tweets

Normally an avenue for broadcasting news, opinions, and people's locations, Twitter is now highlighting how tweets have made a positive impact on individual's lives.

Tales at a new site called Twitter Stories range from movie critic Roger Ebert's use of the service after he lost his ability to speak due to cancer, to a man who found a kidney donor after tweeting "Sh*t, I need a kidney," to a man who saved his mother's bookstore with a tweet, to pro football player Chad Ochocinco treating 100 followers to dinner with a surprise invitation … Read more

Twitter is quietly testing an expandable timeline that allows users to see media and related information inside the timeline instead of off to the side.

The redesigned timeline, which was first reported by Patrick Bisch of Pinglio, allows users to click on individual tweets to expand conversations, media, and retweets. (See the video Bisch created below.)

Hovering over a tweet produces an "Open" link that allows users to open a tweet to see who retweeted the message, as well as view the entire threaded conversation. Opening a tweet with media such as a TwitPic image or YouTube video … Read more

Among the many new features in iOS 5 for Apple's mobile devices, one seemingly small addition will make sharing your life in fewer than 140 characters much easier.

Integrated Twitter features are now an option in most of the main iOS apps, and on first use, you'll see just how easy it is to send tweets from your browser, photo app, YouTube, Contacts, or Maps. iOS 5 doesn't come standard with a complete Twitter experience that lets you browse tweets as well, but during your first setup you'll find a handy button for downloading Twitter's … Read more

Polycom dives into videoconferencing on tablets, Asus unveils a new line of Ultrabooks, Twitter to get "tweet" trademark, and Facebook launches an iPad app -- finally.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Twitter's long quest to secure the trademark to "tweet" appears to be at an end.

Twittad will transfer the trademark to Twitter in exchange for the microblogging site dropping a lawsuit that challenged the Des Moines-based company's right to the trademark, the company's CEO told The Wall Street Journal. Twitter will also restore the Twitter account for Twittad, which helps Twitter users get paid to tweet ads on the microblogging service.

"We've arrived at a resolution with Twittad that recognizes consistent use of Tweet while supporting the continued success of Twitter ecosystem partners … Read more

It may not be terribly surprising that many of us find our moods dipping over the course of the day, and that by nightfall we light up again. Or that our moods are perkiest on weekends, regardless of which days our weekends fall on (i.e., Fridays and Saturdays in the United Arab Emirates).

What's of note, according to an analysis of 2.4 million tweets in 84 countries by researchers out of Cornell, is that these mood trends hold steady across cultures and borders, hinting at some sort of deeper trend whose basis is in being human, not … Read more

Unless you've been living under a rock (or maybe just don't read tech news) you probably already know that next Tuesday, October 4, is when Apple makes its next major announcement. While the company is tight-lipped as usual, we know that it will probably announce at least one new iPhone and when it plans to launch iOS 5, the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

One of the big known features of the new iOS is Twitter integration. Apple generally does a great job of creating intuitive interfaces for just about everything and what we've learned of Twitter on the iPhone sounds great, as you'll be able to tweet directly from Safari, Photos, YouTube, and Camera. But if you're a serious Twitter user, you're still going to need a third-party app to get all that Twitter has to offer.… Read more

Twitter is expanding its promoted-tweets program and is now including paid tweets from companies that people don't already follow in their timelines.

The tweets, which began rolling out today, include promotions for AMC Theatres, American Express, Best Western, Disney, HP, Lexus, Lionsgate, Movietickets.com, Pepsi, Red Bull, Salesforce.com, Sephora, Xbox, and Yahoo.

Twitter started inserting paid tweets into people's streams in July. The difference with that initial rollout was that people would only see paid tweets from companies they were following. Now they'll see tweets from whichever company is running a paid program.

Not everyone will … Read more

Twitter recently started allowing people to send pictures from Twitter.com, using Twitter's own photo-sharing platform. Until now, only those who are using Apple's iOS 5 beta had access to sending pictures via the new service.

It's dead simple to send a picture on Twitter, but it can easily be overlooked if you aren't sure where to look for it.

… Read more