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Fortnite‘s Season 7 ending event, Operation: Sky Fire, had players go through a wild space ride with an exciting cliffhanger. To add to the tension, publisher Epic Games has shut down the game until the start of season 8 on Monday. 

Operation: Sky Fire put players in the role of infiltrators sent to an alien mothership to take it down with bombs strapped to their backs. While the ship did come down, so did a lot of other strange objects that players won’t understand until the start of Fortnite season 8. 

Here’s everything you need to know to prepare for Operation: Sky Fire.

Why can’t I play Fortnite?

Following Operation: Sky Fire, Epic shut down Fortnite for the next 13 hours. Players will have to wait until Monday, 2 a.m. PT (5 a.m. ET) to play the game again. 

Cubes are currently taking over Fortnite as a result of Operation: Sky Fire, shaping up the next Season…

Server downtime for Chapter 2 Season 8 (v18.00) begins September 13 at 02:00 AM ET (06:00 UTC). Stay tuned for updates! pic.twitter.com/llldgEjy4E

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) September 12, 2021

When did Fortnite’s Operation: Sky Fire event start?

Operation: Sky Fire started at 1 p.m. Pacific Time / 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, Sept. 12. It lasted for approximately 12 minutes.

What is Operation: Sky Fire?

According to Epic, players “join a strike team and sneak aboard the Mothership to deliver IO’s final message to the invading aliens,” wrapping up the story threads that’ve been running through the entire season. 

When the event started, players were teleported to the mothership wearing special backpacks. Inside, they found parts of the island were being sucked into the ship. As players were locked into the ship, out from the floor game the giant pink cube referred to as “Kevin” by the Fortnite community. The mystery cube was a plot point for multiple seasons in the first chapter of Fortnite. 

Energy began firing out of “Kevin” killing other players, but it seemingly ran out of juice and laid dormant. This is when players realized they were merely pawns as their backpacks turned into bombs. However, one by one they began rebooting “Kevin” turning it blue. Before the bomb exploded, players then saw other cubes had been rebooted as well. After a flash, the mothership was a floating wreck and multiple “Kevins” began falling to the island. One piece of wreckage slams into the player and up comes the “To Be Continued…” screen.

When does season 8 start?

Fortnite season 8 will start Monday, 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET). What will change after the this event is still a mystery. 

Fortnite players have spent the entirety of the game’s seventh season dealing with a growing alien threat. Now it’s time for the aliens to deal with the threat of us as we storm the alien mothership and liberate dangerous-looking glowing cubes in the explosive season finale event.

Though this was my first time attending a Fortnite finale event, having only recently gotten into the game, I am well aware of the saga of the massive, unknowable, purple cube that fans affectionately call Kevin. From its first appearance back in 2018, birthed out of a mysterious rift, to its explosion, which briefly transported players to another dimension, the saga of Kevin has been one of the more interesting things to come out of Epic’s battle royale game since it sprung to life and began devouring gamers back in 2017. Players love the cube. They want to know where the cube is, what it is thinking, and if it’s thinking of them.

In today’s special Season 7 finale event we found Kevin. And Kevin has friends.

Lots of friends.

In the final moments of Fortnite Season 7, players (including myself) were beamed aboard the alien mothership that’s been floating over the island for one final assault. The enigmatic Dr. Sloan laced a portion of the island’s landmass with explosives, and we players were needed to arm the explosives. Following a dramatic race through the mothership’s innards, we found ourselves in a large, empty room. As Dr. Sloan began to arm the explosives, a large, cubelike object rose from the center of the room.

Harnessing the power of our backpacks, Dr. Sloan managed to drain poor Kevin of power, leaving us standing in the room with his creepy gray cube corpse. The the good doctor arms the explosive charges and delivers some bad news. Rather than teleport us home and risk the cube escaping, she was leaving us in the ship to die. Bummer.

After a bit of running about the room in a blind panic, we players discovered our backpacks had the ability to recharge Kevin. Banding together we revived the cube, now glowing blue instead of purple, and the room we were trapped in began rising into the air. Then an explosion. Then falling. And finally … to be continued in Fortnite Season 8. Watch the entire explosive event below.

