iGyaan Network

Category: Twitter

  • Twitteratti React to the New iPhones

    Twitteratti React to the New iPhones

    Trust the social media to explode when something big happens. The Apple launch was that ‘something big’ that went viral on the internet and major social media sites from the moment the event began. Just hours before the launch Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, tweeted his excitement on showing the world what he and his team had up their sleeves.

    Here are some Twitter reactions from around the world that bombarded the internet once the devices were unveiled. And like everything else on the internet, the reactions were either of pure ecstasy or mockery.Those in favour tweeted:  

     

     

     

    While others were left saddened about their current iPhones:

    And regarding the iPhone’s Live Photo feature:

    The Apple Pencil got a lot of negative tweets rolling as well, remembering Steve Jobs’ dislike for the stylus:

    Vir Das wanted in on the action, too:

  • How to Become a Twitter Pro in 10 Short Steps

    How to Become a Twitter Pro in 10 Short Steps

    I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told, “I have a Twitter account, but I’m not really active”, or “I forgot my password and never bothered to retrieve it.” The most comical retort was, “with hashtags now on Facebook, what’s the point of Twitter?”. That answer was accompanied by a sharp know-it-all tone and a odd look implying that I was stupid for asking why he wasn’t active on Twitter. Yes, because Twitter’s 200 million strong community has been solely built on the thrill of hashtagging.

    If you have no clue about what this site is about, then you should know that Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging site which is used to send and read short 140-character text messages, called “tweets”. As one of the big guys of social media, this one has managed to step away and create a special segment for itself. Even I was late to arrive to the Twitter party, but quickly realized why everyone was so addicted to it.

    For beginners, it can be a bit tricky to understand. Here are our tips and tricks for every Twitter newbie. Once you get into the Twitter zone, its hard to step out.

    1. Set Up House

    twitter-profile-1024x681Once you register yourself to get started, you can customize the standard profile picture, background etc. Out of everything the most important would be coming up with a relevant description about yourself. Sonam Kapoor’s bio reads, “a female actor who lives to eat and read in that order”, Ellen DeGeneres went for, “Comedian, talk show host and ice road trucker. My tweets are real, and they’re spectacular.” and Narendra Modi with a simple, “Prime Minister of India”. You get the idea. Ideally it should be a clear message to potential followers about what to expect from your tweets. 

    2. “Um, but what do I tweet about?”

    Remember a couple of years back fresh on Facebook, every single thought/action became a Facebook status. That was before we realized that those posts were only being read by our friends and family. This is where Twitter steps in. As a Micro-“Blogging”site, it’s a space where it’s not only acceptable but you’re actually encouraged to write freely (within 140 characters, of course). It’s a lot about personal branding, your true ideas and interests come out to play. Here you can use your voice and interact with new people.

    3. Follow, Reply, Favourite, Retweet

    That’s all there is to it. To break it down: Retweeting is sharing with your followers a post you’ve liked. By Favourite-ing, you can create an archive of the tweets you’ve liked, without them showing up on your feed. Lastly, follow accounts which seem like you’d like reading everyday. Here, instead of simply following a publication, you can use the search tab and look for your favourite columnist. Next thing you know you’ve started a debate with them about their last article.

    4. Sticking to 140 Characters

    twitter 1Since the worldwide standard length of SMS was 160-characters, the founders of Twitter thought they’d stay well within that number. Is it mandatory to stick to 140 characters? No, not really. Though a long tweet is broken up and link leads you to a new page. Your followers wouldn’t appreciate that, they’d rather have the whole bite in one go. Don’t worry, while learning the art of tweeting, you tend to get used to the art of shortening sentences and getting straight to the point.

    5. Loosen Up

    “Having a private Twitter account is like owning a shop, but not letting anyone buy stuff from it.” You can imagine the number of times that was retweeted. The main point of Twitter is to get conversations started with complete strangers. How is that going to ever happen unless you allow them to scan through your profile?

