Google just wrapped up their Android Show: I/O Edition, which went over key new features coming to Android across a wide variety of devices. They also released a blog post detailing some more of the updates.

As reported by The Verge, the judge in the Apple vs. Epic Games case just blew up Apple’s control over the US App Store, in a significant blow to the company’s services revenue (of which a considerable portion is Apple’s 30%, 15% and other developer fees related to the App Store). Developers may now include buttons to outside payment providers (circumventing Apple’s app store fees), inform customers that cheaper subscription options are available, and avoid Apple’s external payment fee. Apple has appealed the judge’s ruling. This represents a significant shift in what developers can do with their apps on the US App Store, but falls short of opening up the iPhone to downloading apps from the web.

We use Google Fi for all the phones we test in our videos because it’s easy to pause service, cancel, great for traveling internationally, and the coverage has been great. As spotted by The Verge, there are some great upgrades coming to Google Fi, including a new $35 a month Unlimited Essentials Plan. Data caps before slowdowns for existing plans have been upped, and you’ll now be able to connect a secondary tablet or laptop to your plan with a data-only eSIM at no additional cost. You’ll also be able to listen to voicemails in your Phone app vs. the Fi app, and international 5G is expanding to over 92 countries for users on the Unlimited and Flexible plans.

If you want to try Google Fi and get $60 off, use code: HRPA4P (this is an affiliate code but Google didn’t sponsor this post).

That’s a real bummer for any European who fancies the design of the new Nest Learning Thermostat, which we recently reviewed. In their announcement, Google stated they are working with third-party smart thermostat companies to bring them into the Google Home Ecosystem for European users. Additionally, going forward, the first and second generation Nest Thermostats will only be controllable directly from the thermostats themselves, rather than through their app or Google Assistant.

As spotted by The Verge, Google’s April Pixel Watch update with Wear OS 5.1 is rolling out again after some initial bugs with the previous update. This update should make it easier to control podcasts playing off your phone (one of our longstanding issues with the Pixel Watch), plus menstrual health support, loss of pulse detection in the US, auto bed-time mode on-device, and step count enhancements.

In a recent Android Developers Blog, Google is trying to get more developers to develop app widgets with Samsung’s rollout of One UI 7 to more devices. While Android had widgets well before iOS, Apple’s widgets feel more visually consistent, and more apps seem to support them. We’ll see if Google can catch up with new efforts like a dedicated widgets search filter in the Play Store and a widget badge on App Detail pages.

You can pre-order one starting April 24th. Check out this guide from The Verge on all the places to try and get one.

In a new report from The Information (re-reported by MacRumors), it turns out that Siri’s development is as messy as you’d expect. The company has yet to ship the more intelligent Siri, which was shown off at WWDC last year. Most Siri demos were fictitious, an apparent reversal of Apple’s longstanding practices.

This week, we received an email from reMarkable informing us that due to increased costs (aka the Trump tariffs), prices in the US would rise starting in May. This is a clever way to increase demand while, at the same time, alerting customers that if the tariffs did go into effect, prices would rise. This is the first alert we’ve come across like this for products we’re covering. Now that the US Administration has paused higher tariffs on most countries for 90 days (leaving 10% global tariffs in place), but high tariffs on China are still active, it’s unclear whether the price is still going up.

This fascinating story from Wired details how Google was caught flat-footed by the launch of ChatGPT, and how it raced to build what we now know as Gemini, the AI-powered assistant now on millions of Android devices.

At $499, it brings a lot of value. But it’s still missing a few useful features due to RAM limitations. Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes are missing, which we’ll discuss in our upcoming long-term review of the Pixel 9 Pro XL (out this weekend).