Twit World Report: August 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

Samsung Gear 2 Takes Circular Path—Back To Tizen

When it comes to gadgets, round shapes are the new black, especially for smartwatches. If there’s any doubt, just check out Samsung’s latest update to its smartwatch lineup, announced Monday.See also: Maybe Samsung Is Starting To Think Wearables Through More CarefullyTaking a cue from the Moto 360 ...

How To Keep Employees Excited About Working At Your Startup

Guest author Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council.In the beginning stages of your business, you can't always offer competitive salaries. So as you're trying to get off the ground, you have to find other ways to structure your business so that early-stage employees have a ...

Can iOS Support Help Android Wear Take Off?

The wearables market might be on the rise, but Android Wear doesn't seem to be driving the growth. Estimates suggest a mere 720,000 Google-powered watches were sold in 2014, whereas the Apple Watch has reportedly shifted 3.6 million units in the past three months.So where next for Android ...

Saturday, August 29, 2015

People On Twitter Are Imagining What It Would Be Like If Donald Trump Wrote The Bible

Earlier this week, people following the US Republican primary were shocked to see Donald Trump faced with a question he couldn't answer - his favourit...

Liz Kendall Seems To Be The Only Candidate Enjoying Labour Leadership Race

Labour leadership hopeful Liz Kendall seems to be the only candidate enjoying the election, having shrugged off a sexist tweet in the latest example o...

Ex-Liverpool Player Ryan Babel In Shocking Sexist Twitter Rant

Ex-Liverpool FC footballer Ryan Babel has been criticised after he went on a sexist rant involving a female fan on Twitter and suggested she "concentr...

Friday, August 28, 2015

The Wait For HTC's Vive VR Headset Just Got Longer

From the beginning, HTC’s promise of delivering a consumer-ready virtual-reality headset by the end of the year seemed fantastical (in all senses of the word). How is the Taiwanese company, which announced the Vive early this year, going to release its VR system so quickly?The answer: It’s not. ...

The Top 5 Technologies That Have Changed Sports

This post is sponsored by The Wearable Tech In Sport Summit, an event taking place in San Francisco on September 9–10. It reflects the views of the sponsor, not ReadWrite's editors.Athletes today use increasingly complex technologies to enhance performance.We have seen considerable leaps ...

Taxicab Industry Has A New App To Compete With Uber

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.The tech sector has shaken up innumerable industries, and whenever that happens, some enterprising types wonder if ...

Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Internet of Reps: GymGroups Wants To Network Your Gym

Grou.ps, a company known for its social community tools, is adding hardware and a focus on fitness to the mix with the launch of GymGroups, a service targeted at health clubs. See also: Under Armour's New "Record" App: A Potential Social Revolution In FitnessIt's a big shift in strategy, and ...

The Wearables Market Is Exploding, And Apple Is Stealing The Show

A new report published by IDC paints an intriguing picture of the wearables market as it looks in the middle of 2015. The market grew 223% over the course of the previous year, and Apple—new to the sector and with only one wearable to its name—was bested only by Fitbit, in terms of devices ...

How To Disable Autoplay Videos On Facebook And Twitter

Following yesterday's tragic murder of two young journalists in Virginia, Facebook and Twitter faced a barrage of criticism over its video autoplay fe...

How To Disable Autoplay Videos On Facebook And Twitter

Following yesterday's tragic murder of two young journalists in Virginia, Facebook and Twitter faced a barrage of criticism over its video autoplay fe...

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Weaponized Drones Are Now Legal In The U.S.

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.Legislation around drone use is of paramount importance for their hardware and software developers, as well as ...

Yahoo Courts Developers With Tumblr In-App Sharing And Native Video Ads

At the Yahoo Mobile Developer Conference in New York Wednesday, the company announced the arrival of in-app sharing. The new framework aims to make it easier to share photos, videos, links and other media to Tumblr with one tap. The update, integrated into the Flurry software development ...

