When they rolled out the beta Microsoft said it wouldn’t be, but they could always change their mind with the general release. Excerpt from a previous Verge article about the beta rollout (https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/12/24128640/microsoft-windows-11-start-menu-ads-app-recommendations):

“This will appear only for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the US and will not apply to commercial devices (devices managed by organizations),” says Microsoft in a blog post.

Unfortunately, this article doesn’t actually quote Microsoft saying it’s rolling out to ALL machines. That bit in the article is from the author.

Google is removing the VPN and free shipping (which was only available on some photo orders) to make way for more “in demand features”?

I could understand if this was coming from a smaller company with more limited resources and staff, but that’s not Google by any means.

They really don’t care about the poor reputation the general public has of them regarding shutting down services on a whim.

What’s worse though is they don’t seem to realize that, with the exception of Android and maybe Google Docs, their services/products are easily replaced by competitor offerings.

In my opinion it’s a good thing if Google gets knocked of their high horse and allow competition to flourish in their place.

It [Apple] argued that there is no iMessage version for other operating systems and devices because Apple can’t guarantee user security on those devices

What a load, Apple can’t guarantee security on their own devices!

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/hackers-can-extract-secret-encryption-keys-from-apples-mac-chips/