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.

Ikea's Symfonisk lamp is a neat way to add a Sonos speaker to your space without it necessarily sticking out from the rest of your decor. But what if you want to jazz it up slightly? You may have that option in the future in the form of swappable shades.

According to a Reddit post spotted byProtocol's Janko Roettgers, it seems a new version of Symfonisk is in the offing. User u/shoicey said they spotted a different Symfonisk lampshade at their local Ikea. They found a document (archived version) on the company's website that notes the second-generation speaker will let customers pick their own glass or fabric cover.

White and black options will be available, according to the document, which is in Portuguese. The textile cover is listed at €20 (approximately $24) and the glass one is €30 ($35). The base, which houses the WiFi speaker, costs €129 (roughly $152). The document lists other Symfonisk products, including the picture frame speaker Ikea announced in June.

“We're excited about the products we're working on together and are looking forward to sharing more soon,” Sonos said in a statement. Engadget has contacted Ikea for more info, including details about availability. Given that this document is on the Ikea website though, it may not be long before these new Symfonisk lamps are out in the wild.

ASM's Hydrasynth made a splash when it was announced in September of 2019. The company was fresh face on the market, but it included luminaries of the electronic instrument world who worked on Akai's MPC line and Arturia's 'Brute line. So there was understandably some hype. And consensus is that it's lived up to it. 

Now the company is taking its unique wavemorphing engine, a keybed with polyphonic aftertouch, plus its full raft of sound design tools and putting them in the portable, battery-powered and more affordable Hydrasynth Explorer. 

The Explorer has 37 semi-weighted, mid-sized keys. So it's a bit more generous than your average mainstream synthesizer. And just like it's big siblings — the $1,299 Hydrasynth and $799 Hydrasynth Desktop — it has eight voices of polyphony and three oscillators. It also has two "mutators" which can mangle oscillators one and two in various ways from pretty standard (FM and pulse width modulation) to more out there (PhazDiff and harmonic sweep).

There's also two filters that can be combined in series or parallel and five — yes five — LFOs and envelope generators. And those envelope generators aren't your standard ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) envelopes either. These are six-stage DAHDSR envelopes (delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain, release). There's also built-in delay and reverb effects, a 32-slot modulation matrix and a pretty advanced arpeggiator. 

All of that sound design power comes in an instrument that can be powered by eight AA batteries and costs just $600. Granted at 7.5 pounds it's definitely pushing the boundaries of "portable". You're definitely not going to lug the Hydrasynth Explorer on your commute, but it's not too much of a hassle to drag it to an impromptu jam session or set up in a park for an afternoon. 

Alongside the Explorer, ASM also announced the Hydrasynth Deluxe which has 73 full-sized keys and bumps the voice count up to 16. Of course, it also comes at a premium with a price of $1,799. 

For much of the last month and a half, Twitch has fought a losing battle against a phenomenon called “hate raids.” These attacks see malicious individuals use an army of bots to spam a streamer’s chat with hateful language, and almost always they target creators from marginalized communities. This week, Twitch filed a suit against some of those involved in the harassment campaigns.

The legal action comes after a variety of Twitch streamers stepped away from the platform on September 1st in protest of the company’s ineffective handling of the situation. The suit, first spotted by Wired, only names two defendants: CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose. Twitch does not identify the two individuals beyond their usernames but notes it believes they’re both based out of Europe.

In the complaint, Twitch alleges CruzzControl is responsible for a network of approximately 3,000 bots that have been involved in hate raids against streamers in the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities. In addition to overwhelming those channels with racist, homophobic and sexist spam, the company says CruzzControl has shown how the bots work so that others can deploy them toward a similar end. Of CreatineOverdose, the company alleges it has directly linked them to several incidents, including one August 15th episode in which they claimed they were a member of the “K K K.”

“We hope this complaint will shed light on the identity of the individuals behind these attacks and the tools that they exploit, dissuade them from taking similar behaviors to other services, and help put an end to these vile attacks against members of our community,” a spokesperson for Twitch told Wired. 

The company told The Verge the lawsuit is only one part of the response it has planned to hate raids, with more platform-level action forthcoming. “Our teams have been working around the clock to update our proactive detection systems, address new behaviors as they emerge, and finalize new proactive, channel-level safety tools that we’ve been developing for months,” a Twitch spokesperson said.

While the legal action has yet to stop hate raids from occurring, some of those most affected by them say it’s a step in the right direction for the company. “I feel hopeful,” Raven, a streamer whose Twitch handle is RekItRaven, told Wired. “The people who are behind this need to be held accountable for their actions. They've terrorized hundreds if not thousands of people. If this were to happen in a physical location we'd expect the same. It shouldn't be any different online.”

DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub are suing New York City over limits the city imposes on the delivery fees they can charge restaurants. The city brought in the caps on a temporary basis in June last year to help restaurants stay in business when dining rooms were closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. NYC officials made the limits permanent in August.

Currently, the delivery apps can charge restaurants up to 23 percent per order, which includes three percent to cover credit card processing fees. Otherwise, they could have charged fees of up to 35 percent. In April, DoorDash introduced a tiered system that charges up to 30 percent in commissions.

The companies claim in their US District Court court complaint, which was posted by The Verge, that the cap is unconstitutional and tantamount to government overreach that will damage businesses. They're seeking an injunction to stop the city enforcing the fee limits as well as damages and a jury trial. “Left unchecked, the ordinance sets a dangerous precedent,” they argued.

Councilman Mark Gjonaj, chair of the city’s Small Business Committee, said that NYC would maintain the caps and proceed with other oversight over delivery apps. “The laws simply seek to bring fairness to a system that all too often lacks it,” he told The Wall Street Journal. Engadget has contacted Uber Eats for comment.

“Grubhub has worked hard during the pandemic to support restaurants in New York City and across the country," a company spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "Despite our best efforts, the City Council recently passed an unprecedented and unconstitutional price control targeting the food delivery industry. Price controls increase delivery fees for consumers, and therefore lead to a reduction of orders for both restaurants and couriers. While Grubhub remains willing to engage with the City Council, we unfortunately are left with no choice but to take legal action." 

Grubhub also contends that the NYC ordinance will hurt not only the apps, but restaurants and consumers. It suggests the fee caps will will lead to higher prices and fewer deliveries for couriers, as well as less choice for services for restaurants from delivery platforms. 

"New York City Council passed harmful, unnecessary, and unconstitutional price controls which leave us no choice but to resolve this matter in court, as we did in San Francisco," a DoorDash spokesperson told Engadget. "Not only do price controls violate the U.S. and New York Constitutions, but they will likely harm the very restaurants the City purports to support."

In June, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted to permanently cap delivery app fees at 15 percent, becoming the first city in the US to do so. However, Mayor London Breed declined to sign the bill, claiming it was "unnecessarily prescriptive in limiting the business models of the third-party organizations." DoorDash and Grubhub sued San Francisco to block the measure as well.

Far Cry 6 doesn't even come out for another month, but Ubisoft is already hyping all the things players will get to do (and pay for) after launch. Far Cry 6 will feature Danny Trejo, Rambo and the Stranger Things crew in a series of additional missions, available for free in the coming year and playable in co-op or solo. 

Trejo's mission involves delivering tacos across Yara with the game's protagonist, Dani, by his side. It's called Danny and Dani vs Everybody. The Rambo-inspired mission is called Rambo: All the Blood, and it features a heavily armed, cosplaying superfan in a story straight out of a 1980s action flick. The final free mission is a Stranger Things crossover called The Vanishing — players have to find their loyal weiner dog, Chorizo, in the Upside Down.

From the jump, Far Cry 6 will also have weekly insurgency challenges and special ops missions available for free. Now, on to the paid content.

The Far Cry 6 season pass will go live in late 2021, and it'll feature three missions starring villains from the series' history, detailing their backstories through die-and-retry mechanics. These missions are playable solo or with a friend, just like the main game. The popular Far Cry 3 spin-off, Blood Dragon, is also included in the season pass. The season pass comes with the gold edition of the game, which costs $100 on PC and $110 on Xbox One, Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and PS5. The standard edition runs $60. 

Regardless of the version you want, Far Cry 6 lands on October 7th.

I once spent an entire college summer doing nothing but play Quake 3 Arena. Well, almost nothing. I was an IT help desk drone during the day, but my nights and weekends were almost entirely filled learning the intricacies of the game's rail gun, rocket jump maneuvers, and inventive mods (if I ruined your day in a Threewave match, sorry). Now that I have a child, a home to take care of, and an endless list of adult responsibilities, I thought I had put all that behind me. Then I started playing Splitgate.

At first, it seems to be a fairly standard free-to-play multiplayer shooter, like a lost Halo clone from a decade ago. But the twist is that it also brings in the core mechanic from Portal. Alongside your normal weaponry, you also have a gun that can create portals on specific areas, no matter how far apart they are. And it's not just for teleporting, either. You can also use peer through those portals to pick off far-away enemies.

