Apple on Tuesday stopped signing iOS 16.1.2, which means that iPhone and iPad users can no longer downgrade to this version of the operating system if they’re already running a newer version of iOS. This comes just a week after the company released iOS 16.2 to the public. Apple no longer signing iOS 16.1.2 iOS 16.1.2 was released by Apple on November 30 with enhancements to the Crash Detection feature for iPhone 14 models....

In March, Apple was ordered in an Eastern district Texas court to pay just over $300 million to Personalized Media Communications (PMC) after a multi-year lawsuit over alleged DRM infringements. Today Apple won a ruling that voids the March verdict with a judge essentially finding Personalized Media guilty of patent trolling. Reported by Bloomberg, the patent at the basis of the $308 million March judgment has now been found to be “unenforceable” after Apple appealed the earlier ruling....

20th Century Fox’s Assassin’s Creed is slowly but surely starting the engines on its marketing, with many believing that a trailer for the film is right around the corner. Fans have already gotten several glimpses of the cast in action, including star Michael Fassbender. Now, two new stills featuring Fassbender have found their way online. One shows Fassbender in the present as Death Row inmate Callum Lynch, while the other features Fassbender in action as Callum’s 15th-century ancestor Aguilar....

Sponsored by Kolide: With Kolide, you can make your team into your biggest allies for endpoint security. Solve problems, right within Slack. Learn more here. Stories discussed in this episode: App Store ads expanding to Today tab and more Are there crypto scam apps in the App Store? Apple overhauls iPhone checkout experience with larger images, focus on trade-ins, more Enjoy the podcast? Follow Chance: Twitter: @ChanceHMiller Listen & Subscribe:...

A new batch of toys have arrived for Avengers: Infinity War, offering character details for Thor and Spider-Man and giving us a better look at Thanos’ Black Order. Though Marvel has been incredibly secretive about Avengers 3—we’ve yet to even see a full-length trailer—a lot of information has been revealed in supplemental ways. Set photos and videos gave us early teases about the Black Order long before they were officially confirmed....

Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War. - Avengers: Infinity War tried to revolutionize the Marvel Cinematic Universe by introducing real stakes, but its bold ending falls short. It definitely hits an emotional mark, yet the ultimate feeling is somewhat hollow. That’s not to say Infinity War isn’t an event. Fans shivered with anticipation at the prospects this film hinted at, and ven the most cynical critics and journalists agreed to keeping the films secrets locked down until the general public could see the thrills for themselves....

Could Tony Stark rebuild Ultron in order to defeat Thanos in Avengers: Endgame? Endgame’s title relates to Doctor Strange’s words in Avengers: Infinity War, after the sorcerer used the Time Stone to examine over 14 million possible futures, and found only one in which Thanos was ultimately defeated. It’s generally presumed that he handed over the Time Stone at the precise moment necessary to ensure that future came to pass - whether through Tony Stark’s survival, or Scott Lang’s being trapped in the Quantum Realm....

Since its release in 1988, Batman: The Killing Joke has been regarded as one of DC Comics’ greatest graphic novels. Alan Moore’s chilling take on the crown prince of crime introduced the world to a more brutal version of the villain, while also adding layers of tragedy and depth to the character. With voice actors Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy reprising their roles as the Joker and Batman, and the MPAA issuing an unprecedented R-rating, fans are eager to get their hands on the film when it’s released on Blu-Ray and DVD in August....

Battlefield 5 is arriving this year, and fans of the franchise are patiently awaiting what DICE has in store to help set the game apart from the crowd. However, there’s one game mode that could work incredibly well in the first-person shooter, and one that has become a major sensation in gaming over the last year or so. In short, Battlefield 5 should have a Battle Royale mode. Of course, the most popular Battle Royale games on the market have already cemented their places in online gaming....

Players will be able to get a taste of the dark side of the Force as Darth Vader becomes a playable character in Battlefront II. The upcoming EA video game is a sequel to the 2015 reboot of the series, which received mixed reviews from gamers criticizing the game’s lack of a single-player story mode and immersion. Battlefront II hopes to remedy that with the addition of protagonist, Iden Versio, leader of an Imperial Special Forces group known as Inferno Squad and the focus of the single-player story mode, which takes place after the explosion of the Death Star over Endor....

