St. Petersburg tech company believes it can be the next Facebook

according to ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — R.J. Garbowicz isn't getting a whole lot of sleep these days. "I'm working about 20 hours a day," says the 35-year-old tech entrepreneur. But that's the reality for the CEO of Webtalk, a small downtown St. Pete company that believes it can be the next Facebook. R.J. says a huge part of Webtalk's appeal is control and privacy when it comes to who sees what. Each of your followers can be specifically labeled — personal, private, business and so on — so "relationships in your real life" better mirror relationships "in your virtual life."

What next for Facebook and Google, if they don't break into China?

Only a few years ago, Chinese internet users were warned by Western critics against naively, or ignorantly, acquiescing to their home-grown tech companies' and government's internet surveillance. Facebook has more than 2.2 billion users worldwide, and its operations are obscuring the line between government surveillance and corporate surveillance. Then again, would anyone actually pay for a version of Facebook or Google where their personal data was left unharvested? Facebook and Google may have little choice but to enter China, the last frontier of the internet market, which has hundreds of millions of users. A set of regulations that were intended to increase data transparency is cracking banks' data monopoly.

Facebook will reportedly launch its long-awaited Portal video chat device next week

as mentioned in Facebook is planning to unveil its long-awaited video chat device "Portal" next week, Cheddar reports. "Portal" will reportedly function similarly to Amazon Echo, and cost between $300 and $400 depending on size. Facebook will launch "Portal," its long-awaited video chat device next week, Cheddar reports. Reports emerged that Facebook was working on a video chat device codenamed "Aloha" in 2017, and now it seems its plans are coming to fruition. The Portal device will also work with Amazon's smart assistant Alexa, play music and videos, and give users the news.

collected by :Roy Mark