Matt Gaetz says he is withdrawing his nomination for attorney general. Read...

Microsoft wants to be done with Windows 10 and have everyone move to Windows 11. It’s given the nine-year-old operating system an official expiration date next year, and it’s not shy about leaving those users behind. But its latest attempt to spur them on is its most brazen yet: full-page ads telling you to just go buy a Copilot+ laptop. This isn’t Microsoft’s first alert to users that Windows 10 is being retired, and it’s not even the first time it has resorted to full-screen alerts to drive the message home. But the newest flavor of the, ahem, helpful message is much more blatant about being an advertisement. It isn’t telling users to upgrade their current operating system, which would be a legitimate and fairly easy option for any machine sold in the last three years or so. It’s something that similar alerts offered earlier this year. Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Rather, this new alert spotted by The Verge is just a full-on advertisement for a brand-new laptop. Specifically, Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop line, though it’s merely pictured instead of named. “Want the ultimate Windows 11 experience?” asks the message. “Level up to the new Copilot+ PCs — the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever.” The message reminds you that Windows 10 will no longer be supported after October 2025. There are ways around that, but they’re expensive and temporary. Microsoft seems increasingly insistent — or possibly desperate — to get users off the older operating system. While Microsoft tells users that they’re running out of time, you might say the same for the company itself. Less than a year away from its ultimatum, just under 61 percent of Windows machines are still running Windows 10 while Windows 11 only makes up about 35 percent. The numbers are shifting — six months ago, Windows 10 was almost 70 percent of the Windows market — but it’s a slow drift. Let’s compare that to the same figures for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, respectively, a year before Windows 8.1 was retired for Windows 10. According to Statcounter, at the same point in January 2017, Windows 8.1 was just 9.65 percent of the market while Windows 10 was 32.84 percent. There’s an X factor here in Windows 7, which was still running on an astonishing 47.46 percent of machines. It would take another year for Windows 10 to overtake it. Microsoft has had a tumultuous time with the last few major releases of Windows, even while it maintains its dominance of the desktop and laptop market. In brief, people hated Windows Vista, loved Windows 7, hated Windows 8, tolerated the less-radical Windows 8.1, and loved the more conventional and powerful Windows 10 again. I wouldn’t say that people hate Windows 11, but it’s definitely gotten a much colder reception than its predecessor due to some major interface shifts and a lot more in-your-face advertising and promotion. The forced integration of Copilot AI features is also turning off a lot of power users. Microsoft probably feels comfortable trying to strong-arm users off its older OS — it’s no stranger to doing that, after all. But 2024 is a very different time than 2017. A lot of users (possibly even the majority?) now interact with their phones more than their primary PCs, and both Macs and Chromebooks are more competitive. Microsoft still has a stranglehold on the business market, but general consumers have a lot more options in a lot more form factors. I wonder if trying to nag people off of an OS they like and onto one they don’t is the wisest move. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Rock-solid stability A lovely mix of display ports Superb front-mounted charging options A nice mix of USB-A ports Good performance Cons Way, way overpriced at MSRP Dock gets finicky when connecting to more than two displays Our Verdict If price is no object, Anker’s 778 12-in-1 Thunderbolt dock is one of the best docks you can buy. I love all of its features…just not its price tag. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Anker 778 Thunderbolt Docking Station (12-in-1, Thunderbolt 4) Retailer Price $299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Anker’s 778 12-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 laptop docking station is superb, with a solid feature set minus a couple of puzzling omissions. It’s simply overpriced. Our sister site, TechAdvisor, has previously reviewed the Anker 778 12-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 docking station. Now it’s moved to the front of my testing queue, too, where I can take a fresh look. As the name suggests, this dock is similar to the Anker 777, a $299 Thunderbolt 4 dock that I was less impressed with. On paper, the 778 is about as flexible a dock as you might like. With a dedicated Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) upstream port, DisplayPort as well as HDMI, chances are that you can connect to an external display or two without the need for an adapter. In fact, if you use the Thunderbolt port as well as two of the other ports, Anker says you’ll be able to connect up to three 4K displays. Four displays is also possible, though with limitations. Even