Facebook counters VR negativity, Teslateamster troubles and Chromebook goes Pro. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for February 10, 2017. And if you're looking to land on Europa, check out the stylish ride below. 1. Mark Zuckerberg can be Spider-Man in VR Zuck showed off his web-slinging skills in a test rig that Facebook developed via its Oculus subsidiary to track VR gloves for doing things like typing, drawing or even mimicking the Facebook founder's comic book heroes. The timing of this is interesting, given the recent prevailing narrative in tech media is that VR is not doing great, realistically, supported by things like Best Buy removing a big chunk of its in-store Oculus demo stations. You counter-narrative that narrative, FB. 2. Tesla employees move to unionize Tesla's Fremont factory workers are looking to unionize, according to an employee's post on Medium. The company says it's aware of these efforts and alludes to this being professional union agitation, and Elon Musk directly said as much in DMs exchanged with Gizmodo on Twitter. It's weird seeing Tesla start to look like a crony capitalist company. 3. Samsung's Chromebook Pro is a buggy look at one possible future The new Chromebook Pro from Samsung isn't a finished product, and it shows, but the thing could become something far more interesting in time, given its price and its touchscreen/stylus input. With some more polish and a couple more generations, this could become something cool. 4. Snapchat getting into reality TV? It basically is reality TV already right? Well now they're working with A+E to make actual unscripted programming, starting with a show where exes come together for a second chance at love. Barf/perfect. 5. Twitch adds more social features Twitch really wants to parlay its success with game streaming into true community building, so that it can expand its reach. The network launched new communities that let gamers organize themselves around common interests, and that could help with those aims. 6. NASA's new Europa lander concept is picture perfect The ID of planetary landers seems increasingly designed to trigger our nostalgia for pulp fiction and the sci-fi of a bygone era. I'm not complaining. |