, Reddunt has enhanced battery efficiency. The app is optimized for HoloLens and an Xbox One support is in the pipeline. And this is really just the start.

Whether you're a serious Redditor or a casual lurker, Reddunt is great way to optimize your experience.

Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download Reddunt for Windows 10

Wattpad: Free Books and Stories

Wattpad is an online community where users can submit original books and stories and read the works of others. Their official app for Windows 10 brings all that the community has to offer to your computer, tablet or phone.

Search by genres like fantasy, science fiction, romance, and mystery. Or check out fan fiction based on your favorite series of books.

You can follow writers to get new installments as they are published and offer your feedback. Save your library, make recommendations, and share your selections with friends. Reading lists and book club picks will keep you busy with recommended reads.

Think you have what it takes to write the next best seller? Post up your manuscript and see what your fellow Wattpad members think. It's also a great resource for burgeoning authors to get tips on process, style, and form.

Whether you're trying to become the next J.K. Rowling or just looking for a good read, Wattpad's community has got you covered.

Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download Wattpad: Free Books and Stories from the Windows Store

Clumsy Ball

Clumsy Ball is a physics-based marble game where you must navigate around each level to perform certain tasks. However, rather than controlling the sphere, like most games of its ilk, in this game, you control the entire board, which tilts in every direction.

You must tilt the table enough to gain momentum, but not so much that you will go rolling off into the abyss. Each level has crystals that you must collect before you can exit and two achievements that can be earned. In order to pass to the next section, a certain number of achievements has to be reached.

Standing in your way is a multitude of obstacles, flamethrowers, traps, and of course, a serious lack of guard rails. Don't let your health get knocked down to zero, and don't go careening over the edge.

Clumsy Ball is a game of skill that pits you against your own steady handedness. It's easy to play, but tough to succeed at.

What's more is that there are numerous ways to play it. Since it is available on PC, tablet, phone, and HoloLens, you can choose from various controls, including accelerometer, gamepad, keyboard, and the HoloLens rig.

Buy it once and you'll get a challenging little ditty that you can play several times over, if it doesn't drive you crazy first.

Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile.

Download Clumsy Ball from the Windows Store

Be sure to check out our other selections from previous weeks. Have a great weekend!

Do you have an app you want us to highlight? Drop us an email at tips@windowscentral.com with "5 Intriguing Apps" in the subject line.

Reddit is one of the biggest networks on the internet, serving millions of users on a daily basis. As far as Reddit apps go on Xbox One, we've had access to ReddX for a while and since the Xbox One Summer Update we now have access to the UWP app Baconit.

If you are familiar with Universal Windows Platform Reddit apps on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, you'll no doubt have heard of Baconit's big rival, Readit.

We recently learned that Readit is also heading to Xbox One. If you have used the app on Windows 10 you are already acquainted, but here's an early look at it running on the console.

Readit is a fully featured Reddit client designed for UWP on Windows 10 PCs and phones. Not only does Readit encompass everything you can do on Reddit's website, but it also includes account syncing between devices and session hand-offs between Windows 10 PCs and phones. It even allows you to import settings from Reddit Enhancement Suite.

As a result of the UWP's features lining up between Xbox One and Windows 10, Readit's developer Caleb Keith didn't have to change a great deal to get it running on the console. It took around two hours to iron out some small issues and to enable scaling properly for TVs that have overscan disabled.

Readit for Xbox One already supports notifications for messages, posts, and comment replies. It also allows you to mark messages as read straight from the Xbox One's notification center as well as reply using the on-screen keyboard. UWP apps on Xbox One don't support some of Windows 10's more advanced features such as Live Tiles, sharing and file picking, but these sorts of features could come to the console in a future update.

Similarly to Baconit, Readit falls back on a joystick-bound cursor in this version, but only as a temporary solution. Keith is working on new UI which will support native controls for Xbox One controller, where many app functions will be mapped directly to buttons and triggers.

At this point, Keith, like many independent developers are waiting for the go-ahead from Microsoft when it comes to submitting their applications to the Xbox One store. The apps available on the console, such as Cast, Baconit, Groove, and Windows Maps seem primarily available for testing purposes, as Microsoft continues to iron out some kinks with running UWP on Xbox One. See the link below for all the current Universal Windows Platform apps coming to Xbox One.

List of Universal Windows Platform apps available for Xbox One

If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you give Readit a try on any Windows 10 PC or phone using the link below. It represents the best of what the Universal Windows Platform is capable of in the right developer's hands. Readit is free with ads on PC and Windows 10 Mobile. You can pay a small fee to remove the ads, but on Xbox One it will be entirely free without ads when it launches in the future.

Download Readit from the Windows Store

The popular third-party Reddit app Readit for Windows 10 on PC and Mobile has a new update. It includes a darker theme and is now ready to be released for the Xbox One, once Microsoft gives the go-ahead.

