Facebook launches new platform to bring AI-powered bots to Messenger

Facebook introduced its new Messenger Platform on stage during its F8 developer conference. With the platform, developers can build AI-powered bots for Facebook Messenger that the company thinks will remove the need for some mobile apps, particularly those dealing with commerce.

Using 1-800-Flowers as an example, Facebook demonstrated how a commerce-focused bot in Messenger could work. You can place your order with that company’s bot, rather than through an app or the web, and pay using your stored payment information in Messenger. It also showed off a CNN bot that sent new digests that could become more personalized over time.

From Facebook:

We’re excited to introduce bots for the Messenger Platform. Bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates, to customized communications like receipts, shipping notifications, and live automated messages all by interacting directly with the people who want to get them.

Facebook’s announcement comes as bots are becoming an increasing focus for a number of companies. Microsoft recently announced its own AI-powered bot platform, and Messenger rival Kik launched its own bot store last week.

HTC already giving $100 off of HTC 10 pre-orders

Hours after it went up for pre-order, the HTC 10 is already being discounted. Well, sort of.

HTC has begun sending out emails to existing or former HTC smartphone users that have registered an HTC Account — usually when first setting up a device — offering $100 off the pre-order of an unlocked HTC 10.

Available to customers in practically every country the HTC 10 is being sold, each e-commerce store has been issued its own custom code. To redeem it, orders must be made on the company’s e-commerce store before the HTC 10’s still-undetermined launch date sometime in May.

Here are the codes we’ve confirmed so far:

• USA: HTC1008 – Brings the price down to $599 from $699
• Canada: HTCCA1008 – Brings the price down to $899 from $999
• UK: HTC10 – Brings the price down to £512.99 from £569.99

Receive a code in your country? Let us know in the comments and we’ll add it to the list!

HTC 10

• HTC 10 preview
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• HTC 10 specs
• These are the HTC 10 colors
• BoomSound goes Hi-Fi
• Meet the Ice View case
• Join our HTC 10 forums

HTC

The ethics of using a 360-degree camera

New types of cameras are bound to make some people uncomfortable. With 360 degree cameras, it may be justified.

At this point, we’re all used to seeing folks wandering around in public. Tourists capturing photos, friends capturing a selfie after a night at the bar, and the occasional shame photo taken by someone who things the sleeping guy drooling to himself on the train are just a couple of reasons you might see a camera in public today. There are hundreds of other reasons, and for the most part it’s okay. As long as everyone knows you’re taking a photo in public, it’s usually not a problem.

This brings up an interesting ethical question or two about using 360-degree cameras, but as is often the case with new technology the answers seem to be all about communication.

Taking a photo with a camera or smartphone usually required a deliberate or obvious motion on the part of the photographer. You see someone hold out their arms or hold the screen up to their face, you hear the shutter, there’s usually some clear indicators that a photo either was taken or is about to be taken. There are always exceptions to this, obviously, and anyone who wants to take a secret photo can certainly acquire the materials to do so fairly easily, but with 360-degree cameras it’s noticeably less obvious. In fact, sometimes it’s downright impossible to know a 360-degree photo or video is being captured.

As an early adopter of an interesting new technology, the way you use these cameras matters.

In some cases, taking a photo with a 360-degree camera means holding up an oddly-shaped piece of technology and pressing a button. Even compact 360-degree cameras like the LG 360 CAM and Ricoh Theta S stand out when you hold them up, but there are several other ways to capture photos with this tech. These are Bluetooth-connected cameras, which means the shutter can be triggered remotely, and doing so captures everything around the camera. With a decent Bluetooth connection, you can be far enough away that you aren’t even in the shot when taking the photo. This means you can capture amazing outdoor shots, but it also means you can capture plenty of things you either wouldn’t be able to or wouldn’t dare attempt with a traditional camera.

Set your 360-degree camera down on the table at lunch or in your favorite coffee spot, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who even knows what it is you just set down, much less be aware that you’re recording. The 360 degree cameras that do have a capture LED only put them on one side of a spherical camera, and usually not bright enough to notice from a distance. People who want to take inappropriate photos will always have the means, but with a 360-degree camera there’s a much greater chance you’d capture something you wouldn’t normally capture just because the folks around you aren’t necessarily aware you’re taking the photo or recording the video.

