The Alan Smithee Round Table (“Acquisitions & Soaring Prices”)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast! There’s been a lot going on for the gang to discuss. Open AI’s shock decision to discontinue Sora just weeks after Disney’s multi-billion-dollar investment, Apple’s recent acquisition of Motion VFX, the soaring prices and scarcity of SSD drives and much, much more. And as always, there are some really cool things to get excited about! 

Show Notes

Apple discontinues the Mac Pro with no plans for future hardware: https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/26/apple-discontinues-the-mac-pro/

Apple acquires MotionVFX:  https://www.provideocoalition.com/apple-acquires-motionvfx/

Resilio was acquired by Nasuni https://www.nasuni.com/nasuni-acquires-resilio/

Foundry acquired Griptape https://www.foundry.com/news-and-awards/foundry-acquires-griptape-ai

From the DOJ: Adobe Agrees to $150 Million Settlement and Injunction to Resolve Alleged Violations of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act: https://www.provideocoalition.com/from-the-doj-adobe-agrees-to-150-million-settlement-and-injunction-to-resolve-alleged-violations-of-the-restore-online-shoppers-confidence-act/

Adobe UK consumer protection enforcement case: https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/adobe-consumer-protection-enforcement-case

OpenAI shutters short-form video app Sora as company reels in costs: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/24/openai-shutters-short-form-video-app-sora-as-company-reels-in-costs.html

Disney's Sora Disaster Shows AI Will Not Revolutionize Hollywood: https://www.404media.co/disneys-openai-sora-disaster-shows-ai-will-not-save-hollywood/

And more: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/902368/openai-sora-dead-ai-video-generation-competition

One Cool Thing:

Katie: Multimedia from Wagner to Virtual Reality (Randall Packer and Ken Jordan) https://www.amazon.com/Multimedia-Wagner-Virtual-Reality-Expanded/dp/0393323757
https://archive.org/details/multimediafromwa00kenj

Michael: https://voicebox.sh/ and https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey

Scott: https://www.careportal.org/