Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
Meta Is Dropping VR Support From Horizon Worlds
David Heaney, writing for UploadVR:
Meta Horizon Worlds is dropping VR support in June, meaning it will only be available as a flatscreen experience for the web and smartphones.
By March 31, Meta says the Horizon Worlds app will be delisted from Quest’s store, and key first-party worlds such as Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay will no longer be accessible in VR. Then, from June 15, the Horizon Worlds app will be removed from Quest headsets, and all worlds will no longer be accessible in VR.
Yours truly, three months ago: “Meta Says Fuck That Metaverse Shit”.
David Zaslav Set to Receive Up to $887 Million if Paramount Acquisition of Warner Bros Closes
Jake Conley, reporting for Yahoo Finance:
If the deal closes, Zaslav will receive $517.2 million in equity that would trigger if and when the sale goes through, along with roughly $34.2 million in cash and $44.2 million in benefits tied to the value of health coverage reimbursement. The Warner Bros. CEO will also get roughly $335.4 million in tax reimbursements. **
Just before the end of February, Warner Bros. agreed to a full acquisition by Paramount Skydance at $31 per share in a deal valued at about $110 billion.
The cash and equity are outrageous enough, but what in the everlasting fuck is “$44.2 million in benefits tied to the value of health coverage reimbursement”? They might as well pay Zaslav an extra $40 million for reticulating splines while they’re at it.
[Update: Variety reports that Zaslav is getting $44,195 in “continued health coverage reimbursement benefits”, which suggests that Conley at Yahoo incorrectly assumed a couple of extra zeroes on the health coverage number. Which would be a reasonable mistake to make — who but a total asshole would give a shit about $44,000 in insurance benefits as part of a $550 million heist? Assuming that was a mistake, Conley’s error wasn’t assuming the extra zeroes, it was forgetting that Zaslav is, quite obviously, a total asshole.]
The man redesigned the HBO logo five times, the company lost 50% of its value, and he made $887 million. We might be looking at the greatest businessman to ever exist.
The greatest something, for sure. I wouldn’t use the word “businessman”.
★ Squashing
Fox Sports to Broadcast U.S.-Venezuela World Baseball Classic Final in Immersive 3D — But Not on Vision Pro
Fox Sports, on Twitter/X:
Tonight, watch the WBC Final in a full immersive experience on the Fox Sports XR app for the Galaxy XR headset powered by Android XR!
The Fox Sports app in the App Store is native only on iOS (iPhone and iPad), Apple TV, and Apple Watch. So, unless I’m missing something, not only are they not streaming it immersively on VisionOS, they don’t even have a native VisionOS app.