A YouTube alert interrupted Jack Erricker’s schoolwork on Friday morning as he and kids all over the world woke up to the news that their favorite game, Fortnite, had been taken down from Apple’s Store and Google Play store.
“It’s basically the only game I play,” said Erricker, an 11-year-old in Bengaluru, India, an avid Fortnite player on his Apple iPad. “I’m not happy, I don’t think it’s a good move.”
Fortnite, which has attracted more than 350 million players globally, is especially popular among younger gamers and has become one of the few lifelines to the outside world for kids trapped at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Unable to play outside, kids are spending hours with friends chit-chatting and fighting on Fortnite, which is free to play and available on nearly all devices.
Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google on Thursday removed Fornite from their app stores for violating in-app payment guidelines, and the news spread rapidly among kids who are otherwise too young to get headlines off CNN, the BBC or the New York Times.
Removal means no new players can download the game and the app will not receive updates from the store. But the game will continue to work for now for those who already have it.
Calum Jack, an eight-year-old from London, heard the Fortnite news from friends in Asia as soon as he woke up at 6 a.m. The topic was “all over YouTube,” he said.
He is online up to 10 hours a day, playing, building or just chatting with up to 20 friends as far apart as Canada and India. Fortnite and other online games have been Jack’s main social outlet since coronavirus lockdowns closed schools across the world in March.
“It’s been very important since we’ve been on holiday. We play all the time,” he said.
Fortnite-owner Epic Games has challenged Apple’s policy of taking a cut of purchases made inside the app by allowing users to pay Epic directly at a cheaper price. The financial ramifications of the move were apparent even to young gamers.
“Epic was cutting into Apple’s profit margins,” said Zoraan Kunnel, 13, of Bengaluru, India.
On Thursday, Epic released a video within Fortnite, on YouTube and other social media channels mocking Apple’s iconic”1984″ ad with the hashtag “FreeFortnite.” The hashtag has trended on social media and racked up nearly 26 million views on short-form video app TikTok.
“My friends think that Fortnite is going to win the argument,” Erricker said. “There’s a lot of people who play Fortnite, and they’ll be against Apple.”
As to what Jack will do if the game stops working on his iPad, he said: “”I’d just play on the PS4.”
© Thomson Reuters 2020.
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Leaving her elderly father on a basement floor for two days in a soiled adult diaper won’t mean jail for a Calgary woman.
Justice Indra Maharaj accepted a joint Crown and defence submission on Wednesday for a two-year-less-a-day conditional sentence order for Tara Picard to be followed by 12 months of probation.
Prosecutor Donna Spaner and defence counsel Shaun Leochko proposed a community-based term which will include eight months of 24-hour house arrest followed by a nightly curfew for the second eight months.
Maharaj also agreed with the lawyers to order Picard to commit 300 hours of community service over the length of the three-year sentence.
The Calgary Court of Justice noted that amount of community-service hours was “a lot” to commit to.
But Maharaj said it showed Picard, 52, was truly remorseful for her conduct towards her father, whom Postmedia is not identifying because of the embarrassing nature of the facts of the case.
“What that shows me is Ms. Picard does sincerely recognize what has happened here,” the judge said of her willingness to complete community service.
“What I interpret from that is Ms. Picard’s willingness to give back to the community.”
Picard pleaded guilty in January to charges of assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life to her 77-year-old father.
Court heard caregivers found the elderly Calgary man on the basement floor of his daughter’s southeast home wearing a soiled adult diaper.
At the time, Picard was responsible for her father’s day-to-day care after he was moved to her residence, Spaner, reading from a statement of agreed facts, told court at the time.
“He had a number of medical ailments, including non-insulin dependent diabetes, coronary artery disease, some early onset dementia-like symptoms and chronic alcoholism,” Spaner said.
“(He) had been living independently in a Calgary apartment building. Family members became concerned that he was not caring for himself safely.”
With the help of Alberta Health Services he was moved to a home where Picard resided.
A registered nurse assigned to his care attended the 38 Street S.E. home on Nov. 15, 2021, to drop off food bank supplies for him and was told he was sleeping downstairs.
When the nurse called about an hour and a half later and spoke to the man on the phone he said he was lying on the floor, had fallen and was unable to get up.
When she returned to the home with a co-worker she found the victim lying on his back on the floor.
“(He) said that he had been lying on the floor for two days,” Spaner said.
Leochko said Picard was overwhelmed by the situation she was thrust into.
“It really was more than she could handle,” he said.
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@juanhall: I gotta say, this was the most interesting bike in this post….love that Intense is experimenting with gearboxes…I can see it have a huge effect on DH bikes….thank god there’s still people pushing things. Now, they need to make an Enduro bike with the Pinion MGU!
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The City of Pointe-Claire would like to inform you that the Bob-Birnie arena will be closed for its annual maintenance as of Monday, April 29. The Annex rink will reopen to the public on Monday, May 13, and the arena’s Main rink will be accessible as of Monday, June 3.
Public skating will resume on May 13, and the summer public activities programming will begin on June 3 when both rinks have reopened to the public.
In addition to the annual maintenance of the facility, two renovation projects are also scheduled to start at the same time:
Installation of new sound systems
The City will be replacing its current sound systems in both the Main rink and Annex rink, to offer arena visitors a better overall experience, whether watching from the stands or participating in on-ice activities. This project is expected to be conducted throughout the month of May.
Renovation of locker rooms in the Main Rink
The City will also be renovating the five locker rooms located in the Main rink, to bring up to date the amenities currently available to participants. These renovations are expected to begin in early May and will be completed by mid-August.
For all information about the Bob-Birnie arena, visit the arena’s page on our website.
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