If 2024 was the year augmented reality glasses started to feel real, 2025 is already shaping up to be a really interesting year for AR, with a number of smaller companies showing off AR at CES 2025. Chinese company RayNeo brought their new X3 Pro AR frames to CES, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it seems to have squeezed an impressive amount of tech into a relatively small pair of frames.
Like AR glasses from Meta and Snap, RayNeo use microLED projectors and waveguides to produce a full-color AR display. The field of view is just 25 degrees — notably smaller than what Snap or Meta have in their products — but it’s impressively bright. Even under the fairly bright lights of a Las Vegas casino ballroom, I had no problem seeing the menus or even reading text (the display outputs 2,500 nits, according to the company).
What stood out the most, though, was the size. At less than 3 ounces, the RayNeo X3 Pro are impressively lightweight. Like other AR glasses I’ve tried, they don’t quite look like a “normal” pair of frames, but they don’t feel that far off either. RayNeo opted to put the onboard cameras in the center of the frames rather than in the corners, which does add a bit of bulk.
Karissa Bell for Engadget
In terms of apps, there wasn’t much to demo. I tried a real-time translation app, which beamed English text in front of me as RayNeo’s Bernie Liu spoke Chinese. I can’t speak for the accuracy of the translation, but it seemed to do a pretty good job despite the fact that we were in a noisy environment.
I also briefly chatted with a built-in AI-assistant powered by chatGPT and snapped a few photos. Liu told me the company is also working with outside developers who are already creating their own apps for the upcoming device, so hopefully it will roll out with a few more capabilities.
That said, battery life will likely be an issue as it is with other AR glasses. Liu said the battery currently lasts around 30 minutes with heavy use, though the company is still working on improving various aspects of the frames.
RayNeo hasn’t announced an official price or launch date yet, but Liu told me they are hoping to put them on sale later this year for around $1500.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/rayneo-ar-glasses-hands-on-at-ces-2025-surprisingly-light-and-bright-120047035.html?src=rss
Robot vacuums can make cleaning up a lot more convenient but, depending on your home’s layout, might not work with every floorplan. Chinese appliance maker Dreame is hoping to address that with its X50 robot vacuum that’s able to climb over small stairs without assistance.
Though the robot vac has yet to launch in the US, it’s already generated some buzz thanks to a teaser posted on YouTube last year (the X50 is already available in China). Now, the $1699 X50 is making its US debut at CES 2025, with Dreame offering an up-close look at its abilities.
Dreame says the X50 can handle stairs up to 6cm high (about 2.4 inches), thanks to its “ProLeap System,” which relies on a motorized arm underneath the vacuum that’s able to swing out and boost it over steps. So while the X50 won’t be able to climb up a full-size staircase (the average stair height in a home is between 7 and 8 inches, according to Google), it should be able to maneuver over smaller steps and other obstacles that may trip up other robot vacuums.
In addition to its stair-climbing abilities, the X50 can maneuver underneath furniture and identify up to 200 types of objects, which helps it detect obstacles in its path. It also has a built-in hot water mop and a specialized brush to sweep up hair without becoming a tangled mess.
Dreame is opening pre-orders for the X50 on January 7, with people who pre-order also getting an extended two-year warranty and an extra cleaning kit. The vacuum officially goes on sale on Amazon and Dreame’s website on February 14.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/dreames-x50-robot-vacuum-can-climb-stairs-200058312.html?src=rss
Unlike some of the robots we’ve seen at CES 2025, Mi-Mo doesn’t have a face, but it still looks a little familiar thanks to its resemblance to the iconic Pixar lamp. Mi-Mo is still just a prototype, but there are some interesting ideas behind the unusual-looking robot walking around the show floor.
The creation of Japanese firm Jizai, the company describes it as a “general purpose AI robot” that “thinks and acts” on its own. It has a built-in camera and microphones, which allows it to move around and respond to voice prompts and commands. It runs on multiple large language models that enable its voice and image recognition capabilities.
When we saw it, Mi-Mo didn’t show many signs of being autonomous. It mostly shimmied around the show floor and “waved” at people passing by, which was honestly kind of cute. Jizai’s Yuji Oshima told me that the company envisions it as being useful for some childcare tasks, like reminding children to do their homework and then watching over them to make sure they actually complete it. (Jizai’s website notes the company is also interested in using robotics for elder care.)
This is Mi-Mo a "general purpose AI robot" that looks kind of like the Pixar lamp on top of a small table. pic.twitter.com/yTHq8Smnoz
But Mi-Mo wasn't created only to be a caretaker robot. Oshima said it’s meant to be an open platform for developers, researchers and others to find their own ways to use the robot. Jizai also intends for it to be somewhat modular so people can customize Mi-Mo with bespoke software, additional sensors or other hardware attachments.
