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Eddy Cue Causes a Stir for Google

2025 is shaping up to be the year of litigation for big tech. Apple’s been held in contempt and has an antitrust case on the horizon, Meta is in the midst of an antitrust trial, and Google is defending two antitrust lawsuits at once. Every one of these cases is a high-stakes challenge to the status quo, and collectively, they have the potential to reshape the tech industry for years to come.

The ultimate question for Google right now is whether it will be broken up. What will become of its ad tech business, and will it be forced to sell Chrome? That will be decided by the judges in those cases, but along the way, there are plenty of sideshow dramas worth keeping an eye on. This week, it was Google’s turn for a little litigation drama that was prompted not by a judge, but by none other than Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue.

As part of Google’s search antitrust case, Cue testified yesterday that in April 2025, Google searches declined in Safari for the very first time. Cue’s testimony, which was reported on by Mark Gurman, Leah Nylen, and Stephanie Lai of Bloomberg, went on to explain that Apple is investigating AI search as an alternative to traditional search engines, noting that the company has had discussions with Perplexity.

Google’s stock immediately began to fall. By the close of trading, it was down around 7.5% and had caused enough concern internally at Google that the company felt compelled to release a one-paragraph statement on its blog, The Keyword, responding not to the testimony but to “press reports:”

Here’s our statement on this morning’s press reports about Search traffic.

We continue to see overall query growth in Search. That includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple’s devices and platforms. More generally, as we enhance Search with new features, people are seeing that Google Search is more useful for more of their queries — and they’re accessing it for new things and in new ways, whether from browsers or the Google app, using their voice or Google Lens. We’re excited to continue this innovation and look forward to sharing more at Google I/O.

It’s not news that Google Search is under threat from AI. However, Cue’s testimony under oath that Google searches in Safari are in decline is the first concrete evidence publicly shared that the threat is not just theoretical, which is a big deal.

Apple’s exploration of AI-based search is not terribly surprising either, but I do hope they cut a broader deal with Anthropic instead of Perplexity. I understand why Perplexity’s product is popular, but its CEO’s contempt for the open web and user privacy is something that I’d rather not see Apple perpetuate through a partnership.

Podcast Rewind: iOS and iPadOS 19 Wishes, Apple Held in Contempt, New Handhelds Despite Tariffs, and More on the Retroid Pocket Flip 2

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and I begin our annual look at what we’d like to see Apple announce at WWDC 2025, starting with iOS and iPadOS 19.

On AppStories+, which was released as a free sample for all listeners, I explain why the recent contempt order entered against Apple is a bigger deal than most people realize, on multiple levels.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week on NPC, Federico, Brendon, and I chart which handheld makers are still shipping to the U.S. in the wake of steep tariffs, then explore how speedrunners are stress‑testing Breath of the Wild at Nintendo’s Switch 2 hands‑on events. Plus, we update listeners on Nintendo’s release of version 20 of the original Switch’s firmware, how a contempt order against Apple could unlock new business models for developers, the surprising arrival of JIT on the App Store, Nothing’s launch of the CMF Phone 2 Pro, and how Anbernic and Ayaneo are defying economic uncertainty by releasing new handhelds.

This week on NPC XL, Federico, Brendon and I explain how we find time for gaming, where they play, and how they balance work, family, and their videogame hobbies. Federico and Brendon wrap the episode up with some advice for me on improving my Xbox streaming setup.

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Amazon Adds Links to Purchase Books to Its Kindle App→

As reported by Andrew Liszewski at The Verge, Amazon has updated the Kindle app to add a “Get Book” button, a direct result of last week’s contempt order entered by Judge Gonzalez Rodgers. When tapped, it takes users to the Amazon page for the book in Safari with the Kindle version selected. Before today’s update, you couldn’t purchase a book without going to Safari first.

In a low key statement to The Verge over email, Amazon’s Tim Gillman said:

We regularly make improvements to our apps to help ensure we are providing customers the most convenient experience possible. By selecting ‘Get Book’ within the Kindle for iOS app, customers can now complete their purchase through their mobile web browser.

I expect other companies will follow Amazon and Spotify’s leads in the coming weeks. Although Apple has appealed Judge Gonzalez Rodgers’ contempt order, the Judge declined to stay its enforcement during the appeals process. It’s always possible an appeal could force Amazon and others to undo changes like this, but I think a more likely outcome is that an appellate court allows Apple to charge a fee where Judge Gonzalez Rodgers wasn’t – one that’s lower than the 27% that got Apple into trouble in the first place.

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Post-Chat UI→

Fascinating analysis by Allen Pike on how, beyond traditional chatbot interactions, the technology behind LLMs can be used in other types of user interfaces and interactions:

While chat is powerful, for most products chatting with the underlying LLM should be more of a debug interface – a fallback mode – and not the primary UX.

So, how is AI making our software more useful, if not via chat? Let’s do a tour.

There are plenty of useful, practical examples in the story showing how natural language understanding and processing can be embedded in different features of modern apps. My favorite example is search, as Pike writes:

Another UI convention being reinvented is the search field.

