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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
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NASA says it was able to use the James Webb telescope to capture images of planet-forming disks around ancient stars that challenge theoretical models of how planets can form. The images support earlier findings from the Hubble telescope that havent been able to be confirmed until now. The new Webb highly detailed images were captured from the Small Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy to our home, the Milky Way. The Webb telescope was specifically focused on a cluster called NGC 346, which NASA says is a good proxy for similar conditions in the early, distant universe, and which lacks the heavier elements that have traditionally been connected to planet formation. Webb was able to capture a spectra of light which suggests protoplanetary disks are still hanging out around those stars, going against previous expectations that they would have blown away in a few million years. ASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA) Hubble observations of NGC 346 from the mid 2000s revealed many stars about 20 to 30 million years old that seemed to still have planet-forming disks, NASA writes. Without more detailed evidence, that idea was controversial. The Webb telescope was able to fill in those details, suggesting the disks in our neighboring galaxies have a much longer period of time to collect the dust and gas that forms the basis of a new planet. As to why those disks are able to persist in the first place, NASA says researchers have two possible theories. One is that the radiation pressure expelled from stars in NGC 346 just takes longer to dissipate planet-forming disks. The other is that the larger gas cloud thats necessary to form a Sun-like star in an environment with fewer heavy elements would naturally produce larger disks that take longer to fade away. Whichever theory proves correct, the new images are beautiful evidence that we still dont have a full grasp of how planets are formed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-new-webb-telescope-images-support-previously-controversial-findings-about-how-planets-form-213312055.html?src=rss
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After a federal court last week denied TikToks 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 laws 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 anyonenot the parties, the public, or the courtsfor the Acts 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
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