After months of testimony and deliberation, we got an initial decision earlier today in the legal battle between Apple and Epic. As a Fortnite player, you may wonder what it all means in terms of playing the game on an iOS device. The short answer is not much.

The long answer is neither side came away from the contest with a decisive win. Judge Gonzales Rogers may have ruled in Epic’s favor when on the issue of allowing App Store developers to direct users to alternate payment systems, but on every other count, she sided with Apple. That includes the question of whether the company was right to terminate Epic’s App Store developer account when it added a direct payment option in Fortnite last year.

On that matter, Judge Gonzales Rodgers said Apple’s decision was “valid, lawful and enforceable.” It’s therefore up to the company whether or not to allow the game back on the App Store. Based on the fact the tech giant rejected Epic’s request to reinstate its developer license after South Korea passed a law that will require both Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems on their app stores, and the fact Epic says it will appeal the ruling, it’s unlikely the game will return to iOS anytime soon.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney made that much clear following the decision. “Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when and where Epic can offer in-app payment in fair competition with Apple in-app payment, passing along the savings to consumers,” he said on Twitter.

It’s hard to put a timeline on when we might see a new development in the situation. Court cases involving tech companies can take months and sometimes years to resolve. In the meantime, Fortnite is still available on other platforms, including PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

Marvel is rolling out a brand new version of its Marvel Unlimited comics subscription app. Among the updates are exclusive Infinity Comics, which are high-res vertical comics designed for phones and tablets. At the outset, 27 Infinity Comics are available, and you should have access to more than 100 by the end of the year. The comics include series such as X-Men Unlimited, Captain America, Black Widow, Deadpool, Shang-Chi and Venom/Carnage.

The app, which was redesigned from the ground up with the help of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, now offers unlimited downloads for offline reading and a way to share content elsewhere. Marvel's promising a streamlined design, more stability, "best-in-class speed and search tools" and personalized reading guides based on your preferences. Marvel Insider members will receive rewards for using the app too.

Also new is an annual plus subscription option, which costs $99/year. That grants access to all the perks of a monthly or regular annual plan, as well as a membership kit, invites to in-person events and a discount at Disney's digital store. The monthly plan costs $10/month, while the standard annual subscription is $69/year.

Marvel

Marvel Unlimited hosts more than 29,000 comic issues, with more added each week. However, there's at least a three-month gap between titles hitting shelves and Marvel bringing them to the app.

This is a welcome update for an app that was perhaps overdue for a refresh. So, you've been watching Marvel's What If...? series on Disney+ (or anything else from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and are curious about checking out the comics as well, it seems as good a time as any to try Marvel Unlimited.

Back in January, Moog updated its Model 15 app to support Macs running Big Sur, marking the first time one of the company’s soft synths had come to desktop. It was a significant step forward in terms of accessibility. However, the synth ran as an Audio Unit v3 plugin, meaning you couldn’t use it in conjunction with non-Apple digital audio workstations like Abelton.

That’s changing today with the Model 15 app now available within a VST wrapper. Short for Virtual Studio Technology, VST is the most widely supported standard for DAW synthesizer and effect unit plugins. As such, you’re no longer limited to GarageBand, Logic and MainStage if you want to dabble with the modular synth. Unfortunately, if you're a Windows user, you still can't install the software on your computer. You will have to look to either Moog's iOS app or one of the many other modular synths you can download online.

You have one last chance to try Android 12 before its official debut. Google has released the fifth and final beta for Pixel phones (including the Pixel 5a) and several third-party devices, giving you one more look before the finished version arrives. Beta 5 is a release candidate build with the usual last-minute fixes and performance improvements, so don't expect major changes from beta 4 or even beta 3.

The completed software is due sometime in the "weeks ahead," Google said. If history is any indication, only Pixel owners will get Android 12 first — you'll have to wait for third parties to customize and deploy their releases in the months to come.

The Material You design scheme remains the most conspicuous change in Android 12, including an overall interface refresh, more fluid animations as well as color themes that adapt to your wallpaper. You'll also see more privacy features, including a dedicated Privacy Dashboard as well as toggles and in-use indicators for cameras and microphones.

There are subtler under-the-hood improvements, too, such as camera-based auto-rotation and an on-device search engine that helps find content within your apps. This isn't a gigantic leap in some respects, but it could help revitalize Android if you've felt that previous releases were a little stale.