    6. Basic Etiquette

    Also known as, “How Not to be Annoying on Twitter”. Like every major social media, Twitter has it’s own rules for socially accepted behaviour. One of them is that you have to give credit where credit is due. When retweeting, use RT followed by the originators Twitter handle, and then the tweet you’ve copied. Also, while a healthy debate on Twitter is appreciated, don’t use the forum to vent your frustrations. You cannot build a healthy community of followers if you’re constantly arguing or criticizing.

    7. Combining Your Social Media

    Every Social Media has its particular function, so don’t muddle them up. Clicked a beautiful picture? Share it on Instagram. Want to connect with an old friend? Search on Facebook. Have something to say to no one is particular? Type it out on Twitter. Managing social media can get tough, luckily we have several apps which help out. Hootsuite is our favourite pick; it allows you to create a single dashboard for all accounts, schedule posts and get an analysis of the number of profile visitors.

    8. The Difference Between a Mention and a Reply

    If you simply mention a Twitter handle within a tweet, it shows up on your feed and is visible to your followers. But if y0u start a tweet using someone’s Twitter handle you’re directly responding to them. Only you and that person, along with the few people that follow the two will be able to see the tweet.

    9. Top Twitter Apps

    There are several apps which would make your Twitter life similar. Choose between Tweet Lanes, Tweetings, Twicca, Twiddle, Robird etc. These apps customize and put the experience you enjoy to the forefront. There are stories of people finding love, job and friends on Twitter. Its an open forum which may be right up your alley, you might not know it.

    10. How to Use Hashtags

    #Never #EVER #Like #this. To reiterate what the purpose of hashtags really is –  it hyperlinks your post to other posts which are tagged under the same characters. So for example, if you’re attending a concert you can check out the tag #ColdplayTour2014 and you’ll see everything other people attending the same concert might’ve posted. Or before visiting a new restaurant, to get an idea about what the place might be like you could hashtag its name and get real user reviews. If you hashtag commonly used words (#like #this), it is only going to link you to other idiots who would’ve done the same.

    If you haven’t already, check out this hilarious skit by Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon on using hashtags:

  • Twitter Officially Got Rid of the 140-Characters Limit From Direct Messages

    Twitter Officially Got Rid of the 140-Characters Limit From Direct Messages

    We had earlier brought you the exciting news that Twitter was going to get rid of the 140 character limit that was put on its Direct Messages. Now it is has been officially followed through.

    If you logged in today and checked your Direct Messages you will find that the 140 character limitation is missing and now you can chat away to your hearts content, in a single Direct Message.

    While the whole concept of Twitter is supposed to have you sharing your opinions on a public forum, Direct Messages allows you to have personal chats about the memes, news, movements, and events that unfold on Twitter. Therefore, Twitter aimed to work on the Direct Message feature to make it personal, but fun.

    As for the public side of it, nothing changes. You will have to say what you need to in 140 characters itself, coupled with memes, videos and emojis, if you wish.

    The relieving and drastic change will be executed on Android and iOS apps, as well as twitter.com, TweetDeck and Twitter for Mac. The company says that the rolling out of the change worldwide, will continue in the next couple of weeks.

    If you’re dying to try a restriction free Twitter, make sure you have the latest version of the app so that you get the update right away, Sending and receiving Direct Messages via SMS will continue to be limited.

    So go ahead, speak your mind.

  • Here’s Why Twitter is Breaking Free From the 140-Character Restriction

    Here’s Why Twitter is Breaking Free From the 140-Character Restriction

    Twitter had added direct messaging service (DMS) but it was always restricted to just 140-characters. Now, frequent Twitter users will be happy to know that the social network is finally putting an end to the restriction, and making it 10,000 characters as opposed to just 140. Thus DMS will function like any other regular instant messaging service, effective this July.

    In a rather smart move, they announced:

    We’ve done a lot to improve Direct Messages over the past year and have much more exciting work on the horizon. One change coming in July that we want to make you aware of now (and first!) is the removal of the 140 character limit in Direct Messages.