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Slack's New Button Wants To Connect All Your Work Shares

You're probably familiar with pinning something to Pinterest, sharing it via Twitter or posting it to Facebook. Now there's another option: Add to Slack.The new button introduced by the Slack team can be embedded into almost any site, service or app, giving users an easy way to get third-party ...

Apple Music Is A Pandora's: Open At Your Own Risk

I probably should wait a few days before writing this. I'd be calmer. Maybe I'd even have my music back.You see, I fell into the "three-month trial period" trap. I switched on Apple Music to try out the new subscription service, which allowed me to explore old favorites I didn't know I'd been ...

Monday, August 24, 2015

Cortana Arrives On Android To Spearhead Microsoft's Mobile Assault

After the official announcement in May and a short period of closed beta testing, Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant app has arrived on Android as a public beta—you need to jump through a couple of (easy) hoops to download it, and bugs should be expected. But essentially anyone is welcome to ...

Couple Break-Up On Delayed Flight, Woman Live Tweets Whole Thing

Being dumped in any public place is tough, but an aeroplane must be the worst place ever to go through a break-up.

Kelly Keegs found herself sat ne...

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Twitter Kicks Up A Storm Over BBC Cancellation Of Met Office Contract

After almost 100 years, the BBC has cancelled its contract with the Met Office. Since 1922, the Met has provided Auntie (and the nation) with daily me...

Read more: Bbc, Met Office, Twitter, UK News

Friday, August 21, 2015

The Funniest GCSE Results Day Tweets

GCSE results day: it's a day for joy, tears, congratulations and commiserations. And of course funny tweets.

Like this one.

When you arrive at...

Thursday, August 20, 2015

The Funniest GCSE Results Day Tweets

GCSE results day: it's a day for joy, tears, congratulations and commiserations. And of course funny tweets.

Like this one.

When you arrive at...

Barely Anyone Passed The GCSE Twitter Exam

This was tough...

(Created by Amanda Wilkie (@pandamoanimum) David Schneider (@davidschneider) andDavid Beresford (@davidlberesford))...

Read more: Gcses, Twitter, Topical, UK Comedy, UK Comedy News

Amazon Joins Adobe Flash Hate Parade

Amazon has announced that ads on its network (including the Amazon.com portal) will no longer be able to use Flash from September 1. It's another nail in the coffin for the ailing interactive Web technology, which became the go-to tool for displaying videos, animations, games and other types of ...

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Google Gets Going With Update For Go Programming Language

Google's attempt to kill off C just got a new development: Today, the company announced a new update for Go, its own 6-year-old programming language, bringing it to version 1.5. It's the sixth major update since Go's inception in 2009, and it finally removes all traces of the C language ...

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Eve Aims To Change The Way Programming Works

There's been a tremendous amount of focus on teaching the world to code in the last couple of years, but Eve—out in public for the first time this week—takes a different approach. Rather than turning us all into computer programmers, it wants to change what programming is and create "a better way ...

Bublcam Brings VR Filmmaking To The Masses

Just over a year after a successful funding campaign on Kickstarter, the Bublcam is shipping to backers. It's a 360-degree, virtual-reality-capable camera aimed at amateur enthusiasts very much like the Sphericam 2 we reported on last month.The concept isn't difficult to understand: The camera ...

Twitter Is Mercilessly Mocking Iain Duncan Smith And He Only Has Himself To Blame

People have taken to Twitter to add to the Department for Work and Pensions' bank of fabricated stories in the brilliant #FakeDWPTweets hashtag.

Th...

Monday, August 17, 2015

Amazon's Not Much Different From Other Tech Employers, Public Data Says

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.The New York Times caused a stir in Silicon Valley with a viral article claiming that Amazon.com brutally exploits ...

10 Ways Lean Startup Methodology Can Impact Your Business

Guest author Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council.Lean startup methodology—rapidly building and testing, iterating on your product and releases and validating what you've learned—can help you get to market quicker and avoid developing a product no one wants. That's the ...