That may seem like a small, even quaint, addition to the world of online shooters. But in practice it fundamentally changes how they work. Being able to strategically use portals is just as important as being a crack shot who's memorized every map. And of course, it goes the other way too. If you can sneak up on an enemy with portals, they can do the same to you. Nowhere is safe.

Splitgate's subtle complexity is what makes it addictive. All of a sudden, walls high up on the map could give you a vantage point to snipe oblivious foes. A chase through a corridor could easily get wild as you jump between multiple portals. And being able to sneak up on a camping sniper by throwing a portal behind them is always satisfying.

I've gotten into plenty of shooters over the years, but they've never quite scratched my Quake 3 itch (perhaps because I never again had vast amounts of free time to eat pizza and play all day). Battle Royale titles like PUBG and Apex Legend changed the landscape with enormous maps with 100 players, but they've always felt more like tense survival games than huge fragfests. They take longer to play, and one screw-up could take you out of a match entirely. I didn't know how much I missed the days of simple multiplayer shooters, games with quick matches that deliver a direct dose of adrenaline and dopamine all at once, until I started playing Splitgate.

Even though it's become wildly popular over the last few months, Splitgate hasn't officially launched yet. But its most recent beta release, Season 0, has added a lot on consoles and PCs. That includes new character models, more maps and an infection gameplay mode. I've been playing earlier betas for the last few months, but now it's finally starting to look like a complete product, with more UI polish and player models I don't entirely hate. It's also the perfect time to give it a shot before elite players make online matches less enjoyable to play.

Since it's a free-to-play game, Splitgate developer 1047 Games is following in the footsteps of modern shooters by making you pay for items, characters and Battle Passes to level yourself up. It's all cosmetic, but I've found myself throwing them a few bucks for holographic armor and other trinkets just because I enjoy playing the game so much. Spending $20 in add-ons doesn't seem that bad for something that’s already given me dozens of hours of joy.

1047 Games

If you’re considering jumping into Splitgate, I have one piece of advice: Learn to love the damn portals. Treating it like a normal run-and-gun FPS is a recipe for failure, no matter how great you are. It’s a game about quick movement across the map, sneaky shots through your portals, and sneaking up on your enemies. It’s not for everyone, but for players who find joy in a five-minute, fast-paced team deathmatch mode, it’s practically perfect.

Sonos makes some excellent connected speakers and home theater products, but no one ever said they were cheap. As of this Sunday, September 12th, they'll cost even more here in the US. The company just announced it is raising the price of almost all its speakers; most will go up about 10 percent. 

A few to note: the Sonos One, probably its most popular speaker, will now cost $219 instead of $199. The One SL (which is the same as the One, but without mics for voice assistants) now costs $199 rather than $179. The new Sonos Roam portable speaker is getting a $10 price bump, to $179.

The flagship Sonos Five audio speaker will now cost $549 instead of $499, and the flagship Arc soundbar costs $899, a full $100 more expensive than before. The Sub, which is primarily geared towards home theater but can also be used with music speakers, is up $50 to $749. The only speaker that isn't going to cost more is the Move, which is staying at $399. Sonos didn't mention any changes to the Beam in its price list, either.

Sonos first announced that it would increase prices on its quarterly earnings call back in early August, but didn't provide details at the time. As for why now, the company gave some unsurprisingly vague details around "assessing market dynamics" to achieve growth goals and maintain innovation across its entire portfolio, including software and services as well as hardware. Obviously, no customer wants to see price increases, but given that Sonos solid the $199 Play:1 and then the One, its successor, at that price point for the better part of a decade, a 10 percent increase isn't too crazy. Given how new the Arc is, though, a $100 bump on an already expensive product might limit its broader market appeal a little. Though on the other hand, most home theater aficionados are probably used to opening their wallets for good hardware.

Last year, Apple revealed more new iPhones than ever. There was the iPhone 12, the iPhone 12 Pro and then the most expensive model, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, with Apple’s best camera sensor, a giant screen and an enormous battery to match. 

Then there was the iPhone 12 mini, the small iPhone that some of us were clamoring for. Outside of the 5.4-inch screen, it matched the specifications of the bigger, vanilla iPhone 12. You got the same dual cameras, the same powerful A14 Bionic processor, storage and color options. It’s just, well, mini.

To me at least, the smallest phone was the most exciting device from Apple’s big event. A new (in 2020 at least) iPhone form factor for those of us that balked at the size of most phones. We’ve covered the ups and downs of tiny smartphones over the last few years, so it was a surprise — but a welcome one — when Apple decided to cater to this niche. Working in Apple’s favor, smartphone makers weren’t making small phones anymore (barring, perhaps, Sony). 

