Twitter Killing TweetDeck for iPhone and Android

Twitter will shut down multiple TweetDeck apps to focus on the product's web-based version, the microblogging service announced Monday.

In yet another sign of the battle between social media's two biggest players, Facebook integration will be removed, too.

The announcement was met largely with a chorus of "nooooooooo," "whyyyyyyy" and "gaaaaaaaah" on social media, reflecting TweetDeck's widespread popularity with hardcore Twitter users.

TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for iPhone and TweetDeck for Android will be removed from their respective app stores in May, and stop working soon after, according to a TweetDeck blog post.

"To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we’re going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck," the post says.

TweetDeck is a well-regarded Twitter client that the microblogging network bought in 2011.

Moving forward, TweetDeck's web and Chrome apps will be the first that Twitter enhances with updates and new features, while the Mac and PC apps will continue to evolve as well.

Your final couple months using TweetDeck's AIR, Android and iPhoneversions may not be smooth sailing, either. Those apps will continue to rely on version one of Twitter's API, which will be retired this month. Blackout testing on version one begins March 5, so mobile TweetDeck users will likely begin experiencing outages with their apps on Tuesday.

"In many ways, doubling down on the TweetDeck web experience and discontinuing our app support is a reflection of where our TweetDeck power-users are going," the post reads before later adding: "And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere apologies."

Is this a pain, or not such a big deal? Give us your take in the comments.

Photo courtesy Flickr, Andy Miah

[Source: Mashable]

Twitter ratchets up phishing protection by adopting DMARC standard

Phishing emails often pose as being sent by major league sites rather than princes from far-flung countries, but Twitter's implemented a new measure to stamp out phonies that borrow its name. Costolo and Co. announced that, earlier this month, they began leveraging a tech called DMARC that establishes a way for email providers to authenticate senders and reject messages penned by impostors. While the DMARC specification does need support from e-mail services, outfits including AOL (which happens to be our parent company), Gmail, Hotmail / Outlook and Yahoo already make use of it. According to Twitter, it's now "extremely unlikely" that the majority of their users will receive emails masquerading as being sent from a Twitter.com address. We're sorry to disappoint, but it looks like you'll have to get your fix of foreign lottery notices from somewhere else.

[Source: Engadget]

ZOMG: Windows Phone design lead Joe Belfiore tweets from Android

Hey, I've got absolutely no problem with Joe Belfiore, the man in charge of "definition and design" for Windows Phone, apparently tweeting from an Android device. In fact, I've long raved about how much I like the way Windows Phone 8 looks, even if it lacks the functionality of Android. I've covered enough Windows Phone events to recognize that dude knows his stuff. And I dabble with Windows Phone (and soon, BlackBerry 10) on weekends, to help keep familiar with what else is out there. Using other platforms makes good sense.

But the official Twitter app? C'mon, Joe. You can do better than that. In fact, here's a a quick primer on some much better (and more functional) Android Twitter apps. Give 'em a shot.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Twitter Attacked and 250,000 Accounts Potentially Compromised

Twitter is sending out emails to 250,000 users of the service that may have had their accounts compromised this week to change their passwords.

If you’re a user of Twitter and receive an email similar to the one you see above – as I did earlier this evening – congratulations, your account may be one of the 250,000 that were potentially compromised this week. In a blog post on the company’s site this evening the situation was explained as clearly as it could be.

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.

Twitter explained that it decided to be very public about this situation as it believes this was the work of a sophisticated group and that this isn’t the only attack that it has been orchestrated against companies as of late.

Should you be unfortunate enough to receive one of these emails, make sure to change your password immediately.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

BlackBerry: 70,000 Launch Apps, Including Skype, Twitter and Facebook

BlackBerry is listing off apps leading the charge on its new platform, with Skype, Whatsapp, Angry Birds, Twitter, and others all on board. The company said there will be 70,000 launch apps—a pretty impressive launch figure, showing that developers are committed to ushering BlackBerry onto the same plane as iOS and Android as far as selection goes.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Vine for Twitter, and what it means for you on Android

There's no Vine app for Android just yet, but that doesn't mean you can escape its 6-second video onslaught

Twitter and Vine today announced that (1) Vine is now available for iOS devices and (2) has been purchased by Twitter. If you hadn't heard of Vine before today, we're not too surprised -- it's been in limited beta testing until now, and it's not available for Android. But, seeing as how all roads (eventually) lead to Android these days, we're taking a quick look at it here.

