Facebook makes its next steps in VR, Apple releases iOS 14 and the PlayStation 5 gets a launch date. This is your Daily Crunch for September 16, 2020.
The big story: Facebook unveils the Oculus Quest 2
Facebook announced the smaller, more affordable follow-up to the Oculus Quest VR headset launching on October 13 at a starting price of $299. At the same time, Lucas Matney has already tried out the device and sounded very impressed in his review:
This is the most convincing argument Oculus has made for VR since its inception … It’s still largely for gamers and will still be in danger of getting mainstream users excited for a few weeks and then spending the rest of its life in the closet.
The announcement was part of today’s Facebook Connect event, where the company also debuted a virtual office space called Infinite Office, announced a fitness tracking device and revealed plans to launch smart glasses next year.
Meanwhile, R.I.P. Oculus Rift.
The tech giants
Apple burns developer goodwill with surprise release of iOS 14 — iOS 14 is now available for download, with yesterday’s surprise announcement leaving many developers scrambling to prepare their apps.
Amazon Music adds podcasts, including its own original shows — The first slate of originals on Amazon Music will include shows hosted by creators like DJ Khaled, Becky G, Will Smith, Dan Patrick and others.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston says the pandemic forced the company to reevaluate what work means — Houston spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt, arguing that COVID has accelerated a shift to distributed work that will not go away.
Startups, funding and venture capital
Zwift, maker of a popular indoor training app, just landed a whopping $450 million in funding led by KKR — Zwift has now raised $620 million altogether and is valued at north of $1 billion.
Volocopter kicks off pre-sales for its first air taxi flights, with a wait time of 2-3 years — If your sad-faced technology mantra is “we were promised flying cars and all we got were these shitty internet trolls,” never fear, Volocopter is here.
Kerry Washington explains why she became a startup investor — She also discussed her investment in The Wing, the female co-working startup that’s faced some recent scandals.
Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch
Four perspectives on Apple’s new service bundle — For one thing, Cupertino is engaging in a form of future-proofing to offset slowing hardware sales and potentially a loss of App Store income.
Dear Sophie: How can I get my 2-year foreign residency requirement for my J-1 waived? — Another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.
JFrog and Snowflake’s aggressive IPO pricing point to strong demand for cloud shares — At their final IPO prices, the two debuts are aggressively valued, showing continued optimism amongst public investors that cloud shares are an attractive bet.
(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)
Everything else
Sony’s PlayStation 5 arrives November 12, priced at $500 — On that date, the console will be available in North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
China tops 110 million 5G users in less than a year — This makes China the largest 5G market in terms of user size, according to the China Academy for Information and Communications Technology.
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