Twitter

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• native video

Twitter announces native video support for its Twitter Kit developer tool

Twitter today announced that it is rolling out a highly-welcomed new feature to its Twitter Kit developer tools. The company announced in a blog post that users will now be able to watch full-screen Twitter videos and GIFs without having to open up a webview or leave their app.

Essentially this means that Twitter for iOS now will play back videos and GIFs full-screen with the native video player on iOS that we’ve all come to recognize and use over the years. Twitter notes that the feature is live on iOS now and will come to Android soon. This feature should make the entire video viewing process more seamless for the user as they will no longer have to remember to go back to whatever app they were using before clicking the video link that opened another app.

Twitter appears to be rolling out the update over-the-air, so there’s no work that needs to be done on the user/developer of things. Twitter says this feature is supposed on the latest version of Twitter Kit on iOS 8 and higher.

Here’s what the company had to say in its blog post announcing native video support for Twitter Kit:

From unbelievable sports highlights to powerful first person footage, Twitter is full of unique stories told with immersive videos. Today, we’re excited to announce native support for those videos in Twitter Kit.

Starting today, your users will be able to watch full-screen Twitter videos and GIFs without having to open up a webview or leave your app. Video support is now live on iOS, and will be coming shortly for Android as well.

The best part is, you don’t have to do any extra work. Any app running the latest version of Twitter Kit on iOS8+ will automatically support native video viewing.

We’re committed to helping you tell the best stories with videos, and we look forward to building new ways to showcase rich Twitter content in your Twitter Kit apps.

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iOS
• iPad
• Apple Watch
• iPhone

Vine comes to the Apple Watch with favorite videos and a complication

Twitter’s Vine today launched an application for the the Apple Watch, bringing the ability for Vine users to watch videos that interest them on their wrists. As noted in Vine’s announcement, the simplified Vine interface allows users to quickly watch videos from either the featured category or from their favorite Vine accounts. Of course, the application also allows users to like and Re-Vine clips from the Apple Watch. Notably, the application also includes a watch face complication so users who post videos to Vine can quickly measure their loops. In related news, Vine’s updated iPhone application now lets users more easily swipe between videos.

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• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• Twitter
• Apple Inc
• Microsoft

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls 1997 investment saving Apple “craziest thing we ever did”

In a Bloomberg interview this morning former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spent some time discussing competition with Amazon for talent in Seattle and then moved on to Apple and Tesla.

With regard to Apple, Ballmer first said that Apple has “done a good job” and took credit for saving Apple with an investment in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned – which was part of a patent lawsuit over Windows 95/stolen Quicktime code. Ballmer went on to describe the investment this way: “In a way you could say that was the craziest thing [Microsoft] ever did.”

Ballmer then moved to the current landscape where he said that Microsoft is the only company (in addition to Samsung) really competing with Apple with its SurfaceBook in a new category.

Ballmer currently is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team and now owns around 4% of Twitter stock. The relevant clip can be found here with Apple conversation starting halfway through.

 

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• Twitter
• 3D Touch
• Tweetbot
• Tapbots

Tweetbot adds 3D Touch Quick Actions, Peek & Pop features on iPhone 6s & 6s Plus

The newly launched and universal Tweetbot 4 for iOS is out with its first new update today, version 4.0.1, adding improved support for Apple’s latest iPhones.

For iPhone 6s and 6s Plus customers, Tweetbot 4 now includes 3D Touch support for Quick Actions on the Home screen and Peek and Pop interactions within the app. 
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• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iOS
• iOS Devices
• Twitter
• iOS 9

Twitter for iOS 9 enables quick reply to tweets directly from the notification, adds iPad multitasking support

Twitter has updated its app with support for iOS 9 features, following the release of iOS 9 earlier today.  The update adds multitasking support on iPad, so you can now browse Safari (or do anything really) whilst having Twitter docked in a side column.

More importantly, Twitter adds quick reply to mention notifications. This means you can reply from the tweet without having to enter the app, just like how quick replies with the iOS Messages app. This is a big boon for productivity. Activate quick replies by pulling down on the notification banner to reveal a text box. Type your reply in the message box and press Send — that’s it.

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• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iOS
• iPhone
• Twitter
• App Store

Twitter introduces Music on Vine: Better audio controls and music discovery on Vine app

Last night, Vine announced that it’s bringing greater music controls to its popular video-looping app on iOS. While users have always had the ability to include audio of any kind in their Vines, this new update makes it far more precise. The biggest update is a feature called ‘Snap to Beat’ which enables users to more easily create a seamless loop, or perfect loop where you can’t tell the beginning of the audio from the end.

To get Snap to Beat working for you, choose a song by tapping on the music note in the ‘Details’ screen. Snap to Beat automatically identifies how much of the song to use to make a seamless loop, then trims the video to fit that music clip. If you don’t want it happening auto-magically, you can switch off Snap to Beat and edit the audio manually yourself. This gives the user complete control over how much sound to include in the Vine, and which part of the video it should play over.

As a part of Vine’s new-found focus on music, there’s also a new audio discovery tool within the app. First up is a new ‘Featured Tracks’ section which you can explore when you create a new Vine and tap on the music note to add a song. What’s more, you can use Vine to detect what you’re listening to while watching other Vines. If a musical note icon appears beneath a Vine, tap on it, and it’ll show you the name of the track, and the name of the artist performing.

The Music on Vine updates will be rolling out to iOS users from today and will be available to download from the App Store for free.

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Paper
• Facebook Paper

Facebook is reportedly developing a Twitter-like breaking news app

Update: A Facebook spokesperson has issued a statement to 9to5Mac, saying “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

Facebook is currently developing a new standalone mobile app geared toward breaking news, Business Insider reports. The mobile app in testing is said to be Twitter-like in a news sense as its focus is said to be around allowing partnered publications to push alerts to users. Another Twitter-like aspect is the character limit of alerts being tested. According to the report, publications will have 100 characters plus an article link for users to click in each alert; similarly, tweets are limited to 140 characters in total.
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• Apple Music
• Twitter
• Beats 1
• Beats1Plays
• Callum Jones

Unofficial Beats 1 Twitter feed identifies the tracks you missed

Update: Twitter has now suspended the account as ‘deceptive’ (presumably because it was not an official Beats account).

If you’re listening to Beats 1 and hear a track you like, the Now Playing screen will identify it for you, or you can use the contextual menu to add it to My Music or view it in the iTunes Store. But if you were driving or busy doing something else, and want to identify the track that just finished playing, you’re out of luck unless it’s part of a featured playlist.

That’s the problem web developer Callum Jones has just solved in a really simple but neat way: he’s created an @Beats1Plays Twitter account that simply tweets the name of the track and artist of each song played on Beats 1. Even if you can’t stop what you’re doing until ten minutes later, you can simply scroll back through the feed.

Those using the iOS 9 beta won’t get full access to Apple Music until next week, but Beats 1 radio is available in the Music app.

Via TNW

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• Twitter
• Twitterrific
• Iconfactory
• facial recognition

Twitterrific for iOS adds facial recognition for framing images, quote tweet notifications, more

Facial recognition isn’t something you immediately consider when you think of a Twitter client, but Twitterrific has added the technology in a clever way to its latest update for iOS. Using Apple’s API for picking out faces in a scene (you probably see this in action the most in the Camera app), Twitterrific now enhances rich media previews by centering images around people rather than cropping around the center. You can see a before and after comparison above showing the new feature in action.
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