The oversimplified version is that Vine is to video what Instagram is to pictures. In actuality, it's a fairly simple app that lets you take up to 6 seconds of video that might well be mistaken for a really good animated gif. It doesn't have to be 6 consecutive seconds, though. You can do two 3-second clips strung together. Or three 2-second clips. Or, if you hate your friends, six 1-second clips.

You're going to start seeing a lot of these, even if there's no Android app.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

It Looks Like Twitter Wants People to Start Sharing Videos

Video-sharing startup, Vine, offers interesting service. Twitter buys Vine because it likes interesting service. And now Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is showing the service off, and how easy it is to share short video clips with your tweets. Is this the future of video on Twitter? It looks that way.

In October 2012, Twitter picked Vine up before it could launch its own standalone iOS app. Vine still is going to launch a standalone app, independent of Twitter, but it looks like the service is easily integrated so the two play nice. It doesn’t seem like integration goes any deeper than that, AllThingsD said. For now, the startup is going solo under Twitter’s watchful eye, allowing users to share clips up to six seconds.

No Vine launch date has been shared, but with Costolo teasing the functionality, it seems likely we’ll see an announcement sometime soon.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Twitter notches more than 200 million active monthly users

Sure, Facebook may have scored one billion active monthly users earlier this fall, but Twitter has some celebrating to do as well -- albeit for a significantly smaller figure. Rather than commemorating the announcement with an awkward commercial comparing itself to furniture, Twitter sent out a solitary tweet stating that it now has more than 200 million monthly active users. We last checked in on the microblogging service's traction when it had 175 million registered users in 2010, and as of last summer it's said to be sitting pretty with more than 500 million in total. Costolo and Co. may not have numbers as enormous as Facebook, but these stats aren't exactly something to scoff at.

[Image credit: Coletivo Mambembe, Flickr]
[Source: Engadget]

Twitter for Blackberry 4.0 adds Connect tab, more modern UI

RIM may be finally ready to move on to its platform-in-waiting, BB 10, but that's doesn't mean its current user base has been forgotten. In fact, Twitter's just announced a 4.0 update to its native BlackBerry app, bringing it mostly up to par in looks and functionality with existing Android and iOS offerings. The most notable addition to this version bump is the inclusion of Connect: the "@" tab which lets rampant tweeters keep abreast of who's favoriting, following and retweeting them, as well as filter information on that feed. The Discover and Me tabs have also been expanded, with the former now featuring information on trends and suggestions for "Who to follow," while the latter neatly consolidates all of your DM, lists and favorited tweets. The update's currently available on the BlackBerry App World store, so hit up the link below to start your download.

[Source: Engadget]

Twitter archive downloads start rolling out to select users, lets you relive 2006 tomfoolery

Remember how you used to rave about MySpace or how excited you were to snag a brown Microsoft Zune? Twitter remembers, and it's ready to let you relive the most awkward thoughts you ever deemed fit to publish on the internet. As promised by CEO Dick Costolo Twitter is letting users download a complete archive of their digital musings. The option hasn't hit the mainstream Twitterverse just yet, but select users are finding the option hidden in the web client's settings page under the heading "your Twitter archive." Compiled archives are pretty, too -- wrapped in HTML and organized by month. Ready to relive 2006, 140 characters at a time? Check out your own archive (if you're lucky enough to have the option) and share your favorite embarrassments with us in the comments after the break.

[SourceL Engadget]

TweetDeck for the web and Chrome gains ability to embed tweets, not much else

TweetDeck today announced a new feature that may not nab it any design or productivity awards, but, still, it'll surely be appreciated by some power users of the Twitter-owned client. And while the ability to embed tweets isn't exactly novel at this point (Twitter's had it for many months), it's still nice to now have the option present on both the web and Chrome versions of the application -- which, in turn, should make it easier to insert select snippets from the Blue Bird social network into your personal website or blog. Besides the "Embed this Tweet," TweetDeck didn't make any other additions, though the service did make it clear that it spends "a lot of time improving TweetDeck for a large consumption of Tweets, as this is one of the core uses of the product." Onto the next one then.

[Source: Engadget]

Pinterest quietly sneaks in support for Twitter Cards

Oh, the mild drama between social networks. Just as Instagram nixed its in-depth URL integration with Twitter about a week ago, now it's Pinterest getting involved -- however, the latter is taking a slightly different route. Thanks to Twitter user Kelly Lieberman, who initially spotted the changes, we have now learned that Pinterest has turned on support for Twitter Cards, allowing folks on the microblogging service to get a slightly better look at links coming from its own, pinboard-style network. Essentially, this means you can now get a preview within Twitter of what your friends are pinning -- you know, things like what type of grub they're craving or pics of insanely cute dogs.

[Source: Engadget]