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Facebook is reportedly building a virtual assistant powered by real people

Jul14
by on July 14, 2015 at 4:24 am
Posted In: Around the Web, magic, Virtual Assistant

shutterstock_244116676_Facebook and Messenger
Facebook is reportedly working on a virtual assistant, according to The Information. Sources say that Moneypenny, as the project is currently known, will be available via Facebook’s Messenger app and will allow users to ask real people for help with research and shopping. It could rival services like Magic, which lets you request services like grocery deliveries or flight bookings by sending a text message. Details on Moneypenny are sparse and a release date hasn’t been set. We’ve contacted Facebook to find out more and will update this post when we hear back. ➤ Facebook Preps “Moneypenny” Assistant [The Information…

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See the San Diego Comic-Con news that spiked on Twitter

Jul14
by on July 14, 2015 at 12:20 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con, the yearly extravaganza for amazing costumes and exclusive news from beloved comics, movies, and television, has officially finished. Now that the dust has settled and people have carefully wrapped their Storm Trooper outfits in bubble wrap for the trip home, Twitter’s data team has analyzed which events caused the most spike on the social network. The biggest news to come out of Comic-Con, tweet-wise, was the exclusive trailer and announcements from the June 11 “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” panel, which won the weekend with a peak of 1,600 tweets per minute. That number eclipses the…

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Apple Pay has launched in the UK

Jul13
by on July 13, 2015 at 11:44 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

apple pay reader
Apple told us during WWDC that Apple Pay – its contactless payment system for iPhone 6, 6 Plus and Apple Watch – would launch in the UK this month. And guess what? It has! Today. It’s supported by Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Ulster Bank, NatWest, American Express, Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, HSBC, Firs Direct, TSB, MBNA and Lloyds Bank.   Retailers that’ll let you pay with the service include Boots, Costa Coffee, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, as well as Transport For London. Developing… Read next: Apple’s watchOS 2 may make your current Apple Watch stand obsolete    

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Teens (and basically everyone else) hate that Snapchat’s Discover is now front and center

Jul13
by on July 13, 2015 at 10:04 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

Snapchat
Snapchat is basically powered by teens. A March report from ComScore shows that 71 percent of Snapchat users are under 34 years old, and 45 percent of them are in that 18-24 demographic. Reliable demographics on teens’ use of social media are extremely hard to come by, but it’s safe to assume that the high school set is a part of the majority on the app. Teens love Snapchat. Except the company’s content-driven Discover feature. They hate the crap out of that. And the company’s latest update now puts Discover at the top of every user’s story list. The teens? They are…

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