Fortnite Season 8 begins tomorrow at 5 AM Eastern time. If those final moments were any indication, it’s going to be glowing cube city up in there.

Epic Games has filed an appeal to a Friday’s ruling in its lawsuit against Apple, calling on a higher court to reexamine the case and overturn the judge’s ruling.

“Notice is hereby given that Epic Games, Inc…. appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from the final Judgment entered on September 10, 2021,” the document reads. Few details are given about the legal basis for Epic’s appeal, but it is likely to continue to press on the federal antitrust allegations dismissed by the court.

At trial, Epic argued Apple had a monopoly because of how it requires developers to use its payments system for in-game purchases. But Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled Friday that Epic should pay damages to Apple for violating rules around its in-app purchasing system, while undoing Apple’s most restrictive rules on steering customers to alternate payment systems.

Most notably, the judge found that Epic failed to make the case for Apple as a monopoly in the mobile gaming marketplace, which she ultimately found was the relevant market for the company’s claims. “The evidence does suggest that Apple is near the precipice of substantial market power, or monopoly power, with its considerable market share,” Judge Rogers wrote — but said the antitrust claims failed in part “because [Epic] did not focus on this topic.”

Developing…

In a report from reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today, Apple is said to be announcing the new generation of AirPods as part of Tuesday’s iPhone 13 event. The new ‘AirPods 3’ will be the new version of Apple’s AirPods earbuds, which were last refreshed in March 2019.

However, Kuo says that Apple will keep selling the second-generation AirPods when the new models ship. He says this suggest either AirPods 3 will be sold at a higher price — current models start at $159 — or that AirPods 2 will see a price drop alongside the AirPods 3 release, which would adopt the current AirPods 2’s price point.

Kuo does not seem to know which scenario is more likely. Instead, he simply indicates that AirPods 2 and AirPods 3 will be sold simultaneously as AirPods 2 production continues.

Based on previous rumors, the new AirPods models are expected to feature a new design that resembles the shape of the current-generation AirPods Pro, notably featuring shorter stems on the earbuds themselves.

However, the AirPods 3 are not expected to feature active noise cancellation features — that will remain exclusive to AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. AirPods 3 are expected to support head-tracking Spatial Audio however, which lines up neatly with the release of iOS 15 that enhances Dolby Atmos music with the head-tracking effect in addition to video content.

Right now, second-generation AirPods are sold in two models: with and without Qi wireless charging case. The AirPods with standard wired case sell for $159, the SKU with wireless case included costs $199.

Overall, Kuo expects the launch of the new AirPods 3 generation to have a positive impact on Apple’s truly wireless earbud sales, with the analyst predicting an increase in shipments of 10-15% YOY for the first quarter of 2022.

Updates to AirPods Pro are not expected until sometime next year. Bloomberg previously said that the AirPods Pro will be redesigned to be more compact as Apple intends to eliminate the stem altogether. They may also feature integrated sensors for fitness tracking.

Stay tuned to 9to5Mac for full coverage of all the announcements at Apple’s first fall media event, which will kick off at 10 AM PT on Tuesday, 14 September. Alongside new AirPods, we expect to see Apple unveil the iPhone 13 lineup and the new Apple Watch Series 7.

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A GTA 5 player over on TikTok has gone viral after uncovering a secret feature, or at least a glitch nobody still playing the Grand Theft Auto game on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S seems to know about. Whether or not this secret is truly a new discovery, remains to be seen, but millions have viewed the video, and many have revealed they had no clue about this glitch/secret feature, which isn’t very consequential, but is certainly good to know, especially if you use bikes a lot.

The clip in question [which can be viewed here] reveals a different way to customize bikes. To recreate it, you first need open up “Pedal and Metal” on the in-game phone. From here, select a bike you want to customize and then hit the home button on the URL bar before proceeding to Legendary Motorsport. At this point, select the Z-type vehicle , select the color you want, and then select Clock. Once you do all of this, head back to Pedal to Metal and buy your BMX, and you’ll have said bike in whatever color you chose, which you normally can’t do.

