Netflix is reportedly planning to discontinue its Windows 10 and 11 app, replacing it with a progressive web app. The streaming giant might remove support for offline viewing. The upcoming application will get improved video streaming quality and offer access to live events.

The present version of the Netflix app for Windows 10 and Windows 11 enables users to download their favourite shows up to 1080p. Reportedly, a new support document on website reads that downloads will no longer be supported, but users can continue to watch TV shows and movies offline on a supported mobile device. Tech experts said that the aforesaid document means that downloads will be soon limited to mobile and tablets.

It is reported that the updated Netflix app for Windows will also support the ad-tier, which lets users watch content on the platform at a much lower price than the standard plans and includes commercial breaks in most TV shows and movies. In addition, some titles are also unenviable on this tier because of licensing issues.

Currently, the Netflix Windows software currently displays the notice that your plan does not support streaming on this device and is incompatible with the ad-supported plan. If an user want to want to watch TV series or movies offline, they will need to go back to mobile phones as the ad-supported tier, which is not available in India.

The new app’s availability and release date are yet unknown. Netflix has not made an official announcement regarding the launch date, and it claims that the users who have enabled Microsoft Store automatic updates will receive the update automatically when it becomes available for all the users globally.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook (Meta), is celebrating his 40^th birthday on May 14. Zuckerberg, one of the most influential figures in the tech industry, has had a major impact on how people connect and communicate with each other all over the world.

At 40, Zuckierberg continues to lead Facebook and its parent company, Meta, towards new technological frontiers. Born on May 14, 1984, Zuckerberg has grown from a Harvard dropout into a billionaire philanthropist, owning many tech ventures over the years. He started Facebook in 2004 and took it public in 2012.

In 2021 the social media platform changed its name to Meta to shift the company’s focus to the metaverse. Under his leadership, Facebook has grown into a global platform with over 2.8 billion active users. Apart from this, he has also expanded his influence through the Chan Zuckerberg initiative, which is run by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan and focuses on philanthropy in health, education, and scientific research with an investment of 99% of the couple’s wealth over their lifetime.

There has been a rise in the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg over the last few years. According to Forbes, his net worth stands at $177 billion, which makes him the 4^th richest man in the world. Since Facebook (now Meta) acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has grown significantly.

In 2014 his net worth was approximately $26.1billion, which now stands at around $177 billion, which reflects a substantial increase in the net worth due to Meta’s expanding business and strategic acquisitions over the year.

Before Zuckerberg turned 40, he gifted himself a brand-new superyacht, Launchpad in March 2024. According to reports, Zuckerberg purchased $59 million worth of waterfront property on Lake Tahoe in California in 2019. He spends his money on luxury vehicles and owns a Acura TSX, a Honda Fit, and a black Volkswagon Golf GTI.

Microsoft announced at the Bloomberg Technology Summit that it will be launching a new Xbox mobile game store on the web later in July this year, becoming a challenger to the established app stores of Google and Apple. Microsoft provides users with an alternative platform for purchasing mobile games.

The Xbox President Sarah Bond at the Bloomberg Technology Summit announced that the store will initially feature Microsoft’s own games like Candy Crush Saga, with plans to add more games from different publishers. She also added that the store will be launched as a web-based store first to ensure accessibility on any device, in any country, free from the constraints imposed by the closed ecosystem of other app stores. This move will also allow Microsoft to bypass the hefty commission fees implied by Google and Apple stores, which sometimes amount to up to 30 percent.

Now, the interesting thing is to see what type of discounts Microsoft is planning to offer to the gamers, who will purchase and download it from its web store, while the majority of games are already available on the other stores. Sarah Bond also said Microsoft will extend beyond the web in the future, which means the company is planning to launch an App Store to challenge the Apple App Store and Google’s Play Store.

The dominance of Apple and Google in the app store market, where they levy a standard fee of around 30 percent on the sales, is an important issue for the game developers.

The Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer, indicated in late 2023 that the company was looking for partnerships to launch the Xbox app store, which is now easy to find by the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, which allows the tech companies to establish their direct contact to consumer web stores and bypass the fees charged by the Apple and Google, providing a significant boost to Microsoft Xbox app store.