Big Tech Bombs
An archive of documented, dated changes that made big tech products worse.
Adobe
Adobe's new terms spark fear over access to user work
· Privacy & data
Adobe prompted users to accept updated terms that let it access content through automated and manual means, including machine learning. Creatives worried about client work under NDA. Adobe said it does not train generative AI on customer content and revised the terms.
Why it counts: People had to accept the terms to keep opening their own projects.
Amazon
Amazon confirms 16,000 more corporate job cuts
· Layoffs
Amazon said it was cutting about 16,000 more corporate roles, bringing the total since October to about 30,000. A senior vice president announced it in a blog post, saying the aim was to reduce layers and move money toward AI. US staff were given 90 days to look for internal roles.
Why it counts: The second round in four months, announced in the same quarter the company reported profits up nearly 40%.
Amazon to cut about 14,000 corporate roles
· Layoffs
In a memo, Amazon's head of People Experience and Technology said the company would cut about 14,000 corporate roles, citing less bureaucracy and the effects of AI. Staff were given 90 days to look for internal roles.
Why it counts: Confirmed in a company memo, and larger than any previous round of corporate cuts there.
Amazon ends Echo's do-not-send-recordings option
· Privacy & data
From 28 March 2025 Echo devices could no longer process requests on the device instead of in Amazon's cloud. Amazon tied the change to its Alexa+ assistant and said the setting was used by a small share of owners.
Why it counts: An option that kept voice audio off Amazon's servers was removed from devices that had it.
Kindle drops “Download & Transfer via USB”
· Feature degradation
From 26 February 2025 Amazon removed the option to download purchased Kindle books to a computer and copy them to a Kindle over USB. Wi-Fi delivery still works.
Why it counts: Buyers lost the easiest way to keep their own backup copy of books they paid for.
Prime Video adds ads unless you pay $2.99 more
· Feature degradation, Price increases · Hall of Fame
Amazon told Prime members that from 29 January 2024 Prime Video films and shows would include limited ads. Removing them costs an extra $2.99 a month in the US. The Prime price did not change.
Why it counts: Existing paying subscribers got ads added to a service they had already paid for, with a fee to get back what they had.
Apple
Apple pauses AI news summaries after false headlines
· Feature degradation, PR bombs
After the BBC complained that Apple Intelligence notification summaries misreported its stories, including a false claim about Luigi Mangione, Apple said summaries for news and entertainment apps would be temporarily unavailable.
Why it counts: A shipped feature put wrong claims into notifications under news outlets' names.
Apple apologises for its iPad “Crush!” ad
· PR bombs
Apple's iPad Pro ad showed a hydraulic press crushing instruments, paint and other creative tools. After a backlash, Apple's Tor Myhren said “we missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry”, and Apple dropped plans to run it on TV.
Why it counts: An ad meant to celebrate creative people showed their tools being destroyed.
Belkin
Belkin ends cloud support for most Wemo devices
· Killed, Feature degradation
Belkin said Wemo cloud services and app support would end on 31 January 2026. Devices not set up with Apple HomeKit beforehand lose their smart features, while Thread-based products are unaffected.
Why it counts: Smart plugs and switches lost their smart features when the servers went off.
Block
Block cuts more than 4,000 jobs, nearly half its staff
· Layoffs, CEO blunders
Block said it would cut more than 4,000 roles, taking the company from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. Jack Dorsey tied the cuts to AI and said the business was not in financial trouble. Affected staff were offered 20 weeks of salary plus benefits.
Why it counts: Nearly half a company removed in one announcement, with AI given as the reason.
Broadcom
Broadcom ends VMware perpetual licences
· Price increases
After buying VMware, Broadcom ended perpetual licences for more than a dozen products and moved customers to subscriptions. Some customers reported increases of over 1,000%.
Why it counts: Customers who owned licences outright were moved to recurring fees at much higher prices.
