Welcome to 9 to 5 Mac Daily for Thursday, February 5th, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller.

We're sponsored this week by Stuff, the clean and powerful to-do list application.

Leading off today last year, a federal judge ruled that Google had illegally maintained a search monopoly, but allowed the

company to keep paying to be the default search engine on Apple devices. But now, the Department

of Justice and a group of states are appealing that overall decision. Part of the original decision

involved Google's exclusionary agreements with companies such as Apple, saying

that they created steeper anti-competitive effects. During a year-long remedies phase, during which

multiple witnesses from all sides, including associated companies like Apple, tried to make their

case as to what exactly should happen to Google. From forcing the company to sell off Chrome to barring it from exclusive agreements like

the one with Apple, everything seemed on the table.

It was during one such hearing that Apple's senior vice president of services, Eddie Q,

downplayed Apple's deal with Google, suggesting that AI would make search and even the iPhone obsolete, to the

point of rendering their current exclusivity deal irrelevant. But when Judge Meta handed down

his opinion last September, he specifically said that Apple's search partnership with Google may

continue. This week, in newly filed court documents, the Department of Justice

and a group of states are formally appealing that decision to the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of

Appeals. It's not yet clear which specific parts of the ruling the DOJ and the states are challenging,

but they're likely to try to overturn as much of Judge Meta's decision

as possible, which could include parts of Google's deal with Apple. For Apple, this means it's

incredibly lucrative, almost entirely all-profit, $20 billion a year deal with Google is back

under scrutiny. Of course, the exact outcome here and whether the DOJ is

successful in its appeal remains to be seen, but it's just the next step in a saga that doesn't

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