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Celestalon and Holinka on Warlords of Draenor changes
Yes, after the big Dev Watercooler, people of course had a flurry of questions, and our friendly Blizzard devs Brian Holinka and Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig hit Twitter in a big way to answer people's questions. And man, did they - many, many questions were answered. Here, we have compiled as many as we can. Racial abilities Weapon Specialization racials (like the ones dwarves, humans and orcs had) are gone, due to hit/expertise also having been removed. Worgen Darkflight is remaining unchanged. Troll Berserking is reduced to 15% haste. Humans will gain a redesigned The Human Spirit, which will add to two secondary stats of your choice. Every Man For Himself may or may not be changed, based on itemization changes. Orcs were redesigned - Blood Fury was left intact, but Hardiness is now a 10% reduction, down from 15%. Command racial is unchanged. Gnome's Expansive Mind racial, for instance, is now good for all resources, not just mana. Escape Artist drops to a 1 minute CD, and Shortblade Specialization is gone, replaced with Nimble Fingers, a new haste racial.
Twitter's latest test channels Pinterest and Facebook in profile redesign
That mobile-esque redesign Twitter pushed out last month? Forget about it: the microblogging is already testing another skin for user profiles -- and it looks really familiar. Select users are reporting that their Twitter profiles look now look like a cross between Google+, Pinterest and Facebook, complete with large header photos (up to 1500 x 1500 pixels), left-aligned profile images and flat content cards representing each tweet. The entire redesign is a jarring departure from the Twitter norm, but it's that last element that proves to be the most disruptive: rather than piling up in the normal vertical fashion, the new card layout allows tweets to lay side by side, a fundamental change in how Twitter displays content. There's no word yet when or if this profile will available to the majority of Twitter users, but be warned: change is upon us. [Thanks, @Ben_Haizlip!]
Twitter sets new tweets per second record, explains why 143k simultaneous updates didn't make it stutter
Remember the last time you saw the infamous Twitter fail whale? With any luck, it's been a while -- the microblogging outfit is boasting that it withstood a one-second peak of 143,199 Tweets earlier this month. This volley of updates stands not only as a new record for tweets per second (the previous record topped out at 33,338), but as a sign for the social network's stability. Twitter's Raffi Krikorian took to the company's engineering blog to elaborate. Three years ago, the World Cup brought Twitter to its knees -- crashing the service with nearly every play. Krikorian says the experience gave the company pause, prompting them reevaluate its approach to managing traffic. "We learned a lot. We changed our engineering organization." Krikorian goes on to detail the transformation, explaining how the firm tweaked its programming models, architecture, services, applications and storage databases to eliminate bottlenecks and increase stability. "We're now able to withstand events like Castle in the Sky viewings, the Super Bowl, and the global New Year's Eve celebration." All of the above topics are addressed at length, but Twitter promises future blog updates diving into each subject at even greater length. So, curious as to why exactly you haven't missed out on any of @GeorgeTakei's quirky banter? Check out the attached source link and find out.
Zeebox update adds 'replay tweets' feature, brings time-delayed social commentary
Twitter already put forward the idea of a social media "DVR," that might let you "playback" tweets, and see what was being talked about at a certain time. It seems Zeebox wasn't about to wait around for that to happen and took the initiative, bundling a similar feature into its latest update. The second-screen app will now recognise when you're watching something after the fact, and resurrect the tweets that went along with it, as if it were live. Great for seeing what your tweeple were thinking at the time. Still won't protect you from any Downton-eque spoiler debacles, sadly.
Topographic maps illustrate where Twitter's bird flies highest
Not every Twitter user geotags their musings, but there are enough who do to generate some very insightful data. On its blog today, Twitter shared images from Data Visualization Scientist Nicolas Belmonte, who created topographic maps visualizing the density of geotagged tweets. The result is striking, as tweets clearly correlate with roads, geographic features and even lines of public transit. In addition to the blog's stills, you can futz around with interactive maps of New York, San Francisco and... Istanbul. When you realize the implications of all those tweets from the Bay Bridge, it's frightening enough to consider taking BART across the Bay instead.
Twitter heat map shows iPhones dominate affluent areas
Mapping software company MapBox has created an incredible interactive map that highlights the devices that are used with Twitter across the world. The map looks at over 280 million tweets sent from iPhones, Android phones, BlackBerry devices and more, and plots all of that data by geographic location. As one might expect, the wealthier, more affluent countries have the most tweets sent from iPhones, while those in poorer countries typically use lower-cost mobile phones from BlackBerry and a few Android handsets. The map is a fascinating look at the prevalence of tweeting around the world and yet it is still only a fraction of all the tweets sent in a single day. The data was compiled with help from technology from GNIP.
