Category: Twitter

Twitter Sets New Tweets Per Second Record

Recently, something remarkable happened on Twitter: On Saturday, August 3 in Japan, people watched a telecast of the movie ‘Castle in the Sky’, and then tweeted so much that twitter hit a one-second peak of 143,199 Tweets per second.

Twitter takes in more than 500 million Tweets a day which means about an average of 5,700 tweets in a second. This particular peak was around 25 times greater than a normal peak for Twitter.

The Twitter Blog Says

During this spike, our users didn’t experience a blip on Twitter. That’s one of our goals: to make sure Twitter is always available no matter what is happening around the world. New Tweets per second (TPS) record: 143,199 TPS. Typical day: more than 500 million Tweets sent; average 5,700 TPS.

Three years ago, the World Cup brought Twitter crashing the service with nearly every play. Krikorian(VP Engineering Twitter) says the experience gave the company pause, prompting them to 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 Skyviewings, the Super Bowl, and the global New Year’s Eve celebration.” said Raffi Krikorian, VP Engineering Twitter.

[via]

August 17, 2013
Vine For Android Updated With Push Notifications

An updated version of the Vine application is now available for download for the owners of Android-based devices, namely version 1.3.3, with some appealing improvements packed inside.

With the newest version, Viners now have the ability to share user profiles through more than just the SMS app (hopefully all Android apps with sharing capabilities will be available). Users can also look forward to push notifications, so they never miss a mention or re-Vine.

Furthermore, the new application release provides the possibility to share any public post to Twitter or Facebook, while also delivering a variety of other bug fixes and improvements.

For those of you who don’t keep up with the social media, Vine is an app that allows you to create 6 seconds of video in a looping feed that you can tag and then post. Owned by Twitter, consider this the video version of the social messaging app, if the messages continued to repeat over and over again.

Vine for Android is available through the Google Play store for free and it is compatible with devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and later platforms.

August 3, 2013
Can’t Login to Twitter on an iPhone, iPad or iPod ? Twitter knows it, Here is How you Fix it!
Many iPhone / iOS device users are facing issues logging into Twitter from their iOS devices, so much so that some people cant even open the twitter website on their browser. Twitter is aware of this bug and claims that it is working on a fix.

If you can’t login to Twitter on your iPhone, iPad or iPod you may be one of the many who are affected by this bug.

[box type=”notice” title=”Bug Alert: ” message=” Some users are having trouble sending a Tweet with photo. Some users report seeing the following errors when logging into Twitter for iPhone: Unauthorized / @(null) / Error Loading Tweets (400 or 401) “]

Twitter Recommends the following steps to attempt to reinstate your iPhone / iOS Twitter access to your Twitter account .

Remove your account from the app and log back in

If clearing your phone’s cache or turning your phone off and then on again didn’t work, you should try removing and then re-adding your account to the app. This is essentially the same thing as logging out and back in again, but since there is not “log out” option on the app, you’ll need to remove the account from the app entirely and then sign back in.

Note: The instructions for removing an account from the app are different for iOS4 and iOS5 (and higher). If you don’t know which OS version your phone is running, you can check by going to your iPhone’s Settings > General > About > Version.

To remove your account from the Twitter for iPhone app:
1. Go to your phone’s System Settings.
2. Tap on Twitter.
3. Tap on the account that needs to be removed.
4. Select Delete Account.
To add your account back to the app:
1. Open the Twitter for iPhone app.
2. Tap Sign in.
3. Enter your username and password.
4. Tap Done.
If you’ve forgotten your account’s password, follow the troubleshooting steps below to recover it.

How to send a password reset from your mobile device:
1. If you’re using a mobile device to access Twitter, you can send yourself a password reset via Twitter for Android, Twitter for iPhone, or mobile.twitter.com.
2. On the welcome page, select Sign in and then Forgot password?
3. Enter the email address or username that you are trying to request a password reset for. If you have a phone number associated with the account, you can choose to receive a reset via SMS.
Uninstall and reinstall the app

If above troubleshooting steps didn’t resolve your issue, you can try deleting and reinstalling the app on your iPhone.

