Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, August 27

Facebook Goes Nuclear On The Messaging War With Its M Assistant: All messaging apps are the same no more. A few years ago, there were few differences between SMS and a slew of chat apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Kik, Line, KakaoTalk and Facebook Messenger. But each have slowly defined themselves differently, whether through simplicity, connections to businesses, media, stickers, games, location, and other features. But today, Facebook escalated the battle for chat with the official announcement of M, its new personal assistant built into Messenger. It can actually complete tasks for you, such as buy things, deliver gifts, make reservations, arrange travel, or just about anything else you ask of it. What’s truly unique, though, is what’s behind M. Specifically, a lot of live bodies. M isn’t just artificial intelligence. Facebook has contracted real people to help M answer people’s requests while teaching the technology how to handle them automatically in the future. M is still in early beta testing, so it’s hard to assess just how well it accomplishes this grand ambition. But if it works, Facebook may have developed a product so useful yet so complex and resource-intensive that it could differentiate Facebook Messenger in a way its competitors can’t or won’t follow. There are digital assistants like Google Now and Siri. But those are so mechanized that they can only provide rote answers and reminders. There are personal assistants like Magic and Operator that use humans to answer complex requests, but they’re independent apps without massive scale. And there are messaging apps fighting to grow their already-huge audiences, but that still look similar despite their attempts to differentiate.

Google Now’s Staff Exodus Reveals Hurdles for New CEO Pichai: On Thursday, Microsoft fired up an old rivalry. The Redmond giant released an update to its Bing search app that allows other apps to tap into its information architecture. See something in one mobile app — a nice location shot in Instagram, say — and, with a tap, you can summon information about that something via Bing. Nothing earth-shattering. But Microsoft happened to put out the release on Android first, and did so right before Google is set to launch Now on Tap, a nearly identical feature. Google teased the product with some fanfare in May, at its I/O developer conference, as a breakthrough iteration of Google Now, its personal assistant and one of the twin bedrocks for CEO Larry Page when he returned as executive in 2011. What went unannounced was that most of the original team that built Now had departed, many of them just before I/O, according to multiple sources. Some had grown frustrated that the product, born within Android, was shuttered into search inside of Google, they said. And Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP and incoming CEO, did not prioritize the product as much as Page. The exits reveal the hiccups Google has incubating new products that reach across multiple units of the tech giant. They also expose some key traits of Pichai’s leadership style — and some of the many hurdles he has ahead as he marshals Google’s core business. At some point last year Amit Singhal, the SVP who heads search, requested that Now move from Android into his division, multiple sources said. Several engineers objected. According to multiple sources, their initial vision of Now — as a mobile assistant tailored to particular users — works best living on the mobile operating system, not within search. Also, Google is a political place and search is Congress. Big, necessary, stodgy. Pichai approved Singhal’s request. In part, perhaps, because Google must balance products like Now, which push information to users, with its central business problem: It makes less money from mobile searches. Google has started to deploy Now as a primary vehicle for indexing apps. Two of the engineers who created Now left the company in March; several others left around the same time. Only one of the founding team remains at Google, according to multiple sources. (Google, again, declined to comment on this.) For several, the experience of seeing their product steered in an unwanted direction was too dispiriting, they said. “Google’s a big company,” said one person who departed. “This is how big companies work.”

Amazon to launch video streaming service in Japan: Amazon.com said on Wednesday it plans to launch its video streaming service in Japan for members of its Prime paid service as it gears up for Netflix Inc's planned entry into the country in September. Amazon's Prime members get unlimited access to videos under its Prime Instant Video service. Prime membership, which costs 3,900 yen ($32.50) a year in Japan, provides members other services such as the option to choose a delivery date for online purchases for free. Amazon plans to offer a broad video lineup including U.S. and Japanese films, TV shows and cartoons in Japan.

In-Flight Wi-Fi Prices Jump as Demand Surges: Many travelers are experiencing sticker shock from in-flight Wi-Fi these days. While there are several in-flight Wi-Fi providers, including ViaSat and Global Eagle Entertainment, Gogo is the top provider, equipping more than 2,000 planes from airlines like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Virgin America with its service, up from 1,300 in 2011. Gogo’s prices often change depending on when and where you are flying. But on some flights — especially transcontinental routes crammed with business travelers who may have cushy expense accounts — prices have doubled from three years ago. Gogo’s prices are not just higher now; they are also more unpredictable. The company uses a method called dynamic pricing, in which it tries to forecast the demand for Wi-Fi on each flight and scale pricing accordingly. So the prices for the full durations of transcontinental flights also change each day: Gogo charges the most, $40, on Mondays and Thursdays; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays cost $34; and Saturdays are the cheapest, at $28. Driving the uneven prices on certain routes is Gogo’s reliance on higher fees to ease overcrowding of its network. With passengers packing a growing number of Internet-connected electronics like smartphones, gaming devices and tablets in their carry-on luggage, the amount of bandwidth they consume on popular flights keeps expanding. Consumers can take heart because there are several ways to pay less for in-flight Wi-Fi. If Internet in the sky is that important, you can always pick an airline offering cheaper Wi-Fi, like Southwest or JetBlue. Or if you’re flying on a Gogo-equipped airplane, you can choose a day of the week when Wi-Fi prices are lower. Another way to get a cheaper rate for Gogo is o rdering the service before boarding the plane. People can buy an all-day pass to use Wi-Fi on any Gogo-equipped flight for $16, while frequent travelers can purchase a monthly subscription for $50.

Back-to-School Apps for the Organized Student: Among the apps worth considering is gFlash+, which takes flashcards to a whole new level. You can create digital cards and write facts that you need to remember on them (“e to the power of i times pi is 1,” or some such). Use those cards to quiz yourself. You can embed photos, audio files or videos, or all three, into flashcards to make them more visual and interactive. Users can share their flashcard sets with others through email, so a whole study group could benefit. The core app, which allows users to create unlimited card sets, is free on iOS and Android. The pro version, which costs $4, gets rid of ads and includes organizing features and more. You can also pay to get access to card sets from third-party publishers, including big names in education like McGraw-Hill. StudyBlue is an alternative flashcard app with many of the same features, including quizzes and card sharing, but a cleaner, more minimalistic look. Users can see millions of flashcards created and shared by other students and teachers. To use most of the app’s features, StudyBlue users need to create a free account on iOS and Android. Upgrading to the pro edition gives users access to extras like the ability to customize the formatof your flashcards. StudyBlue’s pro level is somewhat pricey at $18 a month or $80 a year. Note-taking is a vital part of student life, which is one reason to check out the Notability app. Notability, $6 for iPhones and iPads, lets users sketch on their screens, take handwritten notes or type notes. Typed notes don’t have to be in a linear document style — text boxes can be added anywhere on the page. Students can also annotate source material that is in PDF form directly from the app. And the app lets users make audio recordings of lectures or discussions so they can review a lesson later. Notability also remembers the order in which you made your sketches and notes, and shows them at the appropriate points when you play the audio back. The app integrates with cloud services like Dropbox and iCloud and social media platforms like Twitter, making it easier to share notes with classmates. On Android, Papyrus is a great alternative to Notability, providing many of the same functions. Users can take handwritten notes, make sketches using drawing tools, type in text and annotate images.