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Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. Users send "tweets" to let people know what they are doing. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.

Twitter accused of hypocrisy over Trump tweets

Twitter is a social networking site that was created in 2006. Users send “tweets” to let people know what they are doing. It was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Prior to building the service, they were working on a podcast directory called Odeo.

Odeo was a directory and search destination website for RSS-syndicated audio and video. It employed tools that enabled users to create, record, and share podcasts with a simple Adobe Flash-based interface.

When iTunes 4.9 was released, it ultimately made Odeo irrelevant. The people behind the company went on to create a service called Twttr. Twttr would eventually be called Twitter. iTunes 4.9, believe it or not, ultimately led to the creation of one of the most popular social networks in the world.

The major turning point for service’s popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. Over the next few years, Twitter began to see rapid growth. For mobile devices, it originally relied upon third-party apps. In 2010, Twitter acquired application developer Atebits. Atebits had built the Twitter app known as Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone. It was renamed as Twitter and released for free.

Over the years, the apps have seen various revisions. There are currently versions available for iOS while desktop users must either use the web interface or a third party app like Tweetbot or Twitterrific.

Report: Twitter excluded from Trump’s tech summit because it refused to create #CrookedHillary emoji (Not The Onion)

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President-elect Donald Trump today held a meeting with a variety of tech leaders at Trump Tower in New York City, including Tim Cook, Larry Page, Elon Musk, and others. Notably excluded from the invite list, however, was Twitter. According to Politico, Twitter was “bounced” from the meeting because it refused to create an emoji version of the “#CrookedHillary” hashtag during the campaign season.


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Missed Apple’s AirPods 20 minute window? Here are some great wireless alternatives shipping in time for holidays

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Here at 9to5Mac readers have a few different ways to stay up to date on our latest news. We strive to push out breaking news as fast as possible to make sure our readers are informed on the latest changes in the Apple environment, but there are some additional steps you can take to get that extra edge in the moments that matter. You may have missed your chance to get the Apple AirPods earlier, but read on to see how you can make sure you won’t miss out on any other future events…


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Report: Salesforce, last remaining company in acquisition talks, pulls out of bid for Twitter

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After reports that Google, Apple, and the Walt Disney Company have pulled out of the running bid to acquire Twitter, the company’s plans to conclude negotiations before their Q3 earnings have been looking a lot less likely to happen. Today that dream looks even more abysmal  as Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff told The Financial Times that they walked away from the bid citing that it “wasn’t the right fit for us”. Salesforce was the last company out of the originally reported bidders.


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Report: Twitter to make acquisition decision this month, Disney, Salesforce & Alphabet in the running

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Update: Recode reports that Google and Apple are now out of the running to acquire Twitter.

Twitter has been rumored to be searching for potential buyers since last month, but a new report out of Reuters today suggests that its negotiations could soon come to a close. According to the report, which cites “people familiar with the matter,” Twitter hopes to conclude negotiations with a buyer by the time it releases its Q3 earnings on Ocobter 27th.


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Review: Leaf, a creative & fresh take on the Twitter experience for iOS

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Eight years since the App Store’s initial release, we’ve seen quite the influx of Twitter apps on the market. Over time, the situation settled down and the best competitors stood on top. I’ve come to find my one or two main Twitter clients, but that still hasn’t stopped me from looking for any new contenders. While there are the few Twitter apps that everyone knows, it’s refreshing to see a new take on the familiar experience.

Enter Leaf, a new Twitter client available in the App Store today that takes a few creative approaches to the experiences we have come to know and love.


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Tweetbot updated for macOS Sierra and iOS 10, adds extended Tweet support

Yesterday Twitter introduced the ability to send extended tweets that include images and videos without counting against the character limit. This change was introduced months ago, but third-party Twitter clients didn’t have a heads up on how to support the new feature until it launched.

For the last 24 hours of so, Tweetbot and other third-party apps have included URLs to full tweets on the web for extended tweets, and now Tapbots has quickly shipped an update to the Mac that supports the longer tweet format (and iOS support likely isn’t far behind).


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Twitter launches new Apple TV app for streaming live video including NFL Thursday Night Football

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Just in time for NFL Thursday Night Football (and tvOS 10), Twitter is launching a new Apple TV app for streaming live video to the big screen. It was first reported a month ago that the new app was in the works. The new app will let viewers watch premium video content like the 10 NFL games that Twitter bought the rights to broadcast, and Twitter content like Top Tweets and Vines will also be accessible.