Google Taps Maps Data For Project Sunroof

The latest Web app out of Mountain View, Calif. wants to tempt people to go green by showing them how much money they could save with solar energy. Google's new Project Sunroof draws from aerial imagery from Google Maps and Google Earth, along with the angle of the sun, surrounding ...

Blackpool FC Gives Masterclass In How Not To Run A Twitter Account

Blackpool Football Club has been forced to close one of its official Twitter accounts after a former employee used it to berate fans critical of the c...

Sunday, August 16, 2015

ITV Political Editor 'Dives In' To Save Suicidal Greek Man

ITV's political editor has described with "shock and anger" the moment he tried to save a Greek man from apparently killing himself, while customs off...

What Will Private Eye Do Now?

Veteran television presenter and journalist Andrew Neil, also dubbed the 'Bachelor of Fleet Street', has revealed he secretly married his partner of f...

Friday, August 14, 2015

Brand Fails: McDonald’s Instagram

Instagram boasts 300 million monthly active users engaging with 70 million photos per day. The platform’s popularity attracts brands from local “mom and pop” shops to the top of the Forbes 500 list. However, it’s misleading to measure social media success by the number of followers and number of likes. At first glance, McDonald’s account seems ideal. The brand’s 771K followers makes it the most-followed food Instagram account in the world. And, McDonald’s posts regularly with a defined style and voice that matches Instagram’s values for artistic, rather than sales, content.

Yet, the Instagram comments section is riddled with insults that tarnish McDonald’s social media presence.

McDonald’s can’t photoshop the comments section, which graffitis every colorful, high-quality picture. Visitors’ comments range from questioning the meat products, facility cleanliness, and quality of the menu items. The foul words and comments not only litter the page, but pick fights with the few brand ambassadors. While the Instagram page reflects poorly on the customer base, and therefore the company, the comments at least provide entertainment:

“HUMAN POLLUTION FOR PROFIT! Cool!!!”
You guys are the devil I hope you know that”

“MCDONALDS BURGERS ARE MADE OUT OF PINK PASTE Artificial flavors and glue disgusting I can’t believe people eat this crap”
“This s*** looks disgusting! Dry a** chemical burgers who would eat this s***”

“BEWARE MCDONALDS CONSUMERS: THE ONLY ‘SWEET CATCH’ YOU’LL BE GETTING IS TYPE 2 DIABETES. CHICK FIL A IS BETTER!!!!”
“feedback: I can eat in n out for better stuff”

So why does McDonald’s have so many followers? McDonald’s reports that 36,000 establishments serve about 69 million people a day. That’s only 22 followers per location. From that perspective, it’s a dismal amount of followers. Take for example Shake Shack, a burger joint with 70 locations worldwide. With 194K followers, that’s 2,771 followers per location. Given McDonald’s scope, the Instagram following does not reflect its business outreach.

Content acts as another component to McDonald’s brand fail. Again, look at Shake Shack’s approach. Green screen backgrounds and props don’t compare to Shake Shack’s authentic photos. The account shares fan pics (crediting the photographer’s Instagram account) as followers tag friends, make plans and support Shake Shack. While the average number of engagement doesn’t compare to McDonald’s, the follower’s sentiment promotes the brand rather than defames it.

The post Brand Fails: McDonald’s Instagram appeared first on Growing Social Media.

Actually, Silicon Valley Isn't Run By Straight White American-Born Men

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein. Silicon Valley often gets knocked for a lack of diversity, but historically excluded groups are making an ...

Police Mocked A Homeless Couple With This 'Outrageous' Tweet

West Yorkshire Police have faced heavy criticism after officers were caught tweet shaming a homeless a couple, who had not paid their car insurance.
...

Read more: UK Tech, Technology, Police, Twitter, UK Tech News

The Week In Funny Tweets

It's been a busy old week in the world of news, so here's a condensed version of what you might've missed, illustrated with funny tweets:

Jeremy Co...

