DescriptionThis week, Google has given up its Daydream, Blizzard is giving up their loyalty, and tech companies may no longer give up your data.ParticipantsScott Ertz (https://plughitzlive.com/staff/1-scott-ertz.html)HostScott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLuGHiTz Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the DDR community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bar Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and judging engineering notebooks at competitions. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors.Avram Piltch (https://plughitzlive.com/staff/15-avram-piltch.html)HostAvram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.OpeningPowered by TeknoAXE (http://teknoaxe.com)Nifty GiftiesPowered by Microsoft Store (http://f5live.tv/microsoft)Is phone-based VR finally dead? Google and Samsung think so. (https://plughitzlive.com/theupstream/3342-is-phonebased-vr-finally-dead-google-and-samsung-think-so.html)At the resurgence of virtual reality in this decade, many companies saw using your phone and its screen as the basis for VR systems as the best solution. Samsung and Oculus built the Gear VR platform. Google created the Cardboard and then the Daydream platforms. A variety of other companies, including Monster, got into the game. All of these used your phone as the center of the VR experience, rather than creating dedicated VR hardware.read full article (https://plughitzlive.com/theupstream/3342-is-phonebased-vr-finally-dead-google-and-samsung-think-so.html)Piltch Point with Avram PiltchPowered by PureVPN (http://piltchpoint.live/purevpn)Extra LifePowered by Razer (http://f5live.tv/razer)Blizzard is quickly throwing away all of their consumer confidence (https://plughitzlive.com/theupstream/3343-blizzard-is-quickly-throwing-away-all-of-their-consumer-confidence.html)In the past few weeks, Blizzard has made some decisions that have caused not just consumer, but international backlash. It started a few weeks ago when a professional Hearthstone player, Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung, made a pro-Hong Kong protest comment after a competition. The company stripped him of his tournament win and banned him from professional play for a year. Consumers responded swiftly, with people across the globe canceling their Blizzard game subscriptions. As a result, Blizzard seemed to disable the ability to cancel a subscription, claiming technical difficulties. After backlash, the company reinstated his win, as well as reducing his ban to six months instead of twelve.read full article (https://plughitzlive.com/theupstream/3343-blizzard-is-quickly-throwing-away-all-of-their-consumer-confidence.html)News From the TubesPowered by RiffTrax (http://f5live.tv/rifftrax)Tech industry could be in for an awakening if new bill passes (https://plughitzlive.com/theupstream/3344-tech-industry-could-be-in-for-an-awakening-if-new-bill-passes.html)Over the past few years, we have seen a rise in inappropriate data usage. Some of it has come from the data collectors themselves, such as Twitter's recent revelation that they had used security recovery email addresses and phone numbers for targeted advertising.