Did you have trouble posting to Twitter yesterday morning, the first day of the 2012? The social networking site became overloaded with tweets at around 3PM GMT, precisely the moment the new year was being celebrated in Japan. Celebratory tweets reached 16,197 posts per second before Twitter gave up the ghost and entered an hour long coma.
For about four years, technology blogger Noah Kravitz worked for PhoneDog, a mobile phone website. During that time, he also tweeted under the handle @PhoneDog_Noah. A little over a year ago, Kravitz left PhoneDog and changed his handle to @noahkravitz. At the time he had 17,000 followers. Now PhoneDog is suing, claiming that Kravitz absconded with its Twitter subscribers despite the account belonging to Kravitz.
Twitter is in the process of overhauling its site in a move intended to simultaneously streamline the user experience to that of a fleshed out social networking service, and provide a platform for advertisers more desirable than the one that exists now. It's already working. According to reports, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal just poured $300 million into Twitter because of its "promising" business model.
A federal judge this week sided with a man accused of stalking a Buddhist religious leader on Twitter, ruling that the Constitution protects "uncomfortable" speech, even when it may cause "substantial emotional distress." Judge Roger W. Titus dismissed the government's case against William Lawrence Cassidy in a 27-page order outlining the details.
Been burned by Android malware? If so, Microsoft wants to hear from you, via Twitter, for a chance to score a free Windows Phone device. Microsoft's promotion ties into the recent RuFraud Android scam, in which third-party apps masquerading as legitimate programs like Angry Birds rack up premium SMS charges on the sly. Microsoft wants users to post their #droidrage story as it attempts to capitalize on the hysteria.
Journalists are now allowed to fire off live text-based communications, such as mobile email, social media (including Twitter), and Internet enabled laptops in and from courts throughout England and Wales without asking for permission, a U.K. judge ruled. Prior to the ruling, reporters would have to issue a request, but that rule has now been removed.
Everywhere you turn these days, it seems as though the headlines are filled with horror stories of Android phones riddled with malware. Even apps you snag on Android Market can infect your phone (although those are rare and often quickly removed). Microsoft has been paying attention to the news and decided to kick Google where it hurts with a new social media campaign. Have you been bitten by some Android malware and want to switch to (possibly) greener pastures? If you share your sob story on Twitter, Microsoft might just send you a shiny new Windows Phone as a technological band-aid.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but failing that, a bucketful of apologies should do the trick. It appears to be working for Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and the rest of Discovery Channel's Mythbusters crew after an errant 30-pound cannonball fired during filming of a TV episode rolled through a neighborhood in Dublin, California and hit every inanimate object it could find.
Twitter on Thursday introduced a new version of the microblogging service, one that's built around a simplified design intended to make it easier to follow content you care about, connect with others, and discover something new. Those are Twitter's official intentions, anyway. Unofficially, Twitter is reinventing itself as somewhat of a more traditional social network (think Facebook, Google Plus, and MySpace), even if it won't admit it.
As tempting as it might be to dump your drink on the person sitting in front of you or jar their seat like you're trying to kick the winning field goal as a not-so-friendly reminder of cell phone etiquette, consider for a moment that maybe they're actually supposed to be using their smartphone during the live performance of The Lion King or Wicked. Love it or hate it, dedicated seats for tweeters are growing in popularity.
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