Google loses its seven-year fight against $2.7 billion EU antitrust fine

Google has lost a seven-year battle with the European Commission as the EU's highest court upheld a $2.7 billion antitrust fine against the search giant, Reuters reported. Antitrust regulators originally levied the penalty against Google in 2017 for favoring its own shopping service against local rivals. 

"Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals," EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at the time. "Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors."

Google lost its first appeal with a lower court in 2021, sending the appeal to Luxembourg's Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The company argued that it was being punished for its dominant position in the market and that the original decision "erred in law by treating quality improvements... as abusive." 

However, the CJEU judges upheld the lower court's decision that the company is allowed to have a dominant position but not to abuse it. "In particular, the conduct of undertakings in a dominant position that has the effect of hindering competition on the merits and is thus likely to cause harm to individual undertakings and consumers is prohibited," they noted. 

Google is also fighting a legal battle in the EU that could force it to sell parts of its adtech businesses over similar arguments that it favors its own services over those of competitors. The EU commission found preliminarily that since Google is unlikely to change its behavior, only the "mandatory divestment" of part of its services would address competition concerns. All told, Google has accumulated 8.25 billion euros ($9.12 billion) in EU antitrust fines over the last ten years.

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7 Things To Know Before Starting Astro Bot

By most accounts, Astro Bot, the incredible PlayStation 5 platformer that pays a loving tribute to Sony’s (spotty) gaming legacy, is a pretty straightforward game. Team Asobi has created an excellent experience that is able to communicate a lot without words or hand-holding. However, we do have some tips to hopefully…

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The Morning After: What to expect from Apple’s iPhone 16 event later today

The next iPhone will be revealed later today at 1PM ET. Well, iPhones. We’re expecting four new devices: the base iPhone 16, a larger iPhone 16 Plus, the iPhone 16 Pro and another beastly iPhone 15 Pro Max. The Pro models might get slightly larger screens, with the regular Pro likely to move to 6.3 inches from 6.1 inches, while the Pro Max should hit 6.9 inches, an increase from 6.7 inches. The iPhone 16’s camera module could be getting a design refresh too.

While those are likely to be the stars, Apple doesn’t miss a chance to showcase even more of its hardware, especially if it ties to the iOS juggernaut. There are plenty of rumors of redesigned AirPods, as well as an updated Apple Watch.

Apple’s next standard smartwatch may have a bigger screen more in line with the Ultra. The company may also introduce a new band system with new connectors that are easier to swap out.

The event kicks off at 1PM ET. You can follow along on our liveblog, where we’ll also be highlighting our first impressions on all the new products.

— Mat Smith

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The new Philips Hue Sync Box can keep up with your game console’s frame rates

It supports up to 8K at 60Hz for video and 4K at 120Hz for gaming.

A more future-proof Philips Hue Sync Box has arrived, with support for HDMI 2.1. The box plugs into your TV and creates a light show synced with your onscreen content. Now, it can match 4k at 120Hz, so it’s better suited to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The box can sync with up to 10 color-capable Hue lights. As with the previous model, you can tweak the brightness and intensity to your liking in the Hue app.

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YouTube terminates five right-wing channels accused of links to Russia

It included Tenet Media and four other channels.

YouTube has pulled five right-wing political channels believed to be connected to the Department of Justice’s Russia-linked US media indictments this week. The platform pulled the channel of Tenet Media, the company reportedly implicated in the indictment. The DOJ accused Russian operatives of paying the media organization to spread disinformation designed to influence the 2024 US elections. On Wednesday, the DOJ indicted two employees of RT (formerly Russia Today), a Kremlin-backed media outlet. They were accused of illegally funding a Tennessee-backed media organization, now all but officially confirmed as Tenet Media.

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LG flaunts its stretchable displays on the catwalk

It’s designed for garments, wearables, handbags and more.

LG

This is LG’s Stretchable tech. It appeared as part of clothing and bag concepts at 2025 Seoul Fashion Week. Korean designers added displays to the front of garments, sleeves and clutch bags. LG had to tweak the tech, of course. It built the substrate material from a silicon similar to that used in contact lenses. Screens on clothing, though? Groundbreaking.

