GETTING IN YOUR HEAD — Facebook has shelled out $2 billion for Oculus VR, the maker of a virtual reality headset called the Rift that is used primarily for gaming. Facebook is calling VR "a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications platform." Taken with its acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp two months ago, the world's largest social network seems determined to be ahead of every possible curve and buy leadership share in emerging tech niches when it can't build.
“Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” Facebook said in a statement, quoting CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”Even though the Rift headset make Google Glasses seem runway suave it's not hard to picture how the interface might enhance what is essentially (and ironically) the solitary endeavor that is social networking. Still, initial tech press reaction seems to be solidly in the on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand camp. Says Wired, before the "but": "You have to admire this kind of swashbuckling attitude." Over at Ars Technica Kyle Orland makes an unflattering comparison of the prospects for VR to the "seismic shift" that were smartphones and tablets. "Then again,' Orland says, "it was hard for many to envision the central role that mobile technology would play in our lives back in early 2007, when the iPhone looked to some like a foolish overreach from the makers of a popular MP3 player."
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TEXAS TWO STEP — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is stepping up his game in the sweepstakes to get Tesla's lithium-ion megafactory — and sticking it to his New Jersey political rival as a bonus. In an interview with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo, Gov. Rick Perry said he thought the "pros" of letting Tesla sell its cars direct to consumers outweighed the "cons" and that it might be time to revisit what “some would say are antiquated protections … for the car dealers." But this isn't about selling Teslas to Texans — it's about selling Texas to Tesla, which is considering Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and the Lone Star State for a $5 billion facility that would make the batteries that power its EV. Texas — like New Jersey — is one of a handful of states where it is illegal for car companies not to sell through independent dealers. Unlike New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie, Perry is taking a public stand that isn't exactly aligned with the dealer model for a greater good: “Tesla’s a big project,” Perry told Maria Bartiromo. “The cachet of being able to say we put that manufacturing facility in your state is hard to pass up.”
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TAXES FOR THE DOWN AND OUT — The Supreme Court has ruled that severance income is subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes, siding with the Obama administration. The ruling effectively ends 11 lawsuits and 2,400 administrative claims from companies and their ex-employees seeking $1 billion in refunds from the IRS. Lower courts were divided on the issue. But writing for an uncharacteristically unanimous majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that the IRS can collect FICA taxes on the compensation companies pay employees when they are separated, because it is "varied based on job seniority and time served and were not linked to the receipt of state unemployment benefits." The case was brought by Quality Stores, which went out of business more than a decade ago and sought a $1 million refund on behalf of the 3,100 workers it fired.
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HEADS YOU WIN. TAILS YOU LOSE. — The IRS has ruled that Bitcoin is property, not a currency. That means the price you paid for it and the price you sell — or trade — it for is a capital gain for the purpose of federal taxes. And that may have a big impact on mainstream retail use of the cryptocurrency (or is that cryptoproperty?). Bloomberg provides an eye-opening use case:
Purchasing a $2 cup of coffee with Bitcoins bought for $1 would trigger $1 in capital gains for the coffee drinker and $2 of gross income for the coffee shop.But some are looking at the flip side of the coin: That the IRS weighing in at all means Bitcoin is, as the New York Times puts it "moving away from the fringes. "It’s getting legitimacy, which it didn’t have previously,” Ajay Vinze, the associate dean at at Arizona State University‘s business school, told the Times. The ruling, he said, “puts Bitcoin on a track to becoming a true financial asset.”
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MORE DEBRIS — Malaysia was vilified from declaring the mission to find survivors of MH:370 over, based not on forensic evidence like the discovery of a debris field, but on the math. New satellite imagery supplied by Airbus has detected 122 new pieces of something floating in the waters of the Indian Ocean where the airliner is currently thought to have crashed. Acting Malaysia Transport Minister says the find hasn't yet been linked to the missing airliner. But given that the find is near previously-detected debris it represents "the most credible lead that we have." gotten from linkedin
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