The potential for an understandably uncomfortable environment can’t be ignored, but as the person taking the photos it’s easy enough to avoid.

• Avoid using your 360-degree cameras in crowded indoor places. That 360-degree coffee house shot looks awesome, but not at the cost of everyone else’s comfort.
• Use a tripod, monopod, or selfie stick whenever you can. Not only will your photos turn out better than if you just place your 360-degree camera on the ground, but it helps point out that you’re taking a photo.
• Be prepared to explain what you’re doing. If someone asks about your hardware, have a conversation about it. Chances are it’ll end in that person being fascinated by the way the resulting picture looks on your phone.
• Look before you publish. Recording video or timelapse is incredible through a 360-degree camera, but all it takes is one accidental upskirt glance or clip of a child to cause concern. Watch what you record, and edit if you capture something you didn’t intend to.

As more 360-degree cameras are available to consumer the chances for miscommunication and accidental captures will drop off, but as an early adopter of an interesting new technology the way you use these cameras matters. Pay attention, check your results, and have a bunch of fun with these new cameras!

Facebook’s Account Kit will let users login to apps with just a phone number

At its F8 developer conference, Facebook introduced Account Kit, a way for developers to create easy logins for their apps. Apps that use account kit can, unsurprisingly, allow users to login with their Facebook account, but they will also let you create an account using only your phone number or email address.

From Facebook:

Most people find remembering passwords difficult, so Account Kit gives people the option to log into new apps with just a few taps using only their phone number or email address. There’s no need for a username and password. People can use Account Kit without sharing any information from their Facebook profile—they don’t even need a Facebook account to use it. By removing these major barriers to entry, Account Kit helps you increase your sign-ups and expand your audience.

Developers will be able to create a custom user interface around Account Kit’s functionality. They’ll have access to the Basic UI option for easy and quick implementation, as well as the Advanced UI option for better customization.

Account kit will also provide detailed login analytics to help developers better understand their audiences. Users will also be able to choose to receive a Facebook notification with their login authentication rather than a text message.

Developers can get started with Account Kit right now.

Samsung gives out 2,600 Gear VR kits to developers at Facebook’s F8 conference

Developers attending Facebook’s F8 conference today are in for a treat, as Samsung has announced that all 2,600 developers in attendance will receive a Gear VR kit along with a customized Galaxy phone. While Samsung doesn’t state exactly which Galaxy handsets were included in the kit, the company notes that it leveraged the KNOX platform to automatically set up the phones in all 2,600 kits with the following customizations:

• Developers to have all the tools they need at their fingertips with no additional set-up.
• The devices to instantly connect to the network with pre-loaded Wi-Fi credentials.
• Facebook’s logo to automatically appear once the device is turned on.
• All Facebook apps to be pre-installed and pre-arranged.

Each handset comes alongside a Gear VR headset, which Facebook and Samsung hope will spur developers to get a jump start on creating new experiences for VR.

Press Release

Samsung Empowers the Future of Virtual Reality at Facebook’s F8 Conference

Facebook to giveaway 2,600 Gear VR headsets with customized Samsung Galaxy smartphones during its F8 Developer Conference

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA) announced today that it has deployed 2,600 Samsung Gear VR headsets powered by Oculus with customized Samsung Galaxy smartphones at the Facebook F8 Developer Conference, empowering developers to create the engaging and immersive virtual reality content that will broaden the future and mainstream acceptance of the medium. Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement during this morning’s keynote address.

Today’s announcement marks a key next step in making virtual reality more affordable, accessible and relevant to consumers and enterprises of all sizes. To date, consumers have viewed over 2M hours of content on Samsung Gear VR, the leading mobile VR platform. In January, Samsung Milk VR, the premium virtual reality content service, turned one year old and now houses over 700 hundred 360-degree videos from top brands and entertainment companies.

