Google is in antitrust court, fighting to preserve the search engine business that has made it so historically successful. At a few different moments through the various stages of the trial, high-powered executives from Apple have taken the stand — and largely taken Google’s side. Just this week, Apple’s Eddy Cue made the case that Google is actually in a hugely competitive market, is no longer the unstoppable force it once was, and should be largely left alone.
Why Apple is trying to save Google
On The Vergecast: Antitrust antics, the new Surfaces, and Netflix goes TikTok.
On The Vergecast: Antitrust antics, the new Surfaces, and Netflix goes TikTok.
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
If it seems odd that Apple and Google would be aligned, here’s a number to keep in mind: 20,000,000,000. That’s how many dollars Google pays Apple every year, as part of a revenue-sharing deal that makes Google the default search engine in Safari. Even as Cue talks about Google searches going down in Safari, and how AI might cannibalize search and the iPhone and everything, it’s important to keep that $20 billion paycheck in mind.
On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay, David, and The Verge’s Richard Lawler discuss Cue’s testimony, what it means that Google searches are going down in Safari, and whether the whole “AI chat will replace search” thing is actually real. We also talk about some of the other antitrust news of the week, from Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri’s comments in the Meta trial to the quickly changing App Store marketplace.
After all the monopoly talk, we turn to gadgets. Meta is working on adding facial recognition to smart glasses, which is either awesome or terrifying and actually probably both. Apple’s rumored foldable phone could be coming next year, and it might make the iPhone lineup very complicated. And Microsoft has a couple of new Surfaces, which look really nice. But we still have a couple of questions.
Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for another edition of Brendan Carr is a Dummy. Because Brendan gonna Brendan. After that, we talk about the latest in robot lawnmowers, some new Netflix updates, and a very important update on party speakers.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on antitrust things:
- Eddy Cue is fighting to save Apple’s $20 billion paycheck from Google
- Apple’s Eddy Cue: ‘You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now’
- Google searches are falling in Safari for the first time ever — probably because of AI
- Apple is looking at adding Perplexity and other AI search engines to Safari
- DOJ’s proposed Google changes would ‘deeply undermine user trust,’ search chief says
- DOJ asks court to split up Google’s ad tech empire
- Instagram CEO testifies about competing with TikTok: ‘You’re either growing, or you’re slowly dying’
- Threads was originally going to live inside the Instagram app
And in gadgets:
- Meta’s new AI glasses could have a ‘super-sensing’ mode with facial recognition
- Apple ‘iPhone Air’ rumor suggests a bigger screen coming in 2027
- Apple may stagger next year’s iPhones to make way for a foldable
- Microsoft’s smaller Surface Pro has a 12-inch display and starts at $799
- Microsoft shrinks its Surface Laptop down to 13 inches, priced at $899
- Microsoft’s new Surface devices ditch magnetic charging port for USB-C
- How Microsoft shrunk its Surface devices
And in the lightning round:
- From Bloomberg: FCC’s Brendan Carr Calls for Spectrum, AI Leadership in China Race
- From The American Enterprise Institute: Policing News, Policing DEI: The FCC’s Shifting Priorities Erode Its Credibility
- Netflix is getting a big TV revamp
- Netflix will try a TikTok-like feed on its mobile app
- I put four robot lawnmowers through a brutal backyard battle
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