Twitter

An artist already created a Twitter-controlled cockroach. If that was too squicky for you, then maybe you'll feel better about commanding Paintbot instead. Paintbot from iStrategyLabs is a Twitter-controlled paintball gun. Tweet the right hashtag and enjoy the knowledge that you've just made a mess you don't have to clean up.

You can get in on the paintball action when the gun is online by tweeting with the hashtag #islpaint. Unfortunately, Paintbot has to be taken offline periodically for clean-up. It has a tendency to splatter.

The target is an unfortunate whiteboard which just stands there and takes the abuse without complaint. It does have an illustration on it that sums up its futility of existence as a target for tweeting paintball shooters.… Read more

Twitter is shutting down the TweetDeck apps for Android and iPhone, as well as axing the Adobe AIR desktop version, the company announced today through the TweetDeck blog.

This means TweekDeck is taking the apps out of app stores in May and, shortly afterward, the apps will stop functioning altogether.

"Over the past few years, we've seen a steady trend toward people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices," according to the blog post. "This trend coincides with an increased investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android -- adding photo … Read more

How Google and other American Internet companies operate in Europe could come down to a link that, depending on what side of the Atlantic Ocean you're on, should or should not be deleted.

A case heard Tuesday before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) hinges on a complaint submitted by a Spanish citizen who searched Google for his name and found a news article from several years earlier, saying his property would be auctioned because of failed payments to his social security contributions.

Spanish authorities argued that Google, other search engines, and other Web companies operating in Spain should … Read more

California Democrat Mark Takano, a freshman congressman, today released a Vine and a YouTube video showcasing milestone achievements in his nascent legislative career.

Takano used a Vine to show the process of submitting his first piece of legislation, and also released a YouTube video showing his first speech on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Takano's use of Twitter's new video service is the latest in a string of people utilizing Vine for what might be considered emergent purposes. One reporter created a (much-derided) resume on Vine, while the service has also already become a new way … Read more

Twitter is jumping into the Firefox mobile mania, committing to build an app to the forthcoming platform.

The microblogging site announced today that when devices running Mozilla's browser-based operating system begin to be shipped to consumers in the next couple of months, it will have an app for the mobile platform in its Firefox Marketplace.

"Similar to our other mobile apps, Twitter for Firefox OS has a rich interface, featuring the Home, Connect, Discover and Me tabs, as well as the search and compose Tweet icons, so you can easily find and send Tweets from anywhere in the … Read more

The Onion has deleted a tweet that called 9-year-old Best Actress Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis an extremely offensive name.

In its original tweet, the parody publication -- which is known for its dark humor and for regularly skewering public figures and institutions -- wrote that, "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c---, right?"

Normally, The Onion is known by its many fans to be joking about almost everything it publishes -- even though its satire is often seen as legitimate commentary on a wide range of issues. But in … Read more

If you get an e-mail saying it's from Twitter, the social-networking company wants to assure you that it's really from Twitter and that there's no need to worry that someone's out to steal your password.

At least, it's almost certain that the e-mail you just got from a Twitter.com address is not a phishing attack, the company said in a blog post today.

Twitter said it has adopted a new security protocol known as DMARC that was designed by a consortium in order to cut way down on phishing attempts.

Death is never popular, even in social media: the poor guy behind @death on Twitter has zero followers.

You might think your online fans will lose interest when you kick the bucket, but an upcoming app says it will let you keep tweeting from beyond the grave.

LivesOn will host Twitter accounts that continue to post updates when users shed this mortal coil. … Read more

Twitter today unveiled its advertising API, a step it hopes will make it easier for companies to create ad campaigns on Twitter, and that's aimed at showing users the most relevant promoted tweets.

Since Twitter's earliest days, one of the criticisms about the company's business model was that it wasn't built to generate significant revenue -- especially not enough to reward investors who have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Twitter. But in recent years, the microblogging service has been bolstering its advertising business, and Twitter is now considered a bona fide advertising platform for … Read more