Jizai plans to make Mi-Mo available as a developer kit later this year and has opened a waitlist where interested parties can sign up for updates.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/this-six-legged-lamp-might-help-your-kid-with-their-homework-183046893.html?src=rss
Elvie, the company known for its popular wearable breast pump, is showing off a new piece of baby gear at CES. Called Rise, it’s an app-controlled baby bouncer that can transform into a bassinet with a baby inside.
The $799 device is made for infants in the first few months of their lives. Elvie says the bouncer works for babies up to 20 lbs or 6 months old, while the bassinet is meant for babies up to 5 months or 22 lbs.
While in “bouncer mode,” parents can customize the specific bounce pattern from the accompanying Elvie Rise Sleep & Soothe app. The company says its “SootheLoop” technology is meant to be a gentle motion that’s more like the movement of a caregiver rather than a repetitive robotic movement. There’s also a manual mode for babies to bounce themselves as they grow a bit bigger and stronger.
In its press release, Elvie says its own study found that two-thirds of babies between 0 and 3 months often sleep in “non-safe” products like bouncers or swings. The Rise is meant to address this as parents can switch from bouncer mode to bassinet mode without — hopefully — waking their child.
Elvie
The Rise is equipped with a "transition handle” that allows parents to transition the device between modes. While in bouncer mode, this involves pushing on the bottom end, near the feet, and squeezing the handle to pull up the sides to form the walls of the bassinet. The straps from bouncer mode automatically retract to make it a surface suitable for sleeping.
The company says its bassinet complies with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s sleep safe guidelines, though babies should not be left in the bouncer unattended. The device is also meant to be more portable than the typical bassinet. It collapses for easier transport and has a magnetic charger so it can be used even when it’s not plugged in.
The Elvie Rise is available now for pre-order. The company expects to begin shipping orders March 14, 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/elvies-newest-product-is-a-smart-baby-bouncer-that-transforms-into-a-bassinet-111550670.html?src=rss
At CES 2025, Bosch is showing off an AI-enabled bassinet with sensors that can detect just about anything an anxious parent could ever hope to monitor about their baby. It’s not clear when the device, called Revol, may actually be available, but it’s able to track an impressive amount of data.
At first glance, the Revol looks somewhat similar to other smart bassinets like the ever-popular Snoo. It has mesh walls and can soothe a sleeping baby with automated movements. But unlike the Snoo, which rocks in a horizontal motion, the Revol moves vertically with the mattress slowly raising and lowering like a tiny elevator.
But most of the power of the crib lies in the built-in baby monitor that provides a live video feed to caregivers. Inside the arm that extends over the crib is an array of sensors that can track both the environment around the bassinet and what’s going on inside.
Karissa Bell for Engadget
It uses a millimeter wave radar sensor that Bosch says can accurately measure the heart rate and respiration of the baby. That data is then sent to an app on the caregiver’s phone, where they can view real-time stats and health reports. There are also sensors for monitoring the environment of the baby’s surroundings, including temperature and humidity sensors, as well a particle meter to measure air quality.
Finally — because it's 2025 and every product needs to have an AI component — the Revol also has AI-enabled features. It uses computer vision to detect if an object, like a blanket or stuffed animal, is near the baby’s face and can alert parents to the danger (the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against keeping any soft objects in babies’ sleep area).
All that sounds like a pretty impressive list of features for a bassinet, but expecting parents shouldn’t hold their breath for the Revol to become available. A Bosch rep told me that the company plans to bring the bassinet to the Chinese market first and that it’s targeting sometime in 2026 for a launch in the US, citing the need to comply with US laws and regulations.
There’s also no price yet on the device, though Bosch told me they are hoping to price it at around $1200. That may seem steep, but the company plans to offer additional add-ons that can convert the crib into a changing table and desk, so parents and kids can get more use out of it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/boschs-ai-enabled-bassinet-tracks-everything-youd-ever-want-to-know-about-your-babys-sleep-025258549.html?src=rss
Meta has nuked a bunch of its AI-generated profiles from Facebook Instagram, the company confirmed, after the AI characters prompted widespread outrage and ridicule from users on social media.
The AI-generated profiles, which were labeled as “AI managed by Meta,” launched in September of 2023, rolling out alongside the company’s celebrity-branded AI chatbots (also discontinued). Meta doesn’t seem to have updated any of these profiles for several months, and the pages seem to have been largely unnoticed until this week, following an interview published by the Financial Times with Meta’s VP of Generative AI, Connor Hayes.
