Microsoft Moves Forward With Multiple Chatbots Despite Its ‘Tay’ Fiasco (Ad Week)
Microsoft is moving forward with its battalion of bots—even if its first chatbot, “Tay,” won’t behave. During its developer conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced today that it’s introducing automated messengers for Skype on desktop, iOS, Android and eventually for the Hololens mixed-reality headset.
People Are Spending Lots of Time, Not Money, on Their Phones (Recode)
There are still big questions about what benefits brick-and-mortar retailers get from letting their customers pay with phone-based payment services like Apple Pay and Android Pay. The same can’t be said for online retailers and shopping apps, and just-released data from comScore helps explains why.
Fact is, Millennials are abandoning live TV (Media Life)
Advertisers looking to target Millennials – and that includes just about everyone these days – take note: Live TV is not the place to find them. Anecdotally, this has long appeared to be true. Ratings for the adults 18-34 demo have been on the decline for some time.
TV Viewing Up 7%, comScore Report Says (Broadcasting & Cable)
Moving into the TV market, comScore says that the amount of time spent watching was up 7% in the fourth quarter. comScore’s 2015 Cross-Platform Future in Focus report says that in viewing households, 1,004 hours were spent watching live TV, up from 936 hours a year ago, and time spent watching programs on DVRs up to 15 days.
Meet the new bot: Smart. Dynamic. Unblockable. (Media Life)
There’s usually little good news when it comes to the internet’s bad bots, the software apps that perform automated tasks such as generating fraudulent ad clicks, harvesting email addresses for spammers, and unleashing viruses and distributed denial of service attacks. A single bot attack can cost a company millions.
Consumer Action Slams Netflix Over Slowing Speeds (Broadcasting & Cable)
Consumer Action is taking Netflix to the woodshed over the video site’s slowing of traffic for some wireless ISPs but not others and without informing either the companies or their subs. That could run afoul of new Open Internet rules if ISPs were the ones slowing the traffic, but edge providers like Netflix are not covered.
FilmOn X Fires Back In Broadcaster Challenge (Broadcasting & Cable)
Online video service FilmOn X has told a federal court that a California district court got it right when it concluded last year that FilmOn X was entitled to a statutory license under the Copyright Act. That license would allow it to pay a flat license fee for content rather than having to negotiate for it individually with programmers.
63 TIMES THE FEDS ASKED APPLE AND GOOGLE TO HELP UNLOCK PHONES (Vice)
The idea that the FBI only cared about unlocking just one iPhone in its recently-abandoned legal battle with Apple was always fiction: The ACLU has discovered at least 63 court orders in 22 states in which the federal government invoked the All Writs Act to compel Apple or Google to help it access data on a password-protected phone.
THE INFLUENCE AND LIMITATIONS OF BLACK TWITTER (Columbia Journalism Review- Commentary)
For certain journalists, the age-old combination of breakfast and a newspaper doesn’t cut it anymore. “I don’t know any black reporter who, the first thing in the morning, doesn’t check Black Twitter,” Jamilah King, a senior writer at Mic, said. That term unofficially refers to a sprawling network of African American Twitter users.
Older people use apps very differently than youngsters (Network World)
The older generation use smartphone apps in a completely different way to their juniors, says a new report. An example includes that older people prioritize traditional e-mail adapted for apps when they want to communicate; whereas Millennials and other youngsters rely on app-originating messaging, the study from App Annie says.
Republican FCC Commissioner Pitches ‘Fiscally Responsible’ ObamaPhone (Inside Sources)
One of the two FCC Commissioners to vote against the agency’s plan to add Internet to Lifeline, the subsidized “ObamaPhone” program, is extending a “fiscally responsible” comprise to commissioners ahead of a final vote.
Why the U.S. needs its own Get Online Week (Brookings- Commentary by Stuart Brotman)
This month saw the U.S. celebrate two annual events—Crochet Week and National Bubble Week. Over in Europe, the focus was digital and much more impactful. From March 14-20, the seventh annual Get Online Week took place with a wealth of activities aimed at reducing the digital skills gap and promoting jobs.
Networks Challenge Netflix With New Binge-Streaming Strategy (Variety)
April 10 will be a big day for bingeing. All 13 episodes of Steven Soderbergh’s series “The Girlfriend Experience” will be available to stream that morning, as will all six episodes of Andrew Dice Clay’s new comedy “Dice.” But neither show will stream on Netflix, the company that made binge viewing a thing.