Russia sanctioned and SpaceX looks back to the stars. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30 2016 By Darrell Etherington Russia gets a parting gift from Obama, SpaceX wants to move back to more controlled explosions, plus internet matrimony. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for December 30, 2016. And if you're one of the growing number of ailing wearable companies, maybe think twice before bickering in public. 1. White House sanctions Russia for election hack The White House may be getting new leadership early next year, but the Obama administration isn't coasting: the U.S. Government just announced new sanctions it's imposing on Russia for its role in the U.S. election hacks for the 2016 Presidential race. The sanctions include blocking GRU officials from traveling to the U.S., and extraditing 35 Russian intelligence operatives. It's 'too little, too late' according to most observers, however – the ideal time for this to come down would've been sometime before voting. 2. SpaceX is prepping for its return to launch Launches for SpaceX have been on hold ever since a Falcon 9 rocket blew up on a launch pad during pre-flight routines. The issues seem to have been identified, according to the company, and it's looking to get FAA clearance for a potential first launch back with Iridium, bringing that company's satellites to orbit ideally sometime between January 7 and 9. The remaining hurdle of FAA clearance is a doozie, however. Sponsored By: RSA® Conference 2017 RSA® Conference 2017 Experience the Power of Opportunity, Feb. 13–17 in San Francisco. Access 555+ sessions spanning 22 topics, 550 exhibitors showcasing the latest products and solutions, entertaining networking events and inspiring keynotes. Learn all you need to keep your organization safe. Register by Jan. 13 and save $700 off your 5-day Full Conference Pass. Learn More… 3. IPOs were few in 2016, but they worked out well Tech startups going public were down considerably – back to 2009 financial crisis levels, almost. But the ones that did go public did very well, and the investment scene has also changed to allow later stage companies to stay private and continue to raise for longer. Global economic worries probably also dampened the market, and it's not clear that those will get any better in 2017. 4. Facebook hedges on biometrics case Facebook is doing everything it can to avoid being entangled in an Illinois court case that has plaintiffs accusing it of violating local laws related to facial recognition. The social network is basically disagreeing with every definition of anything related to facial recognition tech and biometrics to avoid being found responsible for having broken the state rules. Someone definitely doesn't want to face the music. 5. Serena Williams agrees to marry social media site co-founder Superstar international pro tennis champion Serena Williams is marrying that guy who co-created the self-professed "front page of the internet." Alexis Ohanian proposed to Williams and she accepted, according to her announcement on r/isaidyes, a subreddit dedicated to proposals. I guess that's cute, but Reddit's still mostly a disaster. 6. Jawbone and Fitbit trade jabs over dropped lawsuit Like two schoolyard rivals bitterly teasing one another, Jawbone and Fitbit have been trading on-record jabs since Fitbit dropped its lawsuit against Jawbone. Guess what: neither of you is in very good shape right now so maybe focus on that instead of on bashing each other in court filings. 7. Uber and Lyft defend names and faces policy Uber and Lyft have been accused of having discrimination problems, with drivers opting not to pick up passengers based on race and names, but in a letter to Sen. Al Franken, both denied their use of real names and profile pictures as a way to prevent fraud and ensure safety for all parties. It makes sense, but that discrimination problem still needs a fix that goes beyond posting a policy against that kind of behavior. Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: Marketing / SEO Coordinator at Soundsnap (Brooklyn, NY, United States) Lead Software Engineer at WAZER (Rockland County, NY, United States) Product Manager at Tulē at Tulē (San Francisco, CA, United States) Software Engineer II at LSI (Jacksonville, FL, United States) Full Stack Software Engineer @ Way2B1 at Way2b1 (San Francisco, CA, United States) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2016 AOL Inc. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service

                                                           

Oculus goes ocular with latest acquisition. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29 2016 By Darrell Etherington Oculus makes a buy to track the eye, and it was a big holiday for all the big tech companies. That and more in The Daily Crunch for December 29, 2016. And if you broadcast a live video in 360-degrees and no one's watching, does anyone care? 1. Oculus acquires eye tracking startup The Eye Tribe has been around for a while now, creating eye-tracking tech that could either be built into computers by OEMs, or added via a $99 developer gadget. The company was sort of a solution in search of a problem, however, before VR came along. Now it's potentially game-changing. The Eye Tribe's tech could help Oculus build eye-tracking headsets that know where you're looking and can redirect processing power to that spot in real-time, optimizing resources and making it possible to create much higher frame rates when and where needed without requiring immensely powerful computers to do so. 2. iPhone 7 got good holiday bump, but Apple Watch did not The iPhone 7 saw a good boost in purchases during the holiday, as it generally does. The Apple Watch also got a bump, but it was 10 percentage points down from the boost it experienced last year during the same time period. That's not good news for the overall ailing wearable category. Sponsored By: CrunchBoard Find Your Dream Hire As the official job board of TechCrunch, CrunchBoard leverages an engaged and educated audience of over 12 million unique readers each month to help fill your job vacancies. Post your job today! Learn More… 3. Facebook and Google top the app charts iPhone sales may be seeing their typical holiday bump, but the App Store spoils this could lead to will mostly be picked up by giants like Facebook and Google, whose apps dominated the App Store and Google Play charts in 2015. People have figured out what they use and what they don't on smartphones, and there's less room for that list to change these days. 4. Super Mario Run's Android launch looms Super Mario Run is coming to Android in 2017, and it looks like it'll be early in the new year, since Android users can now pre-register to get notified of when the app arrives. Apple had a timed exclusive on the game initially, but Nintendo always wanted to bring it to as many mobile players as possible. 5. Amazon warehouses in the sky sounds like a dystopian scenario Does anyone want to live in a world where blimp-based Amazon warehouses float over our heads, ready to spill forth drones lugging your toilet paper or crackers or whatever whenever you happen to get the urge to order some? Because that gets a hard pass from me. 6. Twitter tries a 360 Could 360-degree video help with Twitter's turnaround? Probably not, but it's an interesting thing for the company to ad to Periscope, its live video streaming product. Right now it's in limited launch with select partners, but it'll probably go wide if it works out. 7. Here and Mobileye make a mapping deal Autonomous driving requires detailed, accurate, constantly-updated maps. That's a tough thing to do well, which is probably why Here and Mobileye are partnering on the effort. One brings years of mapping expertise, the other brings a lot of active sensors feeding back into a real-time picture of roads where driving is actually taking place, so it makes a lot of sense to pool resources. Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: Product Manager at Tulē at Tulē (San Francisco, CA, United States) Software Engineer II at LSI (Jacksonville, FL, United States) Full Stack Software Engineer @ Way2B1 at Way2b1 (San Francisco, CA, United States) Cloud Operations Engineer @ Way2B1 at Way2B1 (San Francisco, CA, United States) Platform Engineer @ Pantheon at The Sourcery (San Francisco, CA, United States) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2016 AOL Inc. All rights reserved.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service