March 8 Tech News Roundup: Firefox gets Vertical Tabs, YouTube Premium Lite is back, Brother says it did not brick printers

Firefox update introduces Vertical Tabs and SmartBlock Embeds

Mozilla has released the Firefox 136 update with some very important features. The open source browser now supports Vertical Tabs, allowing users to switch from the traditional horizontal tab bar to a vertical mode that lists all your tabs in Firefox’s sidebar. This can be useful on widescreen monitors.

Another important feature that Firefox 136 ships with is called SmartBlock Embeds. As the name suggests, this is a security feature, and is part of Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection, which protects a user’s privacy. It has been designed to block tracking scripts on web pages that caused issues when Firefox’s tracking protection was enabled. SmartBlock Embeds replaces the original tracking script with wannabes, to ensure that web pages do not break, and do not track the user.

Firefox is yet to support Tab Groups in the stable channel, but the feature is currently being tested in the nightly version of the browser.

YouTube Premium Lite launches in the U.S.

YouTube Premium Lite has been relaunched. Google had discontinued the budget-friendly tier in 2023, but has reintroduced the subscription plan. As a reminder, the YouTube Premium price was raised recently in multiple Countries around the World. Many users who had previously subscribed to the service chose to cancel it because it was too expensive. YouTube Premium Lite could offer a more affordable option.

But, there are some things that one should keep in mind before opting for the cheaper alternative. YouTube Premium Lite does not allow you to download videos to watch offline. Background playback is not available in the cheaper tier either. The main drawback however is that YouTube Premium Lite does not offer a truly ad-free experience. Google says that it will allow content creators to include sponsored segments in their videos to allow them to earn additional revenue, and YouTube Premium Lite will not block these ads.

YouTube Premium Lite is currently available for users in the U.S., for a price of $7.99 per month. Google says that the plan will soon be available for users in other Countries including Thailand, Germany, and Australia.

Brother denies that it bricked printers for using third-party ink

A printer manufacturer has been accused of bricking their products for using third-party ink. No, we are not talking about HP. This time, the company in question is Brother. Louis Rossman, a YouTuber, alleged that Brother has released some firmware updates for its printers, that causes issues when a user opts for third-party ink or toners, instead of those manufactured by the Japanese company.

Some users claimed that the printing quality had degraded when they used a third-party ink, while others claimed they ran into other issues with their own printers, such as being unable to use other toners. The company has purportedly been removing older versions of firmware from its servers.

Brother has denied the allegations, stating that its firmware does not brick printers or degrade the print quality intentionally for using third-party ink. The company says that the confusion may have resulted in some misunderstanding of how its standard procedures are followed. Its support team encourages customers to use Brother Genuine ink and toner for optimal performance, and to troubleshoot problems related to the devices.

Google and DOJ in talks to avoid breakup of the company

Google and the U.S. Department of Justice have been holding discussions to determine the future of the tech mogul. The search giant was accused of maintaining an illegal search monopoly in the U.S. in August 2024. The DOJ has been considering ways to remedy the situation, among which is the possibility of breaking up the company.

Google Search, Android, and Chrome could be split from the tech giant, which could hit the company’s revenue badly. The company is understandably desperate to prevent this from happening, which is why it has been discussing things with the DOJ. Google has been lobbying against the proposals, claiming that it could have serious ramifications in the internet search industry, and could lead to threats to user security, national security and the American economy itself.

A trial will determine the remedies beginning in April, while a final ruling is expected in August 2025.

Amazon Prime Video introduces AI dubbing for English and Spanish

Amazon Prime Video is getting a new feature, AI-powered dubbing. The feature is currently being tested to dub certain movies and TV series that did not have officially dubbed versions in English and Latin American Spanish. Subtitles, captions, audio descriptions often help break the language barrier, allowing viewers from different Countries to watch videos in languages that they are not familiar with. But, Amazon Prime Video’s AI-dubbing could take it to a whole new level.

Traditional methods to dub a video can be expensive, time-consuming, but AI-powered dubbing has some challenges of its own. The main issue is how AI-generated voices sound, and convey emotions, not to mention the ability to deliver lip-sync. Amazon is likely to expand the support for the feature, by introducing more languages, if the pilot program is successful. This localization initiative could also influence other services in the industry, that may also opt for similar technologies.

Google Play Store removes 180+ apps involved in ad-fraud schemes

Google has confirmed that it has removed over 180 apps from its Play Store for ad-fraud. The 180 apps in question had amassed over 56 million downloads.

Integral Ad Science (IAS), which is an advertising verification vendor, calls these apps as “vapor” apps, as they do not offer any useful functionality once downloaded, and are instead filled with ads. Termed as an extensive and sophisticated ad fraud scheme, these deceptive apps are deigned to mimic legitimate apps. The uploaders target popular categories to release the apps, and when installed on a user’s device, they bombard them with excessive advertisements, notifications, and more annoyances.

The fact that such malicious apps were able to bypass Google Play Protect has sent alarm bells ringing among the Android community. Users are worried about the security of the Android ecosystem, and legitimate developers are concerned that their apps were rejected for trivial reasons while malware apps went through the approval process.