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Dios Mio! Messenger can now automatically translate conversations in Spanish and English

Facebook has been trumpeting M, the Messenger AI bot, for some time now. M is now able to offer users auto-fill suggestions for messages, quick and easy polls, and various other conversation starters. M is there to ease communication between Messenger users. To this end Facebook has been working on a rather impressive feature for M, that’ll help people of different cultures and different languages communicate more easily. M can now help Spanish and English speakers converse by translating each other’s conversations automatically.

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Tech website wersm.com reported on Sunday that Facebook has started to make good on the translation promise it made at this year’s f8 conference. According to the report, M can distinguish whether the language being used is the same as the default language on the device of the recipient:

“It understands when a message is written in a language which is not the recipient’s default app language and offers to translate it. M will then show a pop-up that offers to immediately translate all messages from that specific recipient.”

This new feature is already available to Messenger users in the U.S. and Mexico. Although for now, it is only Spanish and English that M’s translations are working with, Facebook says new languages will be coming soon.

We think is an exciting announcement from Facebook, and we’d love to hear your thoughts, too.

Image via: pxhere

Lucifer renewed for a fourth season: What will happen in the next episodes?

To our delight, “Lucifer” has been saved by Netflix. Tom Ellis and the rest of the cast couldn’t be happier, and the fans share the sentiment! So, what’s going to happen in season four of the show?

The final episode of season three, which became the series finale for a few weeks, was frustrating, to say the least. Chloe had discovered the truth about Lucifer, and the episode ended there, leaving us in total doubt about his reaction and especially about the duo’s future. So, what’s going to happen in season four of “Lucifer”?

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“Lucifer” fans have just one hope: that Chloe and the Devil will end up as a couple. Will Chloe accept the Prince of Darkness’ identity in season four? According to Lauren German, the actress who plays her, the detective loves Lucifer and will have to accept the truth. Also, we would like to see our hero finally confront his father! Will he do it?

So far, no information concerning “Lucifer’s” fourth season has been leaked online. At the same time, it’s still quite early, as the series was only just given a second chance. In any case, the Chloe-Lucifer duo should remain in the spotlight. The fourth season should have 10 episodes. We can’t wait to see them, can you?

Halo VI: Return of the Spartan

Halo 5’s Forge was heralded as a groundbreaking addition to the Master Chief saga. It has given fans of the Halo series the chance to build their own levels to put each other through their paces. Since Forge’s release, we’ve seen some sick levels created. We’ve had the likes of “Elixir” by Sikamikanico set on the homeworld of the Covenant Elites, “Echoes” by Spirit in Black that takes its inspiration the levels of Halo: Combat Evolved, and even “Nautilus” by Ascend Hyperion that is set underwater!

We’re not here to talk about levels though. As well as levels, fans have also used Forge to recreate scenes and set pieces from some of the greatest pop culture ever. We’re here to celebrate some incredible work done by Reddit user u/NeomiCrystal.

NeomiCrystal has recreated the Sarlacc Pit from Return of Jedi, complete Jabba’s flying palace. We love it, and with a successor to Halo 5 announced at E3 maybe, just maybe, we are about to see Halo VI: Return of the Spartan.

Wonder Woman 2: New plot details about Cheetah revealed

“Wonder Woman 2” is taking shape, and we now know more about the film’s big villain, Cheetah.

Production of the sequel to Patty Jenkins’ hit DC Comics movie is now in full swing, with the release of the first official photos along with the official title: “Wonder Woman 1984.”

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The film’s timeline is no longer a mystery, but the upcoming 2019 blockbuster still has some secrets left to reveal. As you probably know, our new favorite heroine will face Cheetah in her next adventure, and now we have additional details about this new character, played by Kristen Wiig.

According to a journalist from the U.S. site Vulture, Cheetah won’t be an enemy who comes out of nowhere, appearing in the film only to put Diana Prince to the test. When we meet her, she will be one of Diana’s closest friends before transforming into a bloodthirsty cheetah.

This plot detail will give us a reason to care about the character while giving Diana some extra motivation to save her from the hell she is living in. Cheetah may finally allow DC Comics (and superhero movies in general) to solve their villain problem!

Avengers 4: Will a new team be formed by the end of the film?

By the end of “Avengers 4,” we could have a new team of superheroes. Here are our predictions!

Expected to hit our screens in April 2019, Avengers 4 will face the daunting task of concluding Phase 3 in addition to launching Phase 4 of MCU.

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This has got us thinking about what we can expect to see in the upcoming Avengers films. Yes, there is a strong possibility that more films are yet to come after the success of Infinity War. We’re especially intrigued by who will be included in the next team. It is expected that new members will join the Avengers after the departures of several characters, with some actors’ contracts running out, as is the case with Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., who play Steve Rogers and Tony Stark.