Bloomberg terminals now pull in real-time Twitter feeds
Now that the SEC has given companies its blessing to share business data over social media, Bloomberg has begun to pull live Twitter feeds into its market terminals, known as the Bloomberg Professional service. According to the firm, that makes it the first financial information platform to integrate real-time tweets into investment workflows. Within the service, tweets are classified by company, asset class, people and topics, and stock buffs can even search messages, create filters and set alerts to notify them when a certain subject gets a flurry of mentions. The outfit hopes the inclusion of 140-character missives will let financial-minded folks keep their fingers on the market's pulse without switching to another system (read: being distracted by Tweetdeck) to get the big picture. Hit the jump for the full skinny in the press release. [Image credit: Jared Keller, Twitter]
Kiwi offers Twitter-like browser for App dot Net
Echofon for Mac is no longer in development. TUAW's Twitter Client Project surveys popular desktop alternatives in highly subjective reviews. Sometimes the answer to Twitter clients might be to just go find another service to socialize on. Many people are now turning to App dot Net as a social outlet. I admit that I'm still a Twitterholic, but on Victor's request, I headed over to ADN for a couple of weeks of exploration and testing. There, I ran into Kiwi for Mac (US$9.99). Itself a refugee from Twitter's somewhat developer-unfriendly new policies, the devs withdrew the original Kiwi Twitter client. They are focusing on providing a full-featured ADN client instead. I really like the visual look of Kiwi. It's sparse and clean. The devs have made some really good layout choices. The icons are well-chosen and small touches like a global feed that can stay scrolled at the top (Prefs > General > Scrolling > Sticks to top when at top) show they listen to their users. I did, however, find the navigation more confusing than it had to be and encountered some bugs. This is a minor quibble, however. The buttons at the top of each screen are tied to the function being displayed. You can't just treat the app as globally tabbed, which is what I initially expected. It's a stack-based navigation browser, which keeps pushing new views. What makes this harder is that buttons at the top keep changing. The go-back button at some point switches to a personal profile button so if you just mechanically click (I did), you end up toggling back and forth between your home screen and some bit or another of your profile and never get anywhere. I think I would have preferred tabs overall so I wouldn't have to keep searching for the global feed which came and went by screen. Also, when you click a... what do you call it? Not a tweet. A twapp? When you click a twapp, I'd rather it have opened up a drawer to show detail views. It bothered me that basic functionality choices came and went depending on the screen. And also that where you clicked on the twapp mattered about what view came next because there were no visual indicators that each twapp wasn't a monolithic element apart from blue links. Kiwi experienced regular crashing during my tests, mostly when the app was idle. It's still under active development and version 3.0.1 was just released. I have not had a chance to extensively test the new version. One of the biggest problems I had with ADN was its APIs. As far as I can tell (and please correct me if I'm wrong), you cannot search the global feed with arbitrary phrases. For this reason, Kiwi only offers searches for users, not content. I liked how Kiwi supported image posting (a must-have feature, in my opinion, for any client) but I discovered that the lag in processing the picture through img.ly didn't mix well with typing. After requesting an image link, the client actually inserted the processed link as I was typing, so the link appeared like this. It was not what I was expecting. In the end, Kiwi seems to offer all the core functionality you need for App.net. I found it easy to read, reply to and favorite twapps. As for ADN itself, I'm still unconvinced on that front but I'm glad I gave it a whirl.
PSA: URLs in tweets now eat a couple more characters
The dreaded day is upon us, as Twitter has followed through with its plan to increase the maximum length of t.co wrapped links. So, from now on, you've got a few less characters to play with if you want to share an URL with the world: links of the http kind now take up 22 characters instead of 20, and https links hog 23 characters instead of 21. Forget the "t.co wrapped" part -- the reduction comes into force when any URL is included in a tweet, and you can't trick it with shortened links from sites like Bit.ly, so u'll jus need 2b a lil more concise. Even Neo can't mess with the laws of the Twitter.
Tweeria is self-proclaimed 'laziest MMORPG ever'
If you like the idea of MMOs but don't want to actually have to do anything to progress in one, then Tweeria may be the answer to your weirdly specific situation. The game, such as it is, draws from your Twitter account to create a character and go on missions. Players go on raids, engage in PvP, loot, and level up based on everyday tweets. According to the game's developers, Tweeria's proven to be pretty popular, with over 14,000 registered users. The application reads your tweets, sees who you follow on Twitter, updates your profile, and posts tweets for you over the course of the game. The game's blog said that Tweeria began as a "private, non-commercial, and mostly experimental project," and was not prepared for the current level of popularity. There are some issues with player-submitted artwork and possible copyright violations that Tweeria's creators are trying to smooth over with future policies.
New tablet owners share Christmas tweets, iPad on top
Anecdotal evidence from Twitter suggests there were a lot of new iPads under the Christmas tree. According to a graphic spotted by Andy Baio, the number of people proclaiming this is my "First tweet from my iPad" eclipses those tweeting for the first time from their Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 or Surface tablet. There's no source for the data, so we can't confirm that its accurate. If it is true, the iPad was the gift to give and receive this holiday season.