though Thunderbolt 5 should be a 2024-2025 product, the lack of virtually any laptops or docking stations that support the technology makes Thunderbolt 3 and 4 still viable. (One customer on Amazon complained that this dock didn’t work with her Thunderbolt 3 laptop.) In fact, if you don’t really care about running a 4K display at 144Hz, as Thunderbolt 5 allows, this dock will be just fine. It’s just a pricy solution. Further reading: The best Thunderbolt docks On the front of the Anker 778 Thunderbolt 4 docking station are a pair of USB-C slots offering 30W charging.Mark Hachman / IDG There are a couple of features that I’ve always liked about Anker’s docks: The charging ports on the front of the dock are labeled — in this case, two 10Gbps USB-C ports supplying a rated 30W each. I’ve also liked the fact that Anker indicates which ports are which — USB-A ports can be tricky. I wish Anker would have labeled its two “USB 3.0” port on the back with a marker indicating its 5Gbps speed, but the other two USB-A ports at least have a “mouse and keyboard” icon over the top of them to indicate their legacy 480Mbps speeds. Anker’s 778 12-in-1 docking station is excellent, and one I’d absolutely recommend buying if the price fell within the range other docks cost. As it is, Anker charges way too much, even as good as it is. To reiterate, this dock includes two 10Gbps USB-C charging ports (30W) on the front. On the side, Anker includes a somewhat short charging cord, about 27 inches. On the rear, Anker’s dock includes a Thunderbolt 4 upstream port, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, gigabit Ethernet, and four USB-A ports (two 480Mbps, and two 5Gbps). A Kensington lock slot is tucked into the other side. The only two notable omissions? A headphone jack and SD/microSD card slots. I think the latter is of less concern, save for photographers. A headphone jack is optional, especially if you already have a laptop in front of you. But it’s a nice feature whose absence feels a bit out of place. The dock is made out of what appears to be plastic, and it will warm up a bit more than a dock made of metal. It’s rather long at about 8 inches across, and 3 inches deep and an inch high. Anker added a Kensington locking slot to the side of the Anker 778 Thunderbolt 4 docking station. The opposite side houses the Thunderbolt 4 cable.Mark Hachman / IDG Anker is one of the few dock makers that offers a downloadable utility, through which you can update the device firmware. There was an update waiting for me, which promised to clear out a few random bugs. It’s worth noting that even after updating the firmware there were a lot of on-again, off-again disconnections from my connected monitors; if this happens, simply restart your computer. The dock became absolutely stable after that. The Anker 778’s performance is mostly solid Anker allows you to connect two 4K displays at 60Hz via either the HDMI or DisplayPort ports, plus a third 4K display at 60Hz if you connect it to the Thunderbolt port. If you use all four ports (two DisplayPort, HDMI, plus Thunderbolt), Anker says you can connect four 4K displays. Only one will light up at 60Hz, however; the others will use a 30Hz refresh rate instead. You may struggle to get this dock to connect to multiple displays. As a “generic” Thunderbolt 4 dock, connecting to two 4K60 displays, this dock works perfectly well. But adding a third display required downloading the Anker software, rebooting, and fiddling with the display configurator within the Windows settings menu. I typically use a variety of laptops to test docks. In general, more modern hardware is more compatible with a modern dock like the Anker 778, and most laptops with a 12th- or 13th-gen Intel Core chip seemed to do well connecting to the dock, after I downloaded the utility software and rebooted. The rear of the Anker 778 Thunderbolt 4 docking station, with four USB-A ports, an HDMI port, two DisplayPort ports, and an upstream Thunderbolt 4 connection.Mark Hachman / IDG You may have a less satisfactory time with some of the power-sipping laptops that have shipped recently; Microsoft’s Surface Laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip only “saw” two displays. An Asus VivoBook with Intel’s Lunar Lake/Core Ultra 200-series chip would only connect to three displays, period — if I tried to connect it to three external displays, the laptop’s own display shut off. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work! With two 4K displays, this dock was absolutely solid, stability-wise. When I connected three, I felt less certain that the average user would have a good experience, especially with variations in hardware. Four seems like a bridge too far for most setups. Anker’s docks (like the Anker 568 we reviewed last year) have always performed excellently in terms of charging power, and the Anker 778 is no exception. The front charging ports, rated at 30W, still deliver 26W by my measurements, which pushes into fast-charging territory for a smartphone. Traditionally, the upstream Thunderbolt port can double as a charging port. Don’t bother with the USB-A ports, except for bus-powered devices under 5W. The dock itself is rated for 100W power delivery. I usually take a laptop and run a game to push its power