380 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Jay Peters

Jay Peters

Senior Reporter

Senior Reporter

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    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

    Christian Selig wrote a eulogy on the Apollo subreddit paying tribute to his app, which will be shutting down sometime Friday. (As I write this, the eulogy is at the top of r/all.)

    I’m really heartbroken with how this whole process unfolded, I truly drank the Kool Aid talking to Reddit at the beginning that this was something they were going into in good faith with the interest of developers, moderators, and the community as a whole, but as many people pointed out to me, it’s clear now that ultimately wasn’t their intent. If they wanted something that could work for everyone, they would have simply made an effort to listen, instead of being dishonest, callous, and punitive in pricing. I’m sorry to all the folks who, like me, lost Apollo abruptly as a result of this. I had so much more I wanted to do with this app!

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Reddit’s new API rate limits will go into effect “shortly.”

    “Rate limits will go into effect for all apps with usage above the free limit in the coming weeks, and some changes will be noticeable over the next 24 hours,” Reddit said in a post on Friday.

    I’m guessing that means developers of some third-party apps like Apollo and RIF will start shutting things down soon.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Here’s how Sims think.

    Game Maker’s Toolkit has a new video about how the Sims in The Sims make decisions. It’s a pretty fascinating set of systems that lets them take care of their needs (well, generally) but also make sometimes strange and hilarious decisions. I’m curious how the systems will evolve for the next Sims.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    “As of now, more than 96% of our top 5,000 communities (by DAU) are open.”

    That’s the latest stat from Reddit in an updated version of its “Key Facts to Understanding Reddit’s Recent API Updates” website. While more than 2,000 communities remain dark, according to the Reddark tracker, many that had shut down have opened up.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Reddit says promised accessibility improvements for moderator tools in its mobile apps are rolling out.

    Reddit said last Friday the features would arrive by July 1st, and today, the company said they’re now available in its iOS app and coming “shortly” to its Android app.

    One commenter asked for updates on accessibility of the app in general. In response, a Reddit admin (employee) promised this:

    I’ll be back in a few weeks with an update about the work we’re doing on the general app experience. We know these improvements are important, and this is a high priority for Reddit.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Apollo for Reddit pushed an update today — the same day it’s set to shut down.

    Screenshot below.

    One neat thing: though the app won’t let you browse Reddit very soon, you’ll still be able to customize the app icon if you want to keep it around and looking good on your phone.

    The text of Apollo for Reddit’s update published on Friday.
    There’s so much here that I couldn’t screenshot the whole thing.
    Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    New footage of that Space Invaders AR game — and an Android registration link.

    Based on a new trailer for Space Invaders: World Defense, it looks like you’ll wave around your phone to blast giant AR versions of the classic arcade game aliens. If you want to pre-register for the game on Android ahead of its expected summer release, you can do that now.

    The timing for this news feels a bit weird; just yesterday, AR game maker Niantic, which has struggled to find its next Pokémon Go-sized hit, announced layoffs and game shutdowns.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    r/math, one of the biggest subreddits that was still private, has reopened.

    The more than 2 million subscribers to the subreddit can now access it again. But the moderators of the community aren’t done protesting:

    Given Reddit’s poor history of following through on promises to support moderators, we are following r/science’s lead, and intend to hold the Admins accountable to the mobile mod tools roadmap they published. Failure to deliver a promised feature on time will result in the subreddit being returned to ‘Restricted’ mode until the feature is delivered.

    Jay Peters
    Jay Peters
    Fidelity has lowered its valuation of its Reddit holdings.

    And that’s before the protests went down. As reported by TechCrunch:

    Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund valued its holdings in Reddit at $15.4 million as of May 31, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released Friday. That’s down 7.36% from $16.6 million mark at April’s closure and altogether a slide of 45.4% since its investment in August 2021. The updated share value suggests a $5.5 billion valuation for Reddit.

    I wonder what that valuation will look like next month.