Adblock, Apple, and EA news in the Softonic Roundup

Welcome back to the Softonic Roundup, where today we are bringing you news on the controversy between YouTube and AdBlock, plus a summary of the Apple keynote. We start this week with news of the silent and subtle war being fought between Adblock and Google. It all last week when AdBlock Pro users began to see adverts continue to be displayed on Youtube when viewed in Chorme – despite having the block enabled. Not only that, but they could no longer skip them. Cue outrage. There is still no official response from Google, but one Chrome developer said that change was not intentional and was simply a collateral issue from a security change applied in the last update. In fact, the AdBlock Plus developers say that a possible solution to the problem is simply to uninstall the Youtube Chrome app and enter the video service using the URL. All this just as AdBlock introduces new browser for iOS and Android. This all comes in the wake of a report on the impact of ad-blocking software. According to the report of PageFair and Adobe, 198 million people block Internet ads, a number that will only grow moving forward. The problem is this translates to an annual loss of 21,800 million dollars for website owners who rely on advertising. This has lead so some sites, such as The Washington Post, to begin denying access to users with a blocker installed. Now we are all for freedom of choice on the internet, but keep in mind that advertising is now how we pay for our media – so consider that before indiscriminately applying a block to the whole internet. Next we have news from last week’s Apple Keynote. And as always announcements ranged from the predictable to the interesting. There was the WatchOS2, due for release on Wednesday September 16. This will improvement the devices capabilities, including the ability to run third-parties to run full apps rather than just companions to their other products. There was also the announcement of the iPad Pro, a new take on the iPad which allows the use of a keyboard and the Apple Pencil for increased flexibility. It was also revealed on September 25 the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will hit stores. Running on an A9 chip, with a 12 megapixel camera capable of recording in 4K, and the innovative screen that offers haptic feedback - known as 3D Touch – the latest in Apple phone line certainly has me excited. The new Apple TV was also announced, confirming rumors that it will include the digital assistant Siri and the ability to access the App Store. Finally this week we have some gaming news from EA, who have slyly pulled down many of their classic games from the App Store. The list of games taken down include Flight Control, Real Racing, and Dead Space. With no official word from the gaming giant we are left wondering if this was a compatibility issue with iOS 9 or a move to rerelease them in a free to play format as they did with Peggle last year. That’s it for the news, I will be back on Thursday with our gaming show Click-Swipe-Play, subscribe so you don’t miss that and I will see you then.