Hasta La Gadget!

Tumblr has been out like mad working on its mobile prowess over the past few days. After releasing a dedicated app for Windows Phone 8 yesterday, they’re back again with an update to their iOS app. Tumblr has added support for sharing blog posts to Facebook and Twitter, complete with third-party app support for apps like Tweetbot.

The updated app also includes the ability to save blog posts for later using read-it-later services like Instapaper and Pocket. Users can also email blog posts to friends and family using Tumblr’s all-new template. There’s also some new navigation tweaks, like swiping up or down to close photos, as well as added support for animated GIFs on the dashboard.

Overall, it’s not a huge update, but avid Tumblr users who take advantage of the app while on the go will appreciate some of the new features, especially if they’re all about sharing blog posts with friends. However, users will begin to be bombarded with mobile ads, so be prepared to see sponsored content show up in your feed.

The Tumblr apps for Android and Windows Phone 8 already allow for easy sharing of blog posts, but iOS users are now honored with the feature. Tumblr released a dedicated app for Windows Phone 8 yesterday, bringing lock screen and live tile support along with it, giving Tumblr users on Microsoft’s mobile platform a unique experience unlike iOS or Android.

Tumblr for iOS update brings Facebook, Twitter integration is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Wired is reporting that Twitter has a two-step verification system currently undergoing internal testing that Twitter hopes to roll out to its users “shortly”. A two-step verification system would help prevent Twitter hacks from happening, like what happened today with the @AP. More »

The Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked today after a tweet was sent out from the account that read, “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” The Associated Press responded shortly after saying that its Twitter account had been compromised, and now the account has been suspended, but it should be back up shortly after Twitter and the AP resolve the issue.

The fake tweet was noticed by the AP fairly quickly, and several of their other Twitter accounts tweeted out that the hacked AP tweet was indeed bogus. However, many people were quick to shoot down the claim anyway, since the tweet wasn’t in AP style formatting in the first place, and no other mainstream news outlets were reporting on it.

The AP always puts “breaking” in all caps in their tweets, and they also use a service called SocialFlow to publish their tweets, whereas the fake tweet was sent out through the “web,” meaning it was sent through Twitter’s website rather than a third-party service like SocialFlow. Plus, the tweet was in title case, which the AP and other news sources never use.

In the end, it took only three minutes for the fake tweet to be officially denied by the AP, with the account being suspended just four minutes later. This is quite a fast response, but we shouldn’t expect nothing less of a news source like the AP, who is constantly keeping an eye on their social media feeds.

[via The Next Web]

AP Twitter account hacked with fake White House explosion claim is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After the Syrian Electronic Army took over several of CBS’s Twitter accounts recently, Twitter has focused its priorities on taking the hackers down, well at least their Twitter accounts. Twitter proceeded to shut down the SEA’s official Twitter account, and the hackers responded by creating another Twitter account named @Official_SEA. This quickly led to a back-and-forth ban/account-creation battle between the two entities.

At this point, the Syrian Electronic Army is up to their 6th alternative account, which has yet to be banned. However, the SEA didn’t stop just there. With their current Twitter account, they tweeted an image of a data dump that contained personal information belonging to Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the President of FIFA, the international governing body of football. Blatter’s email address, phone number and fax number were all leaked.

Not only did they leak his personal information, the SEA made claims that it was the group that had hacked into Blatter and the FIFA World Cup’s Twitter accounts. On those accounts, the group released tweets saying that Blatter conspired with Qatar against the Syrian football team. Other tweets said that Blatter took bribes, and that he was going to step down from his position due to corruption charges.

A few days ago, the SEA hacked into several of CBS’s Twitter accounts, including its accounts for 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, and CBSDenver. The hackers tweeted things associated with President Obama and the U.S. being in bed with Al-Qaeda. The group is also responsible for hacking 3 of BBC’s Twitter accounts, NPR’s Twitter accounts, the website/Twitter account belonging to the Human Rights Watch and more. Many security officials have asked Twitter to implement a two-factor authentication system into its service to keep hackers like the SEA at bay.

[via Information Week]

Twitter and Syrian Electronic Army go to battle is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Twitter shouldn’t have to make sure everything crossing its servers is factual or true, but it’s in Twitter’s interest to fix this or risk a reputation as cesspool of untruth. Twitter needs a way to reel bad information back in. …