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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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Google has yet another AI tool to add to the pile. Whisk is a Google Labs image generator that lets you use an existing image as your prompt. But its output only captures your starter images essence rather than recreating it with new details. So, its better for brainstorming and rapid-fire visualizations than edits of the source image. The company describes Whisk as a new type of creative tool. The input screen starts with a bare-bones interface with inputs for style and subject. This simple introductory interface only lets you choose from three predefined styles: sticker, enamel pin and plushie. I suspect Google found those three allowed for the kind of rough-outline outputs the experimental tool is most ideal for in its current form. As you can see in the image above, it produced a solid image of a Wilford Brimley plushie. (Googles terms forbid pictures of celebrities, but Wilford slipped through the gates, Quaker Oats in tow, without alerting the guards.) Whisk also includes a more advanced editor (found by clicking Start from scratch from the main screen). In this mode, you can use text or a source image in three categories: subject, scene and style. Theres also an input bar to add more text for finishing touches. However, in its current form, the advanced controls didnt produce results that looked anything like my queries. For example, check out my attempt to generate the late Mr. Brimley in a lightbox scene in the style of a walrus plushie image I found online: Google / Screenshot by Will Shanklin for Engadget Whisk spit out what looks like a vaguely Wilford Brimley-esque actor eating oatmeal inside a lightbox frame. As far as I can tell, that dude is not a plushie. So, its clear why Google recommends using the tool more for rapid visual exploration and less for production-ready content. Google acknowledges that Whisk will only draw from a few key characteristics of your source image. For example, the generated subject might have a different height, weight, hairstyle or skin tone, the company warns. To understand why, look no further than Googles description of how Whisk works under the hood. It uses the Gemini language model to write a detailed caption of the source image you upload. It then feeds that description into the Imagen 3 image generator. So, the result is an image based on Geminis words about your image not the source image itself. Whisk is only available in the US, at least for now. You can try it at the projects Google Labs site.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-new-ai-tool-whisk-uses-images-as-prompts-210105371.html?src=rss
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Instagram is adding an option to schedule DMs. Social media expert Lindsey Gamble unearthed the feature, and Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that it's rolling out scheduled DMs to all users. When you type a message, simply hold down the send button and you can select a date and time. It seems messages can be scheduled up to 29 days in advance. Until all timed-up messages are sent, you'll see a banner reading something like "x scheduled messages." This will be handy for folks who want to schedule birthday messages for a bunch of friends at once or, for instance, to remind someone to pick them up from the airport on a certain day. It'll also be useful for people who tend to take care of correspondence at night and don't want everyone to know how late they're staying awake. That's definitely not something I ever do with emails. It's worth noting that Instagram is rolling out this DM scheduling feature before all users are able to time up posts and Reels in advance. For now, that feature is limited to folks who have set up a professional account. Meanwhile, Instagram is rolling out several limited-time, end-of-year features to help you celebrate the holidays and your 2024 memories. For one thing, there's a collage tool for Stories that has an end-of-year theme. Based on images Instagram shared, it appears that you can go with a Happy New Year overlay. There are multiple Add Yours templates based around New Year's as well, such as one you can use to prompt friends to share photos in the how 2024 started/how 2024 ended format. If you hit the like button on end-of-year Stories, you'll see a custom effect. There's a New Year font and Countdown text effect for Stories, Reels and feed posts as well. Festive chat themes for the holidays include New Year's, one called "chill" and, of course, another based on Mariah Carey. Last but not least, if you use certain emoji based around celebrations or phrases like "Happy New Year" or "hello 2025" in DMs or notes before the end of the year, you'll see a little Easter egg of some kind.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-is-adding-a-dm-scheduling-feature-before-everyone-can-schedule-posts-203957229.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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