In the interview, Hayes spoke about the company’s goal to eventually fill its services with AI-generated profiles that can interact with people and function “kind of in the same way that accounts do.” Those comments brought attention to the extant fMeta-created AI profiles and, well, users were not exactly impressed with what they found.
With handles like “hellograndpabrian,” a supposed “retired textile businessman who is always learning” and “datingwithCarter,” an AI “dating coach,” the chatbots were meant to showcase “unique interests and personalities” for users to chat with. On Instagram, their profiles also featured AI-generated posts that, as 404 Media noted, looked a lot like the AI spam that’s become prevalent in many corners of Facebook.
Meta
An AI persona called “Liv” sparked particular outrage. The Instagram profile identified “Liv” as a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller.” Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah posted a series of screenshots in which she interrogated “Liv” about how Meta trained the AI, with “Liv” sharing that it was created by a “predominantly white team.” Independent journalist Mady Castigan posted another conversation in which “Liv” said that its creators had been inspired in part by Sophia Vergara’s character from Modern Family, a character that is neither queer nor Black.
“There is confusion: the recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product,” a spokesperson told Engadget. “The accounts referenced are from a test we launched at Connect in 2023. These were managed by humans and were part of an early experiment we did with AI characters."
Beyond sparking ridicule for their responses and attempts to appropriate marginalized identities, users found the AI profiles were impossible to block, for reasons unknown. Rather than fix the issue, Meta's solution was to kill the experiment entirely. "We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs," a spokesperson said, "and are removing those accounts to fix the issue.”
While this trial run has gone up in flames, the company doesn’t seem to be abandoning its plans to bring more AI-generated “characters” to its apps. Earlier this year, the company teased AI clones of human creators capable of holding lifelike video calls. Creators can already train their own chatbots to respond to followers on their behalf. Meta also began experimenting with inserting its own AI-generated imagery into users’ Facebook feeds.
In an interview last year, Hayes told me that Meta likely will become more “proactive” about surfacing AI-generated content over time, comparing it to the shift from showing recommended content instead of posts from people you follow.
“In the beginning of social apps … the corpus of stuff that you could see on a given day was sort of constrained by who you followed or were friends with. And over the last like, five or six years, a lot of apps — ourselves included — have moved to, you know, relax that constraint and start recommending content from accounts you don't follow.
“I think probably the next leap that's going to happen there is relaxing the constraint of what humans can create, and actually getting to feeds of content that are a combination of things that, you know, humans have created, but also that are entirely machine generated.”
It may still be awhile before Meta fully realizes that vision. But if the reaction to its early experimentations is any indication, the company still has a lot of work to do to convince people AI personas are worth interacting with in the first place.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-sends-its-ai-generated-profiles-to-hell-where-they-belong-204758789.html?src=rss
Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister turned Meta executive, is leaving after a seven-year stint with the social media company. Clegg announced his departure in posts on X and Threads, saying that “this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta.”
Clegg will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime policy executive and former White House aide to George W. Bush known for his deep ties to Republican circles in Washington. As Chief Global Affairs Officer, Kaplan — as Semafornotes —will be well-positioned to run interference for Meta as Donald Trump takes control of the White House.
Clegg joined Meta in 2018, a year after the British public deemed the former leader of the Liberal Democrats unelectable. The company then known as Facebook was looking to improve its political relationships after Cambridge Analytica and other scandals. In 2022, he was promoted to President of Global Affairs, a position that reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg (his previous role was overseen by Meta’s then-COO Sheryl Sandberg).
The former politician played a key role in some of Meta’s most significant and controversial decisions. He publicly defended the company’s decision not to apply its fact checking policies to politicians and authored its public statements about the suspension and reinstatement of Donald Trump’s Facebook account. More recently, Clegg has criticized the European Union’s handling of tech regulation, arguing that the bloc is hampering advancements in AI.
“My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between ‘big tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector,” Clegg wrote in a post on Threads. “I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe.”
Clegg said in a Facebook post that he will spend the next “few months” working with Kaplan and “representing the company at a number of international gatherings in Q1 of this year” before he formally steps away from the company. He didn’t indicate what he may do next.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/nick-clegg-is-leaving-meta-after-7-years-overseeing-its-policy-decisions-204207077.html?src=rss
Meta President Global Affairs Nick Clegg speaks during a press conference at the Meta showroom in Brussels on December 07, 2022. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)
There’s no longer any question that Threads and Bluesky have created the most viable alternatives to the platform once known as Twitter. But while the two services may share some of the same goals, they’ve shown very different visions for how text-based social networks should operate.
Threads, of course, is controlled by Meta, which is controlled by Mark Zuckerberg. And though the company has claimed to embrace “public conversation,” it has also consistently put its thumb on the scale to encourage certain types of speech over others. The company throttled “political” content in an election year, forcing users to tweak their settings to enable posts about elections or “social topics” to appear in their “for you” feed.