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15 Years Ago, The Beatles: Rock Band Made Me A Fab Four Fan For Life

Plain and simple, I am a Beatles fan because of video games—prior to a specific game, I didn’t give two shits about one of the most influential acts in modern music history. But this week, the sole reason for my fandom, The Beatles: Rock Band, turns 15. Harmonix’s rhythm game masterpiece feels forgotten despite the…

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PlayStation Enjoys a Diverse Portfolio of ‘Great Games,’ Says Hermen Hulst

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hermen Hulst has said that PlayStation’s portfolio of “great games” has become more diverse over the years, and the platform boasts a “bigger” community than ever before. Hulst made these comments during the latest episode of the official PlayStation podcast, where he and Team Asobi’s Nicolas Doucet talked about Astro Bot‘s successful launch.

Making PlayStation games in various genres is ‘massively important,’ says CEO

The podcast was focused on Astro Bot so it’s no surprise that Hulst didn’t bring up Concord, but the gaming community isn’t about to let that one go, especially since the podcast went live on the same day that Concord went dark… possibly for good.

“Game launches are massively important and they’re different for every team,” Hulst said while explaining his special interest in Astro Bot. “In my new role as a CEO of the Studio Business Group at SIE, I look a little bit more at the business aspect of a launch.”

Hulst went on to say that it’s very important for PlayStation Studios to target various genres, including the family market. “PlayStation has a bigger community than it’s ever had and I think our portfolio of great games is more diverse now,” Hulst continued. “But with the launch of Astro, I think what we’re doing is celebrating what PlayStation has made great over the years…it’s a celebration of joy and of collaboration.”

The post PlayStation Enjoys a Diverse Portfolio of ‘Great Games,’ Says Hermen Hulst appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

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Astro Bot DLC May Add Stellar Blade, Assassin’s Creed, and More

Players have been discovering potential references to unannounced Astro Bot DLC over the game’s launch weekend. Hawk-eyed users noticed that Astro Bot’s credits contain copyright notices for all the games that made an appreance during the campaign, but some of the games and studios Sony gave a shoutout to are currently absent.

Potential Astro Bot DLC leak points to a number of big crossovers

As collated by Reddit user Goldenboss6, here are the games that were mentioned in Astro Bot’s credits but weren’t featured in the base campaign:

• Stellar Blade
• Assassin’s Creed
• Rise of the Ronin
• Worms
• Rayman
• Beyond Good & Evil
• Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

Interestingly, Astro Bot’s concept art also contains characters that aren’t currently in the game. As pointed out by VGC, the art shows Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal) and Fat Princess bots.

Noticeably absent from all the leaks and lists are Square Enix franchises that are a significant part of PlayStation’s history. Players picked up on this almost instantly, but your guess is as good as ours on this one.

Team Asobi previously said that it’ll release free Astro Bot DLC, which will include speedruns, challenge missions, and more. Further details will be shared in due course.

The post Astro Bot DLC May Add Stellar Blade, Assassin’s Creed, and More appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

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PSA: Astro Bot Save Files Are Being Lost, Here’s a Temporary Solution

A large number of players have reported losing their Astro Bot save files because the game utilizes a strange method of saving progress. We’re not sure if this is a design choice or a bug that needs to be patched, but the autosave feature doesn’t actually create a save file until players quit out to the main menu. If Astro Bot crashes or PS5 unexpectedly shuts down mid-game, the save data is lost for good.

How to avoid losing Astro Bot PS5 save data

The aforementioned issue has been widely reported on sites like ResetEra and Reddit, but the problem only becomes noticeable if you don’t/can’t quit Astro Bot properly. Until Team Asobi rolls out a patch, here’s how you can avoid the issue, as suggested by players:

1. Turn off automatic cloud saves (PS Plus required) for Astro Bot so your previous “good” save isn’t overriden in case you run into the issue.
2. When playing, make sure to stop every once in a while and quit out to the main menu. This is particularly important if you’re going for 100% completion. Quitting to the main menu will properly autosave your current progress.
3. Following the above, make sure to upload your save file manually to cloud.

We know this is a pain in the rear, but unfortunately, it’s all we have right now if you don’t want to wait for a patch.

We’ll update our readers when a fix is rolled out.

The post PSA: Astro Bot Save Files Are Being Lost, Here’s a Temporary Solution appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

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