Google’s ongoing feud with Match Group over in-app payments has spilled over to India, with potentially significant ramifications for the search giant. According to a regulatory order seen by Reuters, Match, the parent company of Tinder and Hinge, joined a group of Indian startups this week to request that the Competition Commission of India investigate Google’s User Choice Billing system. The CCI is the same regulatory body that last year barred the tech giant from requiring OEMs to bundle first-party Google apps and services with Android. The order, which the company began to reluctantly implement at the start of the year, also mandates Google to support third-party billing options.

In a complaint it made with the Alliance of Digital India Foundation, Match argues Google’s new User Choice Billing system still imposes a high “service fee” between 11 and 26 percent on app developers. The company claims the cost of using the system means Google has not complied with the CCI’s previous order. Per Reuters, the watchdog said Friday it was “of the opinion that an inquiry needs to be made." The company now has four weeks to comply with an information request from the CCI. Google did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. When Match sued the company last year over its Play Store billing policies, Google accused it of carrying out a “self-interested campaign to avoid paying for the significant value they receive” from the Android and Play Store ecosystems. 

If you’ve been eyeing Apple’s 5th-generation iPad Air for a while, now is a great time to purchase one. On Amazon, a handful of the 64GB WiFi models are $99 off at the moment. Specifically, you can get the Space Gray, Blue and Starlight colorways for $500. That’s a record-low price for the iPad Air.

Of all the different tablet models Apple currently offers, the iPad Air is the one that’s the best for most people. Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham awarded the tablet a score of 90 when he reviewed it last spring. The iPad Air features the same elegant design language as the iPad Pro while costing significantly less. It’s also no slouch, with Apple adding its M1 system-on-a-chip to the 2022 model. That’s the same processor you’ll find on some of the company’s older Mac laptops, making it more than powerful enough to handle any task you could throw at it. The iPad Air also comes with a bright and vivid 10.9-inch display, a USB-C port for charging and a battery that can power the device for about 12 hours before it needs time at the outlet. About the only issue with the iPad Air is that the base model only comes with 64GB of storage. Keep that in mind if you decide to take advantage of Amazon’s sale.

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Last Friday was the final day for PS5 owners to claim Sony’s PlayStation Plus Collection, a bundle that came with nearly 20 free games, including Bloodborne and God of War (2018). When Sony announced at the start of February the collection was going away, the company said it would instead focus on growing the PlayStation Plus library of monthly games. Unsurprisingly then, May’s PS Plus lineup is chockful of titles you can download to your console, provided you subscribe to PS Plus Extra or Premium. In all, Sony will add 19 titles to the service this month.

• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

• Humanity

• Watch Dogs Legion

• Dishonored 2

• Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

• Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin

• Tomb Raider Definitive Edition

• Rise of the Tomb Raider

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider

• Bus Simulator 21

• Evil Within 2, The

• Wolfenstein Youngblood

• Thymesia

• Rain World

• Lake

• Conan Exiles

• Rune Factory 4

• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

• Soundfall

Even if you have already played some of the games that are about to join PlayStation Plus, this is a strong expansion for Sony. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is one of the PS5’s best exclusives, and titles like Dishonored 2 are downright classics. Separately, Sony is adding four new classic PlayStation games for Premium subscribers to check out.

• Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow

• Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light

• Pursuit Force

• Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered

You can download all the new additions to PS Plus on May 16th.

When Android 14 arrives later this year, it will bring new customization features to Google's mobile operating system. On Wednesday at the company's I/O developer conference, Android chief David Burke showed off a handful of new features for creating custom wallpapers. The tools build on the Material You design system Google introduced in 2021 by allowing users to create a custom wallpaper by picking a few of their favorite emoji.  

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2023 right here.

For the first time, WhatApp is coming to smartwatches. At its I/O 2023 keynote on Wednesday, Google announced that the chat app will be available this summer on Wear OS 3 devices, including Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 and the Pixel Watch. Among other features, the smartwatch version of WhatsApp allows you to record and send voice messages. You can also use the app to send text messages and see a list of your favorite contacts.

A beta version of the software was spotted earlier in the week by 9to5Google. From that preview, we know adding a Wear OS device to your account will involve typing an eight-digit alphanumeric code provided to you through your phone. Additionally, the beta release features a circular complication that shows unread messages on your watch’s home screen. The complication also has two tiles for contacts and voice messages, allowing you to quickly send messages to your friends and family.

The news that WhatsApp is heading to Wear OS devices comes after Meta announced at the end of last month it had redesigned WhatsApp’s multi-device functionality to make it possible to use one account on more than one phone.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2023 right here.

It has been more than five years since Beats last refreshed its top-end Studio headphones, but a new model could be on the way. According to 9to5Mac, Apple is “about” to launch a set of Beats Studio Pro headphones. The new model reportedly features a custom Beats chip that promises improved active noise cancellation and transparency mode performance. For the first time, the Studio line may also feature personalized spatial audio. Additionally, 9to5Mac speculates the new model will come with a USB-C port for fast charging.

Visually, the headphones look similar to the current Studio3 model, though it appears Apple has done away with the “Studio” branding found on the side of those headphones. Based on codenames found by 9to5Mac in the internal files for iOS 16.5’s release candidate, Apple collaborated with fashion designer Samuel Ross, best known for starting the clothing label A-Cold-Wall, on the design of the Beats Studio Pro. Images the outlet found in those same files suggest Apple will offer the headphones in four colorways: blue, black, brown and white.

