All posts tagged: threads

Neuralink Admits That Implant’s Threads Have Retracted From First Patient’s Brain, Possibly Due to Air in Skull

Neuralink Admits That Implant’s Threads Have Retracted From First Patient’s Brain, Possibly Due to Air in Skull

Published by skeptic

In January, multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk announced that his brain-computer interface startup Neuralink had successfully implanted a wireless brain chip into a human subject for the first time. Over the next couple of months, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh was shown moving a cursor with his mind, playing Civilization VI and even a fast-paced round of Mario Kart. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, there have been complications behind the scenes. After it reached out to Neuralink, the company conceded in a blog post that there have been issues with the implant. Concerns started when the rate at which data was being streamed from Arbaugh’s implant declined over time, indicating something was off with the quarter-sized device. The N1 chip that was robotically implanted in Arbaugh’s skull is made up of a microprocessor, a battery, a communications chip, and 64 threads that are thinner than a human hair. The ends of these threads were inserted into the brain’s motor cortex, allowing it to relay Arbaugh’s intentions wirelessly. Some of these threads, though, have since retracted. One prominent theory is that …

Farewell, dunks? Threads launches quote controls for all users

Farewell, dunks? Threads launches quote controls for all users

Published by skeptic

Threads users can now exert more control over who can quote their posts. This builds on a feature that already allows Threads users to limit who can reply to their posts (competing services like X and Bluesky offer similar reply controls). Threads outlined its plans for quote controls last month, and last night Adam Mosseri — who leads both Threads and Instagram for parent company Meta — announced that the feature is available to all users. “I hope this will help keep Threads a more positive place and give people more control over their experience,” Mosseri wrote. As of Saturday morning, the ability to limit quotes isn’t showing up when I log into Threads on my desktop web browser, but it is available in the Threads mobile app. Quote and reply controls appear to be bundled together in a single dropdown menu, where users can open the conversation to “Anyone,” or limit it to “Profiles you follow” or “Mentioned only.” These controls should make it harder to “dunk” on others, where users quote someone else’s …

Threads reaches landmark 150 million active monthly users

Threads reaches landmark 150 million active monthly users

Published by skeptic

Threads has announced it has reached the milestone of 150 million active monthly users. The social platform from Facebook and Instagram owner, Meta, was introduced as an alternative to Elon Musk’s X and since its launch in July, it has maintained steady growth. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg provided the update during his company’s Q1 earnings call this week, as Threads begins to test a feature to let users auto-archive posts after a set time. A selected number of people are taking part in the trial allowing users to manually select an individual post to archive or automatically store all posted content. Despite its status as a rival to X,  Threads may struggle to take on its rival due to its reduction in news content, which has gradually been dialed back. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri stated late last year, said Threads would  “not amplify news on the platform” reducing its appeal to social media users who want to quit X. Unless Meta decides to muscle in on news and real-time information, the lifeblood of X, …

Threads tests letting you hide your public posts, as monthly users jump to over 150 million

Threads tests letting you hide your public posts, as monthly users jump to over 150 million

Published by skeptic

Lance Whitney/ZDNET Meta is testing a new Threads feature that lets you archive your public posts, rendering them invisible to anyone on the platform. So far, the feature is only available to a small number of users. If the test proves successful, however, it’s a safe bet that Meta will roll out post archiving to the whole Threads community. “We’re starting to test the option to archive posts with a small number of people,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post on Wednesday. “You can do this manually, for individual posts, or choose to automatically archive all posts after a certain period of time. If you want to make your post public again, you can always unarchive it whenever you’d like.” Also: How to join and use Meta’s Threads Mosseri said that when he conducted a poll asking users about post archiving, the overall feedback was to not let users archive their posts automatically, which is why Threads is testing it out as an option first. Mosseri shared a pair of screenshots showing …

