Roku

Apple Ends Epic’s Account, Meta Platforms Offline, Former Twitter Execs Sue Elon Musk

Us It Lifestyle Games Court Apple Fortnite
Hey, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter covering all of — or at least the bulk of! This week, Roku played hardball with its customers, requiring them to consent to new dispute resolution terms. And Elon Musk, the CEO of X, sued OpenAI over allegedly “betraying” its nonprofit mission. NewsEpic takedown: Apple has terminated Epic Games’ App Store developer account, reportedly calling it a “threat” to the iOS ecosystem. Musk money: Four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, sued Musk on Monday, alleging that they’re owed over $128 million in severance payments.

“Roku Enforces Forced Arbitration: No Access to TVs or Streaming Devices Without User Consent”

Roku Glitch
Roku users around the country turned on their TVs this week to find an unpleasant surprise: the company required them to consent to an arbitration agreement in order to access their device. Users (at least, this user) received an email the day before saying that “we have made changes to our Dispute Resolution Terms, which describe how you can resolve disputes with Roku. We encourage you to read the updated Dispute Resolution Terms. But there really is something rather despicable about totally disabling a user’s device until they agree, and having basically anything the user does count as agreement. Don’t delay or, when people sue them over how they held devices hostage in order to coerce them into consumer-hostile dispute resolution terms, you won’t be able to join in on the fun.

“Unveiling Roku’s Spring Collection: Introducing Luxurious High-End TVs”

Roku Pro Series Living Room
A year after announcing its own lineup of Roku-branded TVs, the hardware company revealed today a new range of high-end televisions. Roku also introduced Roku Smart Picture, an AI-powered feature that automatically adjusts picture and audio quality. The Roku Pro Series TVs feature a thinner design than its Roku Select and Plus Series TVs, with a mount to rest flat against the wall. Also arriving in the spring of 2024, Roku Smart Picture is a new feature coming to the Roku TV program that is designed to optimize the viewing experience. The feature will roll out to all Roku TV models.