Media

French court to Twitter: Hand over names of racist tweeters

Twitter must hand over the identities of users in France who post racist tweets, a French court ruled today.

According to AFP, the court's ruling stemmed from a test case "that pitted the right to free speech against laws banning hate speech," and answered a petition made in October by the French Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), which had claimed that many anti-Semitic tweets had violated the law in the European country.

The UEJF had demanded that Twitter do a better job of policing obviously anti-Semitic tweets.

Twitter said today in a statement that "we are … Read more

Twitter unveils Vine, its 6-second Instagram for video

Twitter today unveiled Vine, an app for iPhone and iPod Touch that lets anyone create and share short looping videos.

Twitter acquired Vine last fall, but anyone can use Vine regardless of whether they use Twitter. However, the service is clearly meant to be embedded anywhere, and there are plenty of examples of the videos being embedded in tweets. The service (see an example below) is being referred to by many as Twitter's "Instagram for video."

Holding hands at Tilden park vine.co/v/biTaEEwdq2n?1

— James Buckhouse (@buckhouse) January 24, 2013

Vine videos are limited to … Read more

All signs point to Twitter IPO in 2014, research firm says

Twitter is gearing up for an IPO in 2014, argued a New York analyst firm in a new report that cites the microblogging giant's recent management moves, its strategic partnerships, its growing mobile revenue, and other factors as evidence for the move.

In the report, titled "Twitter, Inc. on flight path to 2014 IPO (Summary, PDF)," Greencrest Capital laid out its theories for why the company might soon go public.

"Is Twitter positioning for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2014? The micro-blogging site has made a number of announcements since our last report, including management … Read more

Did Twitter's CEO just tease the company's own video hosting?

Twitter's CEO may have teased the company's own hosted video service in a tweet this morning.

As Twitter has aimed to take more control over the services its users rely on, it has consolidated access to photo-sharing, restricted third-party clients, and clamped down on developers. It has also made acquisitions aimed at bolstering its own offerings. Among them have been those that have led to Twitter's official search tool, its purchase of TweetDeck, and others.

One recent acquisition, according to AllthingsD, was Vine, a video clip service that never launched.

Today, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo posted a tweet (… Read more

Do you hate Microsoft?

In a recent column, PC World editor Jon Phillips tackled this provocative topic: "Why PC users hate Microsoft."

Noting that few users would admit to anything like fondness for the company, Phillips suggests that because we're effectively stuck with Windows when we buy a new PC, Microsoft is the obvious scapegoat when things go wrong. "When Windows fails [users]," he writes, "they elevate Microsoft to boogeyman status: a craven, profit-hungry monopoly that runs an unreliable service."

True, but I think there's more to it than that. Much, much more. I say this … Read more

Step into the world of 3D-printed tech couture

Before too long, techy women may just print out that little black dress instead of buying it at a store.

Don't believe me? Take a look at some of the 3D-printed gems strolling down the catwalk at the Paris Fashion Show this week. Dutch designer Iris van Herpen's haute couture show Voltage tapped the prowess of 3D-printing companies Stratasys and Materialise to create two pieces that look out of this world.… Read more

Nook Media finalizes $89.5 million Pearson investment

Nook Media, the Barnes & Noble subsidiary that covers the bookseller's Nook line and accessories, has completed its investment deal with Pearson.

Barnes & Noble announced the deal last month. Pearson will invest $89.5 million into Nook Media and will receive a 5 percent stake in return. Pearson will have the option to acquire another 5 percent of Nook Media if certain unidentified conditions are met.

Pearson is now partners with Barnes & Noble and Microsoft. In April, Microsoft and Barnes & Noble announced a joint partnership that would see the software giant invest $300 million in the Nook unit. … Read more

Avoid Oklahoma! Social-media map warns of flu hotspots

There are many ways of discovering just how bad the flu is in your area. You and all your friends and co-workers could get sick. You could hear about it on the local news. Or you could check Esri's social-media flu map tracking tweets, YouTube videos, and Flickr photos having to do with Flu Invasion 2013.

The nice part of the Esri map is you can check it from the sterile safety of your own home where you've locked yourself up in a hermetically sealed environment with weeks worth of Spam and Top Ramen to tide you over until flu season subsides.… Read more

Twitter's embedded tweets, now on steroids

Twitter said today that it is pumping up the content of embedded tweets, allowing anyone on any blog or news site to see videos, photos, article summaries, and other additional content added to a tweet.

Embedded tweets have become a favorite way to showcase the contents of a wide variety of tweets in blogs and news stories across the Web. But, while they're a convenient way to call out a tweet in a blog post or news story, embedded tweets have been a scaled down version of what was visible on Twitter.com. Now though, Twitter is boosting the … Read more

What gear would you take on a 5-year, 9,000-mile walk?

OK, let's just say you decide to walk the length of Europe and Asia and bring all your social-media peeps along for the journey. What devices would you bring with you to keep in touch and document your epic stroll?

These aren't questions most of us will ever be faced with, but Michael Lee Johnson is thinking very hard about the answers right now as he prepares to embark on a half-decade long sojourn by foot from Beijing to London later this year.

A developer from England who has also worked in social media (he had a moment of notoriety when Facebook nixed the 1-cent ad he purchased to promote his Google+ account), marketing and a few startups, Johnson tells me he's treating his trip as a sort of startup of its own.

In fact, the idea for a major overland trip was originally conceived as a marketing stunt for a startup. The startup is no more, but Johnson's dream of sharing the near-entirety of an epic personal journey lives on.… Read more