Threads hits 150 million active users, adds option to archive posts

Threads hits 150 million active users, adds option to archive posts

Published by skeptic

Despite constant mockery from X owner Elon Musk, Threads is growing. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who shared the news during Meta’s most recent earnings call, Threads now has more than 150 million monthly active users. That’s a pretty big increase from February, when Threads (also according to Zuckerberg) had 130 million monthly users. The app first passed 100 million users in July last year. SEE ALSO: Apple forced to pull Meta’s WhatsApp, Threads from China’s App Store. Here’s why. For comparison, Twitter has about 550 million monthly active users globally (if you trust Musk and X’s official figures, which are disputed by some research firms). Mashable Light Speed The company isn’t sitting on its laurels, either. On Wednesday, Head of Instagram and Threads Adam Mosseri said that Threads is testing the option to archive posts “with a small number of people.” Individual posts can be archived manually, but you can also automatically archive all posts after a certain period of time. According to Mosseri, Threads users said in a poll they didn’t want …

Threads Tests Option to Archive Posts as Platform Hits 150M+ Users

Threads Tests Option to Archive Posts as Platform Hits 150M+ Users

Published by skeptic

Threads is testing an option that allows users to archive old posts so that they don’t appear on their profile, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. In a post on the Meta-owned social media platform, Mosseri said that the archive option being tested with a small number of people included a manual setting for individual posts, as well as the ability to automatically archive all posts after a certain period of time. Users also have the option to unarchive a post to make it public again. If beta testing goes well, the ability to archive posts is likely to be rolled out globally as an option rather than a default behavior, which Mosseri said was the overwhelming preference based on user feedback. When it launched back in July, Threads was very barebones, with Meta working to add new functionality on a regular basis to bring the network in line with X (Twitter). It has since gained a web app, an ability to search for posts, and a post editing feature. Just last week, Threads began …

Threads Now Has More Daily Users Than X

Threads Now Has More Daily Users Than X

Published by skeptic

RIP Twitter. Falling Behind Meta’s Twitter killer Threads has now had more daily active users in the US than Elon Musk’s X-formerly-Twitter since at least December, according to estimates by data intelligence platform Apptopia. “Threads DAUs in the US passed X in December 2023 and it has not looked back,” Apptopia’s VP of research Thomas Grant told Business Insider. In Apple’s App Store, Threads is the third most downloaded free app at the time of writing, while Musk’s X — formerly Twitter, if you’ve been living under a rock — ranks 41st. The news highlights X’s struggles to attract new users in light of Musk’s repeated moves to turn it into a hate speech-infested, and barely functional hellhole. X-ed Out Despite Musk originally promising to address the issue of bots on the platform, the social media network has also been overrun by bots and other spam during his tenure. The number of daily users has been plummeting as well, with market analysis firm Sensor Tower finding last month that X had just 27 million active daily app …

Apple Pulls WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Threads From App Store in China Following Order

Apple Pulls WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Threads From App Store in China Following Order

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Apple on late Thursday into Friday removed the popular messaging and social media apps WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Threads from its App Store in China at the request of the Chinese government, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement shared with several media outlets, Apple said China’s national internet regulator ordered the removal of the apps from the App Store in the country due to unspecified “national security concerns.” Apple said it is “obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.” Apple has complied with similar App Store removal orders from the Chinese government in the past for apps related to VPNs, news, and more. Note: The discussion thread for this topic is located in our Political News forum, where posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts. Popular Stories Delta Game Emulator Now Available From App Store on iPhone Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta …

Apple pulls WhatsApp, Threads and Signal from app store in China

Apple pulls WhatsApp, Threads and Signal from app store in China

Published by skeptic

Apple has removed several widely used communications platforms from its app store in China at the request of the Chinese government. The tech giant confirmed Friday that the Cyberspace Administration of China, a government censor and internet regulator, cited national security concerns in ordering the apps to be removed. “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” the company said in a statement. Although Apple didn’t specify which apps it removed, analytics company Appfigures said WhatsApp, Threads, Signal and Telegram are no longer in the app store. Meta, which owns WhatsApp and Threads, referred a request for comment to Apple. The popular apps can be used to exchange information and share documents on a massive scale, making them useful to political dissidents around the world. Chinese consumers are limited by tight regulations concerning political expression, disallowing opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. China’s government firewall already blocks access to the WhatsApp network, although users can access them through virtual private networks. Now, the apps simply …