    It is a welcoming change as having a limit over DMS was more of a nuisance than a boon. However, while the DMS will no longer have a restriction, public tweets will continue to be within the 140 character limit.

    twitter-profile-1024x681

    This comes as a great relief to the social networking giant because it might finally give them a chance to compete with other instant messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook and even add to their user base.

    In a short span of time, Facebook’s standalone app, Messenger has grown immensely. Recently Facebook announced that the Messenger service already has a staggering 700 Million monthly active user base. It added a 100 Million users in the past three months. While Facebook’s new app’s numbers are growing at an unfathomable rate, Twitter is currently stuck at a mere 302 Million Active users. Back in April, even WhatsApp had announced that it had crossed the 800 Million monthly active user mark.

    This change might give Twitter a fair chance to compete. Also, according to Forbes, people spend 86% of their Twitter time via smart phones, this will therefore, be further enhanced as people will now be able to have long chats on the social handle, without even needing to ‘follow’ one another. Naturally, this will increase Twitter’s fortunes as well.

    Along with this, Twitter is planning a few other updates and changes that will further improve the performance of the site. We hope to hear more good news soon. Watch this space for more.

  • You Can Now Play Classic MS-DOS Games On Twitter

    You Can Now Play Classic MS-DOS Games On Twitter

    Who would have thought that Twitter, one of the world’s largest social networking site, would now allow its users to play old MS-DOS games within its app? Now, thanks to the feature that allows you to embed various forms of media into tweets, it is possible to share old DOS-format games.

    For now, the Internet Archive’s library is offering a good amount of games such as Metal Gear, Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D; that can be shared and played within tweets. All you need to do is click on the game, copy the link, paste it in the tweet compose field and press send.

    ms dos game

    The games can also be embedded within the Wordpress platform. Try playing Aladdin below:

    Most of these games can be played otherwise, but you may face problems while playing these because programs like DOSBox are not compatible with modern machines. If you wish you spend hours on these nostalgic games, make sure to play it on full screen mode. This helps in dealing with the pixel problem. Happy gaming!

  • Twitter Revamps its Homepage to Lure New Users

    Twitter Revamps its Homepage to Lure New Users

    Only yesterday Twitter hinted that a new and friendlier user interface is on its way, and today, Twitter has confirmed the news is true. The social networking service has rolled out the new web interface in US today, providing a new experience to its users.

    The official blog post of Twitter reads –

    Starting today, when you go to the twitter.com homepage, you’ll find interesting topics to explore like Politics, Pop Artists and even Cute Animals. Click on the topic and you’ll see a timeline of Tweets from some of the most popular accounts in that topic. It’s rich real-time content, just like the Twitter experience for users who log in.

    Twitter homepage

    Twitter states the new homepage will be made accessible to other regions as well in due time. The page for signed-out users displays three columns with a header that welcomes the users and invites them to see ‘What is happening right now.’

    The left column includes categories like News, Sports, Entertainment, Science and Technology, etc. which is divided into more sub-groups. The middle column shows thumbnails with titles like ‘Business News, people and sites’, ‘Country Artists’, etc. These clickable thumbnails take users to another login page that shows highlights of that particular section. The right column is kept for Login or Sign Up.

    Right now, users can directly check out tweets without logging 0nto Twitter. The company said an approximate of 200 million people visit profiles without signing in. Hence, if they manage to convert even a small percentage of the visitors into active users, the company will grow significantly.

  • Finally! Twitter Now Lets You Retweet With Comments

    Finally! Twitter Now Lets You Retweet With Comments

    After several years, Twitter has revamped its Quote Tweet feature to include more space, as demanded by its users. Twitter has finally announced the new update, ‘retweet with a comment’, that will allow users to add a comment to any tweet. Twitter began testing this feature last summer and it was officially released on 6th April. It is currently rolling out for iPhone and web users.

    Twitter retweet

    One of the main complaints about ‘quote retweets’ in the past was that the users hardly had any characters left to add a comment. The new update allows users to embed a tweet in their tweets and add up to 116 characters to any tweet, regardless of the fact of how many characters the original tweet contained. This will allow them to share and comment on tweets without having to shorten the original tweet, that means that the context and the meaning remains unchanged.