It used to be that finding your flight details in your email required typing something exact, like “air canada confirmation”, and hoping that’s actually the phrasing in the email you’re thinking of.

Now, you should be able to type “what are the flight details for the offsite?” and find what you want.

Having used Shortwave and its AI-powered search for the past few months, I couldn’t agree more. The moment you get used to searching without exact queries or specific operators, there’s no going back.

Experience this once, and products with an old-school text-match search field feel broken. You should be able to just find “tax receipts from registered charities” in your email app, “the file where the login UI is defined” in your IDE, and “my upcoming vacations” in your calendar.

Interestingly, Pike mentions Command-K bars as another interface pattern that can benefit from LLM-infused interactions. I knew that sounded familiar – I covered the topic in mid-November 2022, and I still think it’s a shame that Apple hasn’t natively implemented these anywhere in their apps, especially now that commands can be fuzzier (just consider what Raycast is doing). Funnily enough, that post was published just two weeks before the public debut of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. That feels like forever ago now.

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Are Pride Wallpapers and a Watch Band Enough in 2025?

Today, Apple introduced their 2025 Pride Collection, with a set of new LGBTQ+-themed wallpapers for iOS and iPadOS that will be available as part of iOS and iPadOS 18.5. The collection also includes an Apple Watch Pride Edition Sports band, which matches a new Pride Harmony watch face in watchOS 11.5.

Despite being just another installment in what has become an annual tradition for the company, the 2025 collection rings hollow in contrast with Apple’s stance regarding the current U.S. administration.

Image: Apple

Image: Apple

On January 20th, President Trump signed executive orders that have already gravely impacted trans people across the United States. Despite the President’s clear intentions to do so before he was sworn into office, Apple CEO Tim Cook chose to donate $1M to the President’s inauguration fund and attended the inauguration alongside other American tech company leaders, including Google’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. The latter three have all scrapped Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts inside their respective companies, following the President’s executive order terminating U.S. government DEI initiatives and scrubbing governmental documents of all references to trans people. In February, Apple shareholders rejected a proposal to follow the government’s lead, choosing to preserve the company’s diversity programs. However, Cook hedged saying that the company “may need to make some changes to comply”, while also reassuring that Apple’s “north star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver.” Then last week, Cook remotely appeared at a celebration of the President’s first 100 days in office.

This seemingly nuanced alignment with President Trump contrasts with Tim Cook’s outspoken support for the LGBTQ+ community when he came out in 2014, and Apple’s continued participation in the San Francisco Pride Parade. The same dissonance appears in the final sentence of the company’s press release which states that “Apple is proud to financially support organizations that serve LGBTQ+ communities.”

Today’s announcement of the 2025 Pride Collection’s made me think back to Joe Rosensteel’s great piece that he published in January soon after the inauguration, in which he expresses immense disappointment in Tim Cook. In regard to Apple’s yearly Apple Watch Pride bands and its participation in the San Francisco Pride parade, he rightly asked:

How should people reconcile Tim’s explicit support of Trump with his support of trans and enby people working at Apple, buying products from Apple, and attending pride parades with Apple?

At a time when some trans people are actively seeking to flee the U.S. to preserve their fundamental right to a healthy, safe, and decent life free from the threat of President Trump’s actions, Apple doesn’t seem to be stepping up to its professed values to the extent that the situation requires. As of today, there have been no reports of the company increasing its financial support of organizations that support LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. Nor has Apple attempted to publicly and explicitly speak out against the administration’s attacks targeting trans people. Instead, Apple has chosen to simply iterate on its Pride wallpapers and watch bands, which will retail at $49.

Maybe I should feel relieved that Apple chose not to discontinue the Pride Collection. But considering the urgency felt by the LGBTQ+ community, Apple releasing Pride bands and wallpapers is simply not enough to compensate for its decision not to speak out against President Trump’s attacks on trans people. There are certainly risks to Apple if it were to do more to stand up for the LGBTQ+ community, but those risks pale in comparison to the increasing threats trans and other people in the LGBTQ+ community face in the U.S. and around the world every day. It’s time for Apple to step up and do more than wallpapers and a watch band.

Enjoy a Special Free Edition of AppStories+ on Us

Today we’re publishing the AppStories+ post-show for all AppStories listeners to enjoy for free.

This week’s subscriber-only post-show is all about the contempt order entered against Apple last week. In a world or tech litigation where Google and Meta are at risk of being broken up, the contempt order entered against Apple may seem inconsequential. However, the reality is much different.

In the post-show, I walk listeners through what this sort of high-stakes litigation is like and pinpoint the critical mistakes Apple made in complying with Judge Gonzalez Rodgers’ order. It’s a fascinating story of hubris, miscalculation, and the critical difference between assumptions and facts. It’s also a decision that will change the App Store in the U.S. and perhaps worldwide.

Today also marks the beginning of our annual OS wish list episodes of AppStories, which we kick off with our iOS and iPadOS 19 wishes. Each week until WWDC, Federico and I will be detailing what we’ll be looking for at Apple’s annual developer conference.

