Weekly Roundup: Trump victory casts shadow of despair over tech industry

This week, the U.S. was shell-shocked and the tech world was in dismay from Donald Trump’s election victory. Silicon Valley lost its mind in a mess of tweet storms and public outcry. It was the perfect time for GoPro to announce it is recalling its Karma drone, and we escaped this harsh cruel reality with the launch of Google’s Daydream VR and the Nintendo NES Classic Edition.

1. Technology was never an integral part of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. But his presidency will inevitably affect tech policy in that he plans to cut climate change spending and force Apple to build computers in the U.S. rather than overseas in China. Trump has also called for NASA to leave low orbit and stop studying Earth. Let’s not forget that he isn’t a fan of net neutrality. Excuse me for a minute, my soul just shattered.

2. Trump’s presidency will also change the IPO market and corporate M&A. Gregory Autry, an assistant professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business predicts that “IPOs are going to seize and venture capital is going to slow in the short term.” In short, a President-elect Trump doesn’t mean anything good for Silicon Valley.

3. Silicon Valley investors started losing their minds after Trump’s ascendancy into the White House. Between tweet storms and public statements, here’s what some of the biggest names in tech and venture capital had to say about Trump’s victory.

4. Peter Thiel made his big contrarian bet on Trump, and he was right. But now after backlash across the country, he may discover how incredibly unpopular it makes him. In the latest, Thiel is also joining Donald Trump’s transition team.

5. It’s Facebook’s world and we all just live in it. With the announcement of the election results, many minds began to question the affect of the Facebook filter bubble on how America interpreted the election. Zuckerberg went onstage at Techonomy16 to speak on the issue, and argued that the News Feed bubble had no impact on the election. Sure, maybe Facebook didn’t control the outcome, but it certainly played a part in how we internalized it.

6. Edward Snowden also gave an extended interview touching on how tech companies should protect privacy no matter who is president. “We should be cautious about putting too much faith or fear in elected officials…how do we protect the rights of everyone, everywhere, without regard to jurisdictions, without regard to borders?” Snowden said.

7. This week was the perfect time for tech companies to bury bad news in the election coverage. GoPro recalled around 2,500 sold units of its new Karma drone after just 16 days on the market. GoPro says a power loss malfunction is the reason for the recall.

8. Snap started selling its Spectacles in the most millennial way imaginable — through a vending machine by the beach in Venice, CA. The machine was only there for 24 hours and the lines were crazy. This is what it’s like to actually use the Spectacles, according to a few early users.

9. We got our hands on Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition and reviewed all 30 games on it. All in all, this console is an awesome throwback; at $60 it would make a perfect holiday gift.

10. Google’s Daydream View VR headset became available this week, and it’s clear that it has become the leader in mobile consumer VR. The Daydream View is only $79 in the U.S. and it is going to change the way people access VR. Here’s what it’s actually like to wear it. 

11. Facebook might be moving in on LinkedIn’s recruiting business. TechCrunchspotted a Jobs tab on its Page, and Facebook confirmed it is experimenting with a slew of new recruiting features.