Twitter

Vine update lets you embed videos on web pages

Twitter's Vine app has seen just one noteworthy refresh following its January 24 arrival, one giving it a 17+ age rating shortly after the Internet's morality police cautioned about porn content surfacing in Vine’s Editor’s Pick, a flaw the app makers attributed to a "human error."

Now, I love Vine and even though I'm not a regular user, I find myself occasionally recording and sharing a quick clip.

It always bugged me that tweeting out those links used to be my only choice to share Vines with the web at large - of course, in addition to Facebook and shares through the Vine service itself. But what about embedding a Vine on your blog? Well, I'm pleased to report that today's update has made Vine a whole lot more useful for a bunch of people: the new version includes web embeds, letting you easily inject your own or other people's videos into blog posts...

Twitterrific iOS app finally gains push alerts, but…

...but you probably won't be able to take advantage of them because native Push Notifications are still in beta so developer Iconofactory had to limit the much-needed feature to the first thousand users, as determined on a first-come, first-served basis.

The system is very similar to the reservation tickets in the Mailbox app. Luckily, I was able to reserve my spot on time so my copy of Twitterrific version 5.2 has native push alerts turned on.

Tucked away under the app's settings, push alerts can be turned on and off individually for direct messages, replies, mentions, favorites, retweets and follows.

Another handy treat: each of these can be color-coded so you get a better idea of a particular notification's importance after it appears on your screen, especially handy when these alerts start cropping up on your Lock screen...

Twitter reportedly readying standalone music discovery app for iOS

Last year, Twitter acquired popular music discovery service We Are Hunted. The company developed proprietary search technology than can continuously scan the Internet to identify trending new music around the world.

And according to a new report, Twitter is getting ready to launch a new standalone app based on that technology called Twitter Music. The app, which is expected to debut on iOS, will bring music discovery to the masses...

Phil Schiller tweets link to Android-slamming mobile malware report

Phil Schiller, although probably the most active Twitter user of the Apple executive team, doesn't tweet much. And when he does, it's usually generic things like "new Flipboard app for iPhone is very nice," or "way to go Giants!!!"

But the Worldwide Marketing SVP switched things up a bit this morning, tweeting out a very deliberate link to a new mobile malware report by F-Labs that slams Android for its malware issues, telling folks to "be safe out there..."

Twitter refines iOS app search, but also removes Vodpod, Posterous and Mobypicture

After discontinuing its mobile TweetDeck apps for iPhone and Android in favor of the web client, the micro-blogging service Twitter today refreshed its iOS client with better search, refined layouts, support for traditional Chinese and other perks.

Unfortunately, this update also kills off support for external video services like Mobypicture, Vodpod and Posterous as the company supposedly is building a rumored video uploading service of its own.

Note that Posterous, a micro-blogging platform Twitter bought a year ago, is shutting down for good on April 30. Twitter also recently acquired Vine and launched a corresponding brand new app for recording and sharing short 6-second clips that can be easily tweeted out and viewed in-line on Twitter. With this update, TwitVid and yFrog are now your only video uploading choices in Twitter’s iOS app...

Twitter killing off TweetDeck for iPhone and Android to focus on web client

Twitter has announced this evening that it will be discontinuing its mobile TweetDeck apps in favor of the web client. Both the Android and iPhone clients will soon be removed from their respective App Stores.

Interestingly enough, the desktop versions of the app will live on (except for TweetDeck AIR it seems). But it looks like they will do so without Facebook integration, as the feature will be completely removed...

Apple ranks #1 again in Fortune’s ‘Most Admired Companies’ list

For the sixth year in a row, Apple was named the most-admired company in the world. In spite of a stock free fall and the Apple Maps gaffe, the iPhone maker topped rivals Google and Amazon, Fortune announced Thursday.

Described as a "financial juggernaut" which became the most profitable company on the globe, Apple was named the over-all most admired firm while also topping the list as the most admired technology firm of 2013...

How Tweetbot pirates expose themselves on Twitter

Just to make it clear: iDB does not condone piracy. Quite the opposite, we strongly condemn it. While no accurate data exist on how widespread the App Store piracy issue is, by all accounts it's anything but neglectable, especially when certain dudes jailbreak their devices with the sole purpose of using pirated apps. Tapbots, the people behind the popular Twitter client called Tweetbot, has found a novel way to identify users who are pirating the app.

It gets even better: these folks actually have been exposing themselves on - oh the irony - Twitter. Regardless, I doubt public exposure is going to shame them, let alone persuade them to pay for Tweetbot...

Twitterrific updated with mute filters and several other improvements

In December of last year, Iconfactory introduced an all-new version of its popular iOS Twitter client, Twitterrific 5.0. The app was completely rebuilt from the ground up with a fresh user interface and a laundry list of features.

Today, that list of features gets even longer with Twitterrific 5.1. The update posted late last night, and it includes several new features and improvements such as mute filters, and more. We've got the full change log after the fold...

How Eastern European attackers hacked Apple

Investigators now believe a group of sophisticated Eastern European criminal hackers are responsible for a cyberattack on Apple and other U.S. technology and media firms. Until today, those probing the computer break-ins thought China was behind the electronic assaults. In Apple's case, malware placed on an iPhone developer website may have been used to 'bait' visitors, according to one report Wednesday.

According to Bloomberg, which anonymously cited people close to law enforcement, malware which other victims described as "sophisticated," was placed on the popular developer forum to potentially gain access to data stored on corporate computers...

Tweetbot for iOS and Mac updated to comply with Twitter’s API changes

As many of you may know, Twitter announced a lengthy list of changes to its API used by third party clients last fall. The deadline for developers to meet the new requirements is March 5th, and apps that don't comply will cease functioning.

As such, the Tapbots team has updated both its iOS and Mac Tweetbot apps today to adhere to the new API changes. Most of the them are under the hood, but you will notice some UI differences. We've got the full change logs after the fold...

Use 3G Unrestrictor to enable streaming over cellular in Tweetbot

Tweetbot, my favorite Twitter client by a country mile, takes well advantage of Twitter's streaming API for instant timeline updates with no manual refresh. It works very well, but unfortunately Tweetbot requires you to be connected to Wi-Fi in order to use the feature. What to do now? Fake a Wi-Fi connection, of course!

3G Unrestrictor has many uses, and one such use is to enable Twitter streaming in Tweetbot over a cellular connection. Check out our brief video inside.