It’s unclear if Apple intends for the Beats Studio Pro to replace the $349 Studio3 headphones, or if the company plans to market them as a more premium offering. According to 9to5, Apple is also working on a set of Studio Buds+. They will reportedly support audio sharing, automatic device switching and Hey Siri integration. The outlet suggests both products will arrive in stores soon.

When it comes to streaming devices, there’s almost too much choice out there. However, if you’re looking for an affordable but capable option, it’s hard to go wrong with Amazon’s Fire TV offerings, especially when those devices are on sale like they are right now.

The highlight of the promotion is the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Thanks to a $20 discount, you can get the device for $35. The 4K Max is Amazon’s most powerful streaming stick, thanks to a faster processor the company claims is 40 percent more powerful than the one found in the Fire TV Stick 4K. The additional processing power translates to faster app start times and more fluid menu navigation. The Fire TV Sitck 4K Max also comes with WiFi 6 connectivity, as well as support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+ and Doly Atmos audio.

If you want to add Amazon’s Fire TV interface to an older Full HD TV, consider the Fire TV Stick Lite. It’s down to $20 following a $10 discount. The Fire TV Stick Lite is on Engadget’s list of the best streaming devices you can buy. It might not offer 4K output, but it does come, like its more expensive siblings, with an Alexa Voice Remote out of the box. It also supports HDR output, so you won't miss out on HDR content just because you're buying a more affordable streaming stick.

On the other end of the scale is the latest Fire TV Cube. It’s currently priced at $125, down from $140. Thanks to the inclusion of a 2.0GHz octa-core processor, the Fire TV Cube is the most powerful streaming device Amazon offers. It’s a great option if you own a WiFi 6E-capable router and want to control some of your other entertainment devices with Alexa.

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About 25 light years away from Earth lies Fomalhaut, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The Fomalhaut system has captivated astronomers for decades, but it’s only now that we’re developing a better understanding of it thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. In a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, a group of scientists made up primarily of astronomers from the University of Arizona and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory say the Fomalhaut system is far more complex than previously thought.

Since 1983, astronomers have known the 440 million-year-old Fomalhaut is surrounded by dust and debris, but what they didn’t expect to find was three different debris fields surrounding the star. One of those, the closest to Fomalhaut, is similar to our solar system’s asteroid belt but far more expansive than expected. As the New Scientist explains, Fomalhaut’s inner asteroid belt stretches from about seven astronomical units from the star to about 80 astronomical units out. To put those numbers in perspective, that’s about 10 times broader of an inner asteroid belt than astronomers expected to find.

NASA, ESA, CSA

However, that’s not even the most interesting feature of the Fomalhaut system. Outside of Fomalhaut’s inner asteroid belt, there is a second debris belt that is tilted at 23 degrees from everything else in orbit of the star. “This is a truly unique aspect of the system,” András Gáspár, lead author on the study, told Science News. He added that the tilted belt could be the result of planets in orbit of Fomalhaut astronomers haven’t discovered yet.

“The belts around Fomalhaut are kind of a mystery novel: Where are the planets?” said George Rieke, one of the astronomers involved in the study. "I think it's not a very big leap to say there's probably a really interesting planetary system around the star.”

Yet out further out from Fomalhaut is an outer debris ring similar to our solar system’s Kuiper belt. It includes a feature Gáspár and his colleagues have named the Great Dust Cloud. It’s unclear if this feature is part of the Fomalhaut system or something shining from beyond it, but they suspect it was formed when two space rocks more than 400 miles wide collided with one another. According to Gáspár and company, there may be three or more planets about the size of Uranus and Neptune orbiting Fomalhaut. They’re now analyzing JWST images that may reveal the existence of those planetoids.

After almost two years of early access and more than five years after it was first announced, Darkest Dungeon II is ready for release. Red Hook Studios announced this week that version 1.0 of the sequel to its hit 2016 RPG will arrive on the Epic Games Store and Steam, where the game was previously unavailable, on May 8th. For fans who already own Darkest Dungeon on Valve’s storefront, Red Hook said it would offer a limited-time discount on its new game.

Even if you’ve spent some time playing the game in early access, the 1.0 release has something for you. The public release adds one playable character and the game’s final two story acts. As with Darkest Dungeon, Red Hook is promising plenty of post-launch support. The studio said fans can look forward to quality-of-life improvements, the addition of new monsters and hero skins, ongoing balance tuning and, most notably, mod support.

If you missed the chance to buy the Echo Show 8 when it was discounted to $75 at the start of April, Amazon has once again reduced the smart display to that price. The $55 cut means the Echo Show 8 is only $5 more than it was during Black Friday last year. If you’ve been eyeing one of Amazon’s larger smart displays, the retailer has also reduced the price of the Echo Show 10 and Echo Show 15. You can get the company’s largest smart display for $214.98, down from $279.98. Meanwhile, the Echo Show 10 is currently priced at $185.

The Echo Show 8 is one of the best smart displays you can buy. While it’s a few years old now, the Show 8 offers a compelling mix of features for an affordable price. Its 8-inch, 1,280 x 800 resolution display is large enough to make viewing photos and taking part in video calls comfortable, but the Show 8’s screen isn’t so large the device will look out of place in your kitchen or bedroom. At the same time, the Show 8’s built-in speakers are powerful enough to fill a small room. And if you’re worried about privacy, the Show 8 ships with a physical camera shutter and mic mute button.

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