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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.

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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Apple News team now using Twitter to promote curated stories

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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…


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Twitter app adding inline direct message sharing buttons to tweets

Twitter is rolling out a new ‘feature’ to its iOS app today, prioritizing Direct Messages in the timeline by adding a prominent icon inline to tweets in the timeline. Tapping the new Direct Message button opens a new message with one of your Twitter followers, linking the tweet from the timeline as the starting point of the conversation. In the blog post, Twitter says updates for the app are rolling out from today.


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Starz hits Apple TV with $8.99/month package, Twitter scores live NFL “Thursday Night Football” streams

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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…


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New iPhone 6s passcode bypass lets handlers access Photos and Contacts; here’s how to protect yourself

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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.
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