The Spotlite: The Mothership Edition

This week: social media FINALLY lets us embed all of our backlogged cat videos, VR goes beyond gaming and hits tinseltown, and one of the biggest-kids-on-the-block plans on building an environmentally friendly space station in the South Bay.

F8

The Facebook Developer’s Conference took the Fort Mason center by storm and developers far and wide came out in droves. Much was discussed at the event, but one of the most exciting announcements is Facebook will now allow us to embed videos (I’m surprised it has taken this long). So now we can embed all our Facebook videos on other sites, just like with YouTube videos. My mom will be happy, but I will have to teach her how to use this first. She still can’t “unfollow” without “unfriending”, which has caused a lot of drama in her life.

Facebook now supports 360 degree video which you can navigate with your cursor, just like you do when you are stalking your ex’s house on Google Earth. This makes sense since FB acquired Oculus in 2014. Facebook is setting the stage for a social VR experience, which will hopefully help with the fact that VR is currently a solo ride. Nowadays it’s one headset per one person, but this move to support VR on the world’s most populated site can very well be the key to making VR a truly social experience. Time will tell.

F8 2015: The Future of Sharing from Facebook on Vimeo.

Facebook Messenger will also get some upgrades. Messenger will now be open to developers who will essentially create apps within the app, greatly increasing its functionality. Soon we will be able to use Giphy, send voice messages with silly voice altering apps, and doodle right in Messenger. We can all now waste time in the “privacy” of Facebook Messenger. Now my job is to figure out ways to use these new functions to prank all of my friends. You have been warned.

VRLA

The Virtual Reality Los Angeles conference happened last Sunday and much was talked about in regards to VR and entertainment. Lately, the buzz around VR has been it’s glorious applications to video game environments, but the next exciting frontier is VR in film. Jaunt VR, one of the conferences platinum sponsors and keynote speakers, talked about the possibilities of producing quality cinematic experiences in a VR environment. Jaunt is on the forefront of this movement, having built a custom 360 degree camera that captures all surrounding images in a smooth, natural way. During his speech, Jaunt’s CEO, Jen Christensen warned us about producing low-quality, live action experiences, saying “a bad quality VR experience is really bad; it can literally make you sick. We have to keep the quality very high so that when people experience VR for the first time they have a good experience.” With Jaunt’s proprietary camera, they very well may become the first successful VR Film company.

Apple’s Campus 2 HQ

Want to work in a giant iPad? Or maybe the Death Star is more your thing?

Apple announced this week their plans to make their 2nd campus eco-friendly. With everyone in a panic about our dwindling water supply and this never-ending drought, Apple is putting their money where their mouth is and will lay 13,300 feet of pipeline that will send reclaimed water to both the original campus and Campus 2. Apple is following in the footsteps of the recently built Levi’s Stadium, which currently uses recycled water to flush their toilets and water their field.

In addition to the reclaimed water initiative, Apple has plans to build a 1,300 acre solar farm in Monterey, CA, meant to power Campus 2 and hopefully retail stores and data centers down the line.

An eco-friendly space station, I love the contradiction in terms.