This desire to limit any of what Meta described as "potentially sensitive" content has also led to some questionable moderation decisions. For months, the app prevented users from searching for some topics, including those related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Those limits have since been lifted, but there have been numerous and inexplicable instances of other moderation failures on Threads.
In October, Instagram head Adam Mosseri admitted the company had “found mistakes and made changes” after users reported their accounts had been penalized for using mundane words like “saltines” and “cracker.” Earlier this month, Meta’s communications director Andy Stone apologized after users noted that searches for posts about Austin Tice, the American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012, were blocked on the app because the content “may be associated with the sale of drugs.” Stone didn’t offer an explanation but said the issue has been addressed.
Bluesky, on the other hand, has taken less of a top-down approach to moderation. While the company employs some of its own moderators to enforce “baseline moderation,” users have a lot of control over how much questionable or harmful content they want to see. Blueksy also allows people to create their own moderation services for an even more custom experience.
“Moderation is in many ways, like governance,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told me earlier this year. “And setting the norms of a social space, we don't think one person or one company should be unilaterally deciding that for an entire ecosystem where people are having public conversations important to the state of the world.”
That philosophy plays out in other important ways. Twitter was never a major source of traffic for most publishers, even before Elon Musk’s takeover. But the platform once played a vital role in the news ecosystem. At a time when Elon Musk has acknowledged that X penalizes posts with links and Threads’ top exec has said that Meta doesn’t want to “encourage” hard news, Bluesky’s leaders have actually tried to foster link sharing, and several publishers have reported seeing significantly more traffic from Bluesky, compared with Threads and X.
But perhaps the most obvious difference between Meta and Bluesky’s approach is in what order posts even appear. Bluesky defaults to a reverse chronological feed that shows posts from accounts you follow. Users can also choose to add custom feeds based on hundreds of different topics. For example, I follow a “cat pics” feed that surfaces posts with photos of cats and a “trending news” feed that surfaces links to news stories that are being shared widely on the platform.
And while Meta has recently come out with its own version of custom feeds, the app still defaults to an algorithmic “for you” feed that surfaces a mix of content users actually want and unasked-for drivel that’s so random and bizarre it’s been compared to a gas leak. (Meta said it would test allowing users to make their following feed the default, but hasn’t provided an update.) It’s also telling that even the content creators getting paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to post on Threads don’t really understand the platform.
There are even more significant changes coming in 2025. While both Threads and Bluesky have so far been blissfully ad-free, both services will need to eventually make money.
Bluesky has so far experimented with other ways of making money, including selling custom domains and an upcoming subscription service that will offer extra features to paying users. Though Graber hasn’t entirely ruled out advertising, she’s also been clear that she doesn't want to “enshittify” the service for the sake of advertising.
Threads, on the other hand, is already attached to Meta’s multi-billion dollar ad machine, an entity so intrusive many people believe the company’s apps literally listen to their conversations (a theory that’s been repeatedly debunked.) Though Zuckerberg has indicated the company isn’t in a rush to turn Threads into a “very large business,” it could see its first ads in January, according to reports, and there’s little reason to believe Meta won’t eventually employ the same playbook it has with all its other services.
All this makes Bluesky even more of an underdog. Threads is already more than 10 times its size and Meta has made it clear it has no problem using its copy-or-kill tactics against the upstart.
But that’s also exactly why so many Bluesky users fervently believe that the platform is the one that “has the juice.” While Threads and X put public conversations in the hands of autocratic billionaires, Bluesky is an independent entity and has structured its platform much more democratically. The platform has had its share of moderationcontroversies, but it puts far more control in the hands of its users. It’s welcomed developers, who have created dozens of third-party apps for the service.
All that may not ultimately be enough to fend off Meta, which can afford to throw billions of dollars at Threads. But Bluesky’s vision for an open-source decentralized platform is about much more than becoming the next big social media site. “We set out to change the way social media works from the bottom up,” Graber said during a recent press event. “I want us to have choice over what we see.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-and-threads-showed-us-very-different-visions-for-a-post-x-future-171046336.html?src=rss
Earlier this year, Meta previewed Movie Gen, an AI video editing tool that looked impressively realistic (at least in the sample clips it released). At the time, though, Meta said it was still a research project with no immediate plans to make the features available to users.
But it now seems that Movie Gen could arrive on Instagram sooner than later. Instagram’s top exec Adam Mosseri posted a short video previewing the kind of seamless AI edits that will eventually be possible, saying that the company is “hoping to bring this to Instagram next year.”