Google is keen to make Gmail your go-to hub for more than just messages. As The Vergenoted, Google is rolling out a larger Workspace update (more on that shortly) that will add direct calling via Google Meet to the Gmail mobile app. You'll get to ring up your coworkers and other contacts for a quick one-on-one when email or a scheduled meeting won't do. The feature will also send a "chip" to your computer if you'd rather answer on the larger screen.

The company has pitched the feature as a rough equivalent to "spontaneous" office chats in a hybrid work environment where some staff are at home. And before you ask — yes, the Meet app will eventually add this calling feature as well.

Google

The Workspace changes also include a broader redesign of Gmail that makes it a hub for other activities. You'll now see Google's promised "spaces," a renamed and expanded version of Rooms chat channels with full threaded messages and the option of making spaces visible in search. You can accordingly expect easier navigation between email, chats, spaces and Meet, not to mention improved admin and security tools to help manage communications. Enterprise users should see these changes starting today, but everyday Gmail owners will see updates later on.

Other tweaks include options to specify whether you're in-office or virtual on a given day (important for planning meetings) and a Companion mode for Meet that lets you use a conference room's audiovisual hardware. Google is expanding its Meet hardware ecosystem, too. There are two new Series One devices (third-party equipment made to fit Google's goals), including the Series One Desk 27 all-in-one and Series One Board 65 4K collaborative board. More gadgets are Meet-certified, too, such as Logitech's Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini room solutions as well as the Rayz Rally Pro speaker dock.

Google's ambitions for Gmail are fairly clear. Much like Microsoft Outlook, it's becoming a gateway for all office communication, not just email and the occasional meeting. That's not surprising when Google is directly competing with Office. At the same time, it does raise questions about support for dedicated apps. What need is there for other clients when Gmail theoretically does it all? Still, you might not mind if it saves you from switching apps and potentially losing focus.

Attackers are actively exploiting a Microsoft remote code execution vulnerability using malicious Office files, the tech giant has warned. The vulnerability known as CVE-2021-40444 affects Windows Servers from version 2008 and Windows 7 through 10. What attackers are doing is sending potential victims an Office file and tricking them into opening it. That file automatically opens Internet Explorer to load the bad actor's web page, which has an ActiveX control that downloads malware onto the victim's computer.

Several security researchers reported the zero-day attacks to Microsoft. One of them, Haifei Li of EXPMON, told BleepingComputer that the method is 100 percent reliable — all it would take to infect a system is for the victim to open the malicious file. In Li's case, the attack they came across used a .DOCX document. Microsoft has yet to roll out a security patch for the vulnerability, but it has published mitigation methods to prevent infection. 

The tech giant says Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can both detect the vulnerability and prevent infection, so users need to keep them updated and running. Further, it advises disabling all ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer to render it inactive for all websites. Microsoft's security warning contains information how to do that, which involves updating IE's registry and rebooting the computer.

Microsoft's latest acquisition could add an easy-to-use video editing experience to its software suite. The tech giant has purchased a startup called Clipchamp, which is known for its in-browser video creation and editing tool. In its announcement, Microsoft says Clipchamp's approach combines "the simplicity of a web app with the ability to process video using the full computing power of a PC with graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration," which is "something that was formerly limited to traditional video applications."

Clipchamp specifically targets non-professionals and non-creatives — people who don't have or know how to use specialized software for videos, in other words. "Our mission is to empower anyone to tell stories worth sharing and millions of people around the world... We will continue to make video creation even easier, more accessible and fun," company CEO Alexander Dreiling wrote in a post announcing the acquisition. 

Neither party has disclosed the terms of their agreement, but as CNBC notes, Clipchamp said in July that it has 17 million registered users with an adoption rate that's up 54 percent year over year. The service saw huge growth in 9:16 aspect ratio exports, in particular, which are commonly used for TikTok and Instagram or Facebook Stories. Microsoft was one of its clients before the acquisition, along with Google. While Microsoft has yet to announce how it will offer Clipchamp to its customers, it called the tool a "natural fit" for its cloud-powered productivity experiences in Microsoft 365. A spokesperson also told CNBC that the tech giant will eventually introduce a process to convert existing Clipchamp users to Microsoft subscribers.

Microsoft is rolling out a revamped personalized news service called Start. The feed will be baked into the Windows 10 taskbar and the Windows 11 widgets section. You can also access it via the web, iOS and Android apps and the new tab page in Microsoft Edge.

