Tag: tech

Pika Labs releases new AI video maker Pika 1.5.

Google’s new AI tool, Whisk, generates images using only other images without requiring text prompts.

After stirring up controversy at The Game Awards, Catly’s devs now say that its teaser trailer does not use AI and that the project is not a blockchain game.

Watching videos on the Apple Vision Pro is one of the few use-cases early adopters have found for the VR headset, but Apple’s produced only a handful of immersive videos to watch on it. Blackmagic’s new camera could change that. The Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is the first camera that can shoot in Apple’s Immersive Video format, and it’s available to pre-order now for $29,995 and shipping in “late Q1 2025.”

Blackmagic first announced it was working on hardware and software for producing content for the Vision Pro at WWDC 2024. As promised then, the camera is capable of capturing 3D footage at 90 fps, with a resolution of 8160 x 7200 per eye. Blackmagic says the URSA Cine Immersive uses custom lenses that are “designed for URSA Cine’s large format image sensor with extremely accurate positional data.” It also has 8TB of network storage built-in, which the company says “records directly to the included Blackmagic Media Module” and can be synced live to a DaVinci Resolve media bin for editors to access footage remotely.

Blackmagic Design

Along with the URSA Cine Immersive, Blackmagic is also updating DaVinci Resolve Studio to work with Apple’s Immersive Video format, and including new tools so editors can pan, tilt, and roll footage while they edit on a 2D monitor or in a Vision Pro.

The whole package sounds expensive at nearly $30,000, but you’re getting a lot more out of the box than you normally would with one of Blackmagic’s cameras. A normal 12K URSA Cine camera costs around $15,000, but doesn’t include lenses or built-in storage. Those come standard on the URSA Cine Immersive.

Apple filmed several short documentaries, sports clips, and at least one short film in its Immersive Video format, but hasn’t released a camera of its own for third-party production companies to produce content. And while any iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 can capture 3D spatial videos, they can’t produce Immersive Video, which has a 180-degree field of view. Blackmagic’s camera should make it possible for a lot more immersive content to be created for the Vision Pro and other VR headsets. Now Apple just needs to make a Vision product more people are willing to pay for.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/blackmagics-vision-pro-camera-is-available-for-pre-order-and-costs-30000-000053495.html?src=rss

Meta’s 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 company’s next billion-user app. Though it’s 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 Apple’s 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 isn’t 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 Bluesky’s 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