The change log for the new 5.4.0.0 version of Readit states its new features:

• Dark theme is now darker (enjoy AMOLED users)
• Light theme is now a bit lighter
• Changed some animations in the post viewer such as the comments header and parallax effect added to post content, also the comment count now slides in where the loading indicator is instead of moving abruptly
• New comment UI, transparent with a new hierarchy indicator
• Changed the way subreddit post notifications work
• A toast will only display on screen for the first new post it finds (this applies to every subreddit that you enabled notifications for)
• All other posts found will be added to the action center silently (at most 4 other notifications for each sub)
• Added support for the "suggested sort" that mods can set on posts (such as q&a for AMAs)
• If a suggested sort is set and you visit the link, the suggested sort will be loaded automatically
• You will know this as it will be indicated with a "(suggested)" tag either in the mobile sort menu or the desktop's sort dropdown
• Comments should scroll a bit more smooth than before

Here's what Xbox One users can expect when the Readit app officially launches:

• Select will open the hamburger menu
• Y will open the sidebar
• RB/LB, Right Thumbstick & Left Thumbstick Left/Right navigation in swipe view to switch between posts
• Controller is used as a mouse until I get the time to write an entire UI for the big screen/native controller support
• Favorites appear at the top of the subs list like mobile
• Defaults to desktop UI, can be overridden via settings (Disable adaptive UI - on; Prefer desktop UI - off)
• Moving right stick left/right will:
• Upvote/downvote comments
• Mark as read/unread for posts
• Can be disabled via the Swipe Actions setting in browsing settings

Yes, there are some bug fixes as well:

• Fixed cloud sync (roaming data) not syncing correctly for some users
• Fixed adaptive UI on desktop/tablets not triggering, and the associated settings not being respected
• Fixed vevo videos/copyrighted videos not loading
• Fixed swipe view in profiles for all category options
• Fixed a bug where posts would fail to load if a youtube url contained uppercase characters randomly in the domain name
• Fixed "Select a post..." message disappearing in desktop randomly when there is no post selected
• Fixed arrow keys navigating posts when in a textbox
• Fixed links not loading when launching from live tiles for subreddits

Download Readit from the Windows Store

Thanks to the Universal Windows Platform, many of the biggest and best apps on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile can now make their way across to Xbox One. Baconit is one of the most popular apps on Windows for phones, having supported the platform from as long ago as Windows Phone 7.

Baconit made its way to UWP around a year ago, having been completely re-written for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. With the Xbox One's Summer Update, Baconit is now available to Xbox One owners in the preview program.

Baconit works pretty much as you would expect. It's a direct port of its PC interface, utilizing mouse-like Xbox One controller functions. If you have used Microsoft Edge on Xbox One before you will already be familiar with the controls. The left stick moves the cursor, the right stick lets you scroll, and the triggers allow you to zoom. The 'A' button acts as a left click, the menu button works as a right click, and the 'B' button cycles backward through the app, similarly to the back key on Windows Phone.

You can use the on-screen keyboard to reply to comments, and you'll receive notifications on-screen and via the Xbox One's notification list. As a direct port, Baconit retains some of its non-functional menu items like copying links to the clipboard and saving images — neither of which are possible on Xbox, at least for now.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Baconit is the fact that it all just works with minimal code changes. Gifs, YouTube videos, image galleries and even websites inside the in-app browser all function properly. The app's developer, Quinn Damerell, praised the minimum amount of work required to get Baconit functional on Xbox One.

The Universal app dream really is here. With the Xbox One Summer Update, developers are finally able to send their Universal apps across the entire Windows 10 device family — from Xbox One, to Windows 10, and even HoloLens. There's no telling what new functionality the Xbox One will gain in the coming months as developers begin leveraging UWP and Cortana to power their app experiences. There are certainly exciting times ahead.

If you haven't already, make sure you check out Baconit on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile using the link below. If you're in the Xbox One Preview, you should be able to find Baconit in the app store with a simple search. If you've downloaded it on other platforms previously, it will appear in your 'Ready to Install' list in your Games & Apps section.

Download Baconit from the Windows Store

Although Microsoft likes to boast about productivity in Windows 10 and Mobile, there is no reason why we can't have some fun too. Monocle Giraffe is a relatively new app that has become my new time-waster when I need a good laugh.

At its heart, Monocle Giraffe is a simple creation. It's a browser for the site Imgur where memes, photos, and animated GIFs are posted and often shared on Reddit. What I like about Monocle Giraffe though are the design and features.

Launching the app brings to the Most Viral section aka what is trending on Imgur and Reddit at the moment. Switching to the next section, you can browse popular subreddits like Dank Memes, Cats, Funny, and more. Just as you expect, you can add your favorite subreddits by using the add buttons and doing a search.

Under Search, you can find media under Reddit, Posts, and GIFs for something in particular.

Finally, you can log into Imgur and manage your account. Monocle Giraffe also lets you upload and download images, vote on Imgur, favorite pictures, share using the native picker, and read and leave comments. It does it all and I am not sure what else the developer can add.

