Twitter

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.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Twitter’s latest iOS update, released today, now includes iPad-compatible keyboard shortcuts. Users with paired Bluetooth keyboards or Smart Keyboards will now be able to use their keyboards to create new tweets, or move between tabs.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Twitter is launching a new iOS app today called Dashboard that it hopes will better help businesses manage their accounts. For Mac users, there’s also a web component to Twitter Dashboard.

Expand
Expanding
Close

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.

Expand
Expanding
Close

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.

Expand
Expanding
Close

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.

Expand
Expanding
Close

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.

Expand
Expanding
Close

VideoTweet is a new utility from the folks over at Arctic Whiteness that brings Twitter sharing to Final Cut Pro X. Appearing as a destination within Final Cut Pro X’s export options, it’s a quick way to get video from a project to your Twitter followers.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple appears to be taking its new Apple News app to the place that news often breaks (then spreads), Twitter. The Twitter handle @applenews has been dressed for the job for several months now although it’s been inactive before today and it isn’t yet marked “verified” by Twitter; Apple execs Eddy Cue and Roger Rosner are among those that follow the account, however, which suggests it’s an official Apple property. Here’s the first tweet that was shared today:

Follow us here for top stories & great reads from your favorite publishers, curated by our U.S. editors.

9to5Mac reported based on job listings last summer that Apple’s News app will employ human editors to curate stories featured within the app, and Apple recently started promoting the editor’s pick section within the app around iOS 9.3. Now it looks like Apple is going one step further and will use Twitter to drive attention to the Apple News app on iPhone and iPad…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook’s pitch for the fourth generation Apple TV so far has been largely that “the future of TV is apps”, and this week yet another premium cable and satellite network is launching a standalone version of its network for cord cutters. Starz, which before now has required a traditional cable or satellite package for access, is launching a streaming version of its network for a monthly rate competitive to HBO and Netflix. The new Starz app is available on iPhone, iPad, and the fourth generation Apple TV for $8.99/month if you don’t have the network in your cable package. Also in the streaming space, we learned today that Twitter has emerged victorious is scoring the rights to stream 10 NFL “Thursday Night Football” games in the next season…

Expand
Expanding
Close

A new iPhone 6s/6s Plus passcode bypass flaw is making its rounds on the internet today, and it’s similar to flaws we’ve seen in the past on iOS. Don’t be overly alarmed, though, as the odds of this happening to you are slim. Besides, if you are concerned, there are some bonafide ways to go about protecting yourself.
Expand
Expanding
Close

This week Apple joined Twitter. Yep. Along with that, Zac and Benjamin discuss OS X’s first ransomware, and later on we’ll go over our iOS 10 wishlist and talk about what Apple needs to make the next version better than ever. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed. Big thanks to Harry’s this episode.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/251054382″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

Expand
Expanding
Close

Update #2: A second coalition of tech companies including Google, Microsoft Facebook, Snapchat, Mozilla, and Dropbox have also filed a joint brief this evening in support of Apple. These companies also argue that the All Writs Act does not give the government legal basis for forcing Apple to unlock the gunman’s iPhone (via Reuters). Google detailed its reasoning in a blog post:

Today, Google joined a variety of technology companies to file an amicus brief in US federal court. Together, we are voicing concern about the use of a broad statute from the 18th century, the All Writs Act, to require companies to re-engineer important security features that protect people and their data.

Update: 5 families of the San Bernardino victims have filed an amicus brief with the court asking for Apple to unlock the iPhone in question. More below.

On a new webpage dedicated to highlighting companies and organizations supporting it in its fight against the FBI, Apple today has shared a joint amicus brief from a variety of tech companies that has been filed with the court. Twitter, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Square, Reddit, and many others have signed the brief expressing support for Apple.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has today launched a company Twitter account for help, customer support and iOS tips. Although Apple manages some support accounts for parts of its business, like Apple Music, this is the first time Apple has launched an account that covers its entire product range. @AppleSupport is already verified, confirming its validity as an official Apple support avenue.

Expand
Expanding
Close