2017 is already looking like a very big year for Disney Studios, with three new Marvel films and the next installment in the Star Wars saga set to be released between now and December 31. The studio is starting their year off big, too, with the release of Beauty and the Beast. Based on the Academy Award-winning 1991 animated film of the same name, it’s the latest film in Disney’s recent live-action adaptation trend and is no doubt the most highly anticipated of them all so far....

Jane Horvath, Apple’s Senior Director of Global Privacy, is speaking at the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection (CPDP) conference. The event takes place May 23-25 in Brussels, Belgium, in which Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are among the sponsors. Horvath will speak on Tuesday the 24th in a session called “The future of privacy. How is multistakeholderism shaping privacy worldwide?” There are not too many details on what she’ll cover, but one can imagine it’ll be something of interest....

Right after Apple’s September keynote, the company introduced iOS 15.1 beta, which reintroduces some features removed from iOS 15.0 and also adds some new ones. Now iOS 15.1 RC (Release Candidate) is available for developers and public beta users. One of the key iOS 15 features announced at WWDC 2021 in June was SharePlay, which lets users share songs, videos, or even the screen during a FaceTime call. However, that feature was pushed back and is now returning with iOS 15....

Just three days after releasing the RC builds of iOS 15.2 and macOS Monterey 12.1, Apple on Friday released new updates to developers. iOS 15.2 RC 2 and macOS 12.1 RC 2 can now be downloaded on the Apple Developer website or as an OTA update. Update: According to Apple, iOS 15.2 RC 2 is only available for iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro devices. iOS 15.2 brings a few notable changes for iPhone and iPad users....

Apple will once again celebrate National Fitness Day in China with an Apple Watch Activity Challenge. Apple Watch users in China can unlock a special Activity award by completing at least 20 minutes of exercise on August 8. Apple will reward users with exclusive badges in the Activity app, as well as animated stickers for use in Messages and FaceTime. The achievement can be reached by recording any workout of 20 minutes or longer, from any app that records data to Apple Health....

One of the most powerful artifacts in the Marvel Universe, and easily the most well-known, the Infinity Gauntlet will take center stage in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, where the Mad Titan Thanos will seek to collect the remaining stones and destroy our beloved heroes in the process. While we’ve gotten a glimpse at what each Infinity Stone is capable of on their own in the MCU (save for the Soul Stone), it will be interesting to see what the gauntlet is actually able to do once fully assembled....

Possible promo art for Avengers 4 reveals a look at the team’s new suits, though it’s possible that they may be fake. The design of the suits align with various rumors circulating the movie - specifically regarding time travel and the Quantum Realm - but their legitimacy has yet to be confirmed. Since Marvel Studios has yet to begin the marketing campaign for Avengers 4, most fans are eager to learn anything and everything they can....

What went wrong with the DCEU’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice? Zack Snyder made a strong start to his DC tenure, with Henry Cavill donning the famous red cape for Man of Steel in 2013. Although the Superman reboot garnered mixed reviews, something the DCEU would become accustomed to, it scored big at the box office, proving Snyder’s darker version of the Kryptonian Boy Scout had serious potential. Unfortunately, that momentum was never capitalized upon, as Snyder and Warner Bros....

Early reactions to Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel praise the film as an emotional, mind-blowing 3D adventure. It’s been a long road to the big screen for Alita: Battle Angel, which is based on the manga by Yukito Kishiro. James Cameron became a fan of the manga after being introduced to it by Guillermo del Toro, and he would spend years developing the material as a directing project for himself. It would eventually take a backseat when Cameron focused on developing the original Avatar, but as the years went by it would fall into development hell....

One of the many antitrust investigations into Apple seems set to mandate alternative app stores, and it was yesterday reported that the Cupertino company is making plans to bow to the inevitable. While there will be the usual chorus about politicians interfering in the way that companies operate, this change will be a win for all Apple users, even if we have no plans to go anywhere near a third-party app store …...