In the clip, Mosseri says that Meta is “working on some really exciting AI tools” for video creators. “You should be able to do anything you want with your videos,” he says. "You should be able to change your outfit, or change the context in which you're sitting, or add a chain — whatever you can think of.”
During the short clip, Mosseri’s backdrop and outfit changes several times, including a brief shot where he looks like a Muppet-inspired character. Throughout the clip, the transitions look pretty seamless without obvious AI artifacts. Of course, that won’t necessarily be the case once Movie Gen is actually available and videos of its abilities aren’t entirely controlled by Meta. But if it works anything like Mosseri’s teaser video, it could open up some interesting possibilities for Instagram creators.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Meta is teasing the feature just days after OpenAI released its video generation model to subscribers. Meta has repeatedly said it wants its AI assistant to be the “most used” in the world and in an update that was also published today, the company said Meta AI has “nearly” 600 million monthly users.
Unfortunately, Mosseri didn’t indicate exactly when Movie Gen features may actually arrive on Instagram, other than some time in 2024. But he did say that there would be “more to come” from the company.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/metas-ai-video-editing-features-are-coming-to-instagram-next-year-191501418.html?src=rss
Another day, another new Threads feature. Meta’s app will “soon” be rolling out a feature that allows users to re-share photos and videos to their timelines with credit to the original poster but without the original post attached.
Once available, users will need to long press on a photo or video from their feed and select “use media.” They’ll then be able to draft a new post with the image of the clip attached, with a watermark from the original poster showing in the top left corner. “This is a quick, easy way to add your creative takes to trending images and clips without quote posting,” Threads chief Adam Mosseri wrote in a post.
The feature is presumably meant to make it easier for people to reshare other users’ work with some credit for its original creator. Mosseri has fielded a number of complaints on Threads from frustrated users who see their work ripped off without credit. In a post last month, Mosseri said that Meta was “trying to shift more distribution from aggregators to creators on both Instagram and Threads,” though he acknowledged it can be “very difficult to do so” when the original post was lifted from a non Meta-owned platform. On Instagram, the company recently tweaked its algorithm in an attempt to boost creators over aggregators.
Judging by some of the reactions to Threads’ latest update, however, a number of creators are still unhappy with Meta’s approach. “It just seems like blatant content theft,” one photographer replied. “Quoting the post is a far more effective way of sharing someone's content with your own comments while crediting the creator,” another user said.
In a separate post, Meta noted that individual creators are able to disable media reuse in their app’s settings, so it is possible to block your posts from being shared this way. (There are also settings to prevent others from quote posting entirely.) However, for those worried about accounts straight up ripping off their posts in the interest of engagement farming, there’s still little any user can do to prevent less scrupulous accounts from copying their content with screenshots or other means.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-new-use-media-feature-is-its-latest-attempt-to-fight-stolen-memes-and-engagement-farming-224119483.html?src=rss
Threads is previewing yet another significant new feature before the end of the year. The app will “soon” begin testing the ability for users to schedule posts ahead of time, according to an update from Meta exec Adam Mosseri.
Mosseri shared a screenshot of the upcoming feature, which shows a simple tool to set a date and time for a post to go live in Threads’ post editor. Interestingly, Mosseri said that users will only be able to schedule new posts, not replies to existing posts because the company wants to continue to prioritize “real-time conversation.” Though he didn't give any indication of when the tool may roll out more broadly, he said that the feature had been in the works “for months,” so it’s likely Meta plans on releasing it more widely at some point.
The ability to schedule posts will be particularly useful for brands, creators and others who use the service to manage professional accounts. Though there are already third-party tools that enable post scheduling, many require a paid subscription.
Post scheduling is the latest sign that Meta is looking to add more features geared toward brands, businesses and other social media professionals to the 300 million-user app. The service also began testing post analytics earlier this month. Both features could come in handy when Meta decides to flip the switch on advertising for the platform — a change rumored to be coming next month.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-is-working-on-scheduled-posts-215537909.html?src=rss
Meta’s Threads app has now grown to 300 million users, with more than 100 million people using the service each day. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new milestone in a post on Threads, saying “Threads strong momentum continues.”
Zuckerberg has repeatedly speculated that Threads has a “good chance” of becoming the company’s next billion-user app. Though it’s still pretty far off of that goal, its growth seems to be accelerating. The app hit 100 million users last fall, and reached 275 million in early November. Elsewhere, Apple revealed that Threads was the second-most downloaded app in 2024, behind shopping app Temu, which took the top spot in Apple’s rankings.
The coming weeks could see some major changes for Threads as Meta looks to capitalize on that growth. The company reportedly has plans to begin experimenting with the first ads for threads in early 2025, according to a recent report in The Information.
