Twitter Launches iPad App With Focus On Consumption

Twitter is launching the first native app it’s built from scratch tonight, Twitter for iPad. Aimed at fostering content consumption, the app is designed for new users and power users alike. The iPad app indicates the direction all Twitter-designed apps will be heading

Written by Liz Gannes on September 2nd, 2010 with no comments.
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Welcome to Ping

Welcome to Ping. As you get started, here are some tips on how to get the most out of Ping:
Finding People to Follow
Ping makes it easy to find and follow your favorite artists and friends. In iTunes on your Mac or PC, select Ping and click Featured Artists or Featured People to find new or noteworthy Ping members. If you know someone already on Ping, you can search for them by name from the Ping home page. You can even check to see which of your Facebook friends also use Ping by connecting Ping to Facebook when editing your profile.
Your Recent Activity
The Ping home page makes it easy to see recent activity and popular songs from the people you follow. To see what a specific person has been up to, just click on their name. If you find something you like in iTunes, you can tell everyone that follows you by clicking “Like.” You can also recommend a song, album, or a person’s activity – and add your own comment – by pressing Post. And remember, you can always remove any activity you create by clicking Remove from your Profile page.
Purchases and Reviews
Ping automatically tells anyone that follows you whenever you purchase new music or write a review for an album. You’ll also see which of your friends have purchased a song or written a review right from the album page on the iTunes Store.
Going to Concerts
Whenever you follow an artist, Ping will automatically recommend upcoming concerts from that artist and even tell you which of your friends are also going. To see upcoming concerts for a given artist, click Concerts from their artist page in the iTunes Store.
These are just a few of the great new features of Ping. We’re excited to have you participate in a worldwide conversation with the world’s most passionate music fans.
Regards,
The iTunes Store Team
iTunes Store
www.itunes.com

Written by mrinternet on September 2nd, 2010 with no comments.
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Twitter Gets Twitchy

From Twitter 1 minute ago

Hi @mr_internet,

Over the coming weeks, we will be making two important updates that will
impact how you interact with Twitter applications. We are sending this notice
to all Twitter users to make sure you are aware of these changes.

What are applications?

There are over 250,000 applications built using the Twitter API. To use most
applications, you first authorize the application to access your Twitter
account, after which you can use it to read and post Tweets, discover new
users and more. Applications come in many varieties, including desktop
applications like TweetDeck ( http://www.tweetdeck.com/ ), Seesmic (
http://seesmic.com/ ), or EchoFon ( http://www.echofon.com/ ), websites such
as TweetMeme ( http://tweetmeme.com/ ), fflick ( http://fflick.com/ ), or
Topsy ( http://topsy.com/ ), or mobile applications such as Twitter for iPhone
( http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271 ), Twitter for Blackberry
( http://www.blackberry.com/twitter/ ), or Foursquare ( http://foursquare.com/
).

Update 1: New authorization rules for applications

Starting August 31, all applications will be required to use “OAuth” to access
your Twitter account.

What’s OAuth?
* OAuth is a technology that enables applications to access Twitter on your
* behalf with your approval without asking you directly for your password.
* Desktop and mobile applications may still ask for your password once, but
* after that request, they are required to use OAuth in order to access your
* timeline or allow you to tweet.

What does this mean for me?
* Applications are no longer allowed to store your password.
* If you change your password, the applications will continue to work.
* Some applications you have been using may require you to reauthorize them or
* may stop functioning at the time of this change.
* All applications you have authorized will be listed at
* http://twitter.com/settings/connections.
* You can revoke access to any application at any time from the list.

Update 2: t.co URL wrapping

In the coming weeks, we will be expanding the roll-out of our link wrapping
service ( http://t.co ), which wraps links in Tweets with a new, simplified
link. Wrapped links are displayed in a way that is easier to read, with the
actual domain and part of the URL showing, so that you know what you are
clicking on. When you click on a wrapped link, your request will pass through
the Twitter service to check if the destination site is known to contain
malware, and we then will forward you on to the destination URL. All of that
should happen in an instant.

You will start seeing these links on certain accounts that have opted-in to
the service; we expect to roll this out to all users by the end of the year.
When this happens, all links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be
wrapped with a t.co URL.

What does this mean for me?
* A really long link such as
* http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048
* might be wrapped as http://t.co/DRo0trj for display on SMS, but it could be
* displayed to web or application users as amazon.com/Delivering- or as the
* whole URL or page title.
* You will start seeing links in a way that removes the obscurity of shortened
* links and lets you know where each link will take you.
* When you click on these links from Twitter.com or a Twitter application,
* Twitter will log that click. We hope to use this data to provide better and
* more relevant content to you over time.

