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Meta mojo is back: Earnings surprise sparks share surge, lifts Big Tech

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Meta mojo is back: Earnings surprise sparks share surge, lifts Big Tech

Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) shares rose nearly 20% in premarket trade after the Facebook owner floored Wall Street by slashing its spending forecast and boosting its stock buyback plan by $40 billion.

The company was set to add around $75 billion to its market value and would post its best day in a decade, if gains hold.

Meta stock surge also sparked a rally in shares of mega-caps Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), all of which sport market values of more than $1 trillion and report earnings after market close.

Meta’s move on Wednesday to rein in costs was a dramatic shift for a company that has spent billions of dollars to turn its vision of the futuristic metaverse into a reality even while its core business reeled from stiff competition and a weak advertising market.

The results prompted at least 19 analysts to boost their price targets on the stock, with several saying that a combination of lower costs, upbeat revenue growth and share buybacks will drive up earnings per share.

“That is rare”, analysts at Evercorse ISI said, referring to the positive developments. “And stocks react to rare.”

The results also provided some relief to the market after an earnings meltdown at Snap Inc (SNAP.N) on Tuesday that had sent the tech sector’s shares lower.

“After Snap’s disaster, the fact that Meta wasn’t quite so bad has brought encouragement to tech mega-caps,” said Fiona Cincotta, analyst at City Index.
“There is also a less hawkish Fed which is also boosting demand for growth and tech stocks generally.”

‘YEAR OF EFFICIENCY’

Meta now expects its 2023 expenses between $89 billion and $95 billion, a sharp drop from its previous outlook of $94 billion to $100 billion, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling the period a “Year of Efficiency.”

The forecast reflects savings from the 11,000 job cuts it announced in November, plans for lower data-center construction expenses and moves to drop non-crucial projects.

“Promising that 2023 will be a year of efficiency was always likely to go down well with investors concerned about the largesse in spending directed towards the unproven potential of the metaverse,” said AJ Bell, investment director at Russ Mould.

There were also signs that Meta’s core social-media business was getting back on track, with monetization efficiency for short-form video Reels on Facebook doubling and the business being on track to break-even as soon as end of 2023.

The company, which forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates, also said that Facebook’s daily active user base grew to 2 billion, from 1.98 billion in the prior quarter.

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WhatsApp to launch file sharing feature without internet

WhatsApp to launch file sharing feature without internet

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WhatsApp to launch file sharing feature without internet

The messaging app WhatsApp, owned by Meta, is working on a cool new feature to make it easier to share files even when you’re not connected to the internet.

Recent leaks say that pretty soon, you’ll be able to share photos, videos, music, and documents offline.

This new feature is all about letting you share different kinds of files without needing Wi-Fi or data. And don’t worry about security – the files you share will be encrypted, which means they’ll be safe from anyone trying to mess with them.

Screenshots that got leaked from the latest test version of WhatsApp for Android show us what kind of permissions this feature will need. One important thing is that it’ll be able to find other phones nearby that also have this offline file-sharing thing.

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For this to work on Android phones, WhatsApp needs a permission that lets it look for other devices using Bluetooth. But if you’re not comfortable with that, you can always turn it off.

Before this, WhatsApp added a feature that lets you pin notes to keep them handy. So, looks like WhatsApp is always coming up with cool stuff to make chatting even better!

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Flame-throwing robotic dog unleashed for sale in US

Flame-throwing robotic dog unleashed for sale in US

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Flame-throwing robotic dog unleashed for sale in US

A flame-throwing robotic dog is now available for sale in the US, thanks to an Ohio-based company.

Throwflame first released the contraption last year but recently announced it was back in stock, asking for $9,420 a piece.

The company released a promotional video showing the ARC Flamethrower and saying it can “send streams of fire up to 30 feet with the push of a button.”

The flamethrower is attached to a Go2 Robot Dog manufactured by the China-based Unitree.

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Throwflame said on its website the flamethrowers are legal to own and are “federally unregulated,” but are “not even considered a firearm (ironic) by the federal authorities.”

The company released its first flamethrowers in 2015, called the X15, which could send “a stream of flaming fuel or napalm up to 50 feet.”

That prompted a huge media response, questioning its legality. But Throwflame said the device remains “completely unrestricted in 48 states.”

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US military stage world’s first ever AI controlled warplane

US military stage world’s first ever AI controlled warplane

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US military stage world's first ever AI controlled warplane

The United States has finally started to seek answers to one of the most asked questions on the planet – who wins between man and machine?

Incredible details have emerged of the world’s first ever AI controlled warplane taking on a human piloted jet in a historic dogfight that saw both aircraft blasting through the sky at speeds of 1,200mph.

The insane test saw an AI powered modified F-16 – dubbed the X-62A – take on the same jet but with a human in the cockpit.

Both powerful jets went “nose-to-nose” as they battled 2,000ft up in the air, say officials.

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The tests were conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) alongside the US Air Force to learn about just how advanced artificial intelligence really is.

Results of the intense air battles have been kept tightly under wraps but they were done to show how safe and effective autonomous fighter jets could be.

Officials were also intrigued to see how close AI powered military jets are to operating safely in a complex war environment.

In the end, 21 test flights were done for the project taking place between December 2022 and September 2023.

Lt. Col. Maryann Karlen, deputy commandant of the test pilot school, explained how it all worked in a fascinating video on the historic dogfight.

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They said: “In September we actually took the X-62 and flew it against a live manned F-16.

“We built up in safety using the manoeuvres – first defensive, then offensive, then high aspect nose-to-nose engagements where we got as close as 2,000 feet at 1,200 miles per hour.”

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