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Google may soon be facing its second antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice. According to Bloomberg, the DOJ is gearing up to sue the tech giant as soon as September after a year of looking into whether it's been using its dominant position to illegally control the digital ad market. The Justice Department's lawyers have reportedly been conducting another round of interviews to glean additional information that could help make their case stronger. These new interviews are expected to build on previous ones conducted much earlier on in the investigation. 

The Justice Department first filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company back in 2020, accusing it of having an unfair monopoly over search and search-related advertising. For that particular case, the agency argued that forcing Android phone manufacturers to set Google as the default search engine prevents rivals from gaining traction and ensures that the company will earn an enormous amount of money from search-related advertising. 

In the same year, Texas filed a multi-state lawsuit against Google, with the state's Attorney General accusing the company of using its "monopolistic power to control" ad pricing. The company's ad practices are under scrutiny not just in the US but in other parts of the world: The European Commission also opened a probe to look into whether Google limits rival services' access to user data for ad purposes last year. As a concession to the EU's concerns, Reuters reported in June that Google may let rival ad platforms run ads on YouTube.

While the DOJ has yet to officially file its case, Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels defended the company's ad business in a statement to Bloomberg, which says: "Our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content, and enable small businesses to reach customers around the world. The enormous competition in online advertising has made online ads more relevant, reduced ad tech fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers."

Blizzard will stop selling Overwatch loot boxes on August 30th, the studio announced in a blog post published on Tuesday. The date coincides with the end of the game’s recently launched Anniversary Remix Vol. 3 event. Blizzard notes players will still have the chance to earn free loot boxes after the 30th. Additionally, the game will automatically open any loot boxes in a player’s inventory before the launch of Overwatch 2 on October 4th. With the new game set to replace Overwatch at that point, that will ensure players don’t lose any skins and other cosmetics before the switch.

In June, Blizzard announced Overwatch 2would abandon loot boxes in favor of a seasonal battle pass and a “consistently updated” in-game store. The move came after the studio said it would not release Diablo Immortal in Belgium and the Netherlands due to laws in those countries against that kind of monetization.

Google Stadia is still very much alive and kicking — and has made some updates that will make it easier to livestream games. XDA Developers reported that Stadia will unveil a new Party Stream feature that enables players to privately broadcast their gameplay to up to nine other users, who can opt to either play or watch. Users can take advantage of Stadia’s party chat features during these streams, including emoji and voice reactions. A Google spokesperson confirmed the news to Engadget in an email.

Stadia already allows players to directly share their gameplay to YouTube. The Party Stream feature accommodates gamers who don’t want to broadcast their games to the world — but merely wants to share it with a few friends. We've already seen platforms like Discord (with its Go Live feature) tap into this need to gamestream to a select few. Party Stream also saves Stadia players the trouble of using Twitch to share games with friends, which requires downloading a third-party encoder.

Other updates include the ability for players to switch devices mid-game without ending the livestream. For example, you could stream a Stadia game from your PC and then resume playing it on your Android device— without halting the streaming session.

According to XDA Developers, Party Stream began rolling out to users on Monday and should be available to all players in the next 24 hours. Keep in mind that it is currently only limited to desktop and Android devices — but will likely expand to more devices in the future.

Amazon's palm-reading payment technology will soon be available in many more Whole Foods stores. The company is rolling out Amazon One to more than 65 Whole Foods shops in California, starting with Malibu, Montana Avenue and Santa Monica locations in Los Angeles. More stores in LA, Orange County, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz will come online in the "coming weeks."

Before, palm-based payments were only available in a handful of Whole Foods stores in Austin, LA, New York City and Seattle. In California, you could also try Amazon One at the company's Style fashion store in Glendale and certain Fresh and Go locations.

As usual, One is meant to streamline retail shopping. So long as you link your palm and payment card to the service, you just have to hover your hand over a scanner to complete a purchase. While you still have to stop at a checkout terminal, you don't have to pull out a phone like you do with Amazon's camera-based Just Walk Out system.

Third-party adoption may be trickier. While Amazon has touted plans to use One at concert venues and sport stadiums, there's been a mounting backlash over worries palm data could be misused or stolen. Amazon has maintained that it holds info in secure, One-exclusive cloud storage, but politicians have still been concerned enough to grill company leadership over its practices. There's a reluctance to trust biometric tech like this, and the Whole Foods expansion isn't guaranteed to assuage people's fears.

After launching earlier this summer, Yamaha’s flagship TW-E7B true wireless earbuds are now available in the US. You can buy them starting today for $279.95. The TW-E7B have a few things going for them. They’re the first true wireless earbuds from Yamaha to include the company’s proprietary active noise cancelation algorithm. Yamaha claims its take on ANC doesn’t “color” audio the way some implementations do. The earbuds also feature an internal microphone that monitors how the shape of your ear affects audio output and adjusts accordingly.

Many of the other software features you’ll find on the TW-E7B are standard at this price range. The usual ambient mode makes an appearance, as does Google’s Fast Pair. For gamers, there’s a low-latency mode you can activate by triple tapping the volume down button on the right earbud. On that note, the inclusion of built-in volume controls is notable. Most true wireless earbuds don’t have them. Bluetooth codec support isn’t as extensive as some of the earbuds we’ve seen hit the market recently, but you do get access to AAC and aptX adaptive.

According to Yamaha, you can get up to six hours of battery life from the earbuds alone, and a total of 22 hours with the included charging case. The casing protecting the 10mm drivers is IPX5 certified against moisture. The TW-E7B are available in four colors: black, dark blue, beige and white. They also come with five different silicone eartips.