In February, Samsung launched Gear 360, the first consumer-level virtual reality camera, empowering consumers to create their own VR content. And at this year’s Mobile World Congress, Facebook announced that its 360-degree videos would be optimized for viewing on the Samsung Gear VR headset, and that the company would be investing further in VR along with Samsung.

“At Samsung, our world-class research and development teams are focused on building transformative virtual reality solutions, so the world’s most creative storytellers can deliver the unique and exhilarating content experiences of the future,” said Ken Smith, vice president and general manager for Samsung Business Services, a division of SEA.

In addition to its leadership in VR technology, Facebook turned to Samsung for its enterprise solutions and services that are designed to solve business needs. With its proprietary KNOX customization platform, Samsung configured 2,600 unlocked Galaxy smartphones “out of the box” using a cloud-based configurator tool to seamlessly deploy the devices with the unique look, feel and feature-set that Facebook required for its F8 Developer Conference.

“We are thrilled to provide our Gear VR headsets and KNOX custom configured Galaxy smartphones to Facebook’s talented network of developers at this year’s F8 Developer Conference – a platform with influential global reach,” added Smith. “At Samsung, we believe that technology is not valuable in isolation. It’s valuable when it solves problems. Tailoring customized solutions to meet Facebook’s business requirements is an excellent example of how technology can be applied to drive simplicity.”

The customized Gear VR kits for Facebook allow for:

• Developers to have all the tools they need at their fingertips with no additional set-up.

• The devices to instantly connect to the network with pre-loaded Wi-Fi credentials.

• Facebook’s logo to automatically appear once the device is turned on.

• All Facebook apps to be pre-installed and pre-arranged.

Working with visionary companies like Facebook, Samsung is developing the infrastructure needed to power the next-generation of virtual reality content. In the past six months, the company launched its Gear VR headset, compatible with Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ devices.

For information on any of Samsung’s consumer devices or Gear VR, click here. For more information on Samsung’s unique enterprise offerings, click here, or simply complete this form and a member of the Samsung Business team will contact you.

About F8 Facebook Developer Conference

F8 is Facebook’s annual global developer conference, held this year at Fort Mason in San Francisco on April 12-13. The two-day event will host more than 2,600 developers from around the world who are building and growing businesses using Facebook tools. F8 will feature deep, technical sessions, exciting new technology announcements and the opportunity to interact with Facebook product experts.

About Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA), is a recognized innovation leader in consumer electronics design and technology. A wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SEA delivers a broad range of digital consumer electronics, IT and home appliance products. Samsung is the market leader for HDTVs in the U.S. and one of America’s fastest growing home appliance brands. To discover more of the award-winning products you love with Samsung, please visitwww.samsung.com and for the latest Samsung news, please visit news.samsung.com/us and follow on Twitter @SamsungNewsUS. For the latest business news and insights from Samsung, visit insights.samsung.com and follow Samsung Business USA on Twitter @SamsungBizUSA.

Watch Facebook F8: Messenger Bots, Facebook Surround 360, and more

Facebook just opened its mostly-annual F8 developer conference, where the social network’s CEO gave a keynote speech to make announcements, such as Messenger bots, and lay out a 10-year roadmap.

Consider this your one-stop shop to discover everything Mark Zuckerberg said during his keynote. Pocket-lint embedded a video to the actual keynote, which was live-streamed on Facebook using Live video, and we’ve sifted through the hordes of marketing lingo to uncover the top news bits worth knowing.

Facebook F8: How can you watch the keynote?

Check out the F8 video page to see more videos from the social network’s developer conference.

Facebook F8: What’s new with Facebook?

Facebook

Messenger Bots

Facebook announced new tools for developers that will allow them to build bots for Facebook Messenger, thus adding a whole new array of functions to the messaging app. Facebook has envisioned a future where you use Messenger to interact with businesses and vice versa. Bots can even blend artificial intelligence with human interaction.

The idea is that you’ll go to Messenger for customer support or to get your news or to order flowers. In a demo at F8, Zuckerberg showed bots from CNN and 1-800-Flowers. The CNN bot sent users a daily digest of news stories that be tailored over time, while the Flowers bot showed how you can order using conversational language.

