Enter The 2016 Innovation By Design Awards now through May 5! At F8, Facebook's massive annual developer conference, the big news is bots—specifically bots on Messenger, Facebook's messaging app. Messenger now boasts 900 million users per month, which presents a tantalizing user base for companies eager to get their wares in front of customers. That's where the bots come in. Facebook is turning Messenger into an open platform, and any company can now build a chatbot that users can talk with. If you're an airline, you can build a chatbot to book tickets; if you're OpenTable you can build a chatbot to take reservations. "To me it's about bringing back all the best parts of the interaction between people and businesses," David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook, says in an interview. "What we're trying to build with bots are rich conversational experiences. That's what we believe will be the future of interactions and services." The chatbots are designed to guide you through a lightweight user flow that doesn't leave you guessing about what to do next. All Roads Lead to Messenger Chatbots seem like a new fad in software design: Microsoft just announced its own suite of bot-building tools; Kik, the messaging platform massively popular among teens, announced one as well. But there are deep reasons why chatbots make sense. The app model has stalled out: People don't use a ton of apps, and they don't download many either. The reason is simple:... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2016-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent booksellers from across the country highlight eight independently published books they're excited to sell this fall. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Prime Day came and went in July, but Amazon’s not done with its membership-only sales events for 2023. The company just announced that it will hold another Prime Day of sorts in October, potentially mirroring what it did at the same time last year. This year’s event is dubbed “Prime Big... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-08-08 19:00:44 UTC ]
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In 2009, two bookshops a week were closing in the UK and the days of physical books seemed numbered. Now, indie stores are booming. What explains the turnaround – and can it be sustained?When Sarah Mullen was asked to set up a children’s book festival in a leafy suburb of Birmingham in 2012, she... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-27 09:00:32 UTC ]
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We talk to Samuel Ross about the new Beats Studio Pro. It’s the first update to the Beats Studio line since 2017. I’m holding the box for Beats Studio3 headphones. They were released in 2017—in other words, a lifetime ago. The box is nothing short of peak packaging, with a hefty fiberboard... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2023-07-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Just five months after Anthropic debuted its ChatGPT rival, Claude, the company is back with an updated version that promises longer answers, more detailed reasonings, fewer hallucinations and generally better performance. It also now scores in the 90th percentile of graduate school applicants... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-07-11 16:00:53 UTC ]
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The tech industry is reeling from the combination of a rough economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and some obvious business missteps. And while that led to job cuts in 2022, the headcount reductions have unfortunately ramped up in 2023. It can be tough to keep track of these moves, so we’ve compiled... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-06-29 15:28:56 UTC ]
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Patricia J. Murphy, author of the picture book ‘Mama, Look!’ and dozens of other titles, explores how spirituality can help with difficult emotions in a new children’s book, ‘God is Everywhere: Wise Words for Little Ones.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Call comes amid moves to combat disinformation from Russia, while Twitter is warned to comply with new digital content lawsSocial media companies including Google and Facebook have been urged by the EU to “immediately” start labelling content and images generated by artificial intelligence as... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-05 13:06:04 UTC ]
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Over the past three years, the Dutton/Plume imprint, founded by actor and stand-up comedian Phoebe Robinson, has become a home for “strong voices, unique points of view, and undeniable talent." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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When the Next Big Idea Club launched in 2018, the centerpiece of its offerings was a box subscription. It still offers that service, but has company has shifted gears, now operating as an “audio-first company.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Toronto Star books editor Deborah Dundas says that even though class divisions exist in Canada, we don't talk about them openly. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-05-27 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Meet the authors behind some of the adult, children’s, and graphic titles on PW’s radar. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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CNN reporter and West Baltimore native John Blake wishes he could give a copy of his new memoir to his mother for Mother's Day. Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2023-05-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The Internet is abuzz over a forthcoming nonfiction book, a 544-page memoir (including 40 full-color photographs) slated to be published by Flatiron on July 9th. Why? Because The Internet thinks it was probably written by Taylor Swift. It all started when the owner of indie bookshop Good... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-08 16:47:07 UTC ]
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The digital publisher grew fat off the back of Facebook’s fickle algorithm. Battered and bruised, it’s now going back to where it all began. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-04-24 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Revamped Sarah Ferguson documentary to air on Four Corners after initial version sparked complaints. Plus: the Australian’s own goalFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastHours before Lachlan Murdoch... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-21 04:27:06 UTC ]
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Over the past three years, entry-level wages at the Big Five publishers and Scholastic have risen 23%, on average, in response to calls for a living wage, union actions, and inflation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Alison L. Strayer is an award-winning writer and translator. Her work has been shortlisted twice for the Governor’s General Award for Literature and for Translation. Her translation of Annie Ernaux’s The Years was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2019 and won the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-19 08:59:35 UTC ]
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Bookstore sales posted surprisingly strong gains in January, jumping 15.9% over 2022. Sales in January 2023 were $997 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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OpenAI unveiled GPT-4 today, its next-gen large language model that is the technical foundation for both ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbots. It’s a profound upgrade, potentially opening the door for major advances in both the capabilities and features of today’s AI... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-03-14 19:29:22 UTC ]
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