To uninstall the app:
1. From your home screen, press and hold your finger on the Twitter for iPhone app icon.
2. The icon will begin to wobble and an x will appear in the top left corner of the icon. Tap the x.
3. Your iPhone will ask you to confirm your decision to delete the app. Tap Delete.
4. The app will disappear from the screen and has been deleted from your phone.
To reinstall the app:
1. Go to twitter.com/#!/download/iphone and click Download now.
2. Open the App Store app on your phone and search for Twitter.
3. Tap Install.
Try clearing your phone’s cache
1. Tap the Settings app icon on your iPhone.
2. Tap Safari in the list of applications.
3. Scroll down and select Clear History and/or Clear Cookies and Data
4. If you’ve cleared your cache but are still experiencing the issue, try turning your phone off and then on.
Check that your time zone settings are set to update automatically

If you’re seeing “Unauthorized” or “Invalid username and Password” when you try to sign in, this is likely caused by incorrect time zone settings or an outdated version of the Twitter client application. Please make sure your Twitter client is up to date with the latest version and that the date, time and timezone settings are set to update automatically.

To check your time zone settings:
1. Tap the Settings app icon on your iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Date & Time.
4. Make sure the option to Set Automatically is enabled.
July 30, 2013
Vine Now Available For Android

Vine for Android is now available for devices running Android 4.0 and above.

While the wait has been arduous for thousands of Android users accustomed to simulteanous app releases, but Twitter has finally released Vine for Android to the world. The six-second video social network has been the talk of the media and journalism circuit since its iPhone release in January, and an Android version was promised shortly thereafter.

The initial Android app is bare-bones: you can view the masterpieces from your stream of followers, upload your own six-second Vines, explore popular posts and Editors’ Choice clips, and share content to Twitter and Facebook. Unlike the iPhone version, however, you can’t tag users in posts, nor can you use hashtags. You also can’t engage the front-facing camera, something that was added to a previous iPhone release. There are also no push notifications in the first version, which will be disappointing to some users.

Vine for Android includes a Zoom feature, something that does not exist on the iOS version.

Mainly, though, Vine for Android is slow. Whereas the iPhone version renders video while you’re filming, the Android equivalent takes a long time to render after the filming. It takes over 30 seconds to render a six-second video.

In a blogpost on 3 June, Twitter said Android users can expect, “frequent updates with new features […] as well as bug fixes and performance improvements” in the coming weeks. This will include front-facing camera support, push notifications, the ability to mention people and use hashtags, and the ability to search.

[Mobile Syrup]

June 3, 2013
Twitter Updates Android And iOS App, Expands Trends Locations

Twitter for iPhone has been updated today with some minor feature improvements and better support for in-line Vine videos. The Android version has also been updated.

The company has been rolling out updates to its mobile apps in quick succession since the beginning of the year, after clamping down on what third-party developers can do with their own software. This latest version for iOS adds Trends data to over 160 different cities around the world, including many in India, and improves in-line Vine video playback.

Vine was acquired by Twitter and has since been systematically integrated into the Twitter experience, while continuing to be available in a standalone Vine app. After the acquisition, rival social network Facebook moved to limit the ability to cross-post Vine videos from Twitter to Facebook in apparent retaliation for Twitter’s attempt to do the same to Facebook acquisition Instagram.

Perhaps the most important addition to the app is one that will come in under the radar. When replying to a retweeted Tweet — for example, if you see a Tweet I retweeted of someone you don’t follow — it will include both the original person and retweeter within the response. Users can also invite others from within the app itself. That, and bug fixes and performance improvements, round out changes made in this new version.

As for the Android version, the company now uses an overflow menu (the three dotted lines) on compatible devices such as the HTC One to quickly switch between accounts and access the settings.

The folks at Twitter have also said that users will now be able to “enjoy a smoother experience” courtesy of some bug fixes and other improvements.

The new versions of the apps also added the ability to invite friends to join Twitter from within the app.

You can download the updated version of Twitter for Android and iOS now from their respective app stores.

May 2, 2013
Twitter’s Vine App For Android “Coming Soon”

Vine, Twitter’s popular video sharing app, has been a success on iOS and consistently remained as being one of the top ten social apps.

The free app allows you to record 6-second looping videos and share them via Vine, Twitter or Facebook. Dom Hofmann, the original creator of Vine, spoke with The Verge and he noted that a future enhancement that will be coming to iOS will be the option to tag people, which as a result will make it even more social.

In addition, Vine is poised to expand past Apple and integrate into the lives of Android users.

The company told The Verge recently that an Android version is coming soon, but didn’t say exactly when we can expect it to hit the Google Play store.