We believe that Black Widow (who could have a solo film just for her, even if as a prequel), Hulk (since Mark Ruffalo still has at least one film to make after Avengers 4) and Thor will still be in the game.

They may be joined by Spider-Man (which would seem even more likely given his recent introduction to MCU), Black Panther (who proved successful in his solo film), and even Captain Marvel. You would think that if the studio is trying so hard to hype up the almighty heroine (who could even be powerful enough to move planets), it would be for a good reason. As for Doctor Strange, this character is perhaps a bit too powerful to join the team of superheroes. It would be very difficult to find enemies strong enough to rival him, if not threats in the whole cosmos. Let’s not forget sidekicks like Bucky, War Machine, Falcon, or even Scarlet Witch, who we still expect to find on the scene. Marvel Studios seems to have long-term plans for Wanda.

In any case, we are looking forward to discovering if the Russo brothers will revive some (or all) of Thanos’ victims in the “Avengers” sequel…

Look out! Autoplay video ads are coming to private conversations on Messenger

It wasn’t too long ago that Facebook videos started blasting out autoplay ads. Now it seems Facebook wants to take that ridiculously annoying reality and crowbar it into your personal conversations on Messenger too. Messenger is the third most popular messaging service in the U.S., so it represents a massive potential future revenue stream for Facebook.

video ads in Messenger — Autoplay video ads will now invade your private conversations on Messenger

Although Messenger is a much cleaner experience than Facebook, users’ private messages have seen ads for over a year. Now, according to a report by Recode, autoplay videos have started popping up in people’s private conversations. Seemingly, they started rolling out on Monday.

Recode reports, Facebook is aware of the new ads and is actively monitoring user response. There is a good chance that autoplay videos could be seen as too annoying if you’re simply trying to have a conversation with a friend or loved one; obnoxious even. At the Cannes Lions advertising festival Stefanos Loukakos, manage or Messenger’s ad business said:

“…we don’t know yet [if these will work]. However, signs until now, when we tested basic ads, didn’t show any changes with how people used the platform or how many messages they send… Video might be a bit different, but we don’t believe so.”

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Gizmodo smartly pointed out that the Cambridge Analytica scandal is limiting Facebook’s ability to move into new spheres of influence. In particular, the massive data leak has dented public trust meaning we likely won’t be seeing an all-hearing Facebook smart speaker any time soon. This means that if Facebook is to keep growing it needs to find more places in its current products for ads.

Facebook continues to monetize Instagram, and the launch of IGTV offers a new revenue stream for the photo, and now video, sharing social network. Messenger now has autoplay video ads, but WhatsApp is yet to make any real money for Facebook.

Does this mean we could start seeing video ads in out private conversations on WhatsApp too? Only time will tell.

How do you feel about autoplay videos popping up in your private conversations on Messenger?

YouTube Music and YouTube Premium launch in 17 countries

YouTube has finally launched its much talked about new services YouTube Music and YouTube Premium in 17 countries around the world. Users in countries such as U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Korea, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, and Sweden can now access YouTube’s new paid-for services.

There are two versions of the new YouTube Music. The free version presents us with the popular YouTube music that we like. Theoretically, the recommendations will be greatly improved thanks to improvements to YouTube’s search algorithms. It’ll also offer full albums, singles, remixes, playlists, etc.

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For $9.99 a month users gain access to the paid version of YouTube Music, offers an ad-free experience and the ability to listen to YouTube in the background, with the app minimized. Paid users will also be able to download tracks for offline listening.

As many YouTube users listen to music on the video platform, it has been trying to crack a paid-for music service for some time now. Let’s see if YouTube Music finally makes the breakthrough and offer some serious competition to the likes of Spotify.

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YouTube Go is a free, official app from Google that provides a variety of features that make the YouTube more bandwidth-conscious and help avoid buffering while on the go.

For an extra $2 a month users can subscribe to YouTube Premium for $11.99 a month. YouTube Premium offers everything that comes with the paid version of YouTube Music, but also provides a premium service for all YouTube videos. Subscribers to Premium won’t see any ads, will be able to download videos, and will also get access to YouTube Originals.

YouTube Originals is the home of YouTube’s original series and movies. Some of the more prominent YouTubers make many of these, but YouTube is trying to compete with the original content produced by Netflix and HBO with Originals. The video platform offers creators production budgets so that they can create higher quality videos than usual.

What do you think of YouTube’s new services? Will you be signing up?

Instagram’s IGTV video hub offers videos of up to an hour

Instagram is launching IGTV, a new hub where content creators can showcase up to 60 minutes of video content. IGTV is not supposed to be to be a direct competitor to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or HBO; but rather an attempt to take on YouTube. The onus will be on well-made user-generated video content created by the people who are most familiar with the Instagram platform.

