Maine’s Senate Race Implodes, Meta’s Threads Rivals Musk’s X, and the Trump Telephone Arrives
On this episode of Uncanny Valley, our hosts focus on Threads because it just lately hit 500 million month-to-month customers, placing it on par with X—however is it actually competing or simply filling a special area of interest? In the meantime, the evaluations have been coming in for the Trump-branded T1 cellphone in latest weeks because it lastly began delivery after a yr of delays. Plus: We clarify the fast-moving disaster round Senate candidate Graham Platner, who’s stepping down after an extended string of controversies.
Articles talked about on this episode:
You possibly can observe Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected].
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Transcript
Observe: That is an automatic transcript, which can comprise errors.
Leah Feiger: Hey buddy.
Zoë Schiffer: Leah, good day.
Leah Feiger: How’s it going?
Zoë Schiffer: It’s nice. Brian is gone. When the cat is away, the mice won’t be speaking about any tech conferences.
Leah Feiger: We’re speaking a couple of gadget, nevertheless it’s—
Zoë Schiffer: It’s one we care about.
Leah Feiger: It’s one we care about. It’s a gadget we care about.
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Zoë Schiffer, director of enterprise and trade.
Leah Feiger: And I’m Leah Feiger, director of politics and science.
Zoë Schiffer: At the moment on the present, we’re discussing how Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, has been silently rising and really catching as much as its rival. Final month, Threads reached 500 million month-to-month customers, making it as standard as Elon Musk’s social platform. Really caught me unexpectedly. We’ll focus on what this milestone means in a panorama that’s more and more obsessive about AI merchandise.
Leah Feiger: We’ll even be diving into the Trump cellphone. The one which was introduced a yr in the past, delayed fairly a number of occasions, and now apparently the place orders have lastly been arriving over the previous few weeks. The cellphone’s options are precisely what you’d anticipate. Then, we’ll be turning our consideration to the political debacle taking place in Maine. Democratic nominee Graham Platner is going through allegations of sexual abuse and quite a few calls to step down.
Zoë Schiffer: OK, Leah, let’s dive in to Meta’s Threads first. When you have an Instagram account, you’ve undoubtedly seen it. The app is consistently being promoted in the principle feed. And simply to catch individuals up who aren’t conscious, it appears lots like X, like Twitter. And that’s the level. Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, turned it into X, and Meta mainly noticed a wide-open subject as a result of individuals have been so upset with how Elon Musk was working that platform. And so, they created Threads as a direct competitor. When it first launched, it acquired a ton of press. I used to be a part of that press. I used to be heralding it, embarrassingly as the brand new, subsequent, higher Twitter. However then it simply had this sort of overly moderated LinkedIn really feel, at the least to me, and it appeared like many others. And so, it feels prefer it’s dropped off the map a bit bit. However then Meta pronounces, wait, no, 500 million month-to-month customers, placing it on par with X.