Duolingo
Duolingo's CEO tells staff the company is 'AI-first'
· CEO blunders, PR bombs
Luis von Ahn's memo said Duolingo would phase out contractors for work AI can do. After backlash he wrote that he hadn't explained it well and that the company was continuing to hire.
Why it counts: A CEO's own memo set the terms for the backlash and then had to be clarified.
Google announces it is shutting down Jules
· Killed
Google said its Jules coding agent would go read-only on 11 November 2026 and shut down on 31 December, with its work folded into Antigravity. Users were told to finish active sessions and export their data.
Why it counts: A product was given about two months' notice, with no like-for-like replacement announced.
Google ends support for the first two Nest thermostats
· Killed, Feature degradation
From 25 October 2025 the first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats stopped connecting to the Google Home and Nest apps. Pre-set schedules kept working, and Google offered a discount on the fourth-generation model.
Why it counts: Thermostats sold in 2011 and 2012 lost app control after more than a decade of use.
Chrome starts turning off uBlock Origin
· Feature degradation
As Google phased out Manifest V2 extensions, Chrome began disabling uBlock Origin for many users. The developer's replacement, uBlock Origin Lite, runs on Manifest V3 and has fewer capabilities.
Why it counts: An extension users installed to block ads stopped working in the browser they installed it in.
Google pulls its 'Dear Sydney' Gemini ad
· PR bombs
Google withdrew an Olympics ad in which a father has Gemini write his daughter's fan letter to Olympian Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, after viewers called it tone-deaf. It said it would phase the ad out.
Why it counts: An ad tested before airing was pulled within days of broadcast.
Google admits its Gemini demo video was staged
· PR bombs
Google told Bloomberg its Gemini hands-on video was not conducted in real time: it used still images and text prompts, and the voice was dubbed in later. The only note was in the YouTube description.
Why it counts: The video showed fluent live interaction that the product was not doing.
Google announces it is closing Google Podcasts
· Killed
Google said Google Podcasts would shut down in 2024 and pointed listeners to YouTube Music, with tools to export subscriptions as a file.
Why it counts: A dedicated app was closed in favour of a music service.
Google cuts 12,000 roles
· Layoffs
Sundar Pichai told staff Alphabet would reduce its workforce by about 12,000 roles, around 6%, across product areas, functions, levels and regions.
Why it counts: About one in seventeen Alphabet employees lost their job in one round, announced by email.
Google shuts down Stadia
· Killed
Google said its Stadia game-streaming service would close on 18 January 2023, and that it would refund hardware bought from the Google Store and games and add-ons bought on Stadia. Stadia Pro subscriptions were not refunded.
Why it counts: Two months earlier Google's own Stadia account had posted that Stadia was not shutting down.
Humane
Humane's AI Pin is shut down after HP deal
· Killed
Humane said its AI Pin would stop working on 28 February 2025 after HP bought its staff and software for $116 million. Refunds were offered only to recent buyers.
Why it counts: Devices that sold for $699 stopped working about ten months after launch.
Intel
Intel to cut about 15,000 jobs
· Layoffs
CEO Pat Gelsinger told staff Intel would cut about 15% of its workforce, suspend its dividend and save about $10 billion in 2025, after a weak second quarter.
Why it counts: One of the largest job-cut announcements by a chipmaker, confirmed in a memo to employees.
Meta
Meta drops 'train' from business terms after scraping backlash
· Privacy & data
Ahead of terms taking effect on 30 October 2026, Meta removed wording that permitted using crawled website content to 'train' its products. A spokesperson said the changes applied only to advertising and business products. Legal experts said the terms still allowed broad scraping.
Why it counts: The wording was changed ten days before it took effect, while critics said the underlying permission remained.
Meta lays off about 8,000 people, 10% of staff
· Layoffs
Meta cut about 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 people, and halted hiring for about 6,000 open roles. An April memo tied the cuts to offsetting its AI spending. Mark Zuckerberg told staff he did not expect further company-wide layoffs this year.
Why it counts: The largest company-wide round since the 2022–23 'Year of Efficiency', as AI spending was forecast to more than double.
