The Google breakup is looming

Lawsuits take a long time, and so there’s no good reason to believe that Google as we know it will be gone anytime soon. But as the antitrust fight against the company continues, and Google’s losses mount, it’s also starting to seem like Google as we know also won’t be around forever. In one case, the Play Store is being opened up; in another, the government says it might try to force Chrome and Android out of Google.

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Lauren Feiner takes us through all the latest movements in the many cases against Google, and what she’s hearing about how the government and the company are preparing for the future.

But before we get to that, we do some wild Tesla speculating. Because you’ve now seen the Cybercab reveal, and so have we, but when we recorded this show on Thursday afternoon all we had was years of teases and some educated guesses about what might be coming. Nilay and David both have some predictions, and you can score us now that we know the truth. (Unfortunately, it appears Nilay won.)

We also have lots of gadget news to discuss, from Nintendo’s adorable and slightly confusing new Alarmo alarm clock to the latest reports on Apple’s next iPads and Macs. We’re nearing the end of gadget-launch season, as we wind toward the holidays, but it appears we’re not done yet.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on Tesla:

And on the week’s gadget news:

And in Google antitrust news:

And in the lightning round: