October 4 Tech news roundup: Perplexity’s Comet browser is now free for all, Xbox Game Pass prices hiked, Amazon debuts Vega OS for TV

Xbox Game Pass prices hiked, subscribers furious

Microsoft has increased the prices of Xbox Game Pass plans for a second time in a year, and subscribers are far from happy about it. Game Pass Core has been renamed to Game Pass Essential, and costs $9.99 per month. Game Pass Standard is now Game Pass Premium, it costs $14.99. The only Game Pass plan for Xbox consoles that allows players access to Day One releases, is Game Pass Ultimate. It now costs $29.99, after a $10.00 price increase. A PC-only Game Pass plan exists for $16.49, after a $4.50 price hike from the previous price of $11.99.

Microsoft may have shot itself in the foot with these price hikes. Hundreds of reddit users seem to be unhappy with the price hikes, with several people saying they had no choice but to cancel their subscription.

Instagram chief says the app doesn’t listen to the mic of users’ devices to deliver ads

Instagram’s chief, Adam Mosseri, posted a video on the social network to bust the myth that Instagram is listening to the microphone on users’ mobile devices, in order to deliver relevant ads. Mosseri argued that eavesdropping on users would be a gross violation of privacy, and pointed out that the microphone notification/light on the mobile device would let users know if their mic was actively listening to them.

He also said that users would be aware if the battery on the devices were draining. Mosseri claimed that users encountering eerily accurate ads may have tapped on something prior to having a conversation, or scrolled past the ad without noticing it, and misremembering the ad, associating it incorrectly as listening to phones. Encountering a very relevant could also be a random chance, Mosseri said.

Nevertheless, the sudden statement has raised eyebrows about the company’s privacy practices, which were already questionable. Meta has announced it will use user data from interactions with its AI, to sell ads in the future.

Google argues that its controversial sideloading policy is better for user security

Google has published an article on its developer website, to defend its sideloading policy. Amidst an uproar from developers and users, it claims that requiring developers who distribute their Android apps outside the Play Store is beneficial for user security, and that it does not take away user choice. However, by requiring developers to pay a registration fee, and identify themselves by providing government issued IDs, Google is enforcing strict rules on developers.  And developers who may not wish to submit their personal information may choose to abandon their apps.

This may result in the end of free app distribution. A popular repository, F-droid, which compiles open source apps from their source code, and hosts the APKs on its website, has warned that it may be forced to shut down if Google’s rules about app identifiers are not reverted. Many people say this could kill sideloading altogether, and is an anticompetitive move that will give Google full control over what apps are distributed by third-party app marketplaces.

Amazon’s Linux-based Vega OS for TV won’t let you sideload apps

While we are on the topic of sideloading apps, here’s something you may find interesting. Amazon has announced the replacement for its Android-based Fire OS. The long-rumored Linux-based Vega OS is real. While Amazon did not reveal much about the new operating system, a listing for its newest Fire Stick 4K Select says that users will not be able to sideload apps. So the only place where you can download apps for your TV, is from the Amazon Appstore.

Amazon says that its latest Fire Stick 4K Select is very fast to launch apps, despite having just 1GB of RAM. This is likely due to the fact that it runs on a custom version of Linux, though a report claims that Vega OS will stream apps from the cloud.

Perplexity’s Comet browser with agentic AI, released for Windows and macOS

Perplexity has released Comet browser for free for all users. The app had been premium-only for a few months, since its debut on July 9 this year. However, all users can now download Comet for free. The browser is based on Chromium, and supports extensions that are available on the Web Store. Users are not able to change the new tab page in Comet browser. While it comes with a built-in ad blocker, it seems unimpressive on YouTube. While it can be used without signing up for an account, there are some limitations.

Comet’s strength however is its integrated AI, which can be accessed via the Assistant button. Users can chat with Perplexity AI, ask it queries, questions about the current page they are on, follow-up questions. Comet is an agentic browser, meaning it can be instructed to automated tasks, which it can handle on its own. Users can pause and take over the process at any time. The app can also summarize web pages. Comet browser is not available for Linux, it is only supported on Windows and macOS.

Windows 11 2025 update released

Microsoft has released the Windows 11 2025 update.  The annual feature update is focused on AI features for Copilot+ PCs including AI agent in Settings, AI actions in File Explorer, Click to Do functionality and more. It is worth noting that many of the AI features require a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which is available on Copilot+ PCs.

Notable changes in the release include support for dynamic Taskbar icon resizing, improvements to pinned apps on the Taskbar, expanded dark mode support, faster archive extraction, and more. It also brings a new feature called Quick Machine Recovery which can assist PCs to recover from critical errors. Microsoft says that the update will install faster than prior releases due to an Enablement Package, and the process itself takes just a few minutes, as opposed to half an hour or so with multiple reboots.

Windows 11 version 25H2 has some known issues such as being unable to play DRM-content in some Blu-ray, DVD, Digital TV apps. WUSA updates may fail, if installed from a shared folder.

Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.