Clues pointing to a Vine Android app have been out ever since February, when the company has started looking for a lead Android engineer. Why would anyone do that, unless they were developing an Android app?

More interesting though is the thought process that went into creating Vine. Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann told The Verge that the key to the app was not in “reducing complexity” as Steve Jobs and Jony Ive were noted for saying, but rather “concealing complexity”.

In other words, allowing users to do something relatively complex in a simple way. Quite an interesting interview if any of you are interested.

In any case we’ll keep you guys updated, but in the meantime Android users, are you guys excited?

[The Verge]

April 26, 2013
Twitter for Mac gets update, Support for Retina Display, New Composer and Languages
The Twitter for Mac app has received a much needed update, that not only brings support for retina display, but also few other fixes.
- Photos: It’s easier than ever to share photos. Simply click the camera icon in the lower-left corner of the Tweet compose box, and choose a photo to share. If you prefer, you can still drag and drop photos from the desktop.
- Retina display support: Now Twitter is even more vibrant and detailed on the highest resolution Mac notebooks. With this update, Tweets will be clearer and sharper, creating a more vivid experience.
- 14 more languages: In addition to English, Twitter for Mac now supports Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish.
Along with these updates, Twitter for Mac offers keyboard shortcuts, support for multiple accounts and timelines, and other features. Download now from the link below.

[App Store]
April 26, 2013
Twitter #music App Rolled Out For iPhone And Web, Coming To Android Soon

Twitter officially announced that Twitter #music will be going live today. So far Twitter users will be able to access the new music discovery app via the web (music.twitter.com) or through an iPhone app. It was built by the team behind We Are Hunted, which Twitter acquired last year.

Unfortunately it appears that Android users are going to be left out – at first.

What is Twitter #music? Twitter notes that it’ll “change the way people find music” and is all based on activity through the people and bands you follow. The app is categorized into 4 areas: Popular, Emerging, Suggested, and Now Playing. You have the option to listen to a song within the app, purchase, learn more about specific artists, or retweet songs or albums to your followers.

Twitter will access the millions of users, plus iTunes, Spotify and Rdio to find out what people are talking about and what’s popular. “By default, you will hear previews from iTunes when exploring music in the app. Subscribers to Rdio and Spotify can log in to their accounts to enjoy full tracks that are available in those respective catalogs.”

Twitter #music also includes a suggested music screen and the ability to search for music from your favorite artist. Find something you like and you can play it right from the interface. As you would expect, Twitter #music encourages instant sharing: you can tweet what you’re listening to directly from the Player screen.

This release should take the success Twitter has seen in their release of Vine earlier this year.

April 18, 2013
Leaked : Twitter Music To Involve Spotify, Rdio, iTunes and More
By now, you may have heard that Twitter is launching it’s own music service tomorrow dubbed Twitter Music. Although some is known about the service, there is still a lot that is unknown. Fortunately for audiophiles, there has been some more information leaked about the new service.

As TheNextWeb reports, the latest information comes from the site’s code: designer Youssef Sarhan has discovered the service will have both a Web interface and a separate app, will offer streaming, as well as integrate with Spotify, Rdio, iTunes, Soundcloud, Vevo and YouTube.

Youssef followed the trail of source code that eventually led to this:

.iconmusic-spotify-connect-btn{background-position:-4431px -0px;height:32px;width:179px}

.iconmusic-player-source-rdio{background-position:-2801px -0px;height:19px;width:30px}

.iconmusic-player-source-itunes{background-position:-2751px -0px;height:19px;width:30px}

.iconmusic-player-source-soundcloud{background-position:- 2851px -0px;height:14px;width:92px}

.iconmusic-player-source-vevo{background-position:-2963px -0px;height:9px;width:53px}

.youtube-vid player{position:absolute;padding:10px;height:200px}

Other notable features include artist biographies, being able to compose tweets from the music app, follow other users, charts and shows, being able to buy songs, verified users, and search (TNW discovered these last two):
- .artist-bio
- .iconmusic-compose-tweet-btn-bg
- .iconmusic-profile-large-following-btn
- .iconmusic-menu-charts
- .iconmusic-menu-shows
- .iconmusic-player-btn-buy
- .iconmusic-verified-small
- .search-tooltip .iconmusic-btn-search-close
The following image gives us an idea regarding the UI of Twitter Music

This is what the player will look like, again referenced in the CSS for the page :

Are you anticipating Twitter Music? Is there one particular feature that you would like to see? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!

