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Twitter for iOS 4.3 gets early teases from Twitter itself and the App Store, promises gobs of in-tweet content
Twitter has been making a push for expanded tweets in mobile, and there's now some very strong indications that its native apps' tweets will get extra-stuffed in the near future. Some skulking around the future App Store layout from 9to5 Mac reader Sonny Dickson has shown an as yet unreleased Twitter 4.3 release carrying "more interactive experiences" for links within certain posts -- in other words, expect a multimedia extravaganza if a friend really digs that New York Times article. Notifications should also get a much-needed refinement through an end to overly aggressive alerts in-app while bringing in selective, by-user notifications to find out when Mark Zuckerberg finally posts again. While Twitter has stayed mostly hush-hush on the update, the company's own corporate development VP Kevin Thau couldn't contain himself: his attempt to one-up Facebook this weekend showed a slightly redesigned iOS app that most certainly isn't sitting on our own devices. Controversies from The Next Web over the update's identification of third-party apps notwithstanding -- we don't know if it's intentional -- all signs point to Twitter on iOS (and no doubt Android) getting a tune-up before long.
Twitter brings search autocomplete to the web, helps find Biebs tweets in record time
Twitter had been hinting at a big search update today, and that's just what it delivered. Instead of the (quite frankly clunky) search results page, a search box at top now provides autocompleting search results that split into keywords and people. The system is smart enough to check for spelling gaffes and related searches, and results can drill down just to followed users rather than the entire social network. Autocompleting has been a mainstay of the Android and iOS apps for some time, but we're glad to hear that web users can now track down their favorite recently graduated teen pop stars faster than ever.
Twitter post-to-Facebook integration adds photos, tags and links, makes wild nights more regrettable
Twitter has long had the option to send updates to Facebook, but most of what makes Twitter unique has been stripped out while cross-posting the night's escapades. That's been fixed just in time for the weekend. As of now, Twitter has confirmed to The Next Web that updates will automatically display the first photo as well as link Twitter users' names and any hashtags. The change isn't automatic and will require a quick on-and-off flick of the cross-posting setting before the gobs of extra information make the trip to Facebook. It's just as well -- we'd really rather not make it any easier for Aunt Mildred to see photos of our weekend benders.
Twitter makes its mobile site more feature phone friendly
When you look at the latest, greatest devices from Apple, Samsung, Motorola and the like all day, it can be easy to forget that not everyone out there is sporting a smartphone. But feature phone users have thoughts and feelings that need to be tweeted at all times, too. It's a good thing then, that Twitter's seen fit to update its mobile site to help offer a more uniform experience to users with old browsers, low bandwidth and handsets that don't quite fit under the "smart-" moniker. The new mobile site, available at mobile.twitter.com, rolls out today.
Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled
For a country who doesn't really do April Fools' Day, you know China means business when it lays the smackdown on its weibo services. Here's the background story: about a week ago there was a rumor on the Chinese web about a military coup on one of the main streets in Beijing, and coincidentally I was in town around the time (for the Windows Phone launch). Funnily enough, I wasn't aware of this at all until my taxi driver in Hong Kong asked me about my visit, as he claimed that the passenger he picked up beforehand was actually a Chinese military officer who had several intense phone calls about said coup.But of course, nothing actually happened. In fact, the guards at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were pretty relaxed when I visited on that very day. As for the rumormongers, the Chinese government announced through Xinhua that 16 websites have been shut down and six people have been detained, while local microblogging platforms Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have been "criticized and punished accordingly," though it didn't elaborate on the details. All we know is that comments under each weibo post are now disabled until local time 8pm on April 3rd, during which these two companies can, in their own words, clean up the mess. Well, at least we now know where to draw the line for China's April Fools'.
Twitter snatches up Posterous, microblogging field about to get a little bit smaller
The Y Combinator-funded Posterous had its time in the sun and now it's being absorbed by the biggest player in the microblogging market. The simple sharing service struck a chord with many of Silicon Valley's elite, but it never managed to make a major dent in a field already dominated by the likes of Tumblr and its now owner, Twitter. The teams from Posterous will simply shift over to products at its new parent company and let their creation die a slow and likely unspectacular death. There are no concrete plans to retire Posterous Spaces just yet but, should that day come, we've been promised plenty of warning and instructions for backing up your content. Now we'll just have to wait and see what "key initiatives" Twitter has in store for its new employees.
