April 20th Tech news roundup: Youtube will fight adblockers, Emulator for iOS available and Twich present its own TikTok

The first third-party iOS app store has been launched in Europe. Google is blocking YouTube adblockers more aggressively. Read on to find out more in this week’s tech news roundup.

Mozilla Firefox 125.0.1 adds a new way to visit URLs copied to the clipboard

Mozilla released the Firefox 125.0.1 update, which adds a new feature called URL Paste Suggestion. When you click on the address bar, the browser will automatically detect a URL that is copied to the clipboard, and displays a suggestion that says “Visit From Clipboard”. Click on it to go to the website.

Firefox 125.0.1 also brings a new feature to the built-in PDF Viewer. You can now use it to highlight text in documents. It supports 5 colors, and you can change the brush size to annotate important parts of a PDF. The latest version of the browser adds support for Tab Indicators for container tabs, bookmarks, and tabs that have notifications. Firefox View now shows a speaker icon to indicate that a Tab is playing media, clicking on the button will mute or unmute the tab. In addition to this, Firefox has gained support for the AV1 codec for Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), to allow higher-quality playback from video streaming providers.

Google plans to prevent YouTube adblockers

YouTube wants to block adblockers more aggressively. The video streaming company has announced on its website that Google will focus on third-party apps that access YouTube’s API. It claims that apps that block advertisements on YouTube are violating its Terms of service. Google says that these apps may experience buffering issues while watching a video, or run into an error message that says “The following content is not available on this app”. The company recently targeted the privacy-friendly YouTube frontend Invidious in its battle against adblockers.

Google says that adblockers prevents creators from being rewarded for viewership, and suggests that users who want an ad-free experience should subscribe to YouTube Premium.

Windows 10 will soon start nagging you to sign in to your Microsoft account

Microsoft is making yet another controversial change to Windows 10. The Redmond company is testing a feature in the Windows Insider Program, that will prompt you to sign in to your Microsoft Account. This message will appear in the Settings app for users who sign in using a local account. Microsoft says that signing into a cloud account will help keep the device more secure, and back up important data. This is not the first time the company has promoted using a Microsoft account, it previously added a similar feature to the operating system’s Start Menu, to be precise as an error badge on the profile icon.

Overtime, Microsoft has made it harder for Windows 11 users to stick to a local account, though there are ways to bypass these restrictions.

Delta emulator released on the iOS App Store

iOS gamers rejoice! Delta emulator is now available officially on the iOS App Store. The app allows users to play retro games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS.

Delta emulator is free to download from the App Store, and is refreshingly devoid of ads and in-app purchases. Ironically, Delta emulator is not free for users in the European Union. Users from the EU will need to get the app from the newly-launched AltStore PAL, which requires an annual subscription fee of €1.50 + tax. That’s because Apple charges third-parties a Core Technology Fee for every download of their app. The AltStore PAL is available for iPhones running on iOS 17.4 or above.

YouTube will now display more relevant videos in your feed

One of the biggest criticisms that YouTube has faced over the past few years is that it does not display videos that are related to a user’s interests. It does not help with new content discovery, because the algorithm tends to list videos that are from channels that a user is subscribed to, in a chronological feed. The video platform says that it is addressing this problem by allowing users to choose videos that are more relevant. This feature is currently being tested among a small percentage of users.

But, the news has already sparked concerns that it may fail to highlight content from smaller creators. There is a chance that it might instead promote viral and popular videos, instead of helping channels that don’t have a large viewership.

Twitch to launch Discovery Feed for mobile users

Twitch has announced that it is launching a new feed for mobile users. The Discovery Feed, which was previewed in the last TwitchCon, will allow users to view videos in a vertical format. This will aid in discovering new creators, and also to interact with Twitch recommended streams.

Essentially, this feature will be similar to TikTok Stories, which is not surprising considering how popular the latter has become. Twitch is also set to allow users to edit clips from within the app. The Discovery Feed will be available for Twitch mobile users at the end of this month.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to release in 2024

It’s official, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has been announced. Warhorse Studios confirmed that the sequel to the popular first-person RPG, will be released in 2024. The upcoming game is set in 15th Century Bohemia. You can watch the game’s trailer on YouTube.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance proved to be a cult-classic, and sold around 6 million copies. Whether the sequel will be able to emulate that success remains to be seen, but things look very promising. The studio says that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will be twice as big as its predecessor, which came . Players will step into the shoes of Henry of Skalitz, and follow his journey in an epic story. You will be able to customize the character’s traits to suit your play style. The medieval themed RPG will have 5 hours of cutscenes, as opposed to three in the original. The game will also feature a reputation system, and NPCs will interact with Henry based on the kind of reputation he has built, and players will be able to respond in their own fashion.