twitter

The case of Twitter's missing followers

Nothing could have caused more uproar in the blogosphere about Twitter than followers suddenly disappearing. We have all complained about and tolerated Twitter's downtime issues, but seemingly losing your hard-earned followers is something that users might not stand for.

In an update on the issue on Twitter's status blog, the company said that they are working on restoring the correct follower/following counts. They go on to say that, "Even after this recovery is complete, your counts may appear lower than previously...The counts we display on your profile page are not always up-to-date...when we remove … Read more

12seconds: Video, short and sweet (500 invites)

"But the shortest works are always the best," wrote the French poet, and video sharing start-up 12seconds is counting on that being true. The simple site, which launches an invitation-only alpha today (500 invites for Webware readers at the end of this post), places a 12-second limit on the videos its users can share.

Twelve seconds. Less than a quarter of a minute. It's enough to make Flickr's much-derided 90-second clips look like Lawrence of Arabia.

And that's the point, according to the 12seconds team, all of whom are working on the site as a … Read more

Astronaut reveals that aliens have better technology than humans

There are people who think human beings are smart. (Mostly, they are second-rate CEOs and they are thinking of themselves.)

And there are those of us, and I include astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell amongst our august number, who can attest than humans are, in psychological and technological terms, worms.

Dr. Mitchell, who was possessed of the gumption to set foot on Apollo 14 after the disaster of the previous mission, had the even greater gumption to reveal the truth about alien life to Kerrang Radio this week.

If you have not heard of Kerrang Radio, it is, in essence, a … Read more

Twitter app Twinkle shines on Apple's new device

One of the things I've noticed in the emerging wave of iPhone applications is that many of the highest rated applications could be found on the App Store's illegitimate precursor--Nullriver's application installer. Several of these applications have been under almost constant development for the greater part of a year, long before Apple made the SDK available. In the case of newcomer Twinkle, that extra time really shows.

You might remember our hands-on with Twinkle back in April. Its claim to fame is that it mixes in location-based services with Twitter, not only letting you tweet with your … Read more

Featured Freeware: Digsby

Digsby will easily be the instant messaging freeware of choice for the super social set. Web 2.0 fans, that's you. In addition to supporting the major IM networks--Yahoo, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber--Digsby also pulls in Web mail feeds, as well as access to MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Updating Twitter is a breeze from the application's main interface, though users wishing to do anything more than read Facebook and MySpace feeds will be redirected to their online accounts.

Windows users can initiate text, video, and audio chat from the conversation window, and transfer files, … Read more

Breaking taboos in the tech fishbowl

"Twitter's not going to change the world. Twitter's never, ever going to change the world," says Loren Feldman in a recent video post.

Amen, bro.

I think Tech's Last Angry Man--actually, he's a very nice guy in person--is on to something important. Of course, Feldman's cri de coeur is less about Twitter, per se, than about the increasingly banal state of tech "conversation," circa summer 2008.

Loren says that he's become bored by most of the debate churned out in the echo chamber. Chalk up part of this to the … Read more

Exclusive: Twhirl gets pushy with Identi.ca

The next update of Twhirl will get support for yet another nanoblogging service, Identi.ca, and on that platform Twhirl will feature a communication method that Twitter users have been asking for: push updates.

Read to end of story for the download link and instructions.

In other words, the Twhirl client won't have to ping the Identi.ca servers to get updates; instead, updates will be sent directly to the Twhirl client. This makes nanoblog conversations more live--you can have a back-and-forth without hovering over the "update" button. It also means that your Twhirl client doesn't … Read more

Using Twitter to build your brand: Cool or creepy?

Twitter largely reminds me of when people started to register their own names for domains, turning the Internet into a giant customized license plate. It's somewhere between self-expression and mental onanism.

I use it to track several news sites but following other "people" often makes me feel weird. Most of the content seems like therapy for those who don't spend enough time with others. From a technology perspective, I find it really interesting and useful to an extent. But is this online stream of consciousness a marketing tool?

There are some great users like the guys … Read more

Zumobi stamps Twitter, Facebook widgets onto the BlackBerry

On Thursday, Seattle-based mobile widgets maker Zumobi announced its graphics-rich application for BlackBerry. Originally developed for Windows Mobile phones, Zumobi's BlackBerry release marks the application's second platform appearance and hearkens a handful of other improvements.

As a widget organizer, Zumobi lets users add 16 "tiles" to the application's home screen. The number keys and pearl are used to navigate among the four quadrants, and then again among each remaining quadrant to arrive at the elected tile.

Each tile, created by partners, independent developers, or users online, serves an ad, ratings scale, forwarding link, and search … Read more