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This Week In XR: Facebook Throws Down, More Tick Tockery, And Apple Wearables

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Hickory dickory doc. Tik Tok has run out the clock. The new plan, which has to be approved by the US government’s heretofore obscure “committee on foreign investment,” is for Bytedance, the China based owner of Tik Tok, to go public. The new public company will be US based. Oracle gets an enormous cloud hosting contract and Wal-Mart will get to block Amazon. When last we checked the Chinese government asserted that it had a say in this deal. The US intends to follow through on its promise to block the app starting this Sunday, September 20. There are ways for users to get around it. On iOs change your location to Canada. This will not affect other services.

It. Is. On. Facebook threw down at its Connect Conference. They are playing to win every layer of the XR ecosystem: hardware, software, social media, mapping, health, education, and, most importantly, telepresence. The key to the vault that holds these riches is the new $299 oculus Quest 2. Facebook also announced Project ARia, AR smartglasses styled by Ray Ban, will be released sometime next year.

Reading in VR is big for education and remote work. Other announcements are all were live streamed and available on demand, include upgrades to Maps (SLAM and crowdsourced mirrorworlds), messenger integration, a suite of remote office applications, and hints at telepresence, which could be to spatial computing what email was to the PC in the 90s.

Apple also revealed its strategy and products for the coming year, and AR didn’t make the list.

LoomieLive launches on Product Hunt. LoomieLive wants to help fight video call fatigue by generating 3D avatars of users that can be animated via live video or procedurally using just audio. Whether you want to block out the view of your home, or need to stand and pace during a call, your 3D avatar will maintain eye contact and be animated as you speak. We loved it. Read our story on Loomie here.

A 6,600-word internal memo from a fired Facebook data scientist details how the social network knew leaders of countries around the world were using their site to manipulate voters. and failed to act. This is bad. And it is stupid of Facebook to want the job of regulating this.

Epic and Apple’s legal battle continues. Apple claims the lawsuit is a publicity stunt for Fortnite. 

Apple’s Bundling Strategy Spooks Spotify, but Underwhelms Investors. Apple One bundles Apple services such as Apple TV, Apple Music, Games, and iCloud storage, into one twenty dollar subscription.

Voodle launches free “Snapchat for business” app. The app lets users record and send short videos to coworkers or share to other business applications such as Slack. The creators of the app see short videos as a more effective way to convey emotion and context compared to yet another email or slack message. 

This Week in XR is now a podcast hosted by Paramount’s Futurist Ted Schilowitz. You can find it on podcasting platforms Spotify iTunes and YouTube.

“This Week In XR” is written and edited with Mike Eichenseer.

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