27 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

Senior Editor

Senior Editor

    More From Sean Hollister

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “‘How long do we want to support this thing?’ And Jensen said, ‘For as long as we shall live.’”

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, that is, re: the Nvidia Shield TV, likely the most supported Android gadget ever at over a decade. Nvidia’s Andrew Bell tells Ars Technica a new model isn’t in active development, but hints at what he’d add (like AV1 and YouTube HDR). He says Nvidia doesn’t profit off its Netflix button, BTW.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Now that Meta’s no longer bankrolling VR game studios, its VR game boss is leaving.

    Jason Rubin became Oculus’ game studios boss in 2014, shortly after Facebook bought the company, and led VR content ever since, as well as brokering deals that might’ve led to a killer app — like Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed and more. But over a decade later, Meta’s gutting its studios. Rubin is leaving in March because “this seems like a good time.”

    Rubin’s goodbye note.
    Rubin’s goodbye note.
    Image: Jason Rubin (X)
    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Judge Donato will not approve or reject the Epic v. Google settlement today.

    And we’re done! Lawyers for Epic and Google have asked for a few weeks to talk amongst themselves and file one more brief by early March. Judge Donato says yes “just so long as we are clearly duel-tracked and the order is going forward.” He wanted to be sure Google is actually complying, and Google says it is. Epic says the court-ordered technical committee, where Google and Epic must hammer out the details of store-within-a-store and catalog access, is up and running too.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    We have established that Dr. Rose does not know whether it’s important for app stores to go global.

    Sweeney, earlier today: “Every store will be able to do a much better job of serving US users if it can reach a worldwide audience.”

    Epic’s lead attorney has continued to push on that with Dr. Rose, who says she was not assigned or resourced to explore “all of the fundamental economic issues,” but admits she doesn’t know if other app makers would think the whole world is as important to their business as Sweeney suggests Epic does. (Again, the Epic Google proposed settlement would change things globally, but the current injunction only applies in the US, while Epic and Google continue to fight elsewhere in the world.)

    He tried a few other questions with Dr. Rose as well, but I didn’t catch anything particularly interesting. She has now stepped down, and we’re going into Epic and Google’s logistics for the next steps going forward, presumably before the judge gives us his final thoughts for the day.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and lawyers are in a private huddle.

    When we return from the short break, Epic’s lead attorney gets to ask Dr. Rose more questions, and the judge has asked he doesn’t use that time to come up with “800 more.” Dr. Bornstein, Epic’s CEO, and both Bornstein and colleague Yonatan Even seemed to be in a tight huddle drafting one or two, though, which Bornstein seemed to jot down. Now, Google lead attorney Glenn Pomerantz is whispering in Bornstein’s ear as well.