TikTok Adds Text-Based Posts, but It’s Not Really Aimed at Becoming a Twitter Rival

Tiffani Thiessen reflected on aging ahead of her 50th birthday in January. During an appearance Friday on the "Good Instincts" podcast, the 49-year-old actress shared her thoughts on whether she feels pressure to "not age" and continue to appear how she looked when she first rose to fame as a teenager on the hit show "Saved by the Bell." "I feel so much more at ease now than I was even ten years ago," the California native told podcast host and celebrity nutritionist Shira Barlow. "And I don't know why.

With a cheeky grin and a wicked sense of humour, Jakub Szymanski was like any other 15-year-old finding his way in the world. Full of mischief and energy, his smiling eyes beam out from the many pictures his loving mum holds close.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Italian officials are open to the the country hosting a charity cage match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — seemingly moving closer to reality the is-it-a-joke-or-isn’t-it fight that would pit the tech world’s billionaire tech barons against each other. However, contrary to Musk’s latest claim that the cage match will be set in “ancient Rome,” Italy’s minister of culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said such an event will not be held in Rome. “I had a long and friendly conversation with Elon Musk,” Sangiuliano said in a statement Friday (per Google’s translation).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney, trying to swing its streaming business into the black, has set substantial price hikes for Disney+ and Hulu standalone premium plans in the U.S. — while also rolling out a heavily discounted Disney+/Hulu ad-free combo bundle. As of Oct.

Billy Porter is one of the many working actors being affected by the ongoing Hollywood strikes.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A recent change to Zoom’s terms of service pertaining to AI set off alarm bells in Hollywood and the tech world — with some interpreting the videoconferencing provider’s update as granting the company royalty-free rights in perpetuity for customer video calls and presentations for the purposes of training AI models. In response, Zoom said it doesn’t use any customer audio, video or chat content for training AI without consent.

Chris Noth is breaking his silence more than a year after being accused of sexual assault by multiple women, re-emphasizing that all his extramarital relationships were consensual. The former "Sex and the City" star also explained why he will not allow those same "salacious" headlines to impede his career. "I strayed on my wife, and it's devastating to her and not a very pretty picture," he told USA Today of his betrayal of wife Tara Wilson.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The possibility of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk squaring off in an MMA cage match is just a joke. Right? Over the weekend, the braggadocio continued apace between two of the world’s richest men about a physical fight — probably in jest, but possibly not.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kai Cenat, the Twitch and YouTube streamer, issued a statement Saturday through his group AMP (Any Means Possible) apologizing after a violent mob took over New York’s Union Square Park a day earlier when he urged fans to come to the park, where he said he was planning to give away free PlayStation 5s and gift cards. Thousands of people flocked to Union Square Park after Cenat’s social media posts went viral Friday, and the flash mob became violent and began attacking police and other people in the area with bottles, rocks, other debris and fireworks.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta has released AudioCraft, a new set of AI tools to generate what the tech giant claims is “high-quality, realistic audio and music from text” — for example, producing a music sequence based on the text phrase “electronic Jamaican reggae DJ set.” “Imagine a professional musician being able to explore new compositions without having to play a single note on an instrument,” Meta says in a blog post about AudioCraft. “Or a small business owner adding a soundtrack to their latest video ad on Instagram with ease.” AudioCraft consists of three models: MusicGen (for music), AudioGen (for sound effects) and EnCodec (a decoder).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Have you paid Elon Musk for an $8-per-month subscription to Twitter Blue (now called X Blue, under Musk’s rebranding effort) but are embarrassed to advertise the fact? X now lets subscribers to the premium X Blue service hide the blue check mark on their account. Musk has promoted the perk as democratizing Twitter’s most recognizable status symbol.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor CAA has signed Meredith Duxbury, a leading beauty and fashion content creator who’s been dubbed “the complexion queen of TikTok,” for representation. Duxbury has a global audience of more than 20 million followers across social media, including 18.5 million on the TikTok short-form video platform. Her videos feature makeup tutorials, product reviews, and “get ready with me” content that includes fashion and her personal style.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk has taken legal aim at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an independent research nonprofit group, over the organization’s findings that since the multibillionaire acquired Twitter (now called X) hate, racism and disinformation on the social platform has substantially increased. “Musk and his legal team, led by attorney Alex Spiro at Quinn Emanuel, have engaged in an aggressive campaign to intimidate, bully, and silence CCDH,” the organization said in a statement released Monday.

Madonna is paying tribute to her children amid her recent health scare.The 64-year-old singer took to Instagram to share a lengthy thank you to her kids alongside a few photos of her family members, who she says supported her during her time in the hospital for a bacterial infection.«Love from family and friends is the best Medicine. One month out of the hospital and I can reflect. As a Mother you can really get caught up In the needs Of your children and the seemingly endless giving………… But when the chips were down my children really showed up for me.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kanye West’s account on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, has been restored — after the controversial rapper/entrepreneur apparently promised the Elon Musk-owned company he would refrain from posting antisemitic and other hateful content. West, who now goes by Ye, was kicked off Twitter in December 2022 after he share an image of a Nazi swastika embedded inside the Star of David.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In Hulu’s “Creamerie,” the future is female — and it’s also dark, dystopian and funny. Season 2 of the New Zealand-made comedy drama, now airing on the streamer as well as TVNZ, is set some years after a plague has wiped out 99.9% of humans with the Y chromosome, i.e. men.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Over the weekend, Elon Musk issued the unexpected fiat via late-night/early-morning tweetstorm (x-storm?) that Twitter would now be known as X — complete with a new X logo that has replaced the bonny blue birdie on the service’s website. Per Musk, you won’t be posting tweets on his social platform, you will be throwing up… “x’s.” Musk’s hand-picked new CEO Linda Yaccarino, late of NBCUniversal, tried to explain the situation. “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities,” she, uh, x’d on Sunday. “Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”

There’s no such thing as a completely foolproof beauty trend, as Selena Gomez proved with her brow lamination mishap earlier this year. Now it seems the internet-loved trend has claimed another victim, after one TikToker shared her disasterous experience with the lamination process that left her with no eyebrows at all.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix touted strong momentum for its push into advertising, claiming subscribers on its ad-supported tier nearly doubled in the second quarter of 2023. However, the streamer said, advertising revenue in Q2 was still not material in the context of its overall business. The company announced Q2 earnings Wednesday. Overall, Netflix netted 5.9 million new paid subscribers, amid its broader crackdown on password-sharing violators. On the ad front, “While we continue to grow our reach — ads plan membership has nearly doubled since Q1 — it’s still off a small membership base, so current ad revenue isn’t material for Netflix,” the company said in its quarterly letter to shareholders. “Building an ads business from scratch isn’t easy and we have lots of hard work ahead, but we’re confident that over time we can develop advertising into a multibillion-dollar incremental revenue stream.”

Primary school SATs tests are something endured by most youngsters, with schools and teachers just pleased to get them done and dusted.