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Score another one for regulatory scrutiny. Following a 2022 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation, Google said on Friday that it's adding the UK to the list of countries where it supports user choice billing. This lets Android developers in the nation allow users to pay for in-app purchases using alternative billing systems. Google says the UK will get user choice billing beginning on March 29. It will start with non-gaming apps, which aligns with how Google has handled these rollouts in other regions. Areas where alternate billing is already available include the US, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and European Economic Area (EEA) markets. Developers who enroll in the program can only offer alternative payments in addition to not in place of Google Play billing. They'll receive a four percent discount from Google's service fees. The move is closely tied to the nation's regulations. In 2023, the company floated user choice billing as a concession to help settle a UK CMA antitrust investigation that began the previous year. Although Google acknowledged the CMA's influence on its decision in its announcement, the company framed the move in a blog post as giving the people (in this case, developers) may want. "While over 90% of our developers are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with Google Play's billing, which provides a secure way for people to buy subscriptions and digital goods in apps, we recognise that some developers may want more choice in how they process payments," Google Competition Counsel Myrto Tagara wrote. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-play-will-offer-user-choice-billing-in-the-uk-180145121.html?src=rss
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Mushroom fans rejoice. Adult Swim has ordered a second season of its animated hit Common Side Effects. This is happening just ahead of the finale of the first season, which airs this weekend. For the uninitiated, Common Side Effects is something of an odd duck. Its a cartoon, but its more of a thriller than a comedy. Mike Judge (Silicon Valley, King of the Hill) and Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) are onboard as executive producers, so there are some jokes. I guess it could be called a dramedy, but comedic thriller seems more apt. The plot follows two former high school lab partners who discover a mystical mushroom that can cure just about every disease. This forces them to go on the run from the DEA, big pharma and shadowy business entities. The animation style is certainly unique, and may not be for everyone, but the show really comes into its own after a few episodes. The voice cast includes Mike Judge, who played both Beavis and Butt-Head, and Martha Kelly, who starred in the animated Carol & the End of the World. Shes also fantastic in Baskets and absolutely terrifying in the second season of Euphoria. The remaining cast includes Joseph Lee Anderson, Dave King and Emily Pendergast. Along with the renewal announcement, Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen called the show a boundary-pushing and genre-defining piece of television. He also praised fans for lighting up socials to spread the word. Common Side Effects was created by Steve Hely, who wrote for American Dad and 30 Rock, and Joe Bennett, who made the criminally underrated (and now cancelled) Scavengers Reign. The pair said their goal for the show is to transform planet Earth and restore the human spirit but that theyll settle for a second season.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/common-side-effects-has-been-renewed-for-a-second-season-by-adult-swim-173256630.html?src=rss
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Google's Pixel 9a, a candidate to be the "midrange smartphone king," was announced last week but delayed at the last second due to a component problem. Today, we finally know when the handset will arrive: April 10 in North America. In an update to a Pixel 9a support page (via 9to5Google) on Friday, Google wrote that the phone will arrive on April 10 in the US, Canada and the UK. On April 14, it will land in a long list of European countries: Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland. Meanwhile, Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia have to wait until April 16. Sam Rutherford for Engadget Pre-announcement reports suggested the phone would arrive on March 26, but Google said on the day of its unveiling that it was delayed into April. An unverified leak hinted that the pushback was related to camera-related heating problems, but Google only said it was to address a "component quality issue thats affecting a small number of Pixel 9a devices." Regardless of the specifics, at least the problem ultimately only amounted to a short delay. The Pixel 9a has dual cameras, a Tensor G4 chip and AI tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Best Take and Photo Unblur. (However, an Ars Technica report suggests it runs an "extra extra small" version of Gemini.) In his hands-on, Engadget's Sam Rutherford found the midrange phone to offer compelling features and performance relative to its $499 and up pricing. The phone isn't yet available for pre-order.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-pixel-9a-launches-on-april-10-in-the-us-161940732.html?src=rss
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