Twitter to begin 'reactively' censoring tweets in specific countries, still no love for China
It's no secret that certain countries have different views over freedom of expression on the internet, but this hasn't stopped Twitter's attempt to keep its service running in as many places as possible. In its latest blog post, the microblogging service announced that it'll begin "to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country" when required, in order to keep said content available to all users elsewhere (as opposed to blocking it globally). The withheld tweets will be marked accordingly while their authors get notified with reasons where possible, and internet legal rights monitor Chilling Effects will also post the relevant take-down notices on a dedicated page.This may seem like some form of censorship taking over Twitter, but the company only mentioned those of "historical or cultural reasons" like the ban of pro-Nazi content in France and Germany; so it's not clear whether Twitter will also handle similarly with tweets that potentially lead to events such as the UK riots last year. Even though Twitter didn't elaborate further for Reuters, there is one reassuring line in the post: "Some [countries] differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there."One such country is most likely China, and back at AsiaD in October, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told us that there's simply no way for his company to work with the Chinese government (you can watch him answering us at 38:17 in the video -- courtesy of All Things D -- after the break): "The unfortunate fact is we're just not allowed to compete in this market, and that's not up to us to change. The person to ask is trade experts between both governments, but at the end of the day we can't compete. They (Chinese microblogging platforms) can compete in our markets, and we're certainly interested in what that means for us... We would love to have a strong Twitter in China, but we'd need to be allowed to do that."There are obviously many factors that add up to this sour relationship, but the contradiction between China's strict internet monitoring policy and Twitter's core values is most likely the biggest obstacle. And of course, the Chinese government would favor its home-grown tech properties, anyway. That said, several months ago, one of the country's largest microblogging services Sina Weibo was criticized by the authorities for not censoring fast enough, so it's obvious that it'd be even trickier to work with a foreign company that sees things differently. Things are unlikely to change any time soon, or ever, unless China relaxes its policy.
China wants microbloggers to register with the government, hand over real identity
Thought that Facebook's and Google+'s requirements that you use your real name were draconian? Just be thankful you're not a weibo addict in China. The government is planning to expand a program that demands users register their real names and disclose their identity. Wang Chen, China's top internet regulation official, said the eventual goal would be to get all 250 million microbloggers registered, starting first with any new users signing up. The obvious privacy and free speech issues that could arise from such a move shouldn't need to be explained -- especially considering the country's track record of censorship and politically motivated arrests. Sadly, unlike SOPA, putting an end to this troubling law isn't as simple as putting up a black banner or emailing your congressman.
Shocker! Most tweets pointless babble, existential angst a strong motivator
University College London's Jeremy Dean has compiled a handy guide to current research into the social media phenom (and conduit of @justinbieber fever) that is Twitter. Among the highlights: Most tweets (some 41%) can be characterized as "pointless babble," while only 4% can be considered actual news. Twitter trends rarely last longer than a week and almost always trend one time only The average (median) lifetime number of tweets for a single user is 1, while 10% of the users contribute 90% of the traffic A 2010 study ("Understanding the psychological motives behind microblogging") found that highly extroverted participants use Twitter "to relieve their existential anxiety" Pointless babble? Really? We would like to state for the record that we have derived hours of entertainment -- and education -- from our Twitter addiction. Which reminds us: it's been almost an hour since @JENNIWOWW has tried to sell us a diet formula supplement. We sure hope she's OK.
Quicker tweets with qTweeter
There's no shortage of Twitter apps in the App Store. Even more surprising is the number of GOOD apps that connect to the popular microblogging platform. I like each for a different reason: Tweetie has a clean user interface, TweetDeck offers multiple columns that sync with its desktop counterpart, and TwitterFon has ReadItLater integration. There are countless others that have unique features, and many of us end up with at least a couple on our iDevices. But I have a new favorite, qTweeter, developed by the folks at Efiko Software. You won't find it in the App Store, though, because this app requires a jailbroken device. Multitasking isn't officially allowed (yet?) on the iPhone OS, yet qTweeter relies on this capability to perform its best trick. Say you're checking the weather and want to tell everyone of the approaching hurricane. Normally, you would close your weather application, swipe through pages of apps, tap on and wait for your favorite Twitter client to open and load all of the tweets that you really don't care about right now, and finally type your warning to get the heck out of town. By the time you do all of that, the highway is going to be grid-locked with fleeing residents and you'll be stuck boarding up windows and sweeping up the debris! Instead, you could have just "pulled" qTweeter down from the status bar, typed your tweet, and went back to the app still running in the background. In fact, per the recent trend, you could have also posted that same message to your Facebook status with just a tap of a checkbox. It's a much quicker way to get your message out of your head and onto the Net, a fact that you'll appreciate as you get older and those thoughts become more fleeting.