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Report: Twitter to stop counting usernames & media towards 140-character limit next week

Earlier this year, Twitter announced that it was planning to move away from the strict 140-character limit for tweets. While the overall idea would remain the same, things like media attachments and @ usernames would no longer count towards the limit. Now, The Verge reports that Twitter is set to rollout the change next week.


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Five years in, dormant @Apple Twitter account looks set to start tweeting

Update: Apple so far is using the account only for a promoted/sponsored tweet campaign not visible from its main profile.

An @apple Twitter account has existed for more than five years, but until today has been completely dormant, with blank profile and header images. That’s now changed: there’s an Apple logo for the profile image, and the iPhone 7 event graphic as the header. So far, though, no tweets.

It’s looking likely that Apple plans to start tweeting in time for next week’s launch of the iPhone 7, with some speculating that the company may live-tweet the event …


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Twitter’s official iOS app gains a highly requested dark theme called ‘night mode’

iPhone and iPad users have long requested that Twitter add a dark mode to its iOS app and today it’s finally happening.

Twitter’s ‘night mode’ feature was introduced earlier this year on Android, and today Twitter shared that the feature is rolling out to iOS as well. Hopefully that means both iPhone and iPad (and add streaming to my feature request list next if so).


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Twitter announces new tools to let users better control tweet quality and notifications

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Twitter today has announced an update to its iOS app that gives users more control over what they see in their timeline and who is able to interact with them. Announced on the official Twitter blog, the changes come to notification settings and a new quality filter setting. The update specifically brings more control to users who are not lucky enough to be verified on the service.


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Former Apple PR exec Natalie Kerris leaving new gig at Twitter after less than 6 months

Over a year ago, longtime Apple senior public relations executive Natalie Kerris left the company. Kerris worked at Apple for 14 years and was responsible for the company’s PR during several crucial eras, including the launch of the iPhone. While Kerris didn’t initially specify what she would do after Apple, it was announced in February of this year that she was joining Twitter to lead its communications department. Now, BuzzFeed News reports that Kerris is leaving Twitter after less than 6 months.


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Twitter extends video uploads to 140-seconds as Instagram hits 500M monthly users

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Twitter for iOS today will see the ability to upload and share much longer videos than before while still holding on to the short clip approach. The social network is announcing that video uploads to Twitter will extend in total duration from just 30 seconds to a full 140 seconds, or 2 minutes 20 seconds. Twitter users may recognize the ‘140’ number as the character limit generally (but not always) assigned to tweets — which is based on the 160 character limit of SMS minus usernames — so Twitter is really embracing the number here.

Speaking of numbers, Instagram is sharing today that its photo and video sharing service has hit a new growth milestone at 500 million monthly active users (with 60% active daily) plus some other interesting stats about its app.


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Twitter announces mentions and media will soon stop counting towards 140 character limit, adding ability to self retweet

After a few months of speculation, Twitter has officially announced its plans to extend the length of tweets by no longer counting mentions and media attachments towards the 140 character limit as well as some new announcements including the ability to retweet yourself and the removal of the ‘.@’ convention to simplify the service. Twitter will roll all of these updates in the coming months.

The headline change is that Twitter handles (@mention), embedded photos, videos and other media attachments will no longer count towards the 140 character limit. This will allow users to fit more content into every tweet as metadata will not use up valuable characters.


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Report: Twitter to stop counting links and photos towards 140-character limit

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While earlier reports claimed Twitter was considering ditching the 140-character limit altogether, Bloomberg offers up some more details on Twitter’s plans for the limitation. According to the report, Twitter will soon stop counting photos and links towards the 140-character limit as a way to encourage people to add more media to their tweets.


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Tweetbot 4.3 on iOS launches Topics, making tweet storms a breeze

Live tweeting aficionados and tweet storm lovers may welcome Tweetbot’s latest update for iOS, and coming soon to the Mac. The app has introduced ‘Topics’, an intuitive way to link tweets together with an optional hashtag without having to reply to each one of your previous tweets. A very small, but welcome feature for those who find themselves easily surpassing Twitter’s 140-character limit.


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