Metas 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 companys next billion-user app. Though its 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 Apples 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 isnt 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 Blueskys 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

Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

Looking for NYT Connections answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, plus my commentary on the puzzles.

The Alphabet-owned company has struck deals with major Japan-based robotaxi operators to begin testing in 2025.

Chinese AI models are already hugely popular and are keeping pace with and even surpassing some U.S. rivals, industry experts told CNBC.

Their video breakdown is here.The post The Yard breaks down its VFX for s2 of The Rings of Power appeared first on befores & afters.

The Yard VFX brings alive the breathtaking world of Season 2 of The Rings of Power by carefully crafting the fabled underground kingdom of the Dwarves in Khazad-dm. This French studio masterfully blends wonder with realism, bringing forth a light and shadow combination to present to the world the splendor of this vast subterranean realm.In fine detail, the VFX team brings to view such things as intricate architecture, glowing veins of mithril, and busy life in Khazad-dm, so bringing into life a truly resplendent environment. From glowing lanterns to massive rock-hewn structures, every frame tells the magic of J.R.R. Tolkiens universe.This breakdown showcases the artistry behind the epic visuals, setting a benchmark for fantasy storytelling. The Yard VFX has undoubtedly elevated the shows visual appeal, transporting viewers deeper into Middle-earths timeless legend.The post The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 VFX Breakdown by The Yard VFX appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have frequently expressed frustration with the lack of respect digital currency gets from many traditional investors. But when the hottest crypto of the moment is called Fartcoin, its kind of hard for them to occupy the moral high ground.The joke crypto, which is even more useless than Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency started as a parody, is on a tear these days. Fartcoins market cap of nearly $800 million now exceeds that of several well-known brands, including Office Depot, Guess, Ethan Allen, and ZipRecruiter.Fartcoin has even surpassed Dogecoins all-time highs and blown fellow memecoin Shiba Inu completely out of the water. In midday trading Monday, the token was up another 39% to 83 cents. Dogecoin, on its best day, only reached 73 cents (in May of 2021, right before Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, where he joked about the coin he had pumped on Twitter most of the year, tanking its value).In the past week, the value of Fartcoin has nearly tripled. What, in the name of financial sanity is going on?!?The rise of Fartcoin is, in many ways, the same story as any crypto gains that have been happening lately. Traders are riding a wave that started when Donald Trump was elected. With Trumps vow to be the crypto president, as well as staff appointments that are much more crypto friendlyincluding Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto enthusiast who will take over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the upcoming resignation of SEC chair Gary Genslervirtually every cryptocurrency has soared, even memecoins.Its hard to tell whos sinking money into Fartcoin. Some Bitcoin investors may have some extra money in their digital wallets these days (Bitcoin is still rising, surpassing $100,000 on December 4), so embracing a joke coin could provide a chuckle. The thrill for many of those investors is in the gamble. They chase an adrenaline rush that comes from seeing a spike in an investment that defies logic.Unlike some memecoins, Fartcoin doesnt even pretend to have intrinsic value. It takes its value entirely from its community, which share gastrointestinal memes and jokes on X. It also has a feature called Gas Fees that produce a digital . . . well, fart sound . . . with every transaction. (Really.)Its a baby in the crypto world, having started trading in late October, which makes its rise all the more surprising.More impressive, Fartcoin has quickly shown these gains while other meme and altcoins are rallying, but still nowhere near their all-time highs. Dogecoin is currently trading at 41 cents and Shiba Inu is worth just $0.00002746, 65% off its all-time high.Of course, as with any crypto that sees dramatic run-ups in pricing, Fartcoin investors should be wary of a possible rug pull. Pumping and dumping in the world of cryptocurrency is an all-too-common occurrence. This was illustrated earlier this month when the Hawk Tuah coin debuted with huge gains, quickly hitting a market capitalization of $490 million. Three hours later, the price fell to Earth at a dizzying speed, as insiders and snipers sold their holdings. (The cryptos current market cap is less than $73,000.)Influencer Haliey Welch, who promoted that failed crypto, now faces the possibility of lawsuits. Her social media channels have gone silent since the debacle.

Its gift-giving season, which means making long shopping lists, wondering if anyone will care about receiving scented candles two years in a row, and panicking about long lines at the post office.But this year, a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychologyhas some good news for procrastinators. While its unclear how recipients will feel about those scented candles, research shows that sending gifts follows the age-old expression: Better late than never.The researchers ran several different studies surveying hundreds of participants on different scenarios. In the first study, participants were asked to imagine their friend gave them a birthday gift on time or two weeks late, or to imagine that they had given their friend a gift on time or two weeks late. The researchers found people who imagined giving a gift late estimated it would cause more harm to the relationship than people who imagined receiving a gift late.In the second study, participants were asked to imagine giving or receiving a gift late, and how much that would influence their perception of care in the relationship. Researchers found that the gift givers overestimated the harm of giving a gift late because they believed it signals a lack of care about the relationship.In the third study, participants were asked to imagine giving or receiving a gift latehowever, in some conditions, the gift required significant effort to put together, and in others, it was low effort. Researchers found that gift givers who imagined putting in more effort expected there would be less of a negative reaction to a late gift. While this proved to be true for gift recipients, givers again overestimated how much harm a late gift would cause.In the fourth study, the researchers tested how much the degree of lateness matters by asking people to imagine giving and receiving a gift on time, two days late, two weeks late, or two months late. In general, recipients said harm to the relationship was roughly the same whether a gift was two days late or two weeks late, but it was slightly higher if it was two months late. However, gift givers estimated harm to be much higher in all the late conditions, and it increased substantially as the gift got later and later.In the last study, researchers tested whether it was best to send a gift late or not at all. Participants were asked to imagine either giving a gift on time, two months late, or not at all, or to imagine receiving a gift under one of those three conditions. Once again, gift givers overestimated the harm of being late or not sending a gift. However, recipients felt that it was more harmful to the relationship to not get a gift at all than to get one late.Our work . . . suggests that sending a gift late will result in fewer giver worries about the state of the relationship than not sending a gift simply because it is going to be late, the researchers wrote.