draw. On one laptop, power surged to over its rated 100W, which I’ve never seen before — it touched 102W a few times. On another laptop, the power draw was rock-solid at 87W. Either way, the Anker 778 delivers the power your laptop needs, consistently. Anker’s dock doesn’t suffer in the performance category, either. The dock didn’t drop a single frame while playing back a 4K, 60Hz video. My storage tests were maybe a tad low: 126.8MBps, as opposed to the 130- to 132MBps I usually see. (For more, see how I test Thunderbolt docks at PCWorld.) That dropped to 126MBps when I streamed the video at the same time. My file-copy test completed in one minute, five seconds — again, quite normal. Should you buy the Anker 778? I would absolutely buy this docking station. But I would absolutely not spend what Amazon, Anker, and other retailers are asking for it. Too many of our best Thunderbolt docks hover at or around $250, and this goes way above that. Ironically, many vendors on eBay have adopted that price point (or lower) in selling the 778. If you don’t mind buying through eBay, go for it. Otherwise, I’d opt for the Anker 568 instead. The lack of an SD card slot and headphone jack isn’t a dealbreaker. I’m surprised, however, that Anker hasn’t lowered the overall price to attract more business. This is a premium dock of premium quality, but at an ultra-premium price that you might not be willing to pay. Read...

The former prime minister remembers the moment in the 2001 general election campaign when John Prescott punched a member of the public. Read...

Pressure has been mounting on the ethics committee to release a report on Donald Trump`s nominee for attorney general. Read...

Those bribes were `to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,` the Deputy Assistant Attorney General said. Read...

Two MPs in Tauranga are calling for the Auditor-General to investigate the sale of the city`s marine precinct, which one believes is a `really bad deal for Tauranga`. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Robust build quality Attractive OLED display Good wired and wireless connectivity Snapdragon X Plus performs well (for the price) Cons Design fails to stand out Disappointing 3D graphics performance Battery life is a tad less than average Our Verdict The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 delivers good bang for the buck. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Budget Snapdragon X Plus PCs are here, and Lenovo’s IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is among the affordable options landing on store shelves. Priced at $850, this 2-in-1 provides a good mix of features and performance but falls behind some competitors in 3D performance and battery life.  Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Specs and features The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is one of several budget PCs to equip Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Plus X1P-42-100. This is the least powerful version of Snapdragon X, with 8 processor cores (down from up to 12 in Snapdragon X Elite) and a clock speed of 3.4GHz.  CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon Plus X1P-42-100 Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon (up to 45 TOPs) Display: 14-inch 16:10 1,920 x 1,200 OLED touchscreen Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 solid state storage Webcam: 1080p with physical privacy shutter Connectivity: HDMI 2.1 (up to 4K@30Hz), 2x USB-C 3.0 (10Gbps) with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4, 1x headphone/microphone jack, 1x microSD card reader, 2x USB-A 3.0 (5Gbps) Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader, facial recognition  Battery capacity: 57 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.32 x 8.94 x 0.68 Weight: 3.28 pounds MSRP: $849.99 MSRP  Given the 2-in-1’s $850 MSRP, though, a less impressive chip is to be expected. It’s flanked by a respectable 16GB of RAM and 1TB of solid-state storage. While neither specification is unusual for a budget Windows laptop, it’s still good to see Lenovo did not skimp on either. It’s also worth knowing that this configuration is the only model Lenovo currently has listed for the North American market—is what you’re going to get if you buy an IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1. The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is just $850, but the quality of the display nearly rivals the most expensive laptops on the planet.  Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is a subdued, workmanlike PC. Its only notable design quirk is Lenovo’s camera hump at the top of the display. Though it might look a bit odd, provides an easy way to open the display lid. Otherwise, there’s not much to make the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 stand out from the competition. There’s nothing that will offend, either. The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 isn’t a “professional” machine, exactly, but its dark gray exterior and beveled edges come together for a handsome, cohesive design.  