Daily Express Hack Has Public Meltdown Over Kensington Palace Letter

The Royal Correspondent at the Daily Express embarked on a baffling rant on Friday, questioning Kensington Palace over its stance on the sickening tri...

A Singer Handed His 7.5 Million Followers To A Syrian Refugee To Share His Story

Australian singer-songwriter Cody Simpson has donated his Twitter account to a Syrian refugee to highlight the extraordinary efforts made to leave the...

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Get To Know The Four Types Of Data In The Internet Of Things

Guest author David Friedman is the cofounder and CEO of Ayla Networks.Big data is one of the greatest economic opportunities of our time. It’s also incredibly vague. You’ve probably been in conversations where the different participants were using “big data” to refer to (a) large amounts of ...

Samsung Reaches Out To Indie VR Filmmakers

The road to virtual reality just broadened this week: Samsung's Milk VR service, its virtual reality pipeline for VR videos and games, launched Gear Indie, a new channel for filmmakers to reach Gear VR headset users.YouTube started supporting 360-degree videos viewable in VR headsets earlier this ...

Best Posts from the Beige Cardigan Instagram

The beige cardigan Instagram account, operated by Jessica Anteby, has more than 1.2 million followers. The self-proclaimed “MemeGod,” who also shares many text-based posts, averages about 50K likes. Although the page looks random, Anteby knows her audience. Judging by the content, the key demographic seems to range from college students to young adults. Most pictures poke fun at this awkward growing stage. And the occasional childhood themed posts, with 90′s kids references, also resonates with this young crowd.

Another way the beige cardigan account relates to young adults is commentary on life in general. Posts reflect everything from family matters, silly “shower thoughts,” and annoying social media users. Company-based content, except for the occasional sponsored post, also succeeds whether dissing McDonald’s or joking with Uber.

The account is clearly growing in both followers and engagement. Posts from earlier this year earned around 20K likes, but the account is now considered “Internet famous.” The beige cardigan Instagram account is often compared to @thefatjewish, who just released that he makes $6,000 per sponsored post.

Below are a few of the best posts from the beige cardigan Instagram. To discover more funny people, check out our article about the funniest Instagram accounts and the weirdest Instagram posts. To enlarge the below pictures, simply click on a photo to open the gallery.

The post Best Posts from the Beige Cardigan Instagram appeared first on Growing Social Media.

Where Have All The Jumping A-Level Girls Gone?

Thousands have shared their A-Level results day photographs across social media, highlighting an interesting development: the ubiquitous image of stud...

Great British Bake Off: Biscuit Week As It Happened, In Funny Tweets

Great British Bake Off is back on our screens, and it's got us glued to the sofa once again. It's at its usual innuendo-ridden gold standard, so here'...

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

How Good Developers Deal With Bad Code

It's possible that you have never written a bad line of code. Possible, but unlikely in the extreme.The reality is that you, like every other developer on this planet, creates security flaws, misaligns UI elements, and more. It's not that you're a bad developer. You just happen to be human.It's ...

Trending: Police Snooping Requests To Twitter

Snooping requests made by British authorities to Twitter have more than doubled - but the site rejects about half of them, new figures reveal.

Poli...

Android Experiments Is Google's New Playground For Coders

Google has lifted the curtain on a new Android Experiments website, which it wants to use as a way of showcasing "creative ways to utilize ... device capabilities" and "new or unique uses of technology, aesthetics and interface." Essentially, it's a collection of demos of just how great ...

Google: Alphabet Restructuring Won't Affect Developers

Google surprised everyone Monday with fundamental changes to its organizational DNA, putting a new holding company, Alphabet, above a newly fashioned Google Inc. and other subsidiaries for its Google X “moonshots" lab and ventures arm. Days later, the world is still trying to make sense of it.As ...

Tinder's Twitter Account Just Had A Full-On MELTDOWN Over Vanity Fair's Dating Article

Tinder had one of 'those' moments on Twitter last night.