To read Youssef’s full findings, visit Sefsar.

[The Next Web, Gizmodo]
April 13, 2013
North Korea’s Twitter, Flickr Pages Hacked By Anonymous

It appears that official North Korean Twitter and Flickr accounts have been hijacked and defaced by groups that are linked to online hacking activism collective Anonymous.

The hack attacks, reported by TheNextWeb, follow last week’s hacking of North Korean news site Uriminzokkiri.com, which was said to have resulted in the theft of 15,000 passwords.

Members of Anonymous inside North Korea are said to have assisted with the latest hack attack, which is retaliation for aggressive moves by the country’s regime and its development of nuclear weapons in defiance of international threats.

More hack activity is promised later in the month if the hackers can tackle the country’s “cyber army,” which locks down computer activity in the North and deals with the nation’s limited and walled-off Net infrastructure.

The North’s Uriminzokkiri Twitter and Flickr accounts stopped sending out content typical of that posted by the regime in Pyongyang, such as photos of North’s leader Kim Jong Un meeting with military officials.

Instead, a picture posted Thursday on the North’s Flickr site shows Kim’s face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest. Underneath, the text reads: “Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death.”

The image uploaded on Flickr

Another posting says “We are Anonymous” in white letters against a black background. Anonymous is a name of a hacker activist group. A statement purporting to come from the attackers and widely circulated online said that they had compromised 15,000 user records hosted on Uriminzokkiri.com and other websites. The authenticity of the statement couldn’t be confirmed, but the North’s official website did not open Thursday.

Tweets on the North’s Twitter account said “Hacked” followed by a link to North Korea-related websites. One tweet said “Tango Down” followed by a link to the North’s Flickr page.

North Korea opened its Twitter account in 2010. It has more than 13,000 followers. The North uses the social media to praise its system and leaders and also to repeat commentaries sent out by North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Tensions have been high in recent days between North and South Korea, and the North’s military warned Thursday that it had been authorized to attack the U.S. North Korea is angry about sanctions against its nuclear program and joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea.

[FOX]

April 4, 2013
Twitter Turns 7, Boasts 200 Million Users

It’s Twitter’s seventh birthday, and the social network has two reasons to celebrate: It’s also reached its 200 million active user milestone.

Twitter is now boasting some big user numbers, a 60 million user bump since last year. Now 400 million tweets are being sent per day.

Twitter has come a long way since Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, published the first tweet “just setting up my Twitter” back in 2006. It started out as a microblogging site by Dorsey and co-founders, Florian Webb, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone who could never have imagined the cultural, business, and societal impact that Twitter would have on Internet users today. There are some details surrounding the founding of Twitter (then Twttr) that are hotly contested. Some of its co-founders aren’t even recognized for their role with building out the foundation of Twitter, back when it was just a side project at once doomed and now defunct podcasting company Odeo.

However, Twitter has also played a more serious role; for many people, it helped shape global events such as the Arab Spring and the responses to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and 2011 Japanese tsunami.

Top Twitter moments also include: Barack Obama’s tweet after winning his second presidency, the first off-Earth message from the International Space Station and, more recently, the coverage of the papacy – when activity reached an astonishing 130,000 tweets per minute during the announcement of the new Pope.

Today Twitter released this video to commemorate its seventh birthday.

March 21, 2013
American Express Launches Twitter Shopping, Buy Through Hashtags!

Have you ever skimmed your Twitter feed and thought, wow, if only I could buy an Amazon Kindle just by replying to a Tweet? No? Me, neither. But American Express is making it happen anyway.

Starting Monday, AmEx customers who sync their cards can buy items if they use the right hashtag. The first such item is a $25 AmEx gift card, which will go for $15 if you tweet #BuyAmexGiftCard25. Other offers will be rolled out on Wednesday Feb. 13 at noon EST including an Amazon Kindle Fire HD for $149.99 (a $50 discount), an Xbox Controller for $29.99 (a discount of about $10) and an Xbox 360 4GB console with a three-month Xbox LIVE Subscription and two game tokens for $179.99 (which is the price of the console without those extras.)

If consumers opt for those items and use the correct hashtags, then they will get a verification from @AmexSync, which will contain a confirmation hashtag. Cardholders then have 15 minutes to tweet the confirmation hashtag to confirm their purchase. If they do so, the item will be shipped to their home within two days for free.