The number of hours streamed and watched across Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming have dropped significantly over the last year, according to the latest Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet report on the landscape of livestreaming. Between April and June, streamers on the three platforms were live for 273 million hours. That's down 19.4 percent from Q2 2021 and 12 percent from the previous quarter.

Viewers tuned in to streams for 7.36 billion hours across the three platforms last quarter. That's a drop of 18.1 percent year over year (viewership was at 8.99 billion hours in Q2 2021) and 8.4 percent from the previous quarter. The slowdown for all three platforms could be a case of people spending more time outside than they did last year for pandemic-related reasons.

Twitch is still by far the biggest player among the three platforms, with 76.7 percent of market share in terms of hours watched (5.64 billion) and 92.7 percent of hours streamed (204.2 million). Those figures dropped by 13.4 percent and 16 percent from Q2 2021. The number of unique channels streaming on the platform dropped by nearly 2 million to 9.6 million as well.

However, Twitch's Just Chatting category continues to go from strength to strength. Hours watched there actually grew by 2.2 percent from the previous quarter, giving the category its highest ever viewership. The most-watched categories after that were Grand Theft Auto V (465 million hours) and League of Legends (464 million).

YouTube Gaming viewership actually remained steady from the previous quarter, though it dropped 13.1 percent from Q2 2021 to 1.13 billion hours. The total hours streamed dropped by 9.6 percent year over year to 8.05 million.

Facebook Gaming suffered a bigger setback, per the report, despite Meta's efforts to court creators. The number of hours watched fell by a whopping 51 percent from a year ago to 580 million. There was an even bigger drop in terms of hours streamed, from 20.8 million in Q2 2021 to 7.9 million last quarter — a decline of 62 percent.

Perhaps we'll soon start seeing some of those numbers creep up again, though. With a recession looming, folks may spend more time indoors again, tuning back into streamers they enjoyed watching during the first 18 months or so after COVID-19 took hold.

It took several months, but you now have access to 1Password's major updates on your phone. The company has released 1Password 8 for Android and iOS, and many of the desktop version's features have carried over to mobile. For starters, there's a new home screen that provides quicker, customized access to frequently-used passwords. There's also a new navigation bar to help you find info across every account you use.

The updated 1Password is also better at dealing with an era when data breaches are all too common. The Watchtower dashboard has reached mobile devices, providing alerts when a breach compromises your login. The tool also helps you randomly generate answers to security questions, and even encourages you to strengthen your sign-ins by generating an overall security score. More advanced passwords, two-factor authentication and other changes can boost your rating.

The additions won't necessarily persuade you to switch from LastPass and similar password managers. However, they might make a good case for trying 1Password f you routinely search for passwords or want a broader picture of your digital security.

You no longer have to reach for your Android phone to try Google's learn-to-read tool. Google has launched a beta web version of Read Along that offers a similar experience on your computer. As before, the virtual helper Diya encourages your kids to read aloud and offers correctional feedback. Children can read at different skill levels and receive digital prizes for completing goals.

The beta currently supports reading on Chrome, Edge and Firefox, with functionality for Safari and other browsers due "soon." Kids can learn in several languages, including English and Hindi. You can sign in for a personalized experience, but Google makes clear that you don't need an account. All speech recognition also happens in your browser, so you don't have to worry that someone might grab your child's voice recordings.

Read Along's web version won't change your mind if you prefer the personal touch. However, Google isn't pitching this as a full substitute for human contact. It helps kids improve their reading in moments where their parents aren't available, and could help schools teach literacy when one-on-one time isn't practical.

Ford will open up orders for the next wave of F-150 Lightning reservation holders this Thursday, but those buying the electric pickup as of this week will need to dig deeper in their pockets. The automaker is bumping up the prices by between $4,200 and $8,900, depending on the trim. It cited "significant material cost increases and other factors" as reasons for the adjustments.

“Current order holders awaiting delivery are not impacted by these price adjustments,” Model E chief customer officer Marin Gjaja said in a statement. “We’ve announced pricing ahead of re-opening order banks so our reservation holders can make an informed decision around ordering a Lightning.” Those who have a reservation and already received an invite order but chose to wait for their preferred configuration to be available will "receive a private offer for use in upcoming waves," Ford said.

The base F-150 Lightning now costs $46,974 (up by $7,000) and the standard mid-range XLT is $59,474, which marks an increase of $6,500. At the higher end of the scale, Ford bumped up the price of the Platinum Extended Range by just over $4,000 to $96,874. The biggest increase, per The Verge, is for the Lariat Extended Range, which has jumped up by $8,900 to $85,974. Those prices don't include the delivery fee.

As somewhat of a makegood for the price increase, models with the standard-range battery will have a target EPA-estimated range of 240 miles, an increase of 10 miles per charge. That battery is available for the Pro, XLT and Lariat trims. Ford is also adding Pro Trailer Hitch Assist tech, which it says will make it easier for drivers to hitch trailers thanks to automatic steering, throttle and brake controls. It's available as part of the Tow Technology Package on Pro, XLT and Lariat trims and as standard on some Lariat trims and the Platinum trim.

Ford is changing up the color options too. Avalanche Gray and Azure Gray metallic tri-coat options will replace Atlas Blue, Ice Blue Silver and Smoked Quartz Metallic. Those will not be available on models it builds as of this fall.

The automaker temporarily capped reservations at 200,000 last December, after receiving enough to fill three years of production capacity. Ford began making the F-150 Lightning in April and it started deliveries the following month. It has sold more than 4,400 to date. Starting in 2023, the company aims to produce 150,000 units per year at a plant in Dearborn, Michigan.