Threads isn’t the only app trying to reclaim the “public square” as some longtime users depart the platform now known as X. Bluesky has also seen significant growth of late. The decentralized service nearly doubled its users base in November, and currently has just over 25 million users. (The company has never revealed how many of its users visit the site daily.) Though still much smaller than Threads, Meta seems to have taken inspiration from some of Bluesky’s signature features in recent weeks, including its take on starter packs and custom feeds.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/metas-threads-has-grown-to-300-million-users-234138108.html?src=rss
After a federal court last week denied TikTok’s request to delay a law that could ban the app in the United States, the company is now turning to the Supreme Court in an effort to buy time. The social media company has asked the court to temporarily block the law, currently set to take effect January 19, 2025, it said in a brief statement.
“The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech,” TikTok wrote in a post on X. “Today, we are asking the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment.”
The company, which has argued that the law is unconstitutional, lost its initial legal challenge of the law earlier this month. The company then requested a delay of the law’s implementation, saying that President-elect Donal Trump had said he would “save” TikTok. That request was denied on Friday.
In its filing with the Supreme Court, TikTok again referenced Trump's comments. "It would not be in the interest of anyone—not the parties, the public, or the courts—for the Act’s ban on TikTok to take effect only for the new Administration to halt its enforcement hours, days, or even weeks later," it wrote. Trump's inauguration is one day after a ban of the app would take effect.
TikTok is now hoping the Supreme Court will intervene to suspend the law in order to give the company time to make its final legal appeal. Otherwise, app stores and Internet service providers will be forced to begin blocking TikTok next month, making the app inaccessible to its 170 million US users.
Update December 16, 2024, 1:30 PM PT: Updated with details from TikTok's court filing.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-asks-the-supreme-court-to-delay-upcoming-ban-211510659.html?src=rss
TikTok logo displayed on a phone screen is seen in this illustration photo taken in Poland on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Snap is changing up its program that allows creators to make money from shortform videos. The company announced a new monetization program that will allow the app’s influencers to make money from Spotlight videos that are one minute or longer by earning a share of their content's ad revenue.
The change will streamline Snap’s monetization features across Spotlight, its in-app TikTok competitor, and Stories, where Snap first launched its revenue sharing feature. It also means the company will end its Spotlight Reward Program, the creator fund-like arrangement that paid creators directly. That program will be discontinued January 30, 2025, with the new monetization arrangement taking effect February 1.
Snap announced the update as TikTok moves closer to an outright ban in the United States. The ByteDance-owned service is currently facing a January 19, 2025, deadline to sell or be banned f the Supreme Court doesn’t intervene. In its announcement, Snap notes that Spotlight viewership is “up 25% year-over-year” and that “there is a unique and growing opportunity for creators to monetize this format in the same way they do with Stories.”
Under the new “unified” program, creators are eligible to earn money from Spotlight videos or Stories if they meet the following requirements:
-Have at least 50,000 followers.
-Post at least 25 times per month to Saved Stories or Spotlight.
-Post to either Spotlight or Public Stories on at least 10 of the last 28 days.
-Achieve one of the following in the last 28 days:
-10 million Snap views
-1 million Spotlight views
-12,000 hours of view time
Some of those metrics are a bit higher than Snap’s previous requirements for Stories, which set the bar at only 10 Story posts a month. But, as TechCrunchnotes, the new threshold is much higher for Spotlight creators, who could previously earn money from the company’s creator fund with only 1,000 followers and 10,000 unique views. The change also pushes creators to make longer content for Spotlight as they can no longer be paid for videos shorter than one minute.
If TikTok does end up being banned, Snap will be one of several platforms trying to lure creators to its product. And while the app is known primarily for its private messaging features, the company says that the number of people posting publicly has “more than tripled” in the last year, and that it will be “evolving and expanding the total rewards available to creators” going forward.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/snap-will-expand-ad-revenue-sharing-to-creators-on-spotlight-193029473.html?src=rss
Doha , Qatar - 28 February 2024; A general view of the Snapchat logo during day two of Web Summit Qatar 2024 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images)
A federal court has denied TikTok’s request for a temporary pause of a law that could result in a ban of the app next month. The ruling, which came in response to an emergency injunction filed by TikTok earlier this week, is the latest legal setback for the company as it tries to avoid a total ban of its app in the United States.
In its request for a delay in the law taking effect, TikTok indicated that it planned to appeal to the Supreme Court. The company’s lawyers also cited the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump may want to take a different approach given some of Trump’s past comments about the app. But in a brief order, a panel of three judges denied that request, writing that such a pause was “unwarranted.”
