Hasta La Gadget!

It has long been rumored that Facebook is developing its very own smart speaker and while the company was reportedly going to release it in the first half of this year, the data privacy scandal may have caused it to delay the product’s release. According to a new report, Facebook might go for an international launch of its smart speaker first before launching it in the United States to avoid public scrutiny of any further data privacy issues.

Citing two people who have had discussions with Facebook about the smart speaker, CNBC reports that Facebook is thinking about selling its smart speakers internationally before they’re launched in the United States. This may help the product avoid additional scrutiny on user privacy issues by politicians and users.

One of the two smart speakers that Facebook has in the pipeline will reportedly have a camera and a touchscreen. It will connect directly to Facebook Messenger thus enabling users to easily stay in touch with friends and family. A smart voice assistant will also be onboard that’s going to be powered by Facebook’s M artificial intelligence program.

The M program previously gave us the personal assistant chatbot on Messenger but Facebook shut down that iteration of this technology in January this year. The report mentions that the company hasn’t completely shut down the M program and will develop it into a voice assistant instead.

An international launch won’t just avoid further scrutiny in the United States, it will also help the company’s new devices establish a bigger presence in markets overseas where competitors from the likes of Google and Amazon are not as popular. Facebook hasn’t confirmed or denied this report as yet.

Facebook’s Smart Speaker May Be Launched Internationally First , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Online video streaming service Hulu revealed during its Hulu 18 Presentation at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York today that the service now has more than 20 million subscribers in the United States. It added that total engagement on Hulu is up by more than 60 percent and that 78 percent of the viewing on its service takes place in the living room on connected smart TVs. It also revealed that the Hulu offline downloads feature will be available in the not too distant future.

Hulu has also announced its first-ever multi-year deal with DreamWorks Animation today. This makes the service the exclusive streaming home to future DreamWorks Animation feature films as well as iconic films from the DreamWorks library. Hulu is also going to work with DreamWorks Animation Television to create original kids and family series which will be exclusively streamed on its service.

The Hulu offline downloads feature is going to be made available to subscribers later this year. They will be able to download their favorite shows and movies for watching when they don’t have an internet connection. It does mention that this downloadable content experience is going to be ad-supported, which means that Hulu will give advertisers the opportunity to target audiences even when they have saved content for offline viewing.

While it hasn’t provided a precise release date for this as yet, Hulu says that the downloadable content experience will be live in the 2018-19 upfront season.

Hulu Offline Downloads Coming Soon , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

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