151 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Hasbro sells eOne to Lionsgate for $500 million as it prioritizes Peppa Pig and Transformers.

    From today’s announcement:

    The sale will include a talented team of employees, a content library of nearly 6,500 titles, active productions for non-Hasbro owned IP like The Rookie, Yellowjackets and Naked and Afraid franchises, and the eOne unscripted business, which will include rights for certain Hasbro-based shows like Play-Doh Squished.

    And as Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks explained in March on Decoder, the IP that’s staying is the stuff that leads to selling more toys:

    ...it’s natural that we would have entertainment and help to execute entertainment for Transformers. We want to make sure that we retain those capabilities, whether it’s live-action movies or kids’ animated TV shows.

    Naked and Afraid, the reality TV show, is probably not going to do an action figure, at least not one that would ship at Walmart. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Monopoly is probably not going to be a huge business opportunity for that.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    The scam high school that existed mostly via Twitter and YouTube.

    For anyone who hasn’t canceled Max yet, a documentary later this month will dive into the story behind Bishop Sycamore, an alleged Ohio high school program that was mostly a front for a traveling football team.

    It stumbled along until 2021 when things fell apart after a 58-0 loss in a nationally televised game on ESPN, and the Ohio Department of Education called it a “scam.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    The Homeworld Remastered collection is free for a few more hours on the Epic Games Store.

    The pack of remastered-in-4K space RTS games is still available as a free offer until 11AM ET (coincidentally, that’s also when Epic’s summer games sale ends).

    If you’re unsure about a game to your library that costs zero dollars, you can revisit Sam Byford’s 2015 story, but otherwise, you can engage in a bit of nostalgia very cheaply until Homeworld 3 is released in February.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Apple’s Vision Pro developer labs are only in one place so far.

    Reported Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, saying sessions have been underfilled so far. Given how careful Apple is being with the prerelease headsets a slow rollout of test units isn’t surprising, but it may mean apps take longer than expected to adjust to a newly augmented reality.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Apple’s next big sports deal after MLS and MLB: the Pac-12?

    ESPN reports Apple is a “likely leader” to snag broadcasting rights starting next year, but it’s not that simple.

    With USC and UCLA headed to the Big Ten next year and Colorado going back to the Big 12, the conference is in a fight to hold onto its remaining schools. 247Sports reports conference commish George Kliavkoff showed three deals to school leaders and presented Apple’s as the strongest, but they may be skeptical of signing a streaming deal that relies heavily on subscription incentives.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Verified Twitter / X Blue subscribers can hide their blue checks.

    If you want to buy Blue, but don’t want to advertise that you’re a paying user on Elon Musk’s social network / attempt at an everything app, you might have the option to do both now.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    This year’s Meta Connect will be a two-day event, in-person at Meta HQ.

    We’ve known the date for Meta’s next developer event since the company revealed the details of its Quest 3 headset, and now there’s more information available.

    The two full days of programming will include a Keynote hosted by Mark Zuckerberg, the Developer State of the Union, and breakout sessions covering a range of topics related to AI and virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. Those who attend in person will also have access to demo experiences, networking events, and more.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Fox thought its sports gambling app was a big new opportunity, but Fox Bet never paid off.

    The Wall Street Journal reports FanDuel and Fox are winding down Fox Bet, an app launched in 2019 that only ever was available in a few states.

    When we wrote about it in 2021, the integration of gambling looked like a sure thing to broadcasters and streamers, but since then, FuboTV’s gambling ambitions flamed out, and Disney’s old-new CEO Bob Iger sounds a lot less enthusiastic about gambling as he seeks to sell off some or all of ESPN.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Enjoy ordering Erewhon more exclusively with its new mobile app.

    If you’re shopping at Erewhon (this includes “addicts” working three jobs to afford the prices and a $200 per year membership), would you really put your delivery or local pick-up order in via Instacart like you’re shopping at some regular grocery store?

    LA fans of the “premium organic grocer and cafe” can now use its fully customized digital app (on both Android and iOS) to “engage with Erewhon’s high quality products across groceries, prepared foods, and prepared smoothies and drinks, intuitively and conveniently.”

    Simulated images of the Erewhon mobile app shown on an iPhone screen while walking through the shopping and ordering process.
    Erewhon mobile app screenshots
    Image: Erewhon