Tweetdeck updated with themes and new fonts
Twitter clients are like political candidates these days -- everyone's got one they like, and no one really wants to hear about the ones they don't. For me, TweetDeck is still my client of choice. Even though I've heard good things about TweetBot for Mac and a few other options out there, nothing newer has caught my eye. That's why I'm glad to hear that TweetDeck just got updated, and my client of choice has a few new tricks to it. The biggest change is that the client now supports themes, so if you don't like that dark default look, you can easily switch it over to a much lighter theme with dark text on a white background. You can also now customize the font that displays your tweets, and there are a few other new options and features to play around with. Yes, you might have moved on to a different Twitter client, for whatever reasons you've chosen to do so. But for those of us using TweetDeck, an update like this is very welcome indeed. [via Engadget]
TweetDeck gets a makeover, new update brings themes and improved fonts
If you're a social media junkie and TweetDeck is your pusherman, you may or may not be happy to know that the Twitter-owned application has received a cosmetic update -- one which inches the platform further away from the post-buyout product that power users once knew and loved. While subtle, the latest software bump brings enhanced, adjustable fonts and a brand new "lighter theme" that features dark text against a light background. The update is now available for Windows, Chrome and Mac web users. As for you app fans, Chrome and Windows requires a restart, while Mac users will need to visit the App Store. Those looking to keep it retro can always get their download on at OldApps.
Zeebox adds Viacom to its list of second-screen partners
We love riffing on TV shows like a latter-day MST3k, which means that companies are desperate to harness our homespun satire to their own ends. Second-screen start-up Zeebox has inked a deal with MTV and Comedy Central owner Viacom, offering exclusive content in exchange for on-screen advertising. That said, we're not sure if the promise of behind-the-scenes clips would be enough to draw us away from just cattily judging the Project Runway contestants on Twitter, where we're less likely to be moderated into oblivion.
TweetDeck for the web slips in expanded tweets and header photos
TweetDeck is Twitter's professional desktop client, though you might not always know it given that the app is sometimes out of step with its more pedestrian siblings. Today, Twitter is presenting a unified front in a more timely fashion. The web versions of TweetDeck now show the expanded tweets and header photos that reached the iPad and mobile apps a week ago. No major surprises are waiting in the wings save for the absence of a matching update to the native Mac and Windows apps -- hopefully, that's a gap that closes soon.
Twitter CEO reveals plans for interactive tweets, content curation, reinforces belief in syndication
Twitter has ruffled a few feathers recently, so when CEO Dick Costolo took the stage at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco, he took the opportunity to put some minds at rest. First he dismissed the idea that the service would become a media company by forcing users to the site or official app for content, before reasserting his belief in syndication. Costolo then went on to imply that the reason behind the tighter (and unpopular) API controls was ensuring quality -- stating that Twitter would reach its full potential now there's more control over how tweets are delivered. With boots strapped, we can look forward to some new features, such as the option to curate messages that are published (such as during live events) plus tweets with interactive features like polls during live sports games. The famous 140 character limit is to remain, but will also serve as a "caption for additional functionality." Perhaps of most interest to disenfranchised developers, however, was the mention of application functionality in tweets, where short messages could contain small interactive apps. Something for devs to get potentially get back on board with? We hope so. But until further details unfold, we're still left considering our options.
Twitter offers embeddable timeline tool, gives web designers new toy to play with
Until now, the only way for folks to see someone's tweets on the web was to grab screenshots or head directly to their Twitter page. No more. The microblogging platform just launched a new tool that lets folks embed Twitter timelines into any website, meaning you can have your 140-character musings right alongside your long-winded blog posts. Plus, you can interact with those tweets as you would at twitter.com, following and replying directly from the module. Interested? Head on down to the Twitter Developers source link below to learn how the embedding works.
Twitter warned by Indian government to kibosh inflammatory tweets
India's in the midst of a security crisis and has asked Twitter to curtail "inflammatory messages" or prepare to face legal action, according to the Times of India. The country has shut down numerous websites, while Google and Facebook have already pledged to remove any threatening content. Officials reportedly said that Twitter "failed to cooperate" in efforts to curb messages or help the government find their source, despite an earlier pledge by the social network to censor content when a country demanded it. Indian ISPs have started blocking the service's accounts, according to TNW, but not Twitter itself, as the site first reported. In any case, the country still has a long way to go to catch the censorship leader.
Alt-week 8.18.12: Graphene sponges, zero-g athletics and tweets in space
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. We see a lot of crazy stories here at Engadget, especially when we spend our week poking around in dark and scary corners of the internet specifically in search of them, just so you don't have to. We consider it a service almost. One that we're delighted to provide, we must add. When else would we be able to share such delights as an astronaut triathlete, soft, color-changing robots and a recent response to a thirty-year-old alien broadcast? Exactly. This is alt-week.
Twitter quietly adds clickable stock symbols
It might not pack the same thrill as the rumors of in-feed video, but Twitter has added clickable stock symbols on tweets. This now throws up search results for both the stock and the company, using a new 'cash' tag, like $FB, to differentiate from typical links and tags. As noted by TNW, it's bad news for the founder of StockTwits, a service that offered similar functionality to gather tweet-based financial nuggets. The new feature is live across Twitter's web client -- though it hasn't hit TweetDeck just yet -- and should make discovering exactly how many millions companies have made (or lost) all a bit faster.