Now that this secret feature is widely known, it may very well be patched in a future update, assuming it’s not the product of design, but the product of a glitch. That said, so far this hasn’t happened. While Rockstar Games is quick to fix glitches involving in-game currency, it’s not as quick to fix glitches that have minimal impact on its ability to generate money. In fact, there are several glitches that have been in the game for a very long time, so there’s no guarantee that even if Rockstar Games does see this that its response will be to fix it, let alone fix it quickly. 

As always, feel free to hit the comments section with your thoughts or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Did you know about this glitch? Meanwhile, for more coverage on GTA 5, GTA Online, GTA 6, and all other things Grand Theft Auto, click here.

Apple has a message for iPhone users with high-power motorcycles, mopeds, and scooters: Don’t attach your phone to them you value your camera.

In a support document with a uniquely-long and oddly-specific title published on Friday—which was called, “Exposure to vibrations, like those generated by high-powered motorcycle engines, might impact iPhone cameras,” in case you were wondering—Apple said that attaching your iPhone to these vehicles can expose them to high-amplitude vibrations within certain frequency ranges. Consequently, this can lead to the degradation of the phone’s optical image stabilization, or OIS, and closed-loop autofocus systems over time.

Considering that these are these are the systems that help your iPhone take great pictures even if you accidentally move and help it counteract the effects of gravity and vibration, it’s not a good idea to mess them up. Doing so will reduce the quality of your photos and videos. All iPhones beginning with the iPhone 6 Plus have either an OIS or closed-loop autofocus system.

Technically speaking, the OIS system contains a gyroscope that reduces image motion and blur. When you move, the camera lens moves according to the angle of the gyroscope, which ensures you take a nice picture. Meanwhile, the closed-loop autofocus system uses onboard magnetic sensors to “measure gravity and vibration effects and determine the lens position so that the compensating motion can be set accurately,” according to Apple.

“The OIS and closed-loop AF systems in iPhone are designed for durability,” the company explained. “However, as is the case with many consumer electronics that include systems like OIS, long-term direct exposure to high-amplitude vibrations within certain frequency ranges may degrade the performance of these systems and lead to reduced image quality for photos and videos. It is recommended to avoid exposing your iPhone to extended high-amplitude vibrations.”

Some of you may be asking if this means you can’t carry around your iPhone if you ride a motorcycle. Let’s be clear, you can, but Apple just prefers you avoid putting it in certain places.

“High-power or high-volume motorcycle engines generate intense high-amplitude vibrations, which are transmitted through the chassis and handlebars. It is not recommended to attach your iPhone to motorcycles with high-power or high-volume engines due to the amplitude of the vibration in certain frequency ranges that they generate,” the support document reads.

If you’re more of a moped or scooter type of person, Apple recommends you use a vibration dampening mount to reduce the risk of damage to the iPhone and its OIS and closed-loop autofocus systems. Even in that case though, the company says you shouldn’t attach your iPhone to these vehicles on a regular basis.

After it ended free unlimited storage for Google Photos in June, many Google users had figure out how to store images and other data in the Google accounts. They could keep their Google account stored data under 15GB, or pay for a Google One plan. Options included a 100GB plan for $1.99 per month, a 200GB plan for $2.99 a month, a 2TB plan for $9.99 a month, or a plan with 10TB of storage for $49.99 per month. 20TB and 30TB plans are also available, for $99.99 and $149.99 per month, respectively.

Now Google’s introduced a middle option between 2TB and 10TB, as noticed by 9to5Google. The 5TB Google One plan costs $24.99 per month, a good (and less expensive) option for people who want a little more than 2TB but don’t quite need a plan with 10TB of storage or more.

If you’re sure the 5TB plan will meet your needs, you can save a little money by prepaying for a year’s subscription; it will run you $249.99. Like the 2TB and 10TB plans, the 5TB plan also includes 10 percent off Google Store purchases, the option to add family members, access to Google experts, and a VPN for Android phones.