There is not much else to say about Monocle Giraffe except that it works well, does what you expect it to, and is a great source for some laughs (especially if you're into internet humor). It's also an excellent example of a Windows Store app using the Universal Windows Platform. And yes, it is available on PC and phone working well with touch or a mouse and keyboard.

Combined with Meme Generator Suite, another personal favorite, and Monocle Giraffe is just a fun must-have app that is perfect for a quick distraction. Best of all is it's free.

Download Monocle Giraffe from the Windows Store

Readit, the popular third-party Reddit app for Windows 10 PC and Mobile, has received a massive update. It adds, among other things, user tagging, cloud sync support and more.

Here's the long list of new features:

Subreddit/post tagging

• Tag subreddits like in RES
• Adds a tag to a post if it doesn't contain the specified text (only on front page/all and multireddits)
• The tag text is inserted at the beginning of the title just like RES

User tagging

• Tag users/ignore users like in RES
• Use the ellipsis menu for posts on desktop or right click a post in the post list
• Use the app bar for mobile or press + hold on a post in the post list
• Use the more menu for comments to tag users from a comment
• Add a tag via the advanced settings page
• Adds a tag to the user right next to the username of posts/comments so that you can tag/ignore trolls, friends, known users, etc.
• Keeps track of total vote count - how many up/downvotes you have applied to that user since tagging them
• Keeps count for any user you have voted on ever

How the tagging "ignore" feature works

• Self text for comments, messages and posts are replaced with a message stating that the user is ignored
• If you really want to see the self text of it, the ignored message contains a link that you can click to load the original content

Advanced Settings page added to the settings menu

• Manage user tags and subreddit tags
• RES Settings Import
• Import settings directly from a backup of your RES settings - imports user/subreddit tags and associated data such as vote tracking numbers for users

Cloud Sync has been enabled

• Syncs data using the roaming storage of your MS account (< 100 kb of data)
• Will sync between all devices (desktop/tablet/mobile) as long as you are logged into the same MS account
• Only syncs when an account is added/removed or on app launch
• To force a sync, lock your device that is syncing the data to the cloud and wait 3-5 minutes. MS controls this. After the wait period, check your other device and it should have the data.
• A sync to the cloud occurs if the local file timestamp is newer than the server version
• A sync from the cloud only occurs if the server file timestamp is newer than the local version
• Will sync the following:
• /r/all filter
• Read posts (gold not required)
• User accounts (no passwords stored ever, not even in local storage)
• Only syncs users down to device if there aren't any logged in
• Subreddit tags
• User tags
• New comment count since last visit of posts
• Settings are not synced due to device differences

In addition there are a couple of bug fixes

• Fixed all filter in a certain languages
• Fixed titlebar disappearing on navigation for the desktop UI

Download Readit from the Windows Store

The popular third-party Reddit app Readit has been updated once again for Windows 10 for PC and Mobile. It includes some new image features, the addition of moderator mail to the hamburger menu and more.

Here's what's new and improved in version 4.6.6.0:

General improvements

• Swiping on the last/first album image will no longer cause the swipe view to engage
• When zoomed in on an image in a post or in the album viewer, panning the image will no longer cause swipe view or the album's swipe view to engage
• Moderator mail has been added to the hamburger menu and to the inbox dropdown. Only visible/available to mods of reddit obviously. Supports toasts (you will not get duplicates). If you have both new notifications and mod mail, you will receive a toast that says you have "new notifications and moderator mail". If a single mod mail message is received, the username in the title of the toast notification will have [mod] in front of it
• i.reddituploads.com will now display natively as an image instead of in a browser
• Clicking the share button from comments view will now share the permalink to the comments instead of the post content url

Bug fixes

• App slowdowns should be actually fixed this time. Unfortunately there is still a deadlock crash but rarely occurs and I can't catch it when the app is in debug mode. Only occurs when running a "release" build. This actually may be an OS bug as the entire phone will probably restart and crash. Overall performance should be better in this build
• Fixed some markdown link bugs where text would cutoff
• Fixed shortlinks not navigating properly for subreddits/users
• Fixed a bug with certain imgur links where they would not display in the post viewer
• Fixed back buttons returns to post content setting causing a black screen when using the back button in the comments section

Readit is one of many third-party Reddit Windows apps available for fans of the website. Reddit itself has confirmed it has no plans to launch an official app for Windows 10 on PC and Mobile.

Download Readit from the Windows Store

Reddit remains a highly popular community news and forum site, and today it launched official mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms. However, it looks like Reddit won't extend the same effort to the Windows platform, at least for now.

Alex Le, Reddit's VP of Consumer Product, posted a simple "No" answer when asked today by a user if there were plans for an official Windows mobile app. However, as many Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile users already know, there are some solid third-party Reddit apps that can be downloaded from the Windows Store right now.

They include apps like Readit, Reddify, and Baconit. All three are UWP apps and work with Windows 10 on both pC and Mobile. Which third-party Reddit app for Windows is your favorite and why? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

• Download Readit from the Windows Store
• Download Reddify from the Windows Store
• Download Baconit from the Windows Store