Meta moves Horizon Worlds to mobile and pulls it from VR
· Killed
Meta said it was separating Horizon Worlds from its VR platform, with the Quest store listing removed on 31 March and the VR version ending on 15 June. It later said some existing Unity-based worlds would stay playable in VR.
Why it counts: The flagship metaverse product was withdrawn from the headsets it was built for, after a reported multibillion-dollar investment.
Meta lays off 11,000 people
· Layoffs
Mark Zuckerberg told staff Meta would cut about 13% of its workforce, more than 11,000 people. He said he had expected the pandemic surge in online activity to last, and that it had not.
Why it counts: The CEO said he got the growth bet wrong; 13% of staff lost their jobs over it.
Microsoft
Microsoft cuts about 4,800 jobs, hitting Xbox and sales
· Layoffs
Microsoft cut about 4,800 jobs, about 2% of its workforce, with Xbox and sales hit hardest. An Xbox memo set a target of about 3,200 reductions through fiscal 2027 and said four studios would be spun off.
Why it counts: Described as the company's largest layoff in years.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate rises to $29.99 a month
· Price increases
Microsoft raised Game Pass Ultimate by 50%, from $19.99 to $29.99 a month in the US, adding Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew. It was the second increase in about a year.
Why it counts: A subscription's price went up by half in a single step.
Microsoft retires Skype
· Killed
Microsoft announced Skype would close on 5 May 2025 and pointed users to Teams, which they could sign in to with their Skype account. Chats, contacts and call history could be exported.
Why it counts: A calling service that had been on the market for two decades was closed.
Microsoft 365 price rises with Copilot bundled in
· Price increases
Microsoft raised US Microsoft 365 Personal from $69.99 to $99.99 a year and Family from $99.99 to $129.99, adding Copilot AI features. Existing subscribers pay the new price at renewal.
Why it counts: A roughly 43% rise for Personal, tied to an AI feature subscribers had not asked for.
Microsoft's AI chief calls web content “freeware”
· CEO blunders, Privacy & data
In a CNBC interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said content on the open web has been treated as “freeware” that anyone can copy and use, except where publishers have said not to crawl it.
Why it counts: An executive at one of the largest AI companies described people's published work as free to take by default.
Microsoft pulls Recall after privacy outcry
· Privacy & data
Recall, a Windows feature that takes regular screenshots of everything on screen to make it searchable, was due on by default on new Copilot+ PCs. After security and privacy criticism, Microsoft made it opt-in, encrypted its database, and held back the launch.
Why it counts: A feature recording everything on screen was planned to be on by default.
Microsoft cuts 10,000 jobs
· Layoffs
Satya Nadella told staff Microsoft would cut 10,000 jobs, under 5% of its workforce, by the end of March 2023, while still hiring in areas it called strategic.
Why it counts: Ten thousand people lost their jobs while the company said it would keep hiring elsewhere.
Mozilla
Mozilla rewrites Firefox terms after data-licence backlash
· Privacy & data
Firefox's first Terms of Use included a licence over user input and Mozilla dropped its promise never to sell user data, citing the broad legal definition of a sale. After criticism it rewrote the terms within days.
Why it counts: A browser known for privacy changed its data promises and had to walk them back.
Netflix
Netflix raises prices on all US plans again
· Price increases
Netflix raised US prices on 26 March 2026: the ad tier from $7.99 to $8.99, Standard from $17.99 to $19.99 and Premium from $24.99 to $26.99. It was the second increase in about 14 months.
Why it counts: Every plan went up, a little over a year after the previous round.
Netflix ends free password sharing in the US
· Price increases
On 23 May 2023 Netflix began emailing US members who shared their account outside their household, telling them the account is for one household only.
Why it counts: Sharing within a plan's screen limit had worked for years. Netflix turned it into something you pay extra for.
Plex
Plex puts remote streaming of your own media behind a paywall
· Price increases, Feature degradation
From 29 April 2025 Plex required a Plex Pass or a $1.99 a month Remote Watch Pass to stream personal media outside the home network, and raised Plex Pass prices for the first time in a decade.
