The last official episode of the year is a biggy! Jason Howell, Ron Richards, Huyen Tue Dao, and Mishaal Rahman welcome not one but two amazing guests: Gizmodo's Florence Ion and The Verge's Sean Hollister!

Featured in this episode:

NEWS

• Sean was in the courtroom for the entire Epic v Google case!
• Google lost another antitrust ruling that threatens sideloading norms.
• Beeper's iMessage saga leads to US lawmaker attention.
• Patron News Story Pick: Google Messages giving RCS its background wallpaper.

HARDWARE

• Pixie could outshine Assistant on the Pixel 9.
• More photos and specs of the Asus ROG Phone 8 and 8 Pro.
• OnePlus addresses quality control concerns by Xiaomi.

APPS

• Gboard is getting stylus handwriting support.
• Google Keep is getting lockscreen note capabilities.
• Google Photos cloud content will be available to the Photo picker.
• Chrome for premium tablets will default to desktop mode.
• Google Maps is moving location tracking data on-device.

COMMUNITY

• Bob from Pennsylvania talks about the real reason most Android users want messaging compatibility across platforms.
• Scott doesn't like YouTube Music's podcast strategy.
• (Another) Bob is happy that the band is back together again.

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