tweets

The 404 1,080: Where we paint the sixteenth chapel (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Ray Bradbury may soon be honored online with "451" error code for Internet censorship.

- Time Warner Cable grabs patent to prevent DVRs from skipping commercials.

- Twitter to grant Web sites extra characters with "expansive tweets."

- Select audiences at Disney-Pixar's "Brave" will be treated to Dolby's new Atmos sound system.… Read more

Twitter plans to expand ads to 50 countries

Twitter will start its ad services in 50 countries this year as the company continues to grow overseas, the Guardian reported.

CEO Dick Costolo made outlined the expansion of Twitter's mobile business strategy at an advertising conference in Cannes, France. The first markets to have access will be Latin America, including Brazil, and west European countries such as Spain and Germany.

Twitter's advertising products include promoted tweets, promoted trends and promoted accounts.

While other social media and Internet companies are finding it challenging to make money on mobile platforms -- -- Facebook has been dinged particularly soundly on … Read more

Paralyzed man sends first tweet with his eyes

Tony Nicklinson is a rugby fan, a husband, and a father. He also has locked-in syndrome, which has left him fully paralyzed. His only method of communicating is through a specially designed computer system triggered by small eye and head movements.

The tweet that started Nicklinson's social-media foray last week reads, "Hello world. I am tony nicklinson, I have locked-in syndrome and this is my first ever tweet. #tony "… Read more

Time turns page on iPad subscriptions

Skype's got ads, Vizio's got PCs, and we got issues (a whole Newsstand full of 'em):

Time Inc. has had a change of heart with Apple and will now begin selling magazine subscriptions through iPad's Newsstand app. Previous apps for Time Inc. magazines, like Sports Illustrated, only allowed for one issue to be purchased at a time. It also gave print subscribers free access.

Last year, Time Inc. opposed how Apple handled subscriptions, such as taking a 30 percent cut of sales and not releasing data on subscribers. But since then, Apple has lets readers opt-in to … Read more

'Expanded Tweets' bring more content to Twitter feeds

Twitter is partnering with a variety of online media companies to expand the range of content available for preview from within tweets.

The microblogging site announced today it has introduced an enhanced version of "expanded Tweets" that allows users to preview stories, images, and videos linked to within tweets. While Twitter already offered the ability to see Instagram photos or watch YouTube videos, the site is now partnering with a "diverse and growing group" of media sites such as The Wall Street Journal and Time to deliver richer content in tweets.

"When you expand a … Read more

Politwoops publishes all politicians' deleted tweets

Ever wanted to know the deleted tweets of President Obama, Republican nominee Mitt Romney, or even your local congressperson? Well, a new site called Politwoops launched today that aims to collect and preserve all of those tweets.

"From minor typos to major gaffes, Politwoops is now there to offer a searchable window into what they hoped you didn't see," Nicko Margolies, communications coordinator at the Sunlight Foundation, which created Politwoops, wrote in a blog post.

Granted, most of the deleted tweets are not that juicy and the majority seeming to have been nixed for small typos. However, … Read more

Twitter announces support for Do Not Track

Twitter is the latest Web giant to support Do Not Track.

Ed Felten, chief technology officer at the Federal Trade Commission, announced today at an Internet Week privacy panel that Twitter will now stop tracking user data from those who opt-out. According to The New York Times, which was first to report on the news, Twitter's tracking will be nixed with help from Firefox's Do Not Track feature.

Twitter confirmed Felten's statement in a tweet today, saying that the company "now supports Do Not Track." Twitter also commended the FTC for its "leadership on … Read more

Google adds factoids to search results

In today's show, Google search gets smarter, Verizon ends its unlimited data era, and E.T. tweet home?

Google search results will now look a bit different. Google has launched the Knowledge Graph, a database of 500 million people, places, and things, and it will show up in your search to give you more info on a topic and help you find related items. Google is rolling it out in the next few days to desktop, mobile and tablet users.

You can't always count on iPhone rumors being true, but here's one that's looking pretty solid: … Read more

Finally, a chance to tweet to aliens

I have so much to say to aliens, I really doubt I could keep it to 140 characters. But if I'm going to go the "Tweets in Space" route to speak to potential life forms on GJ667Cc, I'll need to keep it short.

The experimental art project will beam real-time tweets toward the exoplanet 22 light-years away during performance events at the 2012 International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) in New Mexico.

"Simply tag your Twitter messages with #tweetsinspace, and your phones, laptops, mobile devices -- anything with an Internet connection -- will be transformed into an alien communicator," says San Francisco new-media artist Scott Kildall, who is collaborating on the networked performance project with Nathaniel Stern, an associate professor in the Department of Art+Design at the University of Wisconsin's Peck School of the Arts. … Read more

Obama's same-sex marriage tweet goes viral

At 12:18 PT this afternoon, shortly after President Obama got on TV and publicly announced for the first time that he supports same-sex marriage, this tweet was posted on his Twitter page:

"Same-sex couples should be able to get married." --President Obama

Just eight hours later, this tweet had been retweeted more than 50,000 times... and counting.

Normally, people can only see up to 50 retweets on Twitter's own counter. But these numbers are being tallied by a customized ticker made by "evangelist/hacker" Michael Schonfeld, according to tech news site The Next Web. … Read more