Author Archives: Scalper1

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Lays Out 10-Year Plan At F8 Developer Conference

Facebook ( FB ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to connect the world, even if it means building a fleet of aircraft and satellites for delivering Internet services. Its development of an aircraft was part of the 10-year strategy that Zuckerberg presented in the keynote speech at Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference Tuesday morning in San Francisco, before some 2,600 attendees. The Facebook plane will be solar powered, with a wingspan longer than a Boeing 737, able to fly at 60,000 feet and beam an Internet connection to remote areas of the world. Facebook is also planning to provide Internet service via satellites and said the first launch will take place next year. In his 30-minute keynote, Zuckerberg emphasized connecting the world,  expanding business services on the Facebook Messenger chat platform and boosting Facebook’s Live video interaction with virtual reality. As widely expected , Zuckerberg announced a program for developers to write apps that are powered by artificial intelligence, known as chatbots. The digital assistants will help Messenger users communicate with businesses for services, perhaps to fix a problem or to buy goods. Chatbots are digital characters infused with artificial intelligence that can mimic human conversation. The idea is that businesses on Messenger could use chatbots to interact with customers via automated response systems, aiming to help boost sales. Chatbots can help businesses eliminate the human effort required for communicating with users. Messenger is one of Facebook’s fastest-growing products, with more than 900 million users. Another example he used was with 1-800-Flowers, where a chatbot will help users on the selection and delivery of flowers. “Messenger will be the next big platform for connecting services,” Zuckerberg said. Messenger is already used to request a lift form Uber or Lyft, purchase tickets for concerts and other events, make a payment and more. Zuckerberg also laid out a vision for Facebook’s live video streaming service call Live. He envisioned a time when users will view Live video through a virtual reality platform, such as its Oculus Rift headset that began shipping last month. He also sees a time when VR goggles, which currently protrude across the upper face of a user and are held in place with headbands, swill someday shrink to the size of eyeglasses. “We are at the golden age of video,” Zuckerberg said. Facebook rose 1.5% to 110.60 in afternoon trade on the stock market today , rising back above its 50-day moving average.

Box Targets Multinationals With Amazon, IBM Cloud Options

Expanding internationally, Box ( BOX ) will team with IBM ( IBM ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) Web Services to offer large companies online data storage in Europe and Asia. Some governments have strengthened consumer privacy regulations by mandating that data be stored locally. AWS, part of e-commerce giant Amazon.com, and IBM will provide data center storage facilities to Redwood City, Calif.-based Box. IBM acquired data center operator SoftLayer in 2013. IBM and Box in 2015 partnered to develop new applications and jointly market products and services. The IBM relationship has enabled Box to target larger business deals, analysts say. The “Box Zones” service will initially offer multinational customers the option of local data storage in Ireland, Germany, Japan and Singapore. Box says that it may expand the service to “dozens” of countries . Box operates three data centers in Silicon Valley. Box stock edged up 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Shares in the online data storage and file-sharing service provider’s stock have slipped 13% in 2016. Box has a low IBD Composite Rating of 27 out of a possible 99. The company vies with Microsoft ( MSFT ), though it’s now a partner for Office 365 products. It also counts as rivals Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google and privately-held Dropbox.  

Why Apple’s iPhone 7 Could Have A Dual-Camera Version

Smartphone users are driven to upgrade their handsets sooner and to pay more to get better cameras, a survey by InfoTrends shows. InfoTrends surveyed 1,499 U.S. consumers about their use of smartphones and other devices. It found that the recent end of subsidized handset pricing by most wireless carriers would cause more than 40% of smartphone users to wait longer to get a new phone, and about half that number to opt for a less expensive phone. More than 35% of each group, however, said that a significantly better camera would be enough to make them buy sooner or pay more, InfoTrends said in a news release Tuesday . The survey results help explain why Apple ( AAPL ), Samsung and other handset makers promote the photo-taking abilities of their handsets in national television advertisements. Apple is rumored to be making a version of its upcoming iPhone 7 that has a dual-camera design. The benefits of the dual-camera setup include faster speed, better resolution (especially in low light conditions) and the ability to incorporate 2-3x optical zoom. LG Electronics and Huawei already have dual-camera smartphones for sale.