TikTok’s future now depends on the Supreme Court, though there’s no guarantee the court will agree to hear the case. "As we have previously stated, we plan on taking this case to the Supreme Court, which has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech,” the company said in a statement. “The voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world will be silenced on January 19th, 2025 unless the TikTok ban is halted."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-loses-its-bid-to-pause-the-law-that-could-ban-it-next-month-004200884.html?src=rss
The logo of TikTok is seen during the China International Textile and Garment Supply Chain Expo in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province on December 5, 2024. (Photo by AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Reddit is taking down posts linking to the manifesto of the suspected shooter of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The company says it’s enforcing a longstanding policy, but its actions have angered and frustrated some users.
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who was arrested and charged with murder earlier this week, has been the subject of widespread fascination online since New York police first released images of the suspected killer. Small excerpts of the 261-word manifesto were published by the New York Times, while journalist Ken Klippenstein obtained and published it in its entirety on his Substack Tuesday. Links to Klippenstein's newsletter containing the manifesto began to disappear off Reddit, with some being removed by individual subreddits' community moderators and some being taken down by Reddit staff.
In a widely viewed post in r/popculturechat, a moderator explained that Reddit had instructed them to remove posts of the manifesto. “We have officially been notified by Reddit that we must adhere strictly to their site-wide rules regarding violent content,” moderator clemthearcher wrote. “Specifically, Reddit has told us that we are not allowed to post Luigi Mangione’s manifesto, even if it is reported neutrally.”
Reddit removed a post linking to the manifesto in r/interestingasfuck, which had nearly 20,000 upvotes, which was later detailed in a lengthy post in r/subredditdrama. Posts were also removed from other subreddits, including r/witchesVsPatriarchy and r/antiwork. Engadget confirmed that the site now automatically blocks posts attempting to link to the Substack post with the manifesto.
Though the move has angered many Redditors, the company says it’s not a new policy. A Reddit spokesperson confirmed that “manifestos related to violent acts” violate the company’s violent content rules, which state:
Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual (including oneself) or a group of people; likewise, do not post content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals. We understand there are sometimes reasons to post violent content (e.g., educational, newsworthy, artistic, satire, documentary, etc.) so if you’re going to post something violent in nature that does not violate these terms, ensure you provide context to the viewer so the reason for posting is clear.
The policy further refers to posts “containing mass killer manifestos or imagery of their violence” an example of violating content (Magione has not been accused of mass murder). The Reddit spokesperson confirmed that Redditors are permitted to discuss the manifesto, including news coverage of it, as long as they don’t violate other aspects of the company’s rules.
While it’s not unusual for social media users to accuse a company of “censorship” amid disputes over content moderation, Reddit’s actions come at a time when many online commentators have expressed sympathy for Mangione, who has become something of a “folk hero” in some corners of the internet. His actions have also put the American healthcare system under renewed scrutiny as people have shared their experiences with insurance company denials in the wake of the shooting.
“I’m sure Reddit’s admins find themselves far more aligned with the class of people like Brian Johnson (sic) than they do with the rest of us," one commenter wrote in response to moderator clemthearcher’s post in r/popculturechat, "so the only violence they care to moderate is that against Brian Johnson (sic) - not misogyny, racism, homophobia, or the rampant greed of our healthcare industry which has killed or caused the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-is-removing-links-to-luigi-mangiones-manifesto-210421069.html?src=rss
With a TikTok ban in the United States looking more and more likely, a new report from Pew Research on teen social media use underscores just how influential the app is among its youngest users. Not only is it one of the most-used social media services by teens, 57 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds scroll TikTok every single day, Pew reports.
The report underscores the impact a ban would have on teens. Sixty-three percent of teens report “ever” using the app, while 57 percent say they log on at least once a day. TikTok also has the highest percentage of teens reporting that they use the service “almost constantly,” with 16 percent. A little more than a third report checking the app “several times a day.”
Pew Research Center
Pew’s report arrives as TikTok is running out of options to avoid a ban in the United States. The company lost its initial legal challenge to a law requiring that parent company ByteDance sell the app or face a total ban in the country. TikTok has asked the courts for a temporary delay of the law, which is currently scheduled to take effect January 19, while it looks to take its next appeal to the Supreme Court.
Should the ban actually happen, Pew’s report suggests that YouTube and Instagram are best-positioned to benefit. YouTube was once again the most-used app among teens, with 90 percent of 13 to 17 year-olds saying they use the service and 73 percent reporting daily use. Meta’s Instagram, which ranked just below TikTok with 61 percent of teens, is another likely successor, though only half of teens said they check the app daily.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/most-us-teens-still-use-tiktok-daily-as-ban-looms-150002335.html?src=rss
The TikTok app logo is seen in this photo illustration taken in Warsaw, Poland on 18 November, 2024. The Canadian government has ordered the social media giant to wind down its business operations in the country. The decision, announced on Nov. 7, is based on national security concerns tied to TikTok's Chinese ownership and follows a year-long review of the app's Canadian operations. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Video creators on Instagram now have a new way to test out content. The app is introducing “trial Reels,” which allows creators to publish Reels that bypass their followers’ feeds and are instead recommended to non-followers.