The app's Twitter account became the stage for a very public meltdown as the company lashe...

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Hugh Jackman Hilariously Serenades Twitter With Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'

Everyone, it appears, seems to have heard about the craze for dubsmash videos - and Hugh Jackman is no exception.

The actor, known for playing ‘...

Monday, August 10, 2015

Online Education May Be Poised To Take Off

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.Online education could be taking a major leap forward on its road to legitimacy. Hillary Clinton is directly courting ...

How Google's Vulkan Can Make Android Games Apps Faster And More Powerful

It's a good time to be a mobile game developer. iOS offers Metal, and now Android has Vulkan, a low-level graphics protocol just announced by Google. The new tool gives developers more access to the hardware running their apps, while reducing CPU or processor load. "Even the ...

MSNBC Cited A Parody Twitter Account Live On Air

We're all guilty of falling for the odd fake Twitter account every now and then, but when you're broadcasting live to millions of Americans, it's a bi...

Online Giants Now Have A 'Game-Changer' Weapon Against Child Abuse Images

Online companies Google, Facebook and Twitter have joined forces with the charity Internet Watch Foundation to create a new 'game-changing' weapon to ...

Read more: Child Abuse, Google, Iwf, Twitter, Facebook, UK Tech News

Chris Eubank Still Doesn't Understand Why People Want To Go Youth Hostelling With Him

Former boxer Chris Eubank has been the butt of the same joke since 1997. The worst part is, he doesn't seem to get it, even after almost two decades.
...

Thursday, August 6, 2015

5 Things Developers Should Know About Microsoft’s Open-Source iOS App-Porting Tool

Microsoft needs developers to build apps for its platform, and its play to get them—by helping coders port their iOS and Android apps to Windows—just took another step forward: On Thursday, the Redmond, Washington–based tech company released its iPhone app porting tool, Windows Bridge for iOS, as ...

What You Can Learn From This Map Of The Most Googled Republicans

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.Google Trends has been known to predict stock market trends or hidden racial stereotypes for presidential candidates. ...

15 #GrowingUpThick Tweets That Every Curvy Girl Can Relate To

Girls everywhere have taken to Twitter to share the trials and tribulations of discovering you're going to be blessed with curves.

From having ever...

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

'Bake Off' Is Off To A Hilarious Start

Great British Bake Off is back on our screens, and it's got us glued to the sofa once again. It's at its usual innuendo-ridden gold standard, so here'...

Fitness-App Consolidation Continues As Adidas Buys Runtastic

Runtastic is the latest indie fitness-app maker to fall under the control of a larger player: Adidas has bought the Austrian startup for 220 million euros (the equivalent of US $239 million). The deal follows Under Armour's aggressive rollup of MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo over ...

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Developer Opportunity For Connected Cars In The Here Maps Acquisition

Here Maps is one of the best products to climb out of the wreckage of the Nokia that Microsoft left behind, and Audi, BMW and Daimler obviously agree: In an attempt to reduce their reliance on Google and Apple's maps, the German automobile firms have paid some €2.8 billion (or a ...

Apple's Scorched-Earth Advertising Play Could Lobotomize Google

Apple has an advertising business. But Apple doesn't have an advertising business that it must protect at all costs. Particularly when it can create cudgels to bludgeon Google.The cudgel in question is Apple's new content-blocking software that it's building into iOS 9. The new version of Apple's ...

What Makes a Successful Kickstarter or Indiegogo Campaign?

Dreaming of surpassing a Kickstarter goal by thousands of dollars? It’s possible — there have been many campaigns that have caught fire on Kickstarter, raising several percent above their original goals. So, what makes a campaign extra successful? We take a look at specific details that can bring a campaign over the top.

1. Strong Image and Video Component

Opening with a strong visual component is crucial for getting users interested in what you are offering. Try to have visuals that are as communicative as possible so users can immediately get an idea of what the product is, what it’s special features are, and why they need it.