     Right now, the update is being rolled out to iPhone and web users.

  • Indian Govt Collaborates with Twitter for the Digital India Initiative, Launches ‘Twitter Samvad’

    Indian Govt Collaborates with Twitter for the Digital India Initiative, Launches ‘Twitter Samvad’

    Twitter today inaugurated a tweet-powered digital media service called ‘Twitter Samvad’ in India in association with the Narendra Modi government. The new service allows users to get daily updates via tweets and SMS on their handsets.

    Through Twitter Samvad, anybody who is registered for the service can get updates on government policy, services, and activities from the government and national leaders’ Twitter handles. Anyone who owns a mobile phone can sign up for Twitter Samvad with each of the 16 launch partners. The signup process is easy and doesn’t rely on internet. Anyone with or without a net pack can register by giving a missed call to the phone numbers allotted to each of the partners.

    The Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, put forward a vision to digitize India, and Twitter Samvad is a step towards the right direction. Moreover, it will help government bodies to connect directly with the citizens.

    The CEO of Twitter Dick Costolo talked about the launch –

    Based on Indian technological innovation, Twitter Samvad is dedicated and specially built for the largest democracy of the world. The Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the first-ever Twitter Election in India and we want to continue contributing to the development of digital governance in India. As part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative, this Tweet-powered service enables citizens to be the first to know about the government’s actions by receiving political content in real-time on their mobile devices anywhere in the country.

    This is another major announcement of the day after the decision of Supreme Court to cease Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Today, the Supreme Court of India made the judgment in favour of internet freedom, saying that it has been guaranteed by the constitution.

    The list of 16 government partners contributing in Twitter Samvad, along with their phone numbers, is given below:

    Accounts Phone Number
    @NarendraModi 011 3006 3006
    @PMOIndia 011 3006 3007
    @adgpi 011 3049 6116
    @RailMinIndia 011 3049 6222
    @anandibenpatel 011 3049 6050
    @CMofKarnataka 011 3049 4737
    @CPBLR 011 3049 5141
    @BlrCityPolice 011 3049 5242
    @blrcitytraffic 011 3049 5464
    @ncbn 011 3049 5767
    @TelanganaCMO 011 3049 5868
    @YadavAkhilesh 011 3008 3380
    @UPGovt 011 3049 6353
    @NitishKumarJDU 011 3008 2828
    @MamataOfficial 011 3008 3333
    @MeaIndia 011 3049 5969
  • How the Twitterverse Reacted to AAP’s Historic Win

    How the Twitterverse Reacted to AAP’s Historic Win

    In a democracy, you get to see something like the Delhi elections only once in a blue moon. A landslide victory that totally decimated the competition. In the 70 seat Delhi assembly, the Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party grabbed 67 seats leaving the opposition with a paltry three seats. This led to a barrage of comments on social media. Twitter has become a major political tool in the past few years and played a major role in campaigning in this election too. After the elections, there were many congratulatory messages for the party along with the usual jokes were out to troll the losing side.

    Let’s look all what all transpired on Twitter following AAP’s epic victory.

    Prime Minister Narendra Damodar Modi Congratulates Arvind Kejriwal

    Mr. Kejriwal thanked his wife Sunita for her support with a hug.

    Shashi Tharoor from Congress also was amongst the first to send out his congratulations.

    Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai sent out a series of quick analysis of the election.

    Twitter Hashtags; #AAPSweep, #AAPStorm reached the top of the trends for India and were still the top two hashtags on Twitter. It shows that the celebratory mood of the volunteers hasn’t jaded off yet. Here are a few funny ones to tickle your funny bone.

    Congress drew a duck in the election, and it had to receive some attention for that.

