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Obama’s clemency, the true size of Facebook’s bet on VR and Theranos in trouble again. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for January 18, 2017. And if a six-wheeled cooler shows up at your door, don’t panic: You should be fine provided you recently ordered some food.
1. Chelsea Manning to be freed, while Snowden gets more time in Russia
Chelsea Manning has succeeded in petitioning President Obama for a sentence commutation, resulting in a release date for her prison stay this coming May. That’s much shorter than her 35-year original sentence. It’s likely a life-saving grant of clemency, given Manning’s history in custody.
In a recent statement, White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted that Manning went through due process and was found guilty, and duly accepted her sentencing. That’s in contrast to Edward Snowden, someone else civil liberty advocates have been campaigning for Obama to pardon. At least Snowden got an extension for his “temporary” Russian residency, and a somewhat wistful sounding tweet. Plus, he maybe hasn’t actually filed the paperwork for a pardon, it turns out.
2. Facebook is putting more than $3 billion into VR over 10 years
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on the stand in a lawsuit against Oculus by ZeniMax that accuses the Facebook-owned VR company of getting core technology info from ZeniMax, which previously employed Oculus CTO John Carmack. Being in court means Zuckerberg had to be unusually forthcoming about product plans, and one tidbit is that FB intends to spend around $3 billion over the next decade on developing VR. That shows a definite degree of seriousness.
3. Last Theranos lab closes down
The story of the end of a company plays out over a long time, especially in the case of something like Theranos, the much-hyped healthtech startup that ended up having very little in the way of actual innovation to back up its founder’s bold claims. Now, its final remaining blood testing facility has closed down. That’s not terrible news for its new focus, a so-called “lab on a chip,” but it’s another nail for sure. The company still has its defenders, surprisingly.
4. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies will start with the Czech Republic
That other Hyperloop company — no, not that one, the other one — is starting its efforts to build a real system with a feasibility study to connect Brno and Bratislava with Prague in the Czech Republic. I’m still betting on the other one because they’re a company, rather than some experimental crowdsourcing venture, but still, anyone trying to pull off Hyperloop in the real world should be encouraged for now.
5. Tesla will build motors at the Gigafactory, too
So far the Gigafactory has been focused on building battery tech, but Tesla will also use it to produce motors and other parts for the Model 3, according to Nevada’s governor. That makes sense, given Tesla’s interest in controlling its own motor production and the eventual production capacity of the Gigafactory, which will dwarf other U.S.-based facilities.
6. Starship Technologies is delivering in the U.S. via drone coolers
Startups Postmates and DoorDash will begin using rolling cooler bots that drive themselves on sidewalks to deliver stuff in Redwood City and Washington, D.C. As long as it gets food to my face faster and at the appropriate temperature, count me in.
7. YouTube’s new messaging platform goes live — in Canada
If you ask a Canadian nicely they can invite you to join in, too — remember: Canadians love politeness, even on YouTube.