The Daily Crunch 08/25/16 Be nice and say hello to our Earth-like neighbor, and Apple might be saying "hi" again to social networking. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for August 25, 2016. And if there are any fully autonomous soft robotic octopuses reading this, I welcome you to our world. 1. We might've found Earth-2 The closest star to Earth beyond the Sun has a planet in orbit, and it occupies that sun's habitable zone, meaning it can probably support liquid water on the surface. It's called 'Proxima b,' and it might just be the best chance we have yet for finding alien life. Still, the odds are long because of how close Proxima b is to its own star, but the implications of finding an Earth-like planet so close to home are huge nonetheless. 2. Apple trying social again? A new report from Apple leak media outlet extraordinaire Bloomberg says Apple is mulling a return to social software. Social has long been the big blind spot for Apple, which tried something with Ping, an iTunes-integrated social music play, and which also missed with Connect, a one-to-many broadcast feature built into Apple Music. This one is focused on sharing, and may still use the existing rails of social networks like Instagram and Facebook for sharing. Third time's the charm? 3. Now you can thank Obama in VR President Obama becomes the first commander-in-chief to go virtual with a new project for Oculus that puts him in a short film dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the U.S. National Parks service. The 360-degree video takes place in Yosemite National Park, and follows Obama and family on a guided tour of the national landmark. 4. Finally, WhatsApp goes into business mode It was bound to happen eventually: WhatsApp is softening on its original stance of not sharing info with parent company Facebook, with new user terms that include sharing data with Facebook by default. It's also going to start adding business services to the app by year's end, joining other messaging platforms like FB Messenger and Line. It was always going to happen one WhatsApp got scooped up, but now we finally know when. 5. Twitter enforces stupid Olympics GIF ban Twitter handed out a lifetime ban to a sports journalist because he tweeted 3 GIFs from the Olympics, something forbidden by the IOC because of greed. Twitter eventually reinstated the account but still. Dumb. 6. This autonomous bot has a soft spot – all of it Here's some nightmare fuel: Harvard built an autonomous soft robot that looks like an octopus found somewhere deep in the Mariana Trench. It's the first entirely soft robot to also be able to act on its own, which we'll likely all look back on as a key milestone on the way to when the robots took over. 7. This is your chance, VR Virtual reality has already had its big consumer debut with the launch of HTC Vive and Oculus Rift earlier this year, but it's about to get a real mass market test: 500 U.S. Best Buy stores will operate Oculus Rift demo stations in time for the holiday shopping season. That's going to give a lot of average consumers their first taste of VR – but will they like it enough to put money down on taking the experience home? | 
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