Thanks for reading this important update. Come and check what’s new at

http://twitter.com.

Thanks,
The Twitter Team

Written by mrinternet on September 1st, 2010 with no comments.
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Could Cheap iTunes Rentals Change Television Online?

During today’s press event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that 450 million TV episodes, along with 11.7 billion songs, 100 million movies and 35 million books, have been downloaded from the iTunes store, making it the number one digital media store in the world. How will its newly announced 99-cent rental program change the marketplace? It depends what’s on offer.

When we compared Hulu Plus to Netflix Instant during its launch, we found while the back catalog was comparable, Hulu Plus had Netflix easily beat when it came to new episodes of current shows. Apple’s rental program, though, draws from a larger pool of content, which could be a game changer.

Note the use of the word “could” here. Jobs announced that so far, only ABC and Fox have signed up for the 99-cent rental program. While we don’t yet know what specific shows will or won’t be available for 99 cents, based purely on studio, the below chart indicates that about a third of the content Hulu Plus is offering this fall won’t be available for rental on iTunes.

NBC is clearly the missing link here, and if it decides to participate in the future, that would put Hulu Plus and iTunes on par with each other. Of course, you can’t necessarily compare a subscription service to a per-item rental service; for the $10 a month I pay for Hulu Plus (which, without shelling out $99 for an Apple TV, I can watch on my television thanks to the PS3), I have unlimited access to the service’s catalog of content.

That definitely works in Hulu Plus’s favor. When the new fall season starts, for example, I’ll be watching the theoretically rentable Castle, Glee, House and Modern Family on a weekly basis. If I were renting them a la carte from iTunes, in a month when each show premiered three new episodes I’d spend $11.88 to keep caught up, and if I wanted to review them after 48 hours, I’d have to plop down another 99 cents each. Compared to Hulu Plus, that’s not a great way to spend my money (even with the commercial-free video Apple provides).

The deal breaker here is that the iTunes catalog extends well beyond ABC and Fox, thanks to its relationships with pretty much every major TV network and studio. If cable or premium channels like AMC, HBO or Showtime — which do currently sell episodes via iTunes — join the rental program, it could be a very different marketplace indeed.

Frankly, Mad Men is half the reason I still have a cable subscription, which currently costs me $100/month. If I could rent the weekly misadventures of Don Draper for 99 cents each, that’d leave me about $96 a month in savings, which I’d find much easier to use towards a la carte rentals and purchases for series and movies not available through subscription services like Netflix and Hulu Plus.

In short: The iTunes rental program might not make me rethink my Hulu Plus subscription, but if more content providers get on board, it could make me rethink cable.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Three Reasons Over-The-Top TV Apps Will Beat Big-Cable

Written by Liz Shannon Miller on September 1st, 2010 with no comments.
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Tiny New Apple TV Costs $99, 99-Cent TV Rentals Confirmed

At this morning’s Apple press event, streamed live, CEO Steve Jobs announced a new Apple TV that’s a quarter of the size of the original box, with all-HD content (when available), cloud storage, and Netflix and YouTube access. The new Apple TV also allows content to be streamed from your computer or iPad to the television. The $229 price is dropping to $99, with pre-orders available today.

Oh, and as we reported, the price for renting TV shows in HD is dropping from $2.99 to $0.99 HD TV shows is shifting from $2.99 to buy to $0.99 to rent for the ABC and Fox shows that will be available at the outset. Other broadcasters have yet to commit to the service, but Jobs said that “other studios will see the light soon, and get on board with us.”

HD movie rentals are set at $4.99 for first-run films, which Jobs says will become “cheaper as time goes on.” The new store also includes Rotten Tomatoes ratings and cast/crew listings “for the first time.”

Jobs called the Netflix interface on Apple TV “the best implementation of Netflix yet,” though he was probably saying that because the interface is a direct ripoff of Apple’s Front Row interface.

Jobs also announced a complete overhaul of the iPod line, including FaceTime for the iPod touch. The iPod nano now has a square face and is smaller, and today’s demo emphasized the device’s music player and other features, including a clock face. The iPod nano camera has been removed, and the square screen implies that there’s a de-emphasis on video.

That just means more cameras for the iPod touch! The new version of the device will have front- and back-facing cameras, allowing people to communicate using FaceTime. On-device editing and direct upload to YouTube will also be possible.

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): Apple’s Path to the Living Room

Written by Liz Shannon Miller on September 1st, 2010 with no comments.
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