So when we finally got the iPhone 12 mini in our hands, what did we think? Chris Velazco, who reviewed it, said it was, pretty much, an iPhone 12, but smaller. He added that while it was the most potent small phone he’d tested in years, it dodged the problems of typing on smaller screens, because the display stretched to the edges of the 12 mini’s body. 

The iPhone SE, by comparison, had to make space for the home button at the bottom and the camera and earpiece at the top, which was a tight squeeze for thumbs on a 4.7-inch screen. (The iPhone 12 mini is physically a smaller phone than the iPhone SE.)

About half a year ago, I switched from my iPhone 12 Pro Max to the iPhone 12 mini. Despite how excited I was about the smallest new iPhone at launch, I still wanted the 12 Pro Max as my main phone. I told myself I needed the cameras.

I had a few reasons for “downgrading” to the iPhone 12 mini. The pandemic had tricked me into beginning a jogging habit. The hulking iPhone 12 Pro Max was not made for running shorts, and I couldn’t use my Apple Watch as it didn’t offer the narrative features of the Couch24K app. 

So there was the iPhone mini, provided by Apple when the four phones were first introduced. Small, powerful enough, and I didn’t need high-res pics because I wasn’t going anywhere during London’s lockdown. Also, the iPhone mini’s cameras are fine — good even. 

One issue with the iPhone mini is that its smallest (cheapest) configuration comes with only 64GB of storage. But, honestly, I don’t use much on-device storage, so it wasn’t hard to migrate everything.

It’s a nice feeling to be able to fit more than just your phone into your pocket; not to awkwardly stretch your thumb to reach the top of the screen. The iPhone mini is wonderful to use one-handed most of the time. 

For roughly six months, the iPhone mini was the perfect petite device for me. My Apple Arcade favorites, including relatively processor-intensive games like Fantasian, ran without issue, and my other daily apps never suffered a hiccup. I could use Fitness+ and while you might think video streaming would be less compelling on a smaller screen, I was mostly in my home. I have a TV! 

It wasn’t all perfect, though, and the major issue was exactly what our review pointed to; meager battery life. Perhaps because the iPhone 12 mini matched the bigger iPhone 12 in all specifications barring screen size, there is a physical limit to how big the battery can be. 

I didn’t notice that during the first half-year, but that’s probably because I was, well, mostly trapped indoors. Any time the battery dipped below 50 percent, I was immediately near a power output and could easily top the iPhone mini back up to full power. 

When the country started opening up again, I went out more. And I wasn’t taking battery packs or charging cables with me. A few times, I cut it real close getting back home (or to a power outlet) before the battery reached single-digit percentages. After too many close calls, the pin went in, the SIM came out, and I left the iPhone 12 mini for the much bigger model.  

When stories of slashed iPhone mini 12 production started appearing, I feared that this was a short-lived Apple experiment that had run its course. However, the latest rumors suggest otherwise. Last week, a listing at the FCC suggested that Apple was testing four new devices with its latest MagSafe technology. That should be the Pro Max, the Pro, the base model and the mini.

Other reports suggest that the next series of iPhones, whether they’re called iPhone 13 or something else, will offer some subtle changes improvements to last year’s models. Crucially, one report from March suggests that batteries across the iPhone series will be bigger, while more energy-efficient components, from chipsets through to screens, should also improve battery longevity. 

Many phone buyers might have been skeptical that a smaller iPhone — even if new — would be as capable as bigger models. In the evolution story of smartphones, bigger screens always game with better specifications. The iPhone 12 mini was an anomaly, and maybe we weren’t ready to it. 

If Apple can make the iPhone mini go the distance, battery-wise, but keep the specifications on par with the bigger model, there wouldn’t be much left for me (or phone reviewers) to complain about. September 14th is pretty soon. Bring it on, Apple.

When Apple announced the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max last fall, the company talked up the HDR capabilities of its new phones. In addition to playing Dolby Vision content, the devices can capture it as well. But despite the fact the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max have been on the market for almost a year, we're only now seeing platforms take advantage of those capabilities.

Starting today, all Vimeo users, including those with free accounts, can upload Dolby Vision content to the platform. While you can watch the content on any device, support for playback in Dolby Vision is currently limited to Apple products. 

On iOS, an iPhone 8 or newer or second-generation iPad Pro will do. On desktop, meanwhile, support goes as far back as some Macs released in 2018. Provided it's connected to a compatible Dolby Vision TV, you can also watch the content on an Apple TV 4K. When browsing the Vimeo website, you'll see a badge that denotes whether someone shot the video in Dolby Vision. As long as you have a compatible device, the video will automatically default to the format.