Google has countersued Epic Games over in-app purchases on Fortnite, saying it "willfully breached" its Play Store developer agreement, ZDNet has reported. Epic originally sued Google in August, shortly after it filed a complaint against, and was countersued by, Apple. "Epic has alternatively been unjustly enriched at Google's expense," the company said in its complaint. 

As a reminder, Epic sued Google for removing Fortnite from its Play Store after a "Mega Drop" update gave players a way to bypass Play and get discounted items. Google later forced OnePlus to break off a deal that would have seen the Fortnite launcher pre-installed on its OnePlus 8 smartphone, bypassing the Play Store and eliminating Google's commission on in-app purchases. 

Google stated that unlike with Apple's App Store, Android developers aren't forced to use Google Play. "They choose to use it when given a choice among Android app stores and distribution channels," according to the complaint. "Google supports that choice through Android itself, Google Play's policies and Google's agreements with developers and device manufacturers."

Unlike competitors like Apple, Google does not require Android users or developers to use Google Play in order to download, install, or distribute apps on Android.

That argument is complicated by documents unsealed in Epic's original lawsuit against Google, however. They showed that Google paid other game developers and phone makers like LG and Motorola to exclusively use the Play Store rather than offering other store options. That's one reason cited by the 38 US states and territories that filed an antitrust suit against Google, in the same California federal court where Epic filed its own claim. 

In 2018, Google reportedly offered Epic up to $208 million to bring Fortnite to the Play Store — effectively cutting its usual 30 percent take by around five percent. According to the same court documents, Google was so concerned by a potential loss of Play Store revenue that it even considered acquiring Epic.

Epic received a mixed ruling in its lawsuit battle with Apple. On the one hand, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to eliminate App Store rules that prevent developers from adding in-app links to payment sites. On the other, she ruled that Apple was not anticompetitive based on California law and ordered Epic to pay Apple $3.6 million. Both parties have appealed that ruling, and Apple has said it won't letFortnite back on the store until all appeals are resolved. 

Even after two years, Sony's WF-1000XM3 wireless earbuds are among the best you can buy in terms of sound quality and active noise cancellation. If the regular $200 price has been holding you back, you can now pick up a pair at Amazon and Best Buy for just $128, or 36 percent off the regular price. That's substantially lower than the $150 sale from Best Buy and Amazon last month. 

With an outstanding 89 score in our Engadget review, the WF-1000XM3 took the top spot in our 2019 wireless earbuds buyer's guide. That's largely thanks to the excellent sound quality with bass that's powerful yet clear, bright highs and solid performance for all types of music. The active noise cancellation is the best in the business, blocking out most background noise, while running an excellent six hours on a charge with ANC enabled. You can even tailor that sound using Sony's companion app. 

These main downside of this model is the bulky design of the buds and case, which were changed with the current $299 WF-1000XM4 model — which now tops our wireless earphone buyer's guide. Its six hours of battery life is also less than the eight hours offered by the new model. Apart from those things, however, the WF-1000XM3 model can hold its own against any wireless earphones in the areas that count. For $128, it's available at nearly 60 percent less than its successor, and substantially less than anything else that can even remotely compete.

If you're looking for a storage bump on your camera, PC, smartphone or Switch console, Amazon is featuring SanDisk and WD storage as it's Deal of the Day. You can boost your phone, tablet or Switch storage with a SanDisk Ultra 256GB MicroSD card for just $27, saving 18 percent in the process. And if you're looking for a high-capacity SD card for your camera, Amazon is selling the SanDisk Extreme Pro 256GB SDXC UHS-I card (up to 170MB/s read speeds) for just $48, over half off the regular price. 

SanDisk's MicroSDXC memory cards offer the maximum performance you can get with a UHS-I memory card at 120MB/s on supported devices. That'll let you add games to a Switch or offload photos, video and other large files on a smartphone. Amazon is selling them in a wide variety of sizes, but the best price per gigabyte is on the 256GB model, available for a very palatable $27. 

On the other hand, do you own a camera that uses UHS-I cards, like the A6600 or any other Sony APS-C mirrorless model? If so, then you should strongly consider picking up a SanDisk 256GB Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I card for just $48 (52 percent off). It'll not only give you enough storage to keep shooting for a long while, it delivers the fastest write speeds possible (90MB/s) in that format. If you have SanDisk's compatible reader, you can then write the files to your PC at 170MB/s — faster than the UHS-I standard normally allows.