We love this hilarious video from Invisibo invisible condoms and the totally dramatic, eye-catching video from Automata. Automata continues their strong start with a page that is full of images; some are sleek and polished, others provide background on the development of the film series. This dynamic pairing gives users a look into what the process was like, which can make or break support.

2. Great Perks

The Hughes sunglasses campaign raised 325% funded as of July 30th. They have great videos and tons of images that show all of the aspects of the sunglasses, but most important, they structured their perks in such a way that encourages more buying. The perks were at an affordable price point that also pointed out how much a user would be saving off retail price: buy 1 pair of sunglasses, save $65! Buy a dual pack, save $150!

Listing all of the amazing aspects of the product and then following up by informing users that if they support during the Kickstarter, they’ll actually be saving money is definitely a way to motivate people to support!

JewelBots coding friendship bracelets (which raised $140k while their original goal was 30k) takes a similar approach, offering limited “Early Bird Specials.” Users save $20 if they grab the special, and the limited quantity prompts them to act fast (case in point: all of their early bird specials are gone and they still have 7 days to go).

3. Personalized Stories

Adding a human element to campaigns is a way to engage with users and make them feel good about support the campaign. HidrateMe water bottles, which raised a 600k (!!!!) included a section in their campaign that was all about learning more about the creators behind the bottle.

The team at HidrateMe

They included photos of the team working in their office, making silly faces, and eating lunch together. This human element is so important for establishing a connection to not only the product, but to the people behind it. If users see your face and personality and really like you, they are more likely to want to support you!

4. Add Authority

As you start your campaign, you should also be making a conscious PR effort. Being able to list the magazines and publications your product was featured in will build trust and legitimacy for your product.

ZNAPS MagSafe adaptor for mobile phones raised $1.5 million dollars! They not only have great animations, graphics, and visuals, but also product a huge list that shows all the places the product was featured. This helps to quell any reservations users may have about the legitimacy or quality of the product.

The post What Makes a Successful Kickstarter or Indiegogo Campaign? appeared first on Growing Social Media.

Abby Tomlinson Is Being Trolled Just For Being Young And Having A Political Opinion

Abby Tomlinson, the Labour activist credited with creating the hashtag cult #Milifandom during the general election campaign, is being mercilessly tro...

Facebook Behaviour In Real Life Is So Dumb You'll Wonder Why Social Media Even Exists

The way you behave on Facebook or Twitter is unlike any other social situation.

While 'trolling' has become the extreme poster boy of this, the fa...

Read more: Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, UK Tech News

Monday, August 3, 2015

10 Ways To Test If Your MVP Is Actually Viable

Throwing together a minimum viable product, or MVP, is a great way to test your concept and find out what customers really want before you sink more money into the game.However, there's a fine line between tossing something together and a MVP that's too buggy to launch. Finding that sweet spot is ...

Snapchat: 2015 Social Media Fun Facts

Last year’s fasting growing social network keeps getting bigger. Since its beginnings four years ago, Snapchat has expanded the platform to not only disappearing photos, but Live stories, Snapcash, and Discover. With advertising options ranging from geofilters to video ads on Discover, the app has benefited multiple industries while maintaining a loyal following. A recent Pew Research Center study reviews teens and their Snapchat usage.

The report highlights a new social media trend: girls are more likely than boys to use visually- oriented apps including Pinterest, Snapchat and Tumblr, whereas boys prefer video games.

Facebook, with 71 percent of teens using the site, remains the most visited social media platform. Instagram comes in second at 52 percent followed by Snapchat at 41 percent. Of course, most teens have multiple social media accounts. But there’s a small following, three percent, that only use Snapchat. And as more teen-adored celebrities use Snapchat, there could be even more growth.The following infographic focuses on Snapchat demographics that may interest marketers and social media experts:

The post Snapchat: 2015 Social Media Fun Facts appeared first on Growing Social Media.