Image: Facebook / Protocol
Facebook’s alternate reality

Good morning! This Thursday, Facebook has big — and small — dreams for Oculus, everybody at Snowflake is rich now, the techlash is very real, and who knows what's next for TikTok.
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The tech industry has basically either given up on gone quiet on virtual and augmented reality. Except Facebook, which continues to loudly press on. Yesterday it announced a new Oculus Quest, lots of new games and software, and a partnership that might be more important than anything else it talked about.
The interesting short-term challenge is whether the new, cheaper, better Oculus Quest 2, armed with games people know and love like Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed, can become Facebook's version of a gaming console. As Facebook's Mike Verdu told Protocol's Seth Schiesel, that's clearly what it's going for.
Longer-term, its new partnership is huge: Facebook's working with EssilorLuxottica, the Italian company that makes approximately all of the world's glasses and sunglasses, to design smart glasses. The first pair to roll out will be smart Ray-Bans, coming next year.
Can Facebook make all of this work while the rest of the industry remains quiet on the technology? I guess we'll see some clues in the holiday sales of the Quest 2 and the product that Ray-Ban helps to ship.
In related news:The next generation of consoles is just about upon us. Two PlayStation 5 models, two Xboxes, one Quest, and a whole lot of $70 games coming to a screen near you this holiday season. I'm a longtime PS4 user, so probably heading to PS5. Which one are you most excited about?
Shakeel Hashim writes: Snowflake was already set to be the biggest and most important IPO of the year so far, and on listing yesterday it proved that to be the case — and then some.
Snowflake's pop isn't unprecedented. A lot of other recent tech IPOs have performed similarly: So far this year, Lemonade, Agora, and nCino have all more than doubled on listing, while BigCommerce shares tripled. But none of those were nearly as big as Snowflake, which is the largest-ever software IPO.
But do those jumps mean the IPO process is broken, as critics are keen to assert? Their argument is that such huge pops mean that companies are leaving money on the table that they could be investing in their businesses.
Both sides have a point. And in the coming days, we'll get to see whether IPO detractors have a better alternative. Unity, which is expected to list on Friday, reportedly used an online auction process to set its price, similar to what Google did back in 2004. Palantir goes public via a direct listing next week, which avoids the pricing process altogether. Regulatory changes mean that companies will soon be able to raise money via a direct listing too, rather than just sell existing shares, which could encourage much more experimentation — and then there's the whole SPAC phenomenon. In other words, you're not done hearing from our friend Mr. Gurley yet.
A full third of Americans think that tech companies aren't regulated enough, according to a new study from FleishmanHillard. And 56% of Americans — and 59% of those surveyed around the world — think that tech companies "need to take more action to address the consequences of their policies, practices and products."
The pandemic has accelerated some existing trends, like it has in so many ways, said FleishmanHillard's Natasha Kennedy. "What we've seen is, trust has just really been challenged and eroded over the course of the pandemic." She said FleishmanHillard is telling clients that they need to continue to restate their missions "to align with the collective good," and to continue to talk about what they're doing and where they're struggling. Transparency and trust are more important to people than ever.
Stronger care … from more efficient operations
In a defining moment for healthcare, it's even more crucial to deliver patient-centered care efficiently. At Philips, we are committed to providing intelligent, automated workflows that seek to improve patient care. More efficient healthcare means stronger, more resilient healthcare.
The Treasury Department won't get a kickback for the TikTok sale, and President Trump seemed surprised:
Some people are concerned the TikTok deal doesn't pass security muster. Trump said he plans to look over the details today:
Tech giants continue to meet to talk about elections, and one of their goals is to prevent the platforms themselves from being part of the problem:
President Trump nominated Nathan Simington to the FCC. Trump is looking to replace Michael O'Rielly, with whom he disagrees about bias and censorship on the internet.
Nadia Rawlinson is Slack's new chief people officer. She joins from Live Nation, and has led HR teams at Rakuten and Groupon over the years. She'll be responsible for helping define – and implement – whatever the future of work looks like at Slack. Robby Kwok got a new job internally, too, as Stewart Butterfield's chief of staff.
Facebook is hiring for a similar job: director of remote work. This person will "develop and govern Facebook's long-term, global remote workforce strategy and approach to flexibility" — a process guaranteed to ruffle some feathers internally.
Anduril made two big hires: Megan Milam, the company's new head of government relations, and Meagan Murray, its new head of people.
You wake up, strap on your Quest 2, and suddenly you're able to email on a giant screen floating in your living room, meet with your team as if you were there together and even feel like you're working in the middle of the wilderness. That's Facebook's vision for the Oculus-powered Infinite Office future of work, at least. No wonder it's so willing to let people move out of the Bay Area!
Stronger care … from more efficient operations
In a defining moment for healthcare, it's even more crucial to deliver patient-centered care efficiently. At Philips, we are committed to providing intelligent, automated workflows that seek to improve patient care. More efficient healthcare means stronger, more resilient healthcare.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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