Google Assistant wants to talk to you like a friend—and call in your dinner reservation

Google Assistant may have debuted as a bonus feature in the company’s ho-hum Allo messaging app, but it’s been on a roll ever since. The AI helper is now embedded in more than 500 million devices worldwide, Google revealed Tuesday during its annual I/O developer conference keynote. The company is rolling out new features and products to make Assistant more helpful no matter what sort of device you use—and to keep pace with Amazon Echo’s fast and furious improvements.And get this: In the future, Google Assistant will even call local businesses to book appointments for you.It’s true. Google’s machine learning chops have advanced far enough that you’ll be able to ask Assistant to schedule an appointment for you at a business that can’t be easily booked online, and Google’s big brains in the sky will actually ring local shops to set up a reservation.To read this article in full, please click here Continue reading at 'PC World'

[ PC World | 2018-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #google assistant #bonus feature #amazon echo #book appointments

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Facebook and Google Pressured EU Experts to Soften Fake News Regulations, Say Insiders

Google and Facebook pressured and “arm-wrestled” a group of experts to soften European guidelines on online disinformation and fake news, Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-05-21 15:02:38 UTC ]
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Justin Bieber’s deodorant deal, and Apple’s Cannes Lions honor: Tuesday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device; sign up here. What people are talking about today Justin Bieber already launched a perfume and a fashion label. What’s left?... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-21 10:01:00 UTC ]
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Talks underway for fourth Bridget Jones film

Talks are underway for a film adaptation of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (Vintage). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-20 21:56:32 UTC ]
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Inside Facebook's New Robotics Lab, Where AI and Machines Friend One Another

The social network has a plan to merge the worlds of artificial intelligence and real-world machines, so that both may grow more powerful. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2019-05-20 10:30:00 UTC ]
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'We don't understand the impacts': Former Facebook exec calls for more government scrutiny

The tech giant's former NZ and Aus boss calls for more examination following the surprise election win in Australia. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2019-05-19 21:15:47 UTC ]
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Unfiltered: This author uses humor, honesty to talk about race in the US

Cultural critic Damon Young discusses his memoir ‘What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker,’ and its goal of filling gaps in racial perceptions. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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TCAF 2019 Hails Manga Stars; PW Talks with Oni's James Lucas Jones

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, an international show of indie comics and graphic novels, was held May 11 and 12 at the Toronto Reference Library, and honored acclaimed manga artists Junji Ito and Hiromi Takashima; PW also interviewed Oni Press publisher James Lucas Jones about the recent... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Google unveils new digital ad formats, and Facebook issues a warning

Google is giving advertisers a ton of extra digital real estate, adding new promotional formats to online search, YouTube and its increasingly popular Discover service. Meanwhile, Facebook Inc. is close to rolling out a long-awaited privacy feature, but it issued a warning to advertisers... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-05-14 18:20:00 UTC ]
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Google unveils new digital ad formats, and Facebook issues a warning

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-05-14 18:20:00 UTC ]
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Explore the World: PW Talks with BigFoot

D.L. Miller's illustrated BigFoot books bring some of the world's most amazing places home to young readers. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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BookExpo 2019: Talking with Cindy Heidemann, PW’s Rep of the Year

For Cindy Heidemann, a field sales representative for Publishers Group West and Two Rivers (part of Ingram Publisher Services), reps are “enablers.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BookExpo 2019: Talking with Literati, PW’s Bookstore of the Year

It takes a village to raise a child—and to create a successful bookstore, if the experience of booksellers Hilary and Mike Gustafson is any indication. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Springer Nature calls on publishers to adopt new OA role

Springer Nature’s chief publishing officer Steven Inchcoombe has proposed a new approach to research publishing, which will see publishers move from being “passive enablers” of open access to being “active drivers” of it. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bluemoose co-founder Duffy calls for more geographical diversity in publishing

Yorkshire-based Bluemoose Books has experienced the benefits of operating outside London; co-founder Kevin Duffy suggests other publishers should look beyond the confines of the capital, too. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fyre Festival founder plans to self-publish a memoir called ‘Promythus: The God of Fyre’

The man who founded the famously ill-fated Fyre Festival plans to tell his story in a self-published memoir. Billy McFarland, who is serving a six-year sentence in federal prison, is writing a book with the unconventionally spelled title "Promythus: The God of Fyre.” McFarland is writing the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-05-06 17:50:00 UTC ]
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Why would Google want to buy Pearson?

While educational publishers sought to build bespoke platforms to engage educators, tech giants secured the channel. Jon White wonders—is a shift about to occur? Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Calling BAME writers: entries open for 2019 short story prize

The hunt is on for up-and-coming writers who could scoop this year’s £1,000 Guardian/Fourth Estate prize A Chinese villager with no arms becomes a Paralympian swimming champion; a dapper elderly Jamaican spends New Year’s Eve in a south London police cell under suspicion of domestic abuse; a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Spread the Word calls for trade to invest in under-represented writers

Spread the Word has urged for greater investment in under-represented authors from the trade, as it reopens its London Writers Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google's CallJoy is an AI phone operator for small businesses

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[ Engadget | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt and Motovun Group Issue Call for Illustrated Books About Film

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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