Hasta La Gadget!

Most of the so-called “young folks” would argue that Facebook lost its innocence the day that parents were invited to play along, but there’s no question that politicians would disagree vehemently. A recent study published by the number crunchers at Pew Internet found that over half (54 percent, if we’re being precise) of adults “used the internet for political purposes in the last cycle, far surpassing the 2006 midterm contest.” A total of 58 percent hopped online for political news, while one in five (22 percent) used Twitter or a social networking site for “political purposes” in 2010. Taken as a whole, a staggering 73 percent of online adults took part in at least one of these activities in 2010, and judging by the power of these networks in the recent Middle Eastern / African uprisings, we get the impression that figures will only be rising in elections to come. Too bad you can’t “Like” a politician to give them your vote — haven’t these polling places realized what century we’re in?

Continue reading Blame the 2010 elections for your parents being on Facebook, Twitter

Blame the 2010 elections for your parents being on Facebook, Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Pew Internet  | Email this | Comments

Do yourself a favor. Go to Twitter, log in, click the Settings link in the upper right hand corner, tick the Always use HTTPS box, and then hit Save. The microblogging service last night announced that, thanks to public outcry, it has improved security with the addition of an always-on HTTPS option.

The feature is particularly helpful when using the service over Wi-Fi and other public networks. Even with the feature enabled, however, mobile browsers won’t default to the secure connection–users need to go directly to https://mobile.twitter.com for that. According to a blog post, Twitter is working on a solution that works across the sites.

The need for a secure connection received a good deal of public attention earlier in the month after actor Ashton Kutcher’s account was hacked [see: above], sending out pro SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) messages to his 6.3 million followers. 

As Twitter nears its fifth birthday, the microblogging service has released some impressive stats outlining its meteoric rise. Arguably most impressive amongst the numbers is the revelation that it now takes a week for the site’s users to generate one billion tweets. The number is doubly impressive when you consider the fact that it took three years, two months, and a day to generate the first billion.

An announcement by Ryan Sarver, a member of the platform team at Twitter, could spell bad news for makers of third-party apps that access the growing social network and new ones looking to get in on the action. In a move that will inevitably cause quite a ruckus among developers and tweeters alike, Twitter has essentially decided that no new apps should be developed “that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” He goes on to say that existing apps will continue to function, but that the bar will be raised in terms of quality and consistency. Specifically, he cites differences across apps in terminology for core functions like @-replying and trending topics as confusing to users and at the root of the change.

According to Sarver, over 90 percent of Twitter users access the service through official Twitter apps, so for many the change won’t be drastic. The company hopes developers will shift their focus to other areas of the ecosystem that “focus on areas outside the mainstream consumer client experience” such as publishing tools, curation, and social CRM (consumer relationship management). Still, it’s incredibly interesting — and frankly, disheartening — to see a Web 2.0 company making such an un-Web 2.0 move. Of course, this could all be part of Twitter’s plans to eventually monetize the service, but for now we’ll have to take the company at its word, even if that means our choice of clients becomes a little less diverse in the future.

Twitter to developers: we want to own the pipes, water, and faucets, but feel free to make soap originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Twitter API Announcements Google Group  | Email this | Comments

What do you get when you combine New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an A.M. radio show, Twitter, an the Insane Clown Posse? Why, hilarious shenanigans, naturally. While replying to Twitter questions on his radio show last week (hastag #askMike), the Mayor stumbled up one that particularly piqued his interested. 

Well, as you probably know, everything is made up of atoms, and atoms have electrons, usually in pairs orbiting around them, and they create mini-magnetic fields. But the two electrons spin in orbit, as pairs, spin in opposite directions. They cancel out each other. But magnetic materials aren’t in pairs. So the spins don’t cancel out each other. And if there’s enough of them, it creates a magnetic field.