Why it counts: Something that worked for free on servers people ran themselves started costing money.
Reddit API pricing shuts down Apollo
· Price increases, Killed
Apollo's developer said Reddit's new API pricing of $0.24 per 1,000 requests would cost about $20 million a year, and announced the app would shut down on 30 June 2023.
Why it counts: Third-party apps that many users relied on, including for accessibility, became unaffordable to run.
Salesforce
Salesforce's CEO says AI let it cut 4,000 support roles
· Layoffs, CEO blunders
On a podcast, CEO Marc Benioff said Salesforce had reduced its support headcount from about 9,000 to about 5,000 as AI agents took on about half of support conversations.
Why it counts: A chief executive stated the cut and its cause on the record.
Sonos
Sonos's redesigned app launched without core features
· Feature degradation
The app Sonos released on 7 May 2024 lacked features users relied on, including Play Next, Play Last and searching a local music library, and had multiple bugs. On 25 July the CEO apologised and published a recovery plan.
Why it counts: A working app was replaced by one that was missing things owners had already paid for speakers to do.
Spotify
Spotify's Car Thing stops working
· Killed
Spotify turned off Car Thing, its in-car player, on 9 December 2024, months after announcing the shutdown. Refunds were offered for direct purchases, but not for devices bought second-hand.
Why it counts: Hardware people bought was switched off by the company that made it.
Twitter caps how many posts people can read per day
· Feature degradation
Musk announced 'temporary limits' of 6,000 posts a day for verified accounts and 600 for unverified, later raised, citing data scraping. Users saw 'Rate limit exceeded' errors.
Why it counts: A social network limited how much of it people could see.
Twitter shuts off its free API
· Price increases, Killed
Twitter ended free access to its v1.1 and v2 APIs in 2023, replacing it with a $100-a-month Basic tier and a write-only free tier. Many apps and bots stopped working.
Why it counts: Tools people had built on Twitter for years, from bots to accessibility apps, broke or had to start charging.
Twitter cuts about half its staff
· Layoffs
Twitter began layoffs affecting roughly half of its 7,500 employees, telling staff by email. The company closed its offices that day and said staff would be told by email whether they were affected.
Why it counts: A company-wide cut landed within about a week of the ownership change.
Unity
Unity announces a per-install fee for games
· Price increases, PR bombs
Unity said developers would owe a fee for each install once a game passed revenue and install thresholds, starting 1 January 2024. After a backlash it apologised and revised the plan, keeping the Personal plan free and exempting games built on existing versions.
Why it counts: Developers had built on Unity's terms, and the terms changed under games already in production.
Withings
Withings puts Apple Health sync behind a subscription
· Price increases, Feature degradation
New Withings accounts created from mid-October 2026 need a paid Withings+ subscription, about $99 a year, to sync automatically with Apple Health and Google Health Connect. Existing accounts keep free sync, and a one-month trial is included.
Why it counts: A basic connection to a phone's health data became a paid feature for anyone who buys a device from now on.
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast backs down on the Open Gaming License
· PR bombs
After a leaked draft of a revised Open Gaming License caused an outcry from publishers, Wizards apologised and, on 27 January, dropped its plan to deauthorise the existing licence.
Why it counts: A licence third-party publishers had built businesses on was threatened, then restored after they pushed back.
YouTube
YouTube hides public dislike counts
· Feature degradation
YouTube made dislike counts private on all videos. The dislike button stayed, but only creators can see the total, in YouTube Studio.
Why it counts: Viewers lost a quick public signal of whether a video was misleading or low quality.
Zoom
Zoom's terms appear to allow AI training on customer content
· Privacy & data
Coverage of Zoom's terms pointed to language on machine learning and AI. Zoom added a note saying it would not train AI on audio, video or chat content without consent, then rewrote the terms again on 11 August.
Why it counts: Customers were using the product for meetings, and the terms read as if their content could be used to train models.