Techmeme: Facebook releases Bot Engine to help developers build more complex, machine-learning enabled bots, a further development from last year's Wit.ai acquisition (Romain Dillet/TechCrunch)

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April 12, 2016, 7:30 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Facebook unveils Surround 360, a 17-lens, 3D VR camera, will open-source hardware designs and specs this summer, materials to build will cost $30K — This is Facebook's gorgeous, open-source 360-degree video camera — Hoping to dramatically increase the amount of 360-degree video on its platform …

More: Facebook Code, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Guardian, Digital Trends, GeekWire, SiliconANGLE, BuzzFeed, PCWorld, Fortune, The Next Web, CNET, Gizmodo, MobileSyrup.com, tech.co, Wired and Facebook Media

Tweets: @marshallk, @jguynn and @lexnfx

Blair Hanley Frank / PCWorld:

Facebook launches Account Kit, offering new analytics and login tools for developers, allowing users to sign up or log in to apps with just a phone number — Facebook helps developers with new analytics and login tools — Soon, developers will be able to see what their users do for a living

More: Facebook Developers, VentureBeat, Softpedia News, Computerworld, The Verge and TechCrunch. Tweets: @shiraovide

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Facebook makes its Live API publicly available, allows streaming directly to Facebook from non-mobile devices like drones, TV broadcast feeds — Facebook Opens Up Live Video to Developers to Allow Streaming from Any Device — Facebook just took video streaming on its Live platform beyond …

More: Facebook Media, Quartz, VentureBeat, Re/code, TechCrunch, PCWorld, The Next Web, Facebook Developers, ABC News, WebProNews and Nieman Lab

Tweets: @joshm, @loic, @jank0 and @jank0

See also Mediagazer

Aigerim Shorman / Facebook Developers:

Facebook's Profile Expression Kit lets users update their Facebook profile with videos from third-party apps, like Vine — Enabling Self Expression with Facebook's Profile Expression Kit — With more than 4.5 billion views and nearly 30 million profile picture updates every day …

More: TechCrunch, iMore, The Verge, Fortune, The Next Web, Engadget and Forbes

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Facebook's Save feature has 250M monthly users, now lets developers add the button to their web sites

More: Facebook for Developers, VentureBeat, Marketing Land, TechCrunch, Computerworld, The Next Web and Business Insider

Tweets: @mollywood and @jguynn

Cade Metz / Wired:

Mark Zuckerberg talks about Facebook's future: Messenger bots, AI, live video, virtual reality, and open sourcing key technologies

More: New York Times, Digital Trends, Re/code, ZDNet, Refinery29, The Verge, VentureBeat, USA Today and Newsweek

Nathan McAlone / Business Insider:

A look at Mevo, Livestream's new $399 portable video camera hub, which can stream to Facebook's Live Video API out of the box

More: Gizmodo, Engadget, Mashable and SiliconANGLE

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook launches Messenger platform with chatbots — Facebook will now allow businesses to deliver automated customer support, e-commerce guidance, content and interactive experiences through chatbots. By providing utility through its huge developer and business ecosystem …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook says it's testing allowing businesses to send sponsored messages in Messenger — Facebook starts allowing “Sponsored Messages” ads — Facebook launched its Messenger chatbot platform today, but how will it make money on it? By charging businesses to send re-engagement messages …

More: The Next Web, Business Insider, Silicon Valley Business …, Business Insider and GeekWire

Tweets: @mg and @joshconstine

Jessi Hempel / Wired:

Facebook's David Marcus on the future of Messenger, how brands integrate into the platform, and how there are no plans for a bot store — Facebook Believes Messenger Will Anchor a Post-App Internet — The week before David Marcus will take the stage at Facebook's annual F8 developers' conference …

More: USA Today, Tech Times, Wall Street Journal, TechSpot, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, POPSUGAR, PhoneDog.com, WebProNews and Android Central. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Facebook releases Bot Engine to help developers build more complex, machine-learning enabled bots, a further development from last year's Wit.ai acquisition — Facebook releases Bot Engine to create much smarter bots — Messenger is all about bots now. As expected, Facebook unveiled the Send and Receive API at its F8 conference.

More: The Verge, wit.ai, The Next Web, VentureBeat and Social Media Today

Lauren Goode / The Verge:

Messenger and WhatsApp process 60 billion messages a day, three times more than SMS

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Nieman Lab, Softpedia News, Tech Insider and Pocket-lint. See also Mediagazer

Nicole Lee / Engadget:

Facebook Messenger makes sharing Dropbox files easier, photos and videos will appear directly in chat window, other files can be accessed via Dropbox mobile app

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

HTC 10 launched with 5.2-inch quad HD display for $699, Snapdragon 820, 12MP camera, 3000mAh battery, AirPlay audio support, can pre-order now, ships next month — HTC 10 announced: a modern phone with familiar design — HTC is today formally announcing the 10, its flagship smartphone for 2016.

Joshua Ho / AnandTech:

HTC 10 hands on: SoC in parity with every high-end device in US, Super LCD 5 display one of best, smooth and responsive navigation — Hands On With The HTC 10: A Fresh Start — At this point it's probably not a secret that HTC has been struggling for the past few years.

More: DxOMark, Android Police, 9to5Google, Greenbot, PCWorld and Computerworld. Thanks:@iancutress

Narottam Medhora / Reuters:

Uber releases its first transparency report, showing it gave US regulatory agencies data on over 12M users and received 415 data requests from law enforcement — Uber says gave U.S. agencies data on more than 12 million users — Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] on Tuesday released …

More: Medium, TechCrunch, Engadget, TIME, The Register, The Stack, NPR, Fortune, The Verge, News. Pop Culture. Satire., BBC, The Hill, VentureBeat and Mashable

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Box teams up with AWS and IBM for Box Zones, which lets firms store files locally in Europe, Asia — Box Teams Up With Amazon, IBM to Offer Local Storage Worldwide — Cloud storage company Box is making an effort to widen its appeal as the office file storage and sharing product …

More: Box, GeekWire, eWeek, PCWorld, Data Center Knowledge, Silicon Valley Business …, Wired, The Register, diginomica, VentureBeat, ZDNet, SiliconANGLE, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Investor's Business Daily and AWS Blog

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