Light Start: Threads Hits 100m, TweetDeck Is Back (kinda), A $60,000 Turntable, Miyazaki Does IMAX
Stand aside, Twitter, Threads has 100m sign-ups
Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s retaliatory response to Elon Musk’s Twitter has taken the world by storm, garnering 100 million sign-ups since its early release on Thursday, 6 July. It has maintained its steady flow of signups, with Zuckerberg showing off its nearly 30 million sign-ups in the first 24 hours of the app’s life. The question now is if Meta can keep it up. We’re thinking… not.
Unless, of course, Meta can bring Threads up to scratch. In its current state, Threads has little hope of competing. To do so, it’ll need to add support for in-app post searching and a “Following” feed. And of course, a distinct lack of nudity and a cumbersome censorship policy isn’t doing it any favours. We haven’t even mentioned the app’s unfortunate ties to Instagram, which stops people from deleting their profiles without doing the same for their Instagram profile. (We might have some idea where that 100m figure came from.)
Meta has commented on the situation, promising updates that’ll continue to improve the app. One of which includes the integration of ActivityPub, the protocol you might be familiar with if you’re a fan of decentralized networks. When that’ll happen, however, Meta hasn’t said. If it has any hope of a fighting chance, it’ll be soon.
TweetDeck is back!
The Stuff Team (and plenty of others) recently suffered a loss that we still haven’t quite gotten over. We’re of course talking about the old TweetDeck layout, which was unceremoniously removed without so much as a warning last week. Perhaps the heavens heard our lament and reversed its decision because the old TweetDeck is back. Kinda.
As for how long it’ll stick around, we can’t be sure. According to The Verge, the layout reverted to its old self overnight, with other users reporting that Twitter’s free API access is back, too. This has all happened without so much as a peep from Twitter’s head, Linda Yaccarino, and even more surprisingly, without a tweet from the man pulling the strings, Elon Musk.
Whether this version of TweetDeck – which can be changed through TweetDeck’s Account settings > select TweetDeck version – will stick around for longer than a few days (or even hours), we couldn’t say. But we’re enjoying the change while it lasts. If you were smart, you would too. It’ll be gone before long, becoming an exclusive feature for Twitter Blue users.
Do you want to spend $60,000 on a turntable? Because that’s how you get this $60,000 turntable
It’s been over a year since Jony Ive parted from Apple, and he’s finally working on something tangible. We’re sorry to see him turn his back on projects like the ‘perfect’ clown nose (no, really), but it’s time to do something, anything, hardware-related. And, we’ve got our wish, at last. It’s just unfortunate that LoveFrom’s – Jony Ive’s side hustle – latest project involves a $60,000 turntable. And it’s not even brand new.
The turntable in question is Linn’s Sondek LP12, which is coming up on its 50th birthday, something that LoveFrom is helping it celebrate with the release of a refined modular and modern version of the turntable. Better yet, the company is doing the work for free, out of LoveFrom’s respect for Linn, Jony Ive told Fast Company. “There are many things that I’ve always wanted to be able to do purely for the love of doing them.”
Due to concerns over impacting sound quality, not much is being changed on the LP12 other than a few cosmetic ‘flaws’ on the device’s exterior, which LoveFrom refers to as “small improvements and gentle evolutions.” Getting your hands on one won’t be easy. Not because it’ll cost you $60,000 (but there’s that too), but because Linn is only making 250 of them. If you’ve got that sort of cheddar just laying around, you can place an order here. We’ll just watch from afar, thanks. Unless…?
Ghibli’s latest mystery gets an IMAX release (in Japan)
Hayao Miyazaki is back. Again. The king of animation is coming out of retirement – not for the first or even second time – but for the third time, marking his return with the release of Studio Ghibli’s latest film; How Do You Live? Better yet, it’s officially getting an IMAX release, a first for Ghibli’s nearly forty-year-long reign. It’s also getting a Dolby Atmos, Dolby Cinema, and DTS X release in Japan at the same time.
According to the 82-year-old legend, How Do You Live? is his greatest work yet, beating out his best (and most popular) work; the 2002 Oscar-winning Spirited Away – something we’ll only believe once we’ve seen the new film. Whether that’ll even be possible, however, is still up for debate. The film has yet to get an official release date outside of Japan (14 July). Whether it will at all, remains to be seen.
It’s possible that the studio is waiting to see how well it might perform in Japan before committing to an expensive worldwide theatrical release. It’s already cutting costs in the marketing department, opting to do no marketing other than releasing a poster for the film last month. All we know is that Miyazaki is attached, and it is named after the 1937 novel of the same name, despite being an original story.
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