  • To Gain A Wider Audience, Twitter to Show Tweets on Google Search

    To Gain A Wider Audience, Twitter to Show Tweets on Google Search

    Twitter, the tool that lets people unleash the smart-ass within them has been phenomenally successful with the who’s who of the pop culture. Folks from varied fields such as politicians, actors, intellectuals and even the common man come together on the platform to have an equitable discussion on varied topics. But this great tool has been a bit slow in gathering new users and so they have now joined hands with Google to further their reach.

    Twitter and Google have signed an agreement through which Google will show tweets of Twitter users in its search results. Twitter previously had this arrangement with Google between 2009 and 2011, but it lapsed. With this new agreement instead of just the Twitter profile of a person, you would be able to see their tweets right from the google search engine itself. This will be beneficial for Google too as people would find it easier to see the latest tweets without logging into twitter.

    Twitter currently has 284 Million users that is way lower in comparison to Facebook’s 1.4 Billion and Instagram’s 300 Million. The microblogging site had released its IPO in 2013, over the last year the stocks have dropped by 37 percent because of slowing user growth. With the agreement, Twitter might hope to engage folks who just view the tweets and don’t actually reply to them or those who don’t tweet on their own. Twitter had also previously launched a ‘While You Were Away’ feature on iOS that shows a snapshot of popular tweets that the user missed when they were not logged in. It will be interesting to see what kind of effects these initiatives have on user base of Twitter.

  • US Military’s Social Media Accounts Hacked By ISIS Sympathizers

    US Military’s Social Media Accounts Hacked By ISIS Sympathizers

    Last year saw some mega hacks attacking some of the most prominent names in the world. First there was the iCloud hack which led to a leak of personal images of Hollywood actresses. Then came the supposed attack from North Korea on Sony Pictures, which did some considerable damage to the production house. But today something even unprecedented happened; social media pages belonging to US Military establishment have gotten hacked by alleged ISIS sympathizers.

    The Twitter and YouTube accounts of US Central Command (Centcom) were hijacked by the hackers who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State. They started posting propaganda videos and threatening messages on the websites. The hackers also uploaded some military documents which Centcom claims aren’t confidential and are available on the internet.

    The hackers took over the twitter page and left threatening messages for the US Army.
    The hackers took over the twitter page and left threatening messages for the US Army.

    US Centcom is dedicated to the combat missions undertaken in Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the middle east. This is definitely an embarrassing situation for the most powerful military in the world.

    Following the information about the hijack, the hacked pages were taken offline but not before the perceptional damage was done. Centcom spokesperson has said that the US military network hasn’t been compromised by the hack, and they see this attack as a case of “cybervandalism.” They also added that none of the documents released by the attackers came from the Centcom’s servers or any other social media website.

    After Hijacking the YouTube page the attackers posted propganda videos.
    After Hijacking the YouTube page the attackers posted propganda videos.

    The case is being overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI). The White House also released a statement that said that they are considering the attack seriously and “examining and investigating the extent of the incident.” Several Miltary experts have said that this is an attack on the social media pages and not on the US Military network and hence isn’t a major breach.

    The twitter page was taken down for a while and now its back online.
    The twitter page was taken down for a while and now its back online.

    These major releases show that if something is on the internet, it can be stolen with ease. So in these times, just consider any information you have saved on the internet is up for grabs and live in peace with that thought.

  • Twitter Says it’s Tracking Your Mobile Apps But Won’t Invade Privacy

    Twitter Says it’s Tracking Your Mobile Apps But Won’t Invade Privacy

    Twitter, the micro-blogging social media platform, has announced that it has started collecting data on the apps its users download and install on their smartphones.

    It is no secret that Twitter is looking into stuff to increase targeted ads in your social feed, however, their latest approach is an issue with users concerned about their privacy. The service has revealed that its app will start tracking the list of applications you have installed on your device in order to improve the relevance of both ads and other content that slips into your tweet stream, such as Favorites. The feature is named as ‘App Graph’. Twitter is adamant that it’s not collecting data from within the apps, and will let you know when the monitoring kicks in.