It’s screwed together tight, too. Opening the display lid reveals close to zero flex and the lower chassis doesn’t wobble when the laptop is handled from an edge or corner. In this respect the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 punches above its weight, as it rivals the build quality of more expensive machines like the Acer Swift 14 AI and HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14.  As its name suggests, the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 has a 360-degree hinge that lets you push the display back until the laptop becomes a tablet. However, the 2-in-1 weighs in at 3.28 pounds and measures about 0.68 inches thick, which means it’s not comfortable to use as a tablet.  To be fair, the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is not heavier than competitors like the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, which weighs 3.77 pounds—but that won’t save you from a black eye if you accidentally drop the IdeaPad on your face while trying to surf the web in bed. Shoppers who really want to get the most out of a touchscreen need to look at smaller, thinner, more expensive options like the Microsoft Surface Pro.  Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith Lenovo keeps up its reputation for good keyboards with the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1. It has a spacious layout and most keys are large, with only the arrow keys noticeably downsized compared to a conventional desktop keyboard.  Key feel is a bit muted, however. While key travel is respectable, each key activates with a soft, easy action. I prefer a keyboard with a more definitive tactile click and some audible feedback. Still, it’s pleasant enough for a budget 2-in-1, and I had no problem with typing speed or accuracy.  The touchpad is fine. It measures roughly five inches wide and three inches deep, which is typical for a 14-inch machine in this price bracket. The touchpad surface feels responsive and is large enough for most situations, but some multi-touch gestures can feel a bit cramped.  Of course, the 2-in-1 has a touchscreen, and it provides added flexibility. The touchscreen is useful when using the 2-in-1 in as a tablet, of course, but also handy in cramped or awkward situations. For example, I like using “tent mode,” which uses the keyboard like a kickstand, when I watch YouTube videos over breakfast. I can still move between videos with the touchscreen but don’t have to worry about dropping crumbs on the keyboard.  Silly as it might sound, that sort of practical flexibility will come in handy if the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 will be your only computer.  Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith Every Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 has a 1920×1200 OLED touchscreen with a 16:10 aspect ratio. This turns out to be among the machine’s best features. OLED has a great reputation, for good reason. It provides a richer, deeper, more immersive image than a typical LCD display. Colors look incredibly vibrant and dark scenes look outstanding. That’s good news for any laptop but especially excellent for a budget machine like the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1. Why? Because all OLED panels for laptops come from a handful of suppliers and deliver similar image quality. The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is just $850, but the quality of the display nearly rivals the most expensive laptops on the planet.  I say “nearly” for two reasons: resolution and refresh rate. 1920×1200 resolution looks plenty sharp on a 14-inch display, but it’s not going to beat competitors with 2880×1800 resolution (which are common). The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 also sticks with a 60Hz refresh rate, while more expensive OLED displays tend to offer a smoother 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate.  Yet neither is really a problem. It’s just the reality of budget hardware. Overall, the OLED display gives the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 a big advantage against competitors that stick with LCD (and many do).  The 2-in-1’s audio performance is less impressive, though still alright. Lenovo provides upward-firing speakers that provide reasonable volume and clarity but lack the low end required to make music and movies sound great. They also frame the keyboard, which is great when using the machine as a laptop but makes the audio experience more muted when using it as a tablet (as, in that situation, the keyboard is pointed away from you).   Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 offers a decent 1080p webcam and dual-array microphone. They capture acceptable video and listenable audio that’s well-suited to video calls on Zoom or Google Chat. A physical privacy shutter is included to cover the camera, as well. All of this is good but typical for a budget Windows laptop.  Biometric login is available with a fingerprint reader on the lower right side of the laptop. This is less common, though not unique, for a budget 2-in-1. The fingerprint reader has the same strengths and weaknesses as those on competitive laptops. It works well in most situations, but a thin layer of dust or a slightly damp fingertip can fool it—so don’t take a swig of your Mountain Dew before you log in.  Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith Connectivity is a perk for the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1, as it provides a good range of modern and legacy connectivity.  