Given that so many Instagram creators complain about Meta not showing their content to their followers, this may seem like an odd feature. But in a blog post, the company said that trial Reels was created in direct response to feedback from creators who “feel nervous” about posting videos that may not perform well. Meta said the new feature is meant to make it easier for creators to experiment with different genres and “easily get a gut check on how your content might perform.”
Now, creators will be able to select a “trial” toggle before publishing a video. These Reels won’t show up on a creator’s grid and will be recommended to accounts that aren’t followers (Meta notes that it’s impossible to guarantee a follower won’t come across a particular video somewhere else in the app, like their DMs.)
After 24 hours, creators will be able to revisit the video and see metrics about how it performed, including the total number of views, shares, likes and comments. While Meta says that this type of “trial” content can take longer to gain traction than other posts since it won’t be shown to an account’s followers, it could still be useful for creators that want to post in a more low-pressure format.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-will-let-video-creators-make-trial-reels-for-non-followers-160016725.html?src=rss
TikTok is beginning its last-ditch legal challenge to avoid a ban in the United States. The company filed an emergency injunction in federal court Monday, asking for a delay in the law that would ban the app from taking effect so it could have time to mount a Supreme Court challenge.
The new court filing comes just three days after the company lost its initial court challenge to the law, currently set to take effect January 19, 2025, that requires app stores and internet providers to block TikTok if ByteDance doesn’t sell the app. In their ruling, a panel of three appeals court judges wrote that the US government had “persuasive national security justifications that apply specifically to the platform that TikTok operates.”
TikTok has argued the law is unconstitutional and that it would unjustly hurt creators and businesses that rely on its service. “Estimates show that small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings in just one month unless the TikTok Ban is halted,” TikTok said in a statement Monday.
In its latest filing, TikTok notes that President-elect Donald Trump has promised to “save” the app and that temporarily halting the law would allow “the incoming Administration to evaluate this matter.” Right now, the law is slated to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration.
The company requested a decision by December 16. Even if the injunction isn’t granted, it’s still not quite the end of the line for the company’s legal challenges. If the Supreme Court ends up taking on the case, TikTok would have another opportunity to try to get the law overturned.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-asks-court-to-delay-the-law-that-would-ban-its-app-next-month-192427139.html?src=rss
Earlier this year Reddit cracked down on AI companies and some major search engines, saying that companies would not be allowed to scrape its site unless they struck licensing deals with the company. Now, the “front page of the internet” is introducing its own AI-powered search feature.
Called “Reddit Answers,” the feature provides summaries of conversations and posts from across the site in a “conversational interface.” Relying on content from all public, SFW subreddits, the goal is for Reddit to be able to directly provide relevant results for queries that people may otherwise find via Google searches, where it’s become increasingly common to append “Reddit” to queries.
While that sounds a lot like a Reddit-based search engine, VP of product Serkan Piantino says that Reddit Answers isn’t necessarily trying to come up with a singular answer the way you might expect with a Google search. Instead, the tools surfaced a handful of bullet points pulled directly from relevant threads on Reddit. Those conversations are linked directly in the interface, as are relevant subreddits where users can dive deeper into similar topics. “A big theme is that it does sort of guide you towards the content itself, instead of trying to represent an answer on its own,” Piantino tells Engadget.
Reddit
Reddit gave me early access to the feature and the current version looks a bit like Meta’s AI search suggestions in Instagram, with a few dozen suggested queries and accompanying emoji. The responses, however, are detailed and link directly to highly-upvoted comments from various subreddits where Redditors have previously weighed in on similar topics. That’s helpful because some of the results may not make sense without the broader context from the thread (like in the answer screenshotted adobe that references an image of Price Harry).
I also noticed that many of Reddit’s built-in suggestions centered around product questions, like “best robot vacuum” or “best vitamin C serum.” While that’s not necessarily surprising — many people already turn to Reddit forums for buying advice — it also raises questions about whether the company could potentially monetize the new search feature. “It's something that we've thought about at a high level, but we have no immediate plans for monetization,” Piantino said when I asked him about it.
For now, he said, the feature is still in beta and will be rolling out slowly. As of today, Reddit Answers is making its way to a “limited number” of users in the US on web and iOS, with a broader rollout expected sometime next year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-introduces-ai-powered-reddit-answers-search-feature-140028655.html?src=rss