That could generate a chunk of payments for Twitter if it takes a slice of those purchases. But the service, with more than 200 million users worldwide, is also beginning to ratchet up prices for reaching users: last week it raised the price of a “promoted trend” – visible to many users as they look to see what topics are generating the most interest – to$200,000 per day.

Twitter generated an estimated $350m in revenues in 2012, and its growth and increasing interest among advertisers seeking to place promoted tweets and trends could double that in 2013.

February 13, 2013
Twitter App Update Brings Changes To Search And Discover

Twitter has updated its official mobile app on iOS and Android with features that should make it easier for users to discover new content.

The most major addition comes from the Discover tab, which now consolidates tweets, activity, trends, and suggested users to follow in a single timeline, which sounds useful and not overly cluttered at all.

Search offers a bonus treat for iPhone users with the latest update, offering a persistent search icon next to the compose tweet button at the top of the app. The search button was already part of the Android and iPad Twitter apps, but Twitter has seen fit to let the iPhone app catch up with the other versions.

To bring a little more clarity to the Discover tab there are also now previews for user activity and trends at the top of the tab, which users can tap to see those lists independently.

In the Connect tab, the default view will now show new followers, retweets, and mentions. Previously, the default view would only be mentions, but users can adjust that setting

Users can also now click on URL links in tweets directly from the timeline, rather than going through the extra step of expanding a tweet before opening links. This was a no brainer and we’re glad to see it finally arrive for their mobile app.

The Twitter Play Store listing also mentioned improved support for Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. As well as miscellaneous bug fixes and performance improvements.

[Tech Radar]

February 7, 2013
Twitter’s Vine App Turn Vile As Pornographic Clips Show Up

Since Twitter’s video capture application Vine was released for iPhone last week, plenty of users have been looking for interesting ways to utilise its six-second clip taking. There are some clever short animations, skilled cutting sequences and more. Oh, and of course there’s porn. Lot’s of it.

As with Twitter, Vine users can tag their clips with hashtags, and it doesn’t take much searching to find “#sex” and “#porn” well populated with the sort of content that wouldn’t be appropriate for younger Viners. Apple, for instance, rates the Vine app as suitable for those aged 12 or over, calling it out for infrequent or mild suggestive themes, nudity, or sexual content, though that description is at odds with the hardcore pornography readily available today.

In response, Twitter has said it has a two-stage complaints system which relies on users to initially report anything they deem inappropriate. Questionable content such as ”nudity, violence, or medical procedures” can be flagged within the app or on the website, the social company told Business Insider, at which point any future viewings will be preceded by a warning message.

However, that flag will also trigger a review by the Vine team itself, which will decide whether or not the content should be left in place or removed. Vine users can also have their accounts terminated, Twitter points out, if the material does not meet with the terms of service.

This may be enough for some, but Apple may take a tougher stance. Apple has a strict policy on applications that allow access to graphic sexual content, having removed picture app 500px for allowing users to see pornographic images in a similar way to Vine.

It will certainly be interesting to see what the Cupertino company will do about it. And, if it decides to remove the app, how Twitter will respond.

Via: businessinsider.com

January 28, 2013
Hashtag Declared 2012 Word of the Year

These days it seems like everyone goes around declaring the “word of the year,” but the tradition began with the American Dialect Society, which met last night in Boston for its 23rd annual Word of the Year vote. It’s a spirited event, where the members of the society—a group of linguists, lexicographers, and other professional language scholars—argue for their choices.

The American Dialect Society has selected its Word of the Year for 2012, and the winner was a bit of a surprise. It wasn’t fiscal cliff, the ubiquitous term in the news from Capitol Hill. And it wasn’t YOLO, the youthful acronym for “You Only Live Once” that quickly rose (and just as quickly fell) this past year. No, the ultimate champion was that mainstay of the Twittersphere, hashtag.

A hashtag is a convention used on Twitter to organize conversations, mark topics, or make witty commentary, created by appending a word or phrase with the hash symbol (#) preceding it.Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as “vocabulary item” — not just words but phrases. The words or phrases do not have to be brand-new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year.

This isn’t the first time an Internet term has gotten the nod: “Tweet” was declared word of the year by the group in 2010, while “Google” was then-named the word of the decade. In a nod to the worldwide Occupy movements, the group declared “Occupy” to be last year’s word of the year.

January 6, 2013