We hope AppStories listeners enjoy the extended bonus this week. As many readers and listeners are probably aware, the ad market for podcasts and websites is in an extended period of decline, and I don’t think it’s ever coming back to where it once was. As a result, we rely on listener support more than ever. AppStories has been around since 2017, and we want to continue producing the show long into the future.

[Subscribe here.](https://appstories.net/plans)

Subscribe here.

You can support the show by subscribing to AppStories+ for just $5/month or $50/year. In return, each week you’ll get:

  • an extended version of the show with bonus topics, extended discussions, and first-looks at what we’re working on,
  • that’s ad-free,
  • published early, and
  • in high-bitrate audio.

To learn more about an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

AppStories+ is also available to Club Premier members. That’s the highest tier of a Club MacStories subscription that gets you everything the Club offers, including AppStories+. It’s the best deal of all if you want everything we do for Club MacStories members. You can learn more about Club Premier, which is $12/month or $120/year, here.

Join Club Premier:

We work hard to make every episode of AppStories the best episode, but some are naturally better than others. This is one of the better ones. We hope you enjoy it.

Finally, thanks as always to everyone who supports what we do at MacStories, whether you subscribe to AppStories+, are a member of the Club, leave our shows a rating on Apple Podcasts, or recommend what we do to a friend. Every bit helps us continue to do what we love and try new things.

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For a limited time, MacStories readers can get a special two-month free trial by using the code MACSTORIES when signing up. Visit their website to learn more and download Copilot from the App Store to get started today.

Our thanks to Copilot for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Podcast Rewind: Focus, Groundhogs, Gladiators, and an Apple Watch Anniversary

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

Comfort Zone

Chris achieves a new level of focus on the Mac with a familiar app, Matt finds comfort for his sore fingers, and Niléane leads the hardest challenge ever put forth on the show.

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and I compare wildlife notes, I get set up to work outdoors, Federico has an album to share, and I recommend a movie about ancient Rome.

This episode is sponsored by:

Textastic – The Powerful Code Editor for iPad and iPhone — Now Free to Try

Magic Rays of Light

Sigmund and Devon highlight the premiere of French-language Apple Original series Carême, discuss the Apple Watch’s tenth anniversary and how the device plays into their TV-viewing, and recap Dope Thief.

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Developers and Platforms React as App Store Rules Change in the U.S.

On Wednesday evening, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers held Apple in contempt, ordering, among other things, that it immediately drop the 27% fee it was charging developers who linked users to the web for purchases. As the judge put it:

This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays.

(Contempt Order at pg. 3).

As Chance Miller reported at 9to5Mac, those changes are already reflected in Apple’s App Review Guidelines. In an email sent to anyone with a developer account, Apple explained:

The App Review Guidelines have been updated for compliance with a United States court decision regarding buttons, external links, and other calls to action in apps. These changes affect apps distributed on the United States storefront of the App Store, and are as follows:

  • 3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others.
  • 3.1.1(a): On the United States storefront, there is no prohibition on an app including buttons, external links, or other calls to action, and no entitlement is required to do so.
  • 3.1.3: The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront.
  • 3.1.3(a): The External Link Account entitlement is not required for apps on the United States storefront to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action.

(Source: Apple email to developers on May 1, 2025).

Notably, the changes affect only the U.S. App Store, further fragmenting App Store rules along geopolitical boundaries which began with regulations in China, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, and the EU.

Probably the best evidence that Apple’s former rules were restraining competition is the flurry of additional news since Judge Gonzalez Rodgers’ ruling:

  • As I predicted in my story, Patreon has said it will submit an update to its app to allow creators to accept payments outside its iOS app, something that was possible until last summer when Patreon was forced to retrofit its app to account for Apple’s In-App Purchases and payments through its website in what was an inelegant solution that forced creators to either charge more on iOS or absorb Apple’s fees on what are often small monthly payments to begin with.
  • Spotify posted on its blog that it has already submitted an update to its app that will let users see how much a Spotify subscription costs from inside the app and link out to Spotify’s website to upgrade or change their subscription plans.
  • Payment processor Stripe whipped up documentation guiding developers through the process of setting up subscription and digital goods sales outside their apps.
  • Beginning in June, the Epic Games Store will handle payment processing for developers at no cost up to the developers’ first $1 million of revenue. After $1 million of revenue the split will be the existing 88% to developers and 12% to Epic Games. In June, Epic Games will also offer developers the ability to set up their own webshops for ‘out-of-app purchases.’ The webshops will be available to iOS developers in the U.S. and EU and users making purchases in them will get 5% back in Epic Rewards for their purchases. Epic Games has not said how much it will charge developers who set up a webshop.

These moves by big players aren’t surprising, and I’m sure we’ll see more companies explore ways to take advantage of Wednesday’s ruling. Over time, though, the more interesting consequence of Wednesday’s ruling will be whether and how it changes the business models of indie developers and other small businesses that offer apps.