Hasta La Gadget!

Twitter has acquired yet another company, this time buying out Clutch.io. The deal was announced today, with the Clutch.io team saying that they will be joining Twitter’s Growth and International team. They also say that they’re starting work at Twitter immediately, so it seems that Twitter is wasting no time in taking advantage of the Clutch.io team’s talents.

Clutch.io offered A/B testing to iOS and Android developers, and also offered Clutch Framework, which helps developers build apps. “Offered” is the operative word there, as Clutch.io won’t be supporting these apps much longer – Twitter is shutting down the company’s A/B testing and Framework app. Clutch.io says in a blog post that it will continue supporting these services until November 1, and in the coming weeks, the company will be providing resources that will allow developers to run these programs on their own servers.

So, Clutch’s current services won’t be going away entirely, they just won’t be supported or hosted on Clutch.io servers anymore. In anticipation of this “shut down” of sorts, Clutch.io has stopped accepting new customers, so if you were ready to jump in and see what Clutch.io had to offer, we’re sorry to say you’re out of luck.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and we’re not sure what exactly the Clutch.io team will be doing at Twitter. This has to be a pretty exciting time for Clutch.io however, as it’s still a very young company, so to have its worth recognized so quickly is undoubtedly leaving a smile on a few faces today. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more posts on Twitter’s recent happenings!

Clutch.io joins Twitter’s Growth and International team is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

For the many of you who have used Twitter, what would you say to a rival service that requires you to pay for it? I suppose it will take a paradigm shift to be able to adapt to such a situation, but before we continue, let us take a closer look at what App.net is all about. Having hit its $500,000 fundraising target, Dalton Caldwell, the person behind App.net, figured out that ordinary folks would be willing to fork out money for an ad-free real-time social networking service, where this widely touted Twitter clone is said to be a virtual place where “users and developers come first, not advertisers”.

The San Francisco-based developer might be on to something here, where around 7,448 people are willing to fork out $50 for the minimum fee required to post to the service, while another 2,010 can pony up a Benjamin to be developers with access to back-end functionality, and another 59 did hand over $1,000 for “pro tier” access that includes phone support and a personal meeting with Caldwell. Are the 10,000 folks who backed this project financially the critical mass required to get App.net off the ground? Perhaps, but as with many other things, only time will tell and we do look forward to App.net’s commercial performance in the real world.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iCloud account of Mat Honan hacked, Underwater camera that can tweet photos of swimmers used in London Olympics,

Dalton Caldwell, the mastermind behind App.net, took to his blog yesterday to announce that the team had reached its funding goal for the project. The App.net alpha project managed to hit its $500,000 goal with two days left to go, and has amassed over $644,000 from around 9,700 backers as of the time of writing. Payment tiers include a $50 option that allows regular users to either reserve a custom username or register their existing Twitter handles, while the $100 option is aimed at developers, providing access to various API tools as well as documentation.

App.net was created as an alternative to Twitter, with Dalton Caldwell believing that the social network was moving in the wrong direction with regards to its API access as well as monetization of users. Caldwell asserts that advertising isn’t the only business model that a social network can be funded by, with App.net created on the premise that users will pay for access to a service with real time feeds and open APIs.

The project was slow to gather momentum at first, but a burst of publicity over the past week helped push the project to its $500,000 goal. Backers of the project have paid for a year of access upfront, but the ultimate goal when the service launches is to have users pay a small fee on a monthly basis. It’s a risky strategy, as most users seem to be content with ad-based serices, but the fact the app.net has managed to reach its goal indicates that there are those out there who are willing to pay for a cleaner experience.

The project still has about a day left to go, so there’s still time to put forward your $50 and secure a username. If you don’t feel like parting with a lump sum of cash upfront, then you’ll be able to register with the service normally when the alpha test is over, but there’s no indication just yet when that will be. An iOS app has been planned for the social network, however, and Caldwell mentions that several third-party applications are already in development thanks to the available API.

Social network App.net reaches $500k funding goal is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It goes without saying that the world of social media has definitely changed the way we communicate with one another, and social networks such as Facebook as well as micro blogging sites like Twitter have introduced a new way we visit places – especially when we check in to various restaurants, hotels and shopping malls. Our modern day smartphones would be the primary device where we use social media most of the time whenever we are away from a desktop or notebook, while at the office or home itself, we will most probably be uploading photos of our latest soiree with the rest of our mates.

Having said that, have you ever wondered whether the humble shoe could actually jump aboard the social media bandwagon? This is exactly what I am talking about with sportswear giant adidas coming up with the aptly named Adidas Social Media Shoe. Thanks to the help of customizer NASH Money, adidas has managed to inject a healthy dose of technology into a 2012 adidas Barricade tennis sneaker, which transforms a phone into a shoe. Alternatively, those who are on the other end of the spectrum might want to argue, is this a shoe that has been turned into a phone? More details to follow in the extended post.

Fans tweeting athletes, athletes tweeting fans, these look set to be commonplace thanks to this highly modified adidas sneaker. Bear in mind that this will not enter into mass production, as it is a one-off concept sneaker that does lead to the intriguing question – what will the future hold when it comes to social media and sports? Imagine Usain Bolt at the tracks, tweeting his feeling about performing a triple double in Rio when 2016 rolls around, you can be sure that the classic Twitter fail whale might just make an appearance then.

The Adidas Social Media Shoe will merge an Arduino unit, a LCD display, and LED lighting in order to deliver a shoe which, by virtue of its existence, should deserve its very own Twitter account. The external LCD display shows off relevant information to user, while a personalized software will poll the Twitter API’s to share specific data on the shoe screen.

YouTube video

[ Adidas Social Media Shoe copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

We talked more than a few times about the new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Mayer is working hard to turn the fortunes of Yahoo around before the Internet stalwart goes extinct. Reports are surfacing that Mayer has been trying to recruit a new employee from the ranks at twitter. Specifically, Mayer has reportedly been trying to lure Katie Jacobs Stanton, twitter’s head of international markets, to Yahoo.

It’s unclear what specific job Mayer wants Stanton to take, but sources claim it would be a major job on the media side of Yahoo. AllThingsD reports that Mayer and Stanton have worked together before at Google. Interestingly, Stanton was once Mayer’s boss when Stanton acted as the product management leader for the launch of Google Finance.

Stanton was also a driving force in the creation of Yahoo Finance when she worked there between 1999 and 2002. While it’s unclear what specific job that Stanton is being wooed for, one source has told AllThingsD that the job could involve running Yahoo’s homepage. Another source said that the job Mayer has in mind for Stanton could be an even larger role than managing the Yahoo homepage.

No one would be surprised if Mayer started replacing some of Yahoo’s executives with her own choices. With former interim CEO Ross Levinsohn leaving the company recently, some speculation is that executive Mickie Rosen, who was appointed by Levinsohn as SVP of media and commerce, could possibly be replaced with Stanton.

[via AllThingsD]

Yahoo CEO courts Twitter’s head of international markets is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.