On the left side you’ll find two USB-C ports, both of which support DisplayPort for connecting a USB-C monitor and Power Delivery for charging the laptop (the included 65-watt charger uses USB-C). On the right you’ll see two USB-A ports, so you can add an older wired keyboard and mouse without issue. An HDMI 2.1 port, 3.5mm combo audio port, and microSD card reader round out the options. While this is a good set of options, I have a few nitpicks. The HDMI 2.1 is listed to support only 4K at 30Hz which, frankly, is ridiculous for any laptop sold today. The USB ports also deliver low data speeds (10Gbps and 5Gbps respectively). However, that is also true of most budget Windows laptops.  Wireless connectivity, meanwhile, is excellent. The laptop supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4; both are the latest versions of each wireless standard. Neither is broadly adopted yet, so I expect these wireless standards will remain adequate for a good decade, or more.  Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Performance The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is intriguing to run through benchmarks, though not because it’s fast but, rather, because it’s (relatively) slow. Every IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 has Snapdragon’s X Plus X1P-42-100 chip, which has eight cores (down from 10 or 12 in the high-end Snapdragon chips). The laptop also has 16GB of memory and a 1TB solid state drive. None of this looks amazing on paper—but remember, this is an $850 laptop. And it turns out that slowest Snapdragon X Plus is competitive with the mid-range Intel Core Series 5 and AMD Ryzen 7 chips typically available in this price bracket.  IDG / Matthew Smith The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 got off to a good start in Cinebench 2024, a moderate duration, heavily multithreaded CPU benchmark. This benchmark is Arm native, so it doesn’t encounter a performance penalty from running the app through emulation. Here, the IdeaPad managed to beat other laptops with Snapdragon X Plus chips by a hair and defeated the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition with Intel Core Series Ultra 256V. IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake, on the other hand, is a long-duration multithreaded CPU benchmark that is not Arm native, which has a stark effect on what the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 can achieve. Its performance falls far short of laptops with similar hardware. This is to be expected, given that the app is not making the best use of the Qualcomm hardware—but it’s a reality people who rely on apps that haven’t made the leap to Arm must consider.   IDG / Matthew Smith The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 can perform well in Arm native apps that rely heavily on the CPU. The integrated GPU, on the other hand, is underwhelming. 3DMark Night Raid, an Arm-native 3D benchmark, spat out a score of just 16,399. While that puts the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 ahead of other Snapdragon X Plus devices PC World has reviewed, it’s way behind the Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics in Intel’s Core Ultra 256V. There’s also a severe lack of Arm-native games on Windows. When those factors are combined, it’s clear that gamers should avoid the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 like the plague.  Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Battery life You might expect, given its use of Qualcomm’s least performant Snapdragon X Plus chip, that the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 will ace battery tests. That’s not the case, though it still does well enough.  IDG / Matthew Smith I measured roughly 14 and a half hours of battery life in our standard test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel. This is a light-load test that generally shows what the laptop can reach in less demanding situations.  Make no mistake: 14 and a half hours is a long time, and in general owners will be happy with the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1’s endurance. Still, the graph makes it clear that competitors offer superior endurance.  That probably has less to do with the Qualcomm chip than the laptop’s battery and display. The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1’s 57 watt-hour battery isn’t tiny, but many 14-inch machines have a battery in the 65 to 75 watt-hour range. I’ve also found that laptops with OLED displays seem to need a bit more power than those with LCD displays, and that’s certainly true for the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1. Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1: Conclusion The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is a fine choice if you’re looking for an affordable 14-inch laptop or 2-in-1 that has an alluring OLED touchscreen and good connectivity. It falls behind in 3D performance and battery life, but those downsides are easier to overlook at $850. Shoppers who want a Windows machine that’s enjoyable for basic day-to-day tasks and office productivity should give the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 a look. Read...