Other notable discounts include SanDisk's 2TB Extreme Pro Portable SSD at $300, or 41 percent off, and the 4TB WD Red Pro NAS internal HDD discounted 47 percent to $105. Since they're part of Amazon's Deal of the Day, all products are on sale for today only. 

With excellent sound, solid ANC and good battery life, Apple's AirPods Max headphones have a lot going for them. If you've been eyeing a pair but find the $549 price hard to swallow, take note. Amazon is now selling the AirPods Max in all colors for $100 off at $449, the cheapest price we've seen on the site. 

The AirPods Max made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They have an eye-catching design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, they're comfortable to wear thanks to the breathable mesh fabric and large ear cups. They have a rotating crown to control sound that's easy to use, once you get the hang of it.

They have more natural sound than other headphones we've tried, with bass that's prominent but not overpowering. The ANC on Sony's WH-1000XM4 model is slightly more effective, but the AirPods Max are close, blocking out most environmental noise. Like other AirPods models, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC and join conversations. One of the main drawbacks is a lack of lossless audio support, but they do work with with Dolby Atmos spatial audio on most Apple devices. 

In fact, the AirPods Max really shine if you're in the Apple ecosystem. With its H1 chip, it'll quickly pair with and switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example — letting you quickly go from taking a call to editing video. The regular price of $549 is a lot to pay for that convenience, however, so Amazon's $100 discount presents a good opportunity to pick up a pair. 

Gogoro has announced that its hot-swappable battery technology has arrived China and will be compatible with two local scooter brands so far. It's the company's first large-scale expansion, after promising earlier this year to bring its scooters and tech outside of Taiwan.

In May, the company announced a partnership with China's Yadea, the largest electric two-wheel manufacturer in the world, and DJC, another Chinese scooter giant. "Today’s launch in China, the world’s largest two-wheel market with more than 300 million riders, is a key milestone for all cities," said Gogoro founder and CEO, Horace Luke. 

Yesterday, both companies unveiled electric scooters designed to work with Gogoro's hot-swappable batteries, branded "Huan Huan" in China. Yadea announced two vehicles that will be "part of a larger portfolio of Gogoro-powered vehicles, while DJC took the wraps off its own prototype, Gogoro-powered scooter. 

Gogoro

Gogoro is the largest scooter company in Taiwan, but is best known for its unique swappable battery tech that lets users avoid the usual wait for a charge. The system allows users to buy scooters without a battery, making the initial purchase cheaper. Users then "rent" batteries via a subscription and are charged per Ah of electricity used. When their battery gets low, they can head to a "GoStation" and swap for a freshly charged one in as little as six seconds. The company uses cloud tech to ensure users can find batteries easily and that they don't overload energy grids.

The scooters come at a good time in China, which enacted legislation to retire up to 250 million gas- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2025. The launch could also act as a test of Gogoro's battery swapping tech for future expansions around the world. 

Apple's 2020 iPad Air was a big improvement over the previous year's model, thanks to the nicer iPad Pro-like design, great performance and strong battery life. The main problem with it was the $599 price that's creeping up into iPad Pro territory. Now, you can pick up the 64GB and 256GB models at Amazon for the lowest prices we've seen yet, $489 and $639 respectively — $110 off the regular prices. 

In our Engadget review, we called the 2020 iPad Air "the best tablet for almost everyone," and even the best high-end tablet. Apple transformed the design considerably with the flat edges used on the iPad Pro, while adding a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina Display, USB-C charging port and a side button with TouchID technology. 

With the latest A14 Bionic chip, WiFi 6 technology and a16-core Neural Engine, it's delivers both strong performance and healthy battery life (10-12 hours). It also supports Apple's second-gen Pencil and accessories that essentially transform it into a laptop replacement, though those will obviously jot up the price. 

The iPad Pro does offer some features not found on the iPad Air, like the M1 chipset and 120Hz screen that's slightly brighter (500 nits versus 600). If you've been taking a look at the Air model, though, act soon because the sale is on for today only. As a reminder, Amazon has several other deals on Apple products this week, particularly the Apple AirPods and AirPods Pro wireless earbuds — the latter are discounted 28 percent to $179. 

Apple has opened its Developer Academy in Detroit, first announced early this year as part of its Racial Equity and Justice initiative. The project, done in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU), has welcomed its first 100 students aged 18 to 60 for a 10-month "comprehensive app development and entrepreneurial training" program, Apple wrote in a newsroom post. 