Zuckerberg said Facebook Messenger app was the social network’s fastest-growing platform in 2015, as it now has more than 900 million active monthly users. He also said activity on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp combined is three times the global volume of SMS messages. They handle 60 billion messages a day, compared to 20 billion.

To go along with the Bots for Messenger announcement, Zuckerberg noted Messenger is the second most popular app on iOS globally, and that there are 500 million businesses using it with over a billion messages sent every month.

David Marcus, head of Messenger, announced that the beta version of Messenger Platform is going live on 12 April, meaning developers immediately get started on creating bots for the app.

• READ: Learn more about Messenger Platform from Facebook’s blog post

Facebook / The Verge

Facebook Surround 360

Facebook unveiled a reference design for a video capture system and announced it would release the design as an open-source project on GitHub. The design, called Facebook Surround 360, uses a 17-camera array, including 14 wide-angle cameras as well as three fish-eye ones at the top and bottom. It also uses web-based software.

The cameras and software work together to capture 360-degrees images and automatically render them. The rig also uses a global shutter instead of a rolling one. Facebook is marketing Surround 360 as the best 360-degree camera, emphasising it can work “many hours” without overheating and exports video in resolution up to 8K.

Media from the rig can be viewed with Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and the Facebook app. Keep in mind other companies have introduced 360-degree cameras of their own, such as Nokia and GoPro. The latter offers a $15,000 rig that touts 16 cameras. It was made with Google and went on sale in September.

It’ll cost about $30,000 to build a Surround 360. Facebook said it has no plans to become a camera manufacturer.

Live from any device

“Say hello to my little drone friend” is what Zuckerberg should have said. #F8 pic.twitter.com/umpBxtkmd9

— Niv Dror ☄ (@Nivo0o0) April 12, 2016

Facebook recently revamped Live video with new tools and has been pushing the live-broadcasting feature, so of course the company used F8 to announce expansion plans. It’s opening up a Live API so developers and manufacturers can build in the ability to Facebook Live stream from any device.

At the conference, Zuckerberg demoed a DJI drone with built-in Facebook Live video and said it will be streaming live video from the developer conference over the next two days.

• READ: Here’s how Facebook Live works

Facebook F8: What’s Facebook’s 10-year roadmap?

Facebook

Connectivity

During F8, Zuckerberg laid out Facebook’s 10-year roadmap, which includes everything it is building. It announced new technology like Messenger bots, opened up the Live API, and said it’s building planes and satellites that will connect everyone to the internet. It’s solar-powered planes feature carbon fibre engines and can beam internet down.

Facebook

As for its internet satellites, which work similarly to the planes, Zuckerberg said the first one will be launched in Sub-Saharan Africa soon. Facebook made it seem like it really wants to make sure everyone across the world has access to the internet, as the company has a three-prong approach to connectivity: availability, affordability, and awareness.

AR, VR, and AI

Engadget

Facebook then touched upon augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. It noted current Facebook products use artificial intelligence to help users interact with services more easily. Moments, for instance, has facial-recognition software, while News Feed uses AI to smartly surface the stories that matter most to you.

Even Messenger uses AI to filter spam from messages you want to read (see this piece to learn more about that). Facebook further highlighted how far its come with AI and said it will open-source its Torch modules so that everyone, including developers, can leverage its advances in the space in order to make faster progress together.

In the future, Zuckerberg thinks AI could be used by doctors to more accurately diagnose diseases, such as skin cancer, from a simple photo. The CEO also imagined what the future of VR and AR might look like, claiming one day a single pair of normal-looking glasses could be able to provide both experiences, seamlessly.

He even suggested television displays will some day be a thing of the past, as you’ll simply wear AR/VR glasses and buy a $1 app in the app store to view content. Keep in mind Facebook bought Oculus VR and recently began shipping the consumer edition of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to those who placed pre-orders.

Touch Controllers

Facebook

Facebook also announced it will release the Rift’s touch controllers later this year so that your hands can enter the VR experience and let you modify the world around you. It also demoed an early social experience that showed two people interacting and playing with each other in a virtual world.

Engadget

Facebook F8: Want to know more?

