If you somehow missed how all of this started, on August 13th Epic’s Fortnite Mega Drop on iOS and Android included an option for players to pay for the game’s in-game currency directly. Epic offered a discount to those who took advantage of this option. Both Apple and Google removed Fortnite from their respective app stores later that same day. Epic responded by launching separate lawsuits against the two companies, accusing them of anti-competitive practices.
On August 28th, Apple went on to terminate Epic’s App Store developer account, delisting the company’s other games in the process. For a moment, it seemed like the company would also cut off the account Epic uses to maintain the Unreal Engine, but the judge overseeing the case ruled Apple could not do that.
Apple is now effectively taking things a step further by asking the court to hold Epic liable for its actions. It’s asking that the studio repay all the money it collected when it gave Fortnite players the option to bypass the App Store’s payment mechanisms. It’s also asking for a permanent injunction against Epic’s external payment system.
A hearing between the two companies is currently scheduled for later this month.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”
Kaepernick became a free agent after the 2016 season, and he hasn’t shown up in Madden since then. EA even censored his name in a song in Madden NFL 19, though the publisher called this an unintentional error, apologized, and reinstated the complete track.
Today, EA said Kaepernick was one of the top free agents in the league and a “starting-caliber quarterback.” In a statement posted to Twitter, EA continued, “Knowing that our EA Sports experiences are platforms for players to create, we want to make Madden NFL a place that reflects Colin’s position and talent, rates him as a starting QB, and empowers our fans to express their hopes for the future of football. We’ve worked with Colin to make this possible, and we’re excited to bring it to all of you today.”
According to The Undefeated, EA Sports approached Kaepernick this summer about including his likeness in Madden 21, and he was “hands-on” in the creation of his avatar, including its signature celebration move of raising a Black Power fist.
In the wake of nationwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality this year, the NFL has altered its tone toward player protests. Commissioner Roger Goodell said in August he made a mistake in not listening to Kaepernick.
This staggering performance is made possible through 189 sensors, known as charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that each measure 16 megapixels. The CCDs are packaged into units called “rafts,” which make up the camera’s focal plane. There are 21 rafts, plus four specialty rafts not used for imaging. Altogether, the focal plane contains 3.2 billion pixels. Each of the rafts, worth up to $3 million apiece, were inserted into a grid for the focal plane over six “nerve-wracking” months.
Thankfully, the 3,200 megapixel images are the result of the sensors passing an important first test. While some higher-stakes phases of the project are behind them, the team still has challenging work to do in building the rest of the camera. Final testing is expected to start mid-2021.
The Note 20 series is luxurious in pretty much every sense of the word. We gave the Note 20 Ultra a score of 86 in part of its big, beautiful display. The Ultra has a huge 6.9-inch dynamic AMOLD display with a 1440 x 3088 resolution and it’s one of the nicest panels we’ve seen on any smartphone. You can up the refresh rate to 120Hz when you want to, but just keep in mind that doing so will burn through battery life pretty quickly.
That screen is the biggest difference between the Note 20 Ultra and the standard Note 20, which has a 6.7-inch 1080p AMOLED display that can reach a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. In most other comparisons, that display would be just fine, but it’ll be noticeably different if you’ve spent any time with a Note 20 Ultra. The other big difference comes with the cameras — the Ultra has a 108-megapixel wide camera, which is a carryover from the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The standard Note 20 has a higher megapixel telephoto lens, though, with a 3x optical zoom range.
Otherwise, though, the two handsets both run on Snapdragon 865 Plus processors and come with at least 128GB of storage. The Note 20 Ultra has 12GB of RAM while the standard Note 20 has 8GB, and a microSD card slot is a perk you’ll only find on the Ultra. Both also, of course, come with Samsung’s S Pen with which you can take notes, doodle and now even control the handset using new “Anywhere Actions.”
Most people would be satisfied with Samsung’s regular Galaxy smartphone lineup, but if you want a big smartphone with a killer display and stylus capabilities, the Note 20 series is where to turn to — if money is no object. We thought both of these smartphones (but the $1,299 Note 20 Ultra in particular) were quite expensive, even for flagships, when they first debut in the middle of August. This sale makes it a bit easier to grab either of them for less, especially if you don’t have a smartphone to trade in when you buy.