The custom-designed space is located in the First National Building in downtown Detroit. Apple noted that enrollment is free and that students don't need any previous coding experience. "Students in this year's class bring a breadth of personal, professional and academic experience to the program," it said. 

The Academy will run two courses. The first is a 30-day introductory program, and the main, 10-month course teaches iOS app development and associated fields, such as design and marketing. Technically, it actually opened a bit earlier this fall for a four-week basic coding course run for a "smaller cohort of community partners," Apple said. The academy expects roughly 1,000 people to complete the courses annually. 

The Adobe Max 2021 conference is happening this month and, as usual, that means updates across its product lineup. Adobe Elements is first on the list, with plenty of Adobe's Sensei AI-based changes that make it easier to fix photos or videos, extend backgrounds, add animations and more. 

First up, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 introduces a bunch of new art filters that let you make a photo look like a painting by Da Vinci, Van Gogh and other artists. Another fun (but also easy to overdo) feature is moving overlays that let you add animated snowflakes, sparkles and the like to photos, then export as an MP4 to share on social networks. 

Adobe

More practically, Photoshop Elements 2022's "Guided Edits" feature has new options that let you easily make adjustments. Some of those include a pet photo adjustment that lets you remove leashes and collars, adjust lighting and colors, refine fur and more. You can also extend or replace photo backgrounds, create arty double-exposures (above), remove distracting elements from a photo and adjust shadows and highlights. 

Premiere Elements, meanwhile, uses Sensei AI to automatically re-frame videos to fit in social-friendly aspect ratios for TikTok, Instagram and other apps — while still retaining important content. It also comes with two new Guided Edits options: the ability to add animated overlays and adjust shadows and highlights. Other new features include new slideshow styles, and GIF playback in the Organizer.

Adobe

Both apps now support automatic updates, so novice users have "no need to deal with dialog boxes," according to Adobe (this would be a non-starter for most professional users). They also feature a refreshed look and feel with a somewhat cleaner, less cluttered interface. Both apps are now available as a one-time purchase for $100 each, or $150 in a bundle — students and teachers can get both for $80. 

Universal Audio is an iconic name in music gear thanks to devices like the UA 610 preamp and 1176 compressor. However, the gear can be a tad expensive for home studio producers, with the previous base Apollo Solo interface priced at $699. Now, you can get that vintage analog preamp sound starting at $139 with the new Volt line of audio interfaces. 

All the Volts offers a vintage Mic Preamp mode with mic/line preamp circuitry emulating the UA 610 console, used over the years by numerous artists (The Doors, MC5, Van Halen, Arcade Fire) to make sounds warmer or add some grit. The two more expensive models, the Volt 276 and Volt 476, also have built-in analog 1176-type compressor circuits and presets for vocals, guitar. etc. The only thing missing is the digital signal processing (DSP) found in higher-end products like the Apollo lineup, though that's to be expected at these price points. 

UA isn't the first high-end gear maker to target bedroom producers, as Solid State Logic recently unveiled an affordable line of interfaces. All the Volts come with bundled with a lot of software including Ableton Live Lite, Marshall Plexi and Time & Tone (Softube), Virtual Drummer DEEP and more. They'll be available in late November from "select Universal Audio retailers," starting at $139 for the Volt 1 (1in/2out) and going up to $369 for the Volt 476 (4in/4out). 

Twitch has released an update on a massive hack that appears to have exposed source code, streamer payment figures and other information. It said that data was exposed to the internet "due to an error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party." It added that its teams are working with "urgency" to investigate the attack. 

The Amazon-owned streaming site added that it has "no indication" that any login credentials, including passwords, were exposed. "Additionally, full credit card numbers are not stored by Twitch, so full credit card numbers were not exposed," the company said.

Yesterday, attackers said they stole the "entirety of Twitch.tv," including the site's mobile, desktop and console Twitch clients. It also accessed proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services, red-teaming tools and more. All of that information could make Twitch vulnerable to future attacks by letting potential hackers probe for weaknesses. 

The leak also shows creator payments in the millions for streamers like xQc, Nickmercs and Shroud. Several have confirmed that the figures are accurate. 

Twitch said that the investigation is ongoing. "We are still in the process of understanding the impact in detail," the company wrote.