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We first reported on Instagram’s plans for video at the beginning of the month when a report from The Wall Street Journal indicated that the social network was thinking of removing video time limits. Since then, Tech Crunch reported that the platform will be launching today, June 20. Instagram has been meeting content creators all week to discuss the creation of videos that are much closer to the 10-minute length commonly found on YouTube.

SCOOP: Instagram launching Snapchat-like vertical video TODAY

Video length: 15s to 60 mins
File size: upto 3.6GB
File type: .MP4
Video size: 9:16
Video thumbnail / cover image: .JPG

Likely to be officially launched @ 6pm UK (Wed 20 June) pic.twitter.com/bEcMp9fLjG

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) June 20, 2018

Tech Crunch also revealed various details about the types of videos that Instagram will on allow on IGTV. Videos will be vertically oriented, and content creators will be able to upload 4K videos up to an hour in length. They’ll be available in a centralized hub, which we know will be called IGTV. There’ll also be options for creators to link out to their own social media and web platforms, but the social network will also offer a revenue sharing system. More info will follow on the partnerships Instagram has fostered over the last week, and examples of the types of content we’re likely to see on IGTV

Facebook Memories puts the best of your Facebook in one place

Memories Home

Posted by Facebook on Monday, June 11, 2018

Facebook has launched Memories, which is a single place on Facebook where all your best moments will go. Anything, including posts and photos with your friends and family, can now be found in memories.

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When launching Memories, Facebook cited research that clearly shows revisiting old memories can have a positive effect on users. Facebook has a long history of adding features for visiting old memories including On This Day, Lookback, and Say Thanks, but Memories is the first place where the social network will consolidate all of your positive memories from your time on the site. In a blog post, Facebook Product Manager, Oren Hod, laid out some examples of what Facebook Memories will include:

“Your Memories page can include several sections:

On This Day: The content that you know and love will still be available within this section, showing your past posts and major life events from this date.
Friends Made On This Day: This section will include a list of friends you made on this date in the past, including special videos or collages that celebrate your friendversaries.
Recaps of Memories: This section will feature seasonal or monthly recaps of memories that have been bundled into a message or short video.
Memories You May Have Missed: If you haven’t checked your memories lately, this section will show you the posts that you might have missed from the past week.”

The social network is sensitive to the fact that there are certain memories or people that we might not want to be reminded of. To prevent unwelcome memories popping up, it offers comprehensive controls over people and dates that you don’t want to see.

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Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, the world has seemingly been doing some soul searching on whether Facebook has made the world a better place. A new home for users’ memories could be one way for the social network to start trying to do some good by its users.

Memories will pop up in your News Feed and your notifications. You’ll also be able to find the Memories tab on the left side of the screen if you’re on desktop, or in the More tab on the bottom right of your screen if you’re on Mobile. Another quick way to get to Memories is by going to facebook.com/memories.

Nvidia’s AI will help you create cool slow-motion videos on your mobile

Nvidia is famous for its graphics cards and gaming optimization software. Recently, however, Nvidia has been pushing into other fields that the huge computational capacity of its products allows. It has begun producing cryptocurrency mining specific processors, but the biggest advancements are coming from its AI development team.

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At this moment in time, AI can often seem like some lofty ideal for tech giants to play with or boring assistants that only respond to certain queries in a very inhuman manner. Nvidia’s latest development gives AI a cool job to do, and we think you’ll love it. Nvidia’s AI wants to help you create epic slow-motion videos using only your mobile phone

Creating slow-motion movies is all about capturing video at high frame rates. 240 frames-per-second (fps) is usually enough to create a convincing slow motion effect. Recording at such a high frame rate, however, can cause problems as it is an intensive process to record so many frames in a single second continuously. Or as Nvidia put it:

“While it is possible to take 240-frame-per-second videos with a cell phone, recording everything at high frame rates is impractical, as it requires large memories and is power-intensive for mobile devices.”

You’ll rarely be recording footage at a high enough frame rate for slow motion, so if you capture something that would look cool slowed down, it’ll appear jumpy from frame to frame.

Using 11,000 videos of sports and everyday activities shot at 240 fps, the researchers have trained the AI to fill in the missing frames for a video shot at a slower frame rate required for good slow motion. This means, theoretically, the system will be able to take video taken on your smartphone and add the extra frames needed for you to slow the action down. Nvidia also claims that the same system will be able to turn your old blurry smartphone videos into much clearer creations.

There are shortcomings as the system can only fill in seven frames between recorded frames. Also, as the system will only work with types of footage that it has been taught, but this will no doubt improve over time.

What will slow-motion movies you be making once you get your hands on this latest bit of tech?