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“We feel like there’s a shared groundedness in the things we make; an earthy, honest quality that evokes a strong sense of time and place,” Nesbitt, founder and creative director of the studio, said in a press release. “We want our players to feel they’re looking through a small window into a much larger world; a world that exists beyond the edge of the screen and stays with you long after you’ve put the game down.”
Land & Sea will continue to work with Snowman on Alto projects while developing other games. It released a teaser image for the first of those, which you can see above. The studio isn’t saying much about it yet, save for the fact it’s “an accessible, coming-of-age folktale set against an ancient pastoral landscape.”
The game’s in pre-production, so a release date’s probably quite some time away. If it’s anywhere close to the quality of the Alto games though, it’ll be well worth waiting for.
We’re about to delve headfirst into a busy season for product announcements, as Apple has set its next big event for next week. If it sticks to the template of previous years, Microsoft will probably hold an event within the next month or so too, and it could have a midrange Surface laptop to show off.
According to Windows Central, the company is working on a lightweight laptop that’ll feature a 12.5-inch display, a 10th-generation Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage in the base model. That configuration could cost between $500 and $600, which would help Microsoft bridge the gap between Surface Go 2 (which starts at $399) and Surface Pro 7 ($749). That range would also make the device much cheaper than the base Surface Laptop 3, which costs $999.
Waze users can now view their saved locations on the web and select them when searching for an origin or destination, so you won’t have to enter your home address for every trip. The new features are available on both iOS and Android devices.
These are relatively minor, but definitely helpful, changes. The ability to save trips across the web and apps is also available on Google Maps, so you could argue that the two are getting closer in terms of the features they offer. Though, as we learned last week, Google Maps is using DeepMind AI to improve its ETAs with traffic predictions. As far as we know, Waze doesn’t pack that level of AI tech.
Months after the Android 11 beta was released in June, the final version is finally here and ready to roll out to consumer devices. While we already saw upcoming features like messaging bubbles, grouped conversation notifications as well as new media and device controls in the preview, Google surprised us today by also adding built-in screen recording. At last! iOS has offered this natively, while Samsung, LG and OnePlus have integrated versions of the tool into their skins.
The update rolls out to select Pixel, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo and realme phones starting today, with Google saying that more partners are set to launch and update their devices in the coming months. You should see a notification telling you the installation is ready, and the process will involve downloading and installing a 1.72GB package.
Since I still have to go through the entire notifications list instead of dealing with just the alerts near the top, the new section headers actually add to the amount of scrolling and swiping I have to do.
Google placing conversations near the top is nice in theory, but it leaves out people I interact with on apps like Twitter, Instagram and email. I prefer to address Twitter and Instagram alerts sooner than messages, so Google’s ranking isn’t my favorite. You can prioritize specific chats, but only if they’re already coming from supported messaging apps. If you hate clutter like I do, you’ll be disappointed to learn that there’s no way to disable these section headers.
Media and other device controls
Another change that Android 11 brings to your notifications shade is a new persistent media player in the Quick Settings panel. When you’re playing music or a video via a supported app like Spotify or YouTube Music, a dashboard appears above your notifications for quick access to controls. This is meant to make it easier to change your output device, whether it’s headphones, speakers, a TV or the phone itself.
In general it’s effective but unnecessary. The player takes up two rows of space, pushing notifications down. And, honestly I found the lock screen controls more convenient.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
My early build of Android 11 continued to be a bit buggy here, with the player sometimes not showing up even though Spotify was streaming a banging KPop playlist. I started playing a show on HBO Max after pausing Spotify, but HBO did not take over the controls as I expected and music controls remained. This is on by default for media apps, so developer support shouldn’t be an issue. You can choose to hide the player when your media sessions are over, though I preferred to leave it on to resume playback whenever I wanted.
