Twitter Paywalled Videos; Sony PlayStation VR2, Google Street View App Goes Away; Amazon Out of Trillion Dollar Club

We used to do a feature called ‘The Week in Elon Musk.’ With his Twitter purchase, it has become the day in Elon Musk. Now, gizmodo.com reports that Twitter is considering a ‘paywalled video’ feature that would allow users to charge money for access to videos…which most Twitter watchers think would be immediately flooded with porn. Apparently, the prices would be preset by Twitter….at $1, $2, $5, or $10. Twitter would take a cut of the money, using Stripe. It sounds like a Twitter version of Only Fans! Right now, it’s unclear if this idea was already in the works, or is one of Musk’s ideas to monetize Twitter. Musk is apparently still working on a process to bring banned accounts back to Twitter, too. While he is pitching it as an online town square, it sounds a bit more like a town back alley in these cases. 

Sony will roll out the PlayStation VR2 headset on February 22nd. According to theverge.com, it will set you back $549.99. That will include Sense controllers and stereo headphones, however a Sense controller charging station is priced separately at $49.99…so you are really going to be out $600! Preorders are opening on November 15th, and limited to through the PlayStation online store in a lot of markets, including the US, UK, France, and Germany. Games…including “Horizon Call of the Mountain,’ will also be open for preorder this month. The new headset has an OLED screen, 110 degree field of view, and has 4 cams built into the display. Oh…and original PlayStation VR games are not compatible with it, either. 

Google is pulling the standalone Street View app in the next few weeks from both Android and iOS. 9to5google.com says they will also kill off support for the app by next March. The street view with 360 degree views will still be available in Google Maps. Just a couple weeks ago, Google teased that they are going to make the Maps app more immersive with the addition of 3D aerial views and details for some spots like weather and traffic. 

Shares of online giant Amazon dropped 5.9% Tuesday, falling for the 5th straight day. Amazon’s market cap is now below a trillion dollars. According to cnbc.com, the stock price is now down to the level of April 2020. This is all mainly due to the company’s 4th quarter forecast…Amazon is predicting the holiday quarter will grow by 2% to 8%, which is noticeably lower than analysts’ estimates. Amazon now has the dubious honor of being the 2nd worst performer in the Big Tech stock group…down 42%…but worst stock Meta has dropped 72%, and Meta has warned that 4th quarter revenue will likely decline for a third straight period.