    Twitter has been working to personalise users’ timelines with better content as it struggles to convert its numerous passive users, meaning those who don’t sign in or those who have accounts but rarely tweet into active, more engaged users. Twitter has been testing ways to make its service more usable from the initial sign-in, even if you don’t have a network of friends to follow or aren’t sure how to get started. For instance, Twitter’s recently added ‘Instant Timeline’ feature for new users will give people something to see as soon as they sign in for the first time.

    Twitter has ensured that the data will be strictly business-oriented and won’t be invading your privacy in any way. However, the mere official statement is not enough for some users and they are opting third-party clients like Tweetbot or Talon who are not facing this problem, at least for now.

  • Twitter Now Lets You Share Public Tweets via Direct Message

    Twitter Now Lets You Share Public Tweets via Direct Message

    Twitter has evolved considerably over the past few years with small updates and iterations. The micro-blogging website continuously comes up with new features to make itself and the app more interactive and user-friendly.

    Recently, another new feature has just arrived on Twitter. After URLs through direct messages (DMs) were made possible again and search was upgraded, the online social networking service has now rolled out a feature that gives you the ability to send public tweets through DMs. The feature comes as a part of the latest update to the social media network and is available on iOS, Android, Twitter for web and Tweetdeck.

    sharetweetDM_256coProduct Manager Sachin Agarwal announced this update on Twitter’s official blog saying that the update is available from today across platforms globally. “With today’s update you’ll be able to share a Tweet privately with any of your followers. To do this from your mobile app, long-press the Tweet in your timeline and choose ‘Share via Direct Message’,” he explained.

    If you want to share a tweet from either the iOS or Android mobile apps, long-press the Tweet in your timeline and choose ‘Share via Direct Message.’ On twitter.com and TweetDeck, tap the ‘••• More’ icon and select ‘Share via Direct Message.’ The person you share a tweet with will get a push notification, and the tweet will display directly in the conversation.

    The changes will arrive today on nearly all platforms, web and mobile included, and on the desktop through TweetDeck. TweetDeck for Mac, and apparently – as no mention was made – the Twitter desktop app are delayed in receiving the update, however.

    The new option is not exactly a highly demanded feature among Twitter users, but it will be a nice addition for those who have private conversation on the network, as it will allow a lot of users to shift from public content and open discussions to more private conversations.

  • Goofy New App ‘Super’ is the Perfect Place to Make Bold Statements

    Goofy New App ‘Super’ is the Perfect Place to Make Bold Statements

    After failing at its recent project Q&A app Jelly, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has come up with another light-hearted app called Super. As simply as it can be put, Super is Twitter with the style of Jersey Shore. Yes, Super lets you share statements starting with ‘The Best’, ‘The Worst’, ‘I Wish’, ‘Check Out’, ‘Don’t Ever’, or a few other prompts. You can sign your name if you wish, and people will be able to see your declaration in ‘Friends’, ‘Everyone’, and ‘Nearby’ feeds.

    1416287050822Creating a new Super post gives you a template ‘sentence starter’ word for your thought on the top left, like ‘we should’ or ‘I love’ before an area for typing your thought. On the lower right, you can add a further message, attribution or quip. Then, you are required to add an image; either from your own camera/library or from a library of art that’s built-in. Users can also add location data to their images so that it can be discovered by those in the area using the nearby feed.

    Like Twitter, it offers you limited words, letting people use witty words and clever wordplay. However, this app is just not about words, pictures are equally an important part of the app. Hence, making it feel equally interesting as Instagram. So, what’s special about Super? The app scans what you write, and then automatically adds a background image and offers a few alternates based on your keywords.

    Super also has an anonymous element like Secret called ‘anonymish’ where you can throw a switch when posting. This removes your username from the post. The company pointed out that people could figure out who you are though, as ‘it isn’t designed as an anonymous sharing platform.’

    Even though Biz’s last app flopped miserably, Stone doesn’t want to stress this launch that much. “I’ve decided not to come up with some slick and pithy marketing description for Super,” he wrote in a blog post. “I’m also not going to proclaim that it’s the most innovative thing ever or that it’s going to save the world. It’s not, it’s just fun.”

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