It’s nice to have a space dedicated to playback controls instead of in a notification card like in Android 10, especially since the feature was a little finicky in the older software. But a lock screen version would still be easier to use since my phone is usually locked if I’m listening to music or casting a video and it’s faster to access the lock screen than the notifications shade.
With Android 11, Google is also trying to cram more controls into spaces that were previously underused such as the power button menu, which now shows devices connected to your network — like your smart lights, security cameras or speakers, in addition to your Google Pay cards. Oh and the shutdown and restart buttons, of course.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Each of your devices has its own tile, and one tap on them will turn them off or on. There’s also a master control tile that can turn off all your lights at once, which is handy. The master switch is the first box you’ll see, but you can also rearrange all your devices to put your favorites higher up.
I was dubious of this feature when I first tried it in the beta, because I thought it was easier to just tell my smart speaker to turn my lights on or off. But I’ve since come around, especially after I added my Chromecast to this page. It’s much easier to hold down the power button and immediately control all my devices than having to find the Google Home app and search for the specific speaker or TV I wanted to turn off. Those in large homes with many rooms and multiple gadgets connected to their network will very likely find this helpful, too.
Privacy permissions and small interface tweaks
Those were the most obvious updates, but there are some small, less noticeable tweaks too. Google handles screenshots a little differently in this iteration. They appear as a thumbnail in the bottom left corner after being captured, with options to share, edit or dismiss. Thank God the company has gotten rid of the notification after every. Single. Screenshot, which used to really clutter up the page. Also, when you’re viewing all your open apps, Android 11 will show options at the bottom of the screen to take a screenshot or select parts of the page.These two interface tweaks will only be available on Pixel devices.
Another imperceptible but important update is the ability to set one-time app permissions for things like location and camera access. This way, you can have greater control over what apps are following you in the background. Plus, if you haven’t used an app in a few months, its permissions will automatically reset and it will have to request access when you open it again. Obviously I haven’t used Android 11 long enough for that to happen yet, but I appreciate it in theory.
Google
Android 11 also added the option to show an extra row of apps at the bottom of your home screen for easier access to what Google thinks you use most often. It’s similar to the suggestions already available at the top of the app drawer, but is pretty redundant. Most users already place their most frequently used apps on their home page. When I enabled this, Google showed me stuff like Spotify, Telegram, Instagram and Netflix, which were already sitting on the screen right above it. The good news is, you can choose not to enable this row and it’s not on by default.
There are some other small changes coming in Android 11 that will likely be more fruitful over time. For example, a new on-device visual cortex better identifies elements on the screen so those who use voice controls can navigate the interface more easily. It also works when you’re looking at your open apps and hit the “Select” option at the bottom — Google will highlight pictures, icons and texts on the screen and you can tap each one to share or save it or even use Lens to get more information.
Android Auto now works wirelessly to connect phones with compatible cars (though as a New Yorker with no vehicle I couldn’t test that). Also, new 5G app support means developers can check if you’re on a fast connection and bump up resolution for video streams or download higher quality game assets.
The main downgrade on the tiny new console is the SSD. The Series S has just 512GB of storage, compared with 1TB for the Series X (and 825GB for the PlayStation 5). The Series X will have a custom port that allows for storage expansions and it’s possible the Series S will have this functionality as well, though Microsoft has not confirmed that just yet.
Rumors about an all-digital next-gen Xbox have been swirling for ages, as Microsoft has focused on expanding its online services, encouraging cross-console play, and building out Game Pass, which this year crested 10 million subscribers. Its most inclusive tier, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, costs $15 per month, and includes Xbox Live Gold and instant access to Microsoft’s digital library of more than 100 titles. Microsoft’s mobile game-streaming technology, Project xCloud, will go live for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on September 15th, making 36 games playable on mobile devices in select countries across North America, Europe and South Korea.
The Series S is a machine built to sell Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions, and Microsoft has been laying that groundwork for years.
There’s still no word on a release date or price point for the Series X, though a report from Windows Central this morning suggested the new console would land on November 10th for $499. Other parts of that report, including details about the Series S, were indeed accurate.
