The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Alphabet, Cisco, Amazon, Microsoft And Netflix

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – May 25, 2016 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (GOOGL), Cisco (CSCO), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) (AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) (MSFT) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) ( NFLX).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Technology Stock Roundup

The highlights of last week were squarely Alphabet’s (GOOGL) I/O event and Cisco’s ( CSCO) earnings results. Alphabet had so much going on, it was really hard to summarize. So I’ve picked on just a few highlights I liked.

Here are the top stories-

Google I/O

AI-Based Products : The company launched an Echo-like device called Google Home to make or cancel dinner reservations, send emails, schedule appointments, check flight information or sports scores, play music by synchronizing with Chromecast and smart-connect with other things around the house such as lights, turning them on or off as required. It is also voice-activated like Amazon’s (AMZN) Echo but the assistant doesn’t have a sexy name like Alexa. Instead it’s simply called “Google Assistant”. Then there were the mobile messaging apps called Allo and Duo (video chat) for Android and iOS.

The other thing it’s doing on the AI front is building a chatbot ecosystem along the lines that Microsoft ( MSFT) described recently. The Windows maker is further along in this game although its American teen bot was tricked by users and had to be pulled soon after launch. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) also has a bot making platform that it launched this April. Bots will start off being fun companions on social networks while learning more about the audience they target and also enhance personal assistance when dealing with apps.

VR : Google announced a platform for VR called Daydream built on Android N. Google has created VR versions of its own apps like YouTube, Street View, the Google Play Store, Play Movies and Google Photos while The New York Times, HBO, Netflix ( NFLX), Ubisoft and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) are outside companies developing for Daydream.

The company also announced two partnerships with IMAX and Yi Technology of China, both of which make movie cameras. The companies are collaborating to produce cameras that can capture 360 degree video (similar to the arrangement it has with GoPro that yielded the Odyssey camera selling for $15K). The cameras will work with Google’s video editing software called Jump.

Facebook’s VR approach has been slightly different: the company has prepared the hardware design and is planning to share it with hardware partners. The goal is the same: that there should be enough 3D content out there so the Cardboards and Rifts of this world can be put to use.

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