SpaceX sticks the landing – and the launch: It’s The Daily Crunch

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SpaceX shows us a thing or two, Facebook fights fraudulent facts in German and drones are fulfilling their long-told prophecy. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for January 16, 2017. Stream ’em if you got ’em.

1. SpaceX does the damn thing

SpaceX had a lot to prove Saturday with its first launch since a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on a launchpad in September last year. And prove it they did, with a successful launch, a successful mission for Iridium, and a successful recovery of the first stage of their rocket.

Basically it couldn’t have gone better for SpaceX in terms of showing the world it’s ready to fly again, which is exactly what it needed to do in order to keep landing new customers and build out its crowded launch manifest even further. Plus we got our coolest ever video of the rocket’s POV of landing back on SpaceX’s autonomous barge. Nice.

2. Facebook fake news trial heads to Germany

Facebook has tools in trial to try to take on its fake news problem, and now it’s expanding availability to Germany. The timing might be perfect since the same fake news engine that helped Trump out during the U.S. election is now setting its sights on Germany – apparently perfectly in line with Russia’s political agenda.

3. Drone destiny

Drones have long seemed like something that will become am omnipresent fixture of modern life very soon, but that ‘soon’ hasn’t yet come. Jon argues it’s finally just about here, and presents a lot of evidence to that effect. Are you ready to drone?

4. Udacity digs deep (learning)

If you’re curious about where big tech hiring dollars are heading, just check out Udacity and its latest nanodegree programs. The online education startup is basically a bellwether for hot industry trends at this point, and its new Deep Learning foundational nanodegree program is no exception. I’d be curious to try out the six month sprint to see whether or not this deep learning education is itself shallow.

5. Airbus wants to give you that flying car in 2017 – in beta

Flying cars – Airbus wants to make them happen, and it’s targeting the end of this year for a prototype flight. That’s good news for urban congestion, provided they can make it happen safely and cost-effectively. Plus, flying freaking cars!

6. This is the best new all-around media streamer

Built-in Google Cast, access to AAA console games and the most 4K HDR streaming sources available? Yes, Nvidia’s new Shield has all that, plus latent features that will enable Google Assistant to turn it into a strong Amazon Echo competitor with an update coming later. Sounds like a category-killer – and performs like one, too.

7. Samsung could be pulled into the ongoing Korean political scandal

Well that’s no good: Coming off the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung cold become entangled in the scandal that toppled Korean President Park Gun-hye, because of ties between her and Samsung familial leader Jay Y. Lee. When it rains it pours.