Stay tuned to Pocket-lint’s Facebook hub for related news, reviews, and analysis. You can also check out the official Facebook F8 website for more news from the developer conference.

Facebook’s Account Kit signs you in with a phone number

Twitter isn’t the only big social network that wants you to ditch the password. Facebook is using its F8 conference to unveil Account Kit, a framework that lets you sign into apps using a phone number or email address. You won’t need a Facebook account just to get into that music store or messaging service; you just have to acknowledge a confirmation message (either by email or SMS) to get your foot in the door. The feature is useful worldwide, but it’s particularly crucial in developing regions, where having a Facebook account is far from guaranteed.

You might think that Facebook would hate technology that helps you avoid its platform (it thrives on adding more users), but there are good reasons why it’d make this move. The easier it is to sign in to a given service, the bigger that service gets — which, in turn, increases the chances that people will sign in using Facebook accounts. It may be wise to forego a few early users in favor of getting many more sign-ups later on.

Source: Facebook for Developers

Facebook lets you share quoted text with a click

Facebook is continually looking for ways to help you share more stuff. Today, the social network announced a tool for developers that will help you easily share quotes from an article. Rather than having to copy and paste a snippet of text across apps, you’ll be able to simply highlight the words you want to share and post them to Facebook with a click. In the News Feed, the post will appear as a block quote with a link to the original URL or source. And yes, you can add an additional comment on top of the selected text.

Zuckerberg & Co. also revealed that it would allow developers to employ its Save to Facebook button in apps and on the web as well. The button functions in a similar fashion to Pocket’s buttons and plug-ins, allowing you to add a link to a collection that you’ll read later (in theory). The button isn’t new, but it has been limited to saving items from the News Feed. Today’s announcement makes it available for any place you consume content, taking aim at services like Pocket. The libraries of saved items are social, yet they’re like Pinterest and other read-it-later options, as you can only see your own stuff. It wouldn’t be a surprise if that changes in the future, though.

Facebook to put augmented reality in your glasses

On stage at its annual F8 developer conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the social network’s 10 year roadmap. In addition to the company’s dedication to live streaming including a new API so developers can add live streaming to their hardware, he also showed off the company’s thoughts on how AR and VR will affect our lives. He also showed off a pie-in-the-sky pair of AR glasses that you probably won’t be able to pick up from your anytime soon.

On stage Zuckerberg showed video of a two-player VR game of that Facebook is investigating. But it’s more than games, during his keynote presentation he mentioned that while his first steps were saved in a physical baby book, his children might be sharing their kid’s first steps via VR with friends and family.

Still Zuckerberg noted that it’s “going to take a long time to make this work.” But with the Oculus Rift finally shipping and the Gear VR already on the market (and in the hands of developers at the event), Facebook has placed itself in the center of VR future.

Facebook announces its 360-degree camera

At its annual F8 developer conference, Facebook introduced its latest piece of hardware: the Facebook Surround 360 camera. The device will capture footage then render it online via web-based software created specially for it. Facebook won’t be selling it, instead the designs for the array will be available on GitHub later this summer.

The flying saucer-shaped rig has 14 cameras around its edge, one fish-eye camera pointing up and two cameras pointing down. Facebook says the camera produces “truly spherical video.” And thanks to the amount of cameras on the rig, it captures the stereoscopic images needed for 3D.

The software will stitch together the video in 4K, 6K and 8K for each individual eye for stereoscopic playback. According to Brian Cabral, a director of engineering that headed the project, the stitching software will work on a family of rigs that are similar to the Surround 360.

While VR has been adopted by gamers and game developers, creating video footage has been difficult for the average person. Rigs like GoPro’s Omni require users to buy multiple cameras in addition to the array hardware. Facebook’s open-source system will keep videographers from having to buy expensive software, but they still have to buy those cameras and the materials needed to create the mount.

The destination for all these video is the Oculus Rift which recently began shipping to customers. At the event CEO Mark Zuckerberg also played out the company’s 10-year roadmap which includes AR and VR elements.

Cabral said, “3D, 360-imagery is going to be a reality and sharing content with that will be a reality. It’s not a whether it’s a when and we’re embarking on this awesome journey.”