Which? sues Apple over iCloud sign up, Amazon shuts down Freevee
Consumer rights group Which? is suing Apple for £3bn over the way it deploys its iCloud service. If the lawsuit succeeds, around 40 million Apple customers in the UK could be entitled to a payout. The lawsuit claims Apple, which controls iOS operating systems, has breached UK competition law by giving its iCloud storage preferential treatment, effectively “trapping” customers with Apple devices into using it. It also claims the company overcharged those customers by stifling competition. Sky News
Amazon is to shut its ad-supported streaming service Freevee after five years. Content from the platform will move to the Prime Video brand. Freevee is expected to be phased out in the next view weeks. Freevee was home to shows that had previously been premiered on the then ad-free Amazon Prime Video. It also developed its own content such as Bosch: Legacy and the reboot of the Australian soap Neighbours. “To deliver a simpler viewing experience for customers, we have decided to phase out Freevee branding,” said an Amazon spokesperson.” Broadband TV News
Broadband and mobile phone price hikes by Virgin Media O2 have been dubbed ‘hard to justify’ by consumer experts. Virgin Media broadband customers will see bills rise by £3.50 a month from April 2025, with the prices applying to deals from January 2025. O2 mobile phone customers will see airtime bills rise by £1.80 from the same point, with mobile broadband and smart watch customers paying an extra 75p. There is no increase for pay-as-you-go customers. This broadband price increase is the highest in the UK, while the mobile phone bill rise is the joint-highest. ThisIsMoney
NordPass just published its annual list of the most popular easy-to-crack passwords, and there are quite a few bad ones. The people behind NordPass, a password manager, have been compiling these lists for six years now, analyzed from sets of passwords stolen by malware and exposed in data leaks. This year’s lists include data from 44 countries, and it’s interesting to see how the most common bad passwords vary by country. For instance, the most common bad password in Canada is “qwerty123,” while in the U.S. it’s “secret.” But overall across the 44 countries analyzed, the most common password is “123456.” Gizmodo
Labour has revealed it will work to address the pricing gap which has slowed down the uptake of electric vehicles as drivers continue to face 10 times higher public charging costs than at home. The stark disparity in charging costs has emerged as a significant barrier to the wider adoption of electric vehicles across the UK with many drivers refusing to switch away from petrol and diesel models. Motorists who use the public charging network have been forced to bear the brunt of substantially higher rates, with many drivers being left out of pocket due to lack of home charging options. GB News
Bluesky, an alternative to Elon Musk’s X, has surged in popularity in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory. The social network said it had signed up 1m additional users in the seven days since the election. It is on the cusp of hitting 15m users. Bluesky has risen towards the top of download charts in the US and UK in recent days. X, formerly known as Twitter, has also enjoyed record usage in recent days, but has seen a spike in account deactivations, data company Similarweb said. Telegraph
