Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

oculus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 1001 posts

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#301

Post by lisper »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #250
vsareto wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm absolving Palmer of making a promise he couldn't keep because of Facebook. Palmer is correct here and shouldn't be getting the blowback that he is. Obviously Facebook can do what they want within the terms.

I don't know Palmer and until 5 minutes didn't know his name. I don't dislike him, I'm sure he's a nice guy and great person, and I think the product and achievement is impressive. But: I respect him for eating humble pie now. I absolutely do not respect yet alone absolve him of not doing so originally . Why would one? There's nothing NEW that came to the table: Facebook can do what they want now, and crucially that…

> Founders literally sign away their right to make these promises.

Well, they don't have to. He could have insisted on writing this condition into the acquisition contract. But he obviously didn't. The most charitable reading of this is that he was just naive and didn't know that this was an option or that it would be necessary in order to enforce such a promise, but that seems unlikely. Acquiring this knowledge is no harder than posing the question to his M&A attorney. Hence...

> I absolutely do not t respect yet alone absolve him of not doing so originally. Why would one?

I think you made the right call here.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#302

Post by 52-6F-62 »

shoulderfake wrote: post #199

I was considering buying a VR headset,Oculus just dropped their name out of the hat

I've owned the first Rift kit for a couple of years. I'll either stop using it by the time 2023 rolls around or be looking for new offerings.

One of the things that pleased me about it is that it hasn't already been rendered obsolete. Well I guess FB has set a date on that now for no good reason on the user end.

I'm curious to see what might be coming around hardware-wise in that time.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#303

Post by kps »

nrp wrote: post #140
atarian wrote: post #13

Palmer Luckey, the original creator had this to say over on /r/oculus: I am already getting heat from users and media outlets who say this policy change proves I was lying when I consistently said this wouldn't happen, or at least that it was a guarantee I wasn't in a position to make. I want to make clear that those promises were approved by Facebook in that moment and on an ongoing basis, and I really believed it w…

Most of the folks on this thread are commenting from the perspective of 2020, but Facebook had pretty significantly different reputation in 2014, especially around M&A. They had recently brought in both Instagram and WhatsApp without meddling in either their product stacks or their leadership teams. It's easy to claim now that this was all naive, but at the time it was plausible that these organizations and brands wo…

[flagged]

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#304

Post by 1f60c »

MayeulC wrote: post #245
AlexandrB wrote: post #3

> Giving people a single way to log into Oculus — using their Facebook account and password — will make it easier to find, connect, and play with friends in VR. Ugh. I guess Facebook is making a play to become the Steam/XBox Live of VR. Why can't we just have gaming peripherals anymore without some kind of platform tie-in?

They just want to squeeze as much data as they can out of you. The ultimate goal is to stand as a proxy between you and the real world. I'm not saying this is what they are trying to build with AR and VR, but that's not too far fetched either. Just imagine eye tracking tech in VR headsets. What a trove of data for advertisers! Did the user see may ad? For how long? Etc. I hadn't imagined that before writing this, but…

> MITM TLS (which Google technically does with Chrome)

Do you have a source?

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#305

Post by ISL »

AlexandrB wrote: post #30
atarian wrote: post #13

Palmer Luckey, the original creator had this to say over on /r/oculus: I am already getting heat from users and media outlets who say this policy change proves I was lying when I consistently said this wouldn't happen, or at least that it was a guarantee I wasn't in a position to make. I want to make clear that those promises were approved by Facebook in that moment and on an ongoing basis, and I really believed it w…

Exhibit n + 1 on why when you're acquired you're not in a position to promise anything to anyone despite any assurances from the acquirer. Or, from the consumer's side, why those promises should carry no weight.

One can demand such promises from the acquirer in the form of a contract that states, in effect, this:

a) If acquirer does X, the seller, Y, has the option to repurchase the company for $1. b) Any future acquirer must agree to the same contract. If it does not, Y must be extended the option to repurchase the company for $1 before the sale.

I don't think anything less could constitute a true promise that the acquirer would avoid X.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#307

Post by ivalm »

wlesieutre wrote: post #103
georgeecollins wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Razer accounts are in no way mandatory. They just have an app that auto-updates drivers (and probably does a lot of data mining) but you don't need to use it to use the device. It is a funny comment though, I laughed when I read it.

I don't know about Razer recently, but I have a 13 button Logitech mouse (G700s) and it would be essentially useless without the Logitech software to configure it. I assume Razer mice are the same, you could technically use them without Synapse, but if you're doing that you may as well have bought a Microsoft Intellimouse instead. And Synapse did require a login for several years. Looks like it doesn't anymore, thank…

I have a razer deathadder chroma with a kvm switch on mac/windows/linux systems. I do not have razer app installed on any of the three systems and the mouse works fine (including the forward/back side buttons and pressable scroll (so 5 buttons total)).

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#308

Post by mbesto »

jacquesm wrote: post #150
atarian wrote: post #13

Palmer Luckey, the original creator had this to say over on /r/oculus: I am already getting heat from users and media outlets who say this policy change proves I was lying when I consistently said this wouldn't happen, or at least that it was a guarantee I wasn't in a position to make. I want to make clear that those promises were approved by Facebook in that moment and on an ongoing basis, and I really believed it w…

As a CEO of a company that is being sold you can not make any binding statements about the future of the company you will no longer own . This is really management 101 and Palmer Luckey does not strike me as an absolute beginner here, he knew how to get funded, how to execute and had a ton of people telling him this would happen. Of course he and FB had a pretty strong incentive to ensure that there wouldn't be an im…

> Palmer Luckey does not strike me as an absolute beginner here

Which is why smart founders can still get away with making these statements during the acquisitions so they can continue to grow their company post close (which means their post close bonus also stays in tact) and then leave after their golden handcuffs are done (usually 2-5 years).

> For me the heuristic is simple: I won't believe a word a CEO that is selling his company says about what will happen post deal. They are no longer in control and should know better.

For me, its on the other side of the coin. If I'm a founder and someone gives me billions of dollars for both acquiring my company and an additional bonus to pump the company I'm 100% incentivized to do everything possible to ensure that...even making forward statements that I don't genuinely believe are going to happen.

For everyone else - don't trust anyting an acquirer says - follow what they do.

Re: Facebook account now required to login to Oculus devices

#310

Post by stjohnswarts »

soulofmischief wrote: post #224
Keverw wrote: post #52

What happens if you were banned from Facebook (for example political censorship or other possible reasons I can't think of off the top of my head)? Is your Oculus device bricked and useless? I'm a fan of Oculus, but this is a bit of a turn off. But I guess if Apple makes their own VR headset, they probably require an Apple account but Apple isn't really a social network so feel less of a risk, same for Microsoft's Mi…

This creates a chilling effect which puts my first ammendment rights at risk as an American, and it should be (and probably is if anyone actually bothered to correctly interpret the law anymore) illegal.

This has zero to do with the 1st amendment. That is between you and the government. You have not such 1st amendment rights when dealing with a private company. All you can do with facebook is either do as they tell you, or drop them. There's not much middle ground.
Post reply on HN