tweets

Updated Twitter apps add Activity feed, better search

Twitter has just updated its iOS and Android apps, adding a few nifty features to the Discover, Search, and Notifications functions.

Now, under the Discover tab users will find a new Activity stream, just below the Discover stories that we're all used to seeing on the page. It shows who your connections follow, updates to their lists, and their retweets and favorites. This makes it easy to quickly see what your friends are up to on Twitter, as well as elsewhere around the Interwebs.

With today's update, Search also boosted its powers, as it now offers suggestions for … Read more

Soccer fans set tweet-per-second record

In the Twitter world of sports, soccer proves to be king. During the peak of the Champions League match between Barcelona and Chelsea in Barcelona yesterday, 13,684 tweets per second were sent out globally -- setting a Twitter record for tweets during a sporting event.

"The conversation reached its high point immediately following Fernando Torres' late goal, which tied the game and sealed Chelsea's victory in the semi-final," Twitter said in a blog post today.

This means that soccer fans have now beat out football fans on the social network. According to the blog post, the … Read more

Seesmic launches Pro version, adds ads to free version

Popular social networking app Seesmic got an update today in the form of new features and a brand-new paid Pro version. While at first glance this may seem like all good news, I must warn you that there is a bit of a downside.

First, the good stuff. All Seesmic users now have the ability to view Instagram and Twitter thumbnails right from within the timeline, which is a lot more convenient than before. Along with that, they can now upload images directly to Twitter natively. And of course, there are the requisite minor bug fixes and performance improvements that … Read more

TweetDeck update restores some features, adds new ones

Twitter finally has begun to update TweetDeck, with a major release today. It restores some features that had been pared away during December's beak-to-tail-feather overhaul, and brings a couple of new ones along for the ride, too.

TweetDeck 1.3 (download for Windows and Mac) brings back media previews, list management, and the previous retweeting style. It also introduces the Activity and Mentions columns to the desktop client, pulling it into parity with the Web site and mobile apps.

In its blog post announcing the update, Twitter revealed that it replaced the "Quote" retweet option with the … Read more

Twitter's ads bounce to cell phones

By way of advertising, Twitter's mobile platform is about to look a lot more like its Web site. The microblogging giant announced today that "promoted" tweets and accounts will appear in Twitter timelines on mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

"Today, we are taking an important next step in making our Promoted Products available to those users," Twitter wrote on its blog today. "This will help ensure that people see important Tweets from the brands they care about."

Before today, Twitter's mobile users saw limited advertising in its search function, but now … Read more

Saudi blogger's tweets could cost him his life

Saudi Arabian blogger Hamza Kashgari tweeted last week about an imaginary conversation with the Prophet Mohammad, writing he "loved the rebel in you" and that he "loved some aspects of you, hated others."

Little did Kashgari know that these tweets could culminate in his possible death sentence.

Shortly after his tweets, tens of thousands of angry commenters denounced Kashgari and demanded his punishment.

"The only choice is for Kashgari to be killed and crucified in order to be a lesson to other secularists," commented an online reader of al-Madina newspaper Abu Abdulrahman, according to … Read more

The 404 987: Where we get nailed for intentional grounding (podcast)

Twitter reports that football fans sent roughly 10,000 tweets in the final 3 minutes of last night's game, but that wasn't enough to overthrow the all-time record for tweets per second.

Guess which film roped in 25,088 tweets per second last December? Hint: it wasn't made in America.… Read more

The 404 982: Where we're switching servers (podcast)

What would you do if you found a bag of white powder tucked neatly into the textbook you just bought on the Amazon Marketplace?

If you're smart, you'd take it to the police like Sophia Stockton, a junior at a university in Kansas who discovered something similar in the pages of a history book called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues."

While we're on the topic of narcotics, don't forget to tune into President Obama's Q+A on Google+ Hangout tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET, live from the West Wing of … Read more

The 404 980: Where it breaks my heart to see her eat those nuggets (podcast)

McDonald's posted impressive quarterly earnings two days ago, but a scoop from the UK Sun newspaper today exposes the astonishing truth behind McDonald's Chicken McNuggets: you shouldn't eat them everyday for 15 years straight.

The show title today is ripped from a quote from the mother of 17-year-old UK factory worker Stacey Irvine, who's eaten nothing but McDonald's Chicken McNuggets since she was 2 years old. Shockingly, doctors maintain that her diet may have been a factor in her sudden anemia and swollen tongue veins that caused her to collapse yesterday.

Speaking of things getting ripped off, we'll also talk about the Australian Transport Minister that just got caught copying Michael Douglas' speech from the movie "The American President," and the NFL installing computers on the sidelines of the Pro Bowl for players to tweet fans during the game!… Read more