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Epic Games has filed a proposed injunction that would stop Google from restricting third-party app distribution outside Google Play Store on Android devices after proving that Google had an illegal monopoly in markets for Android app distribution.

Epic is suggesting that competition on the Android mobile platform would be opened up if the court orders Google to allow third-party app stores to be distributed for six years in the Google Play Store and blocks Google from entering any agreements with device makers that would stop them from pre-loading third-party app stores. This would benefit both mobile developers and users, Epic argued in a wide-sweeping proposal that would greatly limit Google's control over the Android app ecosystem.

US District Court Judge James Donato will ultimately decide the terms of the injunction. Google has until May 3 to respond to Epic's filing.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto )

Google has sued two app developers based in China over an alleged scheme targeting 100,000 users globally over four years with at least 87 fraudulent cryptocurrency and other investor apps distributed through the Play Store.

The tech giant alleged that scammers lured victims with "promises of high returns" from "seemingly legitimate" apps offering investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies and other products. Commonly known as "pig-butchering schemes," these scams displayed fake returns on investments, but when users went to withdraw the funds, they discovered they could not.

In some cases, Google alleged, developers would "double down on the scheme by requesting various fees and other payments from victims that were supposedly necessary for the victims to recover their principal investments and purported gains."

Enlarge / EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton talks to media about non-compliance investigations against Google, Apple, and Meta under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). (credit: Thierry Monasse / Contributor | Getty Images News )

Not even three weeks after the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) took effect, the European Commission (EC) announced Monday that it is already probing three out of six gatekeepers—Apple, Google, and Meta—for suspected non-compliance.

Apple will need to prove that changes to its app store and existing user options to swap out default settings easily are sufficient to comply with the DMA.

Similarly, Google's app store rules will be probed, as well as any potentially shady practices unfairly preferencing its own services—like Google Shopping and Hotels—in search results.

Enlarge (credit: SOPA Images / Contributor | LightRocket )

After Epic Games proved that Google’s Android app store monopoly violates antitrust law , Google has agreed to pay a $700 million settlement with US states and consumers, Reuters reported .

Once a judge approves the settlement, the largest chunk—$630 million—will go to consumers who allegedly were hit with unnecessary fees for in-app transactions. Google has not admitted to any wrongdoing, but each eligible consumer will receive at least $2, and some will receive more. Individual payouts will vary, depending on how much consumers spent in the Google Play Store between August 16, 2016 and September 30, 2023.

The remaining $70 million will go to states that joined the settlement, which includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Enlarge / Behold, a collection of apps we love. (credit: Oscar Wong / Getty Images)

Senior Reviews Editor Samuel Axon

Todoist basically runs my life—but that's OK, because it's a very well-designed app. There are a ton of to-do apps on the iPhone, but I went with this one because it's very flexible.

For example, yeah, you can see a top-to-bottom to-do list like with many others, but you can view that same data as a Trello-like Kanban board, too.

I've also found that Todoist is better at understanding natural language settings for projects, times, and so on than a lot of other to-do apps, so, for example, I can type "Edit next article at 2 pm on Tuesday #ArsTechnica" to add a to-do within the Ars Technica project with a due time of 2 pm on the following Tuesday. A lot of to-do apps support that, but I feel Todoist does it best.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto )

Google has reached a tentative settlement with more than 30 US states and 21 million customers who sued the tech giant for allegedly violating antitrust laws by overcharging for apps in the Google Play Store, Reuters reported .

The settlement comes approximately one week after a court revoked the lawsuit's class-action status . Details, including the amount of the settlement, were not disclosed, Reuters reported, but plaintiffs agreed in a court filing yesterday not to oppose the court's decision on the class-action certification. At one point, plaintiffs estimated that Google might owe them $4.7 billion in damages ; however, it was previously reported that losing the class-action status would significantly reduce damages for states and customers suing.

Nothing will be finalized until the settlement is approved by the State Attorneys General and Google owner Alphabet Inc’s board of directors. After that, a long-form settlement agreement must be reached before final approval by the court.

Enlarge / The Play Store on tablets is mostly just two big thumbnails. (credit: Google)

Following the release of the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold, Google wants developers to take big-screen apps more seriously. Asking nicely rarely works, so Google is changing the Play Store ranking algorithms to increase the visibility of apps that better support large screens.

Google's blog post says:

Apps and games that adhere to our large screen app quality guidelines will now be ranked higher in search and Apps and Games Home. This helps users find apps that resize well, aren't letterboxed, and support both portrait and landscape orientations. Editors’ Choice and other curated collections and articles will also consider these criteria going forward, creating new featuring opportunities for optimized apps.

The large screen app guidelines have various tiers, but they recommend keyboard, mouse, and stylus support, a two-pane tablet layout, drag-and-drop support, and foldable display awareness. The post also reiterates some improvements that Google has already rolled out, like showing tablet screenshots to tablet users and downranking apps that crash a lot.