Start draws from Microsoft's artificial intelligence and machine learning expertise (as well as human curation) to create a news feed featuring up-to-date info tailored to your interests. It curates news from more than 1,000 publishers around the world.

The more you use Start and indicate what you're interested in, the closer the feed will hew to the things you prefer to read about. You can tell the app when you see a publisher or story you're not keen on, or hit the Personalize button to refine the feed whenever you like. Your preferences are linked to your Microsoft account, so the service should offer the same experience on all platforms where you're logged in.

Microsoft

Start includes information cards for certain key topics, such as weather, traffic, sports and finance. You can decide which cards you want to pop up for at-a-glance information.

Although MSN isn't going anywhere, Start is replacing Microsoft News. The icon and name for that app will change to Start branding the next time users update it. Those who visit the Microsoft News website will be redirected to the Start home page as well.

The name of the feed might cause a little confusion for Windows users, given the prominence of the Start button in the operating system over the last couple of decades (that menu is getting an overhaul in Windows 11). Still, Microsoft Start looks like a polished experience, and it could be a solid way to keep tabs on the news in which you're interested.

NVIDIA has rolled out a major update for its Broadcast app that finally makes it compatible with professional cameras. The chipmaker launched the application for PCs equipped with RTX GPUs in 2020 to give people a way to make their livestreams look and feel more professional even if they're streaming from home. Up until now, though, it's only been focused on webcams. Now even streamers who use more specialized or expensive equipment will be able to take advantage of its AI-driven features. 

Version 1.3 of the Broadcast app supports Canon's EOS Webcam Utility, Nikon's Webcam Utility and Sony's Webcam Utility, all of which are software tools that bring webcam-like function to the brands' cameras. Perhaps more importantly, the update also gives the app support for OBS Virtual Camera, making it possible to use Broadcast with any video device. 

In addition to expanding the app's hardware compatibility, version 1.3 also comes with an upgraded noise removal AI. The feature sometimes removes the host's voice when they're speaking loudly or at a higher pitch than usual, which isn't strange for streams where emotions can run high, such as in gaming streams. To address that, NVIDIA developed dedicated training sound profiles allowing the app to remove background noise without inadvertently muting the streamer. 

The new app reduces VRAM usage by over 40 percent compared to its predecessor, as well, which could translate to an increase in FPS while gaming. NVIDIA added the ability to stack effects in version 1.2, but running several AI features for the mic, speakers and camera can eat up a lot of memory. This solves any issue streamers may have with their computers slowing down. To access Broadcast's new features and UI upgrades and to use it with professional cameras, users will have to download and install version 1.3 from the company's website.

NVIDIA

Apple has been taking a lot of flak lately over the 30 percent cut it takes from app developers. Starting next year, though, certain developers will be able to avoid paying the tech giant a commission. The company has announced that it will update the App Store in early 2022 to allow developers of "reader" apps to add in-app links to their websites, allowing users to set up their accounts and make payments. Apple defines reader apps as those that "provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video." As Bloomberg notes, that means the new rule would apply to services like Netflix and Spotify.

The tech giant announced the update following the conclusion of an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Apple agreed with the commission to let reader app developers add a single link to their website, because those developers "do not offer in-app digital goods and services for purchase." The change will cover all reader apps around the world, but Apple will update its guidelines and review process first before it takes effect.

Phil Schiller, the executive in charge of overseeing the App Store, said: "We have great respect for the Japan Fair Trade Commission and appreciate the work we’ve done together, which will help developers of reader apps make it easier for users to set up and manage their apps and services, while protecting their privacy and maintaining their trust."

Netflix and Spotify have long criticized Apple for taking a 30 percent of their earnings. Spotify filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission in 2019 over what it says are anti-competitive practices by the tech giant. Unwilling to pay a 30 percent commission, it pulled users' ability to pay for premium upgrades from the iOS app. Netflix also removed users' ability to pay for a subscription within its iOS app in 2018. 

Since the upcoming update doesn't cover games, it won't be able to put an end to Apple's courtroom battle with Epic. The gaming developer has been leading the charge against the tech giant over the past year ever since it decided to offer discounts on Fortnite's V-bucks currency and other cash purchases outside the App Store. Apple removedFortnite from the App Store in response, and the lawsuit that resulted from that brought to light some very interesting information. Tim Cook's court testimony revealed that a lot of developers are unhappy with Apple, while court documents showed that Epic pays millions of dollars to publishers to give away their games for free on its store.