Apple on Friday asked a judge to deny Epic Games’ request for a court order forcing Apple to return Fortnite to the App Store. In a filing, the iPhone-maker said Epic Games brought the ban on itself by its own actions.

The court’s decision will determine whether this wildly popular game will be available for iPhone and iPad users while a potentially lengthy court battle between Apple and Epic Games goes on.

This week on The CultCast: It’s a battle of the titans! Fortnite developer Epic Games takes Apple to court over its App Store policies, and the dev just might get its way. Plus: Apple and its stock hit another astonishing milestone; Jon Prosser was right — Apple has begun rebranding Beats; and Apple TV+ finally makes the move we’ve been waiting for: bundling premium channels for one low price.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

The Apple Watch essentially launched the smartwatch category, and continues to dominate it. And rather than competitors catching up, Apple’s share of this market in increasing. It took in 51.4% of the worldwide revenue from shipments of smartwatches during the first half of 2020, a significant rise from the same period last year.

Keep your AirPods looking cool this summer with the super-sweet Ice Cream case from Elago. Available in four delicious color options, it not only looks great, but also keeps your AirPods protected on the go.

What’s more, it’s a steal at just $18.

Images and a video allegedly showing a teardown of AirPower, Apple’s multi-device wireless charger that was canceled before it launched, came to light Friday.

This Logitech Powered charger is a fantastic way to top off your iPhone. Its unique design lets you slide your phone in vertically or horizontally, so you can watch videos, take FaceTime calls or do whatever it is you do while you juice up your device.

As Cult of Mac wrote in its review when the product launched, this snow-white stunner does away with one of the most annoying problems associated with wireless charging. And if you act fast, you can get this high-end charger for less than $20.

Samurai Jack made the jump from cartoon to video game on Friday, with this classic series transformed into an action platformer.

The star of the Cartoon Network series faces new enemies and rejoins familiar allies to track down the evil Aku and defeat him once and for all in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time on Apple Arcade.

Epic Games will hand out anti-Apple prizes in a new Fortnite tournament due to take place Sunday, August 23.

Prizes will include a “Free Fortnite” hat modeled after Apple’s classic “Think Different” branding, the in-game skin for the evil-looking Apple Big Brother character (dubbed the “Tart Tycoon”) from Fortnite‘s “1984” Mac ad parody, and more.

Designing interfaces, whether for websites or software, requires lots of assets. Vector icons are kind of like buttons to a tailor, offering many subtle touches that together can make an interface sing. With this massive library of vector icons, you get a massive drawer of icons to search through.

Apple passed $2 trillion this week, but one bullish Apple analyst doesn’t think the stock is anywhere near its limits. In a note published Friday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote to clients that he thinks Apple has “a lot of gasoline” left in the tank.

Ives predicted Apple could reach as high as $600. Currently, AAPL is trading at $473.10, defying the overall market with its upward trajectory.

Several major news outlets are throwing their hats into the ring with Epic Games and others in pushing back against Apple’s App Store commission.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a trade body that represents the New York Times, Washington Post, WSJ and other publishers has sent a letter to Tim Cook asking for better terms for digital subscriptions sold through the App Store.

Apple TV+ series Little Voice came to an end Friday with the season finale episode debuting on Apple’s streaming TV service.

Producer J.J. Abrams’ series, created with songwriter Sara Bareilles and writer Jessie Nelson, tells the story of aspiring singer Bess King and her attempts to make a career for herself as a singer. Alongside the season finale of Little Voice, Apple TV+ also added a new episode of comedy series Ted Lasso.

The addition of 5G connectivity is one of the most compelling elements of this year’s iPhone 12, but it’s going to come at a cost to Apple. Literally.

According to a new report by TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will likely pay $75 per unit for sub-6GHz 5G support, and a maximum of $125 for mmWave 5G. However, Kuo does not think Apple will pass these costs on to the end consumer.

A regular source of Apple leaks said on Thursday that a less expensive version of the Apple Watch is in the offing.

This was just one of multiple tidbits Jon Prosser dropped during a public Q&A session. He mentioned the first MacBook with Apple silicon, talked a bit about the company’s game controller, and more.

In just three weeks, the classic strategy game Company of Heroes will launch onto iPhone. Feral Interactive promised Thursday that, following a successful iPad debut earlier this year, the combat simulator will be released on September 10 for iPhone and Android.

Apple’s newest iOS 14 beta makes it so that the “hidden” folder inside the Photos app no longer appears by default. But there is a quick and easy way to get it back. We’ll show you how.

Western Digital introduced on Thursday an updated version of the My Passport SSD. It offers dramatically faster data transfers, plus a new sleeker design.

The external storage device is available in capacities up to 2TB, and offers prosumers an easy way to carry around fairly large collections of images, movies or other files.

This Apple for BYOD post is presented by Hexnode. 

Businesses enrolling employees’ personal devices for work use — known in IT circles as Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD — is growing. According to sources cited in Forbes, the market should reach nearly $367 billion by 2022, more than 10 times the size it was in 2014. Companies favoring BYOD tend to save about $350 per year per employee, and those employees see efficiency improvements by using personal devices, whether Android- or Apple-based. 

Apple’s surge past a $2 trillion market cap this week underlines just how well CEO Tim Cook’s vision works for shareholders. But is this good news for Apple fans?

The first publicly traded U.S. company to hit this milestone, Apple has transformed from one of the world’s dynamic companies into one that can be, well, kind of boring. The strategy that fueled this unprecedented success makes it far less likely that we’ll seen an insanely innovative product coming out of Cupertino in the future.

Fortnite is currently banned from the App Store following a big fallout between Apple and Epic Games. But for some players, that doesn’t mean it’s gone from iPhone and iPad for good.

So long as you’ve downloaded Fortnite at least once before, it’s still possible to re-download it today. We’ll show you how to do it.

Mophie just launched four power banks designed to, in its words, “charge mobile devices at the fastest speed possible.” These latest additions to the long-running Powerstation line of batteries come in a range of storage capacities and prices, and can be used with iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.

Amazon’s biggest discounts yet on the newest iPad Air have returned for a limited time only. You can save up to $99.01 on Wi-Fi models in silver. The deal won’t last long, so enjoy it while you can!

Stop putting off that website you’ve been planning to build. You can do it today with a lifetime subscription to this intuitive Mac app, which handles all the design and technical stuff that’s been keeping you from fulfilling your goal.

Sparkle Pro Website Builder’s easy-to-use interface presents you with visual tools for quickly building high-performing, search-engine-optimized websites.

Porsche’s forthcoming electric Taycan will offer three years of free Apple Music streaming. No tethered or wireless iPhone connection needed.

The system will rely on its own in-car dash. Drivers and passengers can use a touch screen and custom Porsche AI voice assistant to select albums, songs, or radio stations. Streaming data costs included.

Verizon’s big discount on AirPods Pro is back. Pick up Apple’s best, most magical wireless buds for just $219.99 — the lowest price yet for brand-new models — for a limited time only.