TOP OF MIND

Apple may be getting unreal, too. Speculation surfaced Wednesday suggesting that a small research team is developing technology akin to Google Glass or Microsoft HoloLens. The reports are linked to a research note published by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Whether or not it actually releases a product remains to be seen, but the tech industry sure has fallen in love with augmented (or virtual) reality software that makes you see things that aren’t necessarily there.

The best-known example of this is perhaps Magic Leap. The company scored a $542 million round last year (led by Google) but demonstrations of its “cinematic reality” technology are still very exclusive and elusive.

It’s also time to get acquainted with a class of startups—including MediaSpike, Airvirtise and Blippar—hoping to exploit virtual and augmented reality technologies for advertising services.

“Integration of brands into this new medium will create some of the most compelling and effective digital advertising ever, because it will be immersive and experiential,” MediaSpike CMO John McCrea wrote in December.

Brand first-movers include Coca-Cola, HBO and Nissan. "Your rational mind cannot take over," David Sackman, CEO of the market research firm Lieberman Research Worldwide, told AdAge last year. At the time, there were at last 12 companies consulting with his firm on virtual reality projects. "Your non-conscious is engaged."

TRENDING

It’s go time for GoDaddy IPO. According to papers filed this morning, the hosting company hopes to raise up to $418 million by selling 22 million shares of Class A stock at a price of between $17 and $19 per share. As soon as possible. That’s a valuation of around $2.87 billion. Technically, GoDaddy has been biding its time since last June but it also tried to go public back in 2006. At the end of 2014, GoDaddy had close to 12.7 million customers. It reported a net loss of $143.3 million on revenue of $1.39 billion.

Teaming up against net neutrality. Internet service providers companies unhappy with the new rules plan to sue through trade associations rather than on their own, to avoid public ire, reports Reuters. Among the three groups expected to file challenges in the near future: CTIA-The Wireless Association, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, and USTelecom.

FedEx CEO isn’t afraid of Uber. It takes more than a well-designed mobile app to be successful in delivery and logistics.

Programmers and prejudice. It’s no secret that what you and your friends see on Facebook could be very different, based on what the social network “knows” about your likes and dislikes. But every analytics algorithm is flawed with the cultural biases of human software coders. That reality is shaping new research into the ethics and data science.

THE DOWNLOAD

Fortune writer Laura Lorenzetti has the exclusive on healthcare software company Collective Health, which aims to simplify the process of managing self-insurance plans.

Collective Health, a startup revolutionizing the employer-sponsored health insurance market, has raised $38 million in Series B financing led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Founder’s Fund. The funding values the company, which launched on Jan. 1, at $107 million.

Collective Health has developed a platform that makes it easier and more intuitive for small to midsize employers to self-insure. By self-insuring—rather than adopting an off-the-shelf plan from a major insurance carrier—employers are able to better manage costs while also providing a better experience for their employees, the company argues.

Ali Diab, CEO and co-founder of Collective Health, points out that most innovation in the health care space is focused on “shiny objects” — that is, the kind of innovation that grabs attention quickly from a consumer standpoint, such as health-tracking devices, or apps.

“But if you want to change the system, you have to get to the heart of health insurance,” he noted.

Most companies with 5,000 employees or fewer usually turn to a big insurance company, such as United Healthcare or Blue Cross Blue Shield, to create an insurance plan for their workers. Those workers will be grouped in a larger pool of subscribers, helping the insurer spread risk. The problem is that many businesses, especially those with younger or healthier populations, will end up swallowing more costs than they should because they are subsidizing the larger group.

“Self-insuring allows these companies to pay more fairly for the risks of their company and identify risks in the employee population that they can get ahead of,” Diab said. “An insurance company doesn’t have the incentive to show you that information.”

About 94% of companies with more than 5,000 employees are already self-insuring, including tech giants such as Google  GOOG 1.20% . Smaller entities have been slower to make the transition because it’s complicated to navigate the system.

Read the complete story about Collective Health’s disruptive platform.

ALSO WORTH SHARING

HP split still on track. The legal separation should happen by November, but the two “new” companies will maintain joint custody of the corporate campuses.

Placating software pirates. Microsoft’s free upgrades to Windows 10 will include unofficial (illegal) versions of the software.

Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer latest to take on Apple Watch. Its version, however, will actually look like one of its existing watches. By the way, Patek Philippe and Hermes aren’t taking the bait. Yet.

And now, T-Mobile wants your corporate business. After making a dent in consumer wireless (it’s almost No. 3!), the carrier is offering flat-fee pricing to appeal to companies dissatisfied with Verizon and AT&T.

Yahoo exits China, closing its research and development center in Beijing. The move is primarily a cost-cutting measure, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Amazon shutters Webstore. It is giving the approximately 100 merchants that use the service one year to move to other e-commerce platforms. eBay made a similar exit last year. Both companies are referring their customers to specialists such as Bigcommerce, Magento, Mozu, and Shopify.

Facebook faces discrimination suit. And she hired the same law firm as former Kleiner Perkins employee Ellen Pao to plead her case.

MY FORTUNE BOOKMARKS

Tesla CEO Elon Musck and Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang declare self-driving cars “solved” by Bradley Berman

6 notorious hackers and their second careers by Daniel Bukszpan

Internet of things means never having to search again by Jenny Lee & Hans Tung

Bloom Energy CEO sidesteps questions about company’s future by Katie Fehrenbacher

In Silicon Valley sexism trial, Kleiner Perkins partner says Ellen Pao needed to go by Kia Kokalitcheva

ONE MORE THING

Elon Musk thinks human-driven cars are far more dangerous than driverless ones. Does that mean it will be even harder for teenagers to get a license?

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Technomy Bio: The big picture on transformation. (March 25; Mountain View, California)

Gartner Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit: Crossing the divide. (March 30 – April 1; Las Vegas)

AWS Summit. First in a series of cloud strategy briefings. (April 9; San Francisco)

Knowledge15: Automate IT services. (April 19 – 24; Las Vegas)

RSA Conference: The world talks security. (April 20 – 24; San Francisco)

Forrester’s Forum for Technology Leaders: Win in the age of the customer. (April 27 - 28; Orlando, Fla.)

MicrosoftIgnite: Business tech extravaganza. (May 4 – 8; Chicago)

NetSuite SuiteWorld: Cloud ERP strategy. (May 4 – 7; San Jose, California)

EMC World: Data strategy. (May 4 - 7; Las Vegas)

SAPPHIRE NOW: The SAP universe. (May 5 – 7; Orlando, Florida)

Gartner Digital Marketing Conference: Reach your destination faster. (May 5 – 7; San Diego)

Cornerstone Convergence: Connect, collaborate. (May 11 - 13; Los Angeles)

Annual Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference: JP Morgan’s 43rd invite-only event. (May 18 - 20; Boston)

MongoDB World: Scale the universe. (June 1 - 2; New York)

HP Discover: Trends and technologies. (June 2 - 4; Las Vegas)

Brainstorm Tech: Fortune’s invite-only gathering of thinkers, influencers and entrepreneurs. (July 13 - 15; Aspen, Colorado)

VMworld: The virtualization ecosystem. (Aug. 30 – Sept. 3, 2015; San Francisco)

Dreamforce: The Salesforce community. (Sept. 15 - 18; San Francisco)

BoxWorks 2015: Cloud collaboration solutions. (Sept. 28 - 30; San Francisco)

Gartner Symposium ITxpo: CIOs and senior IT executives. (Oct. 4 - 8; Orlando, Florida)

Oracle OpenWorld: Customer and partner conference. (Oct. 25 - 29; San Francisco)