Back in August a U.S. federal court found Google guilty of violating anti-trust laws, and the fallout could be the biggest antitrust action since the breakup of AT&T/Bell way back in the 1980s. But exactly what the enforcement action will look like is still very much in the air. Recent reports indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice is going to suggest that Google be forced to sell the Chrome browser. That’s according to Bloomberg, which has been rock-solid on this case for years. Previously the DoJ was said to be considering some kind of breakup of Google’s big three corporate assets: Search, Chrome, and Android. Some or all of them were on the table, but the DoJ has apparently settled on Chrome as the piece of the monopoly puzzle that has to go. The federal team will also suggest that Google be forced to refrain from making the kind of exclusivity contracts that have become a staple of its OEM partnerships for Android and Chrome devices, according to the report. The DoJ also wants Google to give websites more tools to effectively opt-out of being used in the company’s extensive data scraping for AI training. Note that this doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. Assuming that Bloomberg is accurate, that means that DoJ attorneys will suggest Google be forced to divest itself of Chrome to District Judge Amit P. Mehta. The judge will have fairly broad authority on whether to proceed with that action, or suggest some other way of enacting the ruling that Google is operating an illegal monopoly. Whatever happens, Google’s legal team will inevitably appeal for a lighter punishment, if not throwing out the ruling entirely. A Google vice president accused the Department of Justice of “push[ing] a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.” Google’s appeal is a surprise to no one. But if you’ll follow me along on a little tech pundit speculation, it’s not hard to guess what the company is hoping for on the other end. With Trump’s election win and a second presidential term looming in less than two months, Google is hoping that the wheels of justice will turn slowly enough for a new administration with total control of the federal government to take power. Given the pace of the case thus far — the antitrust case began just over four years ago — that seems like a safe bet. With Republicans in general and Trump in particular, a stripping of federal power to regulate and prosecute corporations is a given. So the obvious hope is that a second Trump DoJ would essentially forget about any kind of corporate oversight. Given Trump’s history of legal issues with real estate and dozens of other businesses, not to mention his early pick of Florida libertarian congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Google might be hoping to get out of this with less than a slap on the wrist. But there’s another wrinkle to this particular story. While American conservatives generally position themselves as anti-regulation at every opportunity, there are a few notable exceptions, and one of them is tech and social media. Republicans have long accused any and all technology companies of enabling bias against them. And Trump is no exception — indeed, he’s the ur-example for the current climate. “Google’s got a lot of power. They’re very bad to me. Very, very bad to me,” said Trump in an October interview, echoing previous statement’s against the search company. “…I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them in Google.” I think it’s a whole rigged deal. I think Google’s rigged just like our government’s rigged all over the place.” JD Vance, the vice president-elect, has said that Google should be broken up entirely, calling it “one of the most dangerous companies in the world.” So Google is in the sights of the current Department of Justice for abusing monopoly power, and it’s being targeted by the incoming administration for perceived slights against specific individuals. Predicting Trump’s mood at any given moment is a fool’s errand, to say nothing of his actions. But however the case shakes out, Google is between a rock and a hard place. Read...

The president-elect`s picks for defence secretary, attorney general and health secretary are under heavy scrutiny. Read...