Mobile Minutes: Facebook's digital assistant; Tumblr goes mobile-friendly; YouTube Gaming; Amazon's smartphone surrender
Facebook tests AI-based digital assistant in challenge
to Siri
Facebook Inc. is testing a personal digital assistant to run inside its
Messenger mobile application, an early step toward a challenge to artificial
intelligence-based services like Apple Inc.?s Siri, Google Inc.?s Google Now
and Microsoft Corp.?s Cortana.
Read more on Bloomberg
Yahoo?s Tumblr gets mobile-friendly in bid to lure
developers, brands from Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat
On Aug. 26, Yahoo announced that Tumblr will have in-app sharing via mobile.
That means, just as you see a share to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp,
Pinterest buttons on apps on your smartphone, content can now be shared
directly onto the Tumblr network.
Read more on International Business Times
YouTube Gaming launches to take on Twitch
The new service will automatically consolidate YouTube's extensive collection
of gaming related videos (from online celebrities such as PewDiePie) with live
streams for more than 25,000 different games. It will also offer personalized
recommendations, based on the pages and channels that users follow.
Read more on CNBC
Amazon reportedly laying off engineers after Fire phone
flameout
Following Amazon's failed efforts to break into the smartphone space with its
Fire handset last year, the company is said to be laying off engineers in the
hardware unit responsible for the handset.
Read more on CNET