Natasha Alam attending the Los Angeles Premiere for the third season of HBO’s Series “True Blood” held at The Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood, California on June 8th, 2010.Shakira Signs Autographs at Rock in Rio
Shakira signs autographs at the Rock in Rio Madrid, Spain on June 6, 2010.Kim Kardashian Attends Shape Magazine Event
“Keeping Up With The Kardashians” stars Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner attend a Shape Magazine bikini body event in Santa Monica, CA on June 5, 2010. Michael Ballack and Wife in Miami
German football player Michael Ballack sunbathed poolside while recovering from a broken leg.
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That would not have endeared the South Africa-born batsman to the England management in any event.
But the 30-year-old Pietersen, man of the tournament during England’s victorious World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean earlier this year, told his followers: “Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too.
England coach Andy Flower said he had accepted Pietersen’s explanation it was an honest mistake – the former England captain thought he was ‘texting’ a small number of friends when in fact he was announcing his omission to the world.
“He has (spoken to me). He says he made a bit of a mistake, and I’ll take him at his word,” Flower said after an England training session in Cardiff.
“But still there’ll be a disciplinary hearing about that, because we can’t have situations like that happening.”
Earlier this season Yorkshire’s Azeem Rafiq was banned for one month following the former England Under-19 captain’s axing from an age-group side.
However, there appeared to be more deliberation in Rafiq’s remarks and Flower said it was unfair to compare the two cases, although he accepted there was a possibility Pietersen could be banned.
“I didn’t connect it at all with that,” said Flower, when considering both incidents.
“But yes, it is important to be consistent.”
The ECB have been reported to be considering a Twitter ban but Flower said: “We want to allow the players to use that form of the media, if that’s what they choose to.
“But with that freedom comes responsibility, so they’ve got to use it responsibly.”
-AFP
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.:: For the rest of the article content, click through to TwitterFools.com ::.
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The German court ruled that simply asking users whether they have the legal rights to the material they are about to upload does not relieve the company of its legal obligations.
“The court concluded that YouTube was treating content uploaded by its users as its own. That leads to a more strenuous duty to check out the content. The court came to the conclusion YouTube did not fulfill this.”
The complaint against YouTube was originally filed in October 2009. At that time, Google argued that it “works closely with many thousands of copyright holders worldwide to make sure that they can manage their rights on our video platform. Our state-of-the-art Content ID tools go beyond what the law recommends by empowering rights holders to block, authorize or monetize their videos on YouTube in a way that is simple and straightforward.”
In this case, though, it seems as if Google’s Content ID tools failed. In their complaint, the plaintiffs argued that they repeatedly asked YouTube to take the videos in question down but never received a reply from YouTube.
In an interview with German news agency dpa, a spokesperson for the court today noted that “the court concluded that YouTube was treating content uploaded by its users as its own. That leads to a more strenuous duty to check out the content. The court came to the conclusion YouTube did not fulfill this.”
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Besides hinting at new features and talking about user stats, Twitter also made a couple announcements this week. One is that all Twitter apps use OAuth. The other is that it will start tracking every t.co link users click. This is Twitter’s own default URL-shortener.
Twitter sent an email to users saying, “In the coming weeks, we will be expanding the roll-out of our link wrapping service t.co, which wraps links in Tweets with a new, simplified link… When this happens, all links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL.”
“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.”
This may be a good thing for users from a security standpoint. Symantec says that short URL spam and phishing attacks are rising sharply. “With the announcement that Twitter will be rolling-out its own short URL service, many malicious attacks through this route will be thwarted,” says Amanda Grady, Senior Analyst at Symantec. “Through Twitter’s added analysis, they will be able to check if the short URL is directing users towards a site with malware and alert them in advance. This should reduce phishing attacks on Twitter accounts and prevent criminals from directing users to infected websites.
What about other URL-shortening services? Well, Bit.ly Twitter’s old favorite, has posted an update on the matter. “Following this week’s OAuth and apps announcements, some of our users have inquired about how bit.ly will work with Twitter’s new link-wrapping service,” says Bit.ly’s Matt LeMay. “Link-wrapping will enable Twitter to collect traffic data and block spam, but it will not interfere with bit.ly analytics, bit.ly Pro custom domains, or bit.ly Enterprise usage — you will be able to shorten, share and track links with bit.ly exactly as you do now.”
“Many of our partners are already using their bit.ly Pro short links with t.co, since all links shared via the Twitter Tweet Button have been wrapped in t.co since the button launched last month,” he adds. “Link-wrapping will happen automatically and invisibly in the background.”
Bit.ly says its been working closely with Twitter and other social media platforms to continue improvements across the web.
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237
It’s comforting that Twitter will be able to alert users to previous attacks from linked websites.
I am thinking bit.ly’s user numbers are going to drop quite a bit when this happens..
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Following the Open Via Twitter, Day 5
New York Times (blog) Gerry Marzorati, one-half of the Open House duo, is covering the United States Open via Twitter. Click on “Follow Gerry on Twitter” to … |
The number of social networking sites keeps growing: on Wednesday Apple released Ping, a site that shares musical likes among users. So far, reviews of the new website are mixed among college students. Some are unsure about adding a third network to their favorites, having already having claimed citizenship in the nations of Facebook and Twitter.
Ping works like a Twitter – Facebook hybrid but is different because it’s focused on artists and the fans that love them. Fans can ‘follow’ their favorite artists, learn what they’re playing and where they’re playing it. Fans can also ‘follow’ other friends on Ping, learn what music they like and even preview and buy songs through iTunes.
“Everyone’s trying to get ‘in’ with social networking. I’m not going to say I won’t use it, but I’m not going to drop Facebook or Twitter for it,” said Mack Wyatt, a freshman at Liberty University. “I think we’re good for now.”
At the University of Florida, junior Joe Savarese says he has started using Ping and thinks, “It’s laggy and slow. It’s hard to say what you like music wise.”
Even so, Savarese believes music lovers will be willing to make room for the new social network, especially because one Ping feature provides concert schedules for artists and also allows artists to show what they’re doing on the road.
Overall, he says Ping will find its niche audience. “It’s a cool idea that will probably launch, it’s just hard getting everyone on board. The good thing is to follow artists and it shows concerts and that’s cool. You get to see what the artists are doing and concerts near you.”
And for North Carolina State University senior Brentice Bush, news of Ping’s launch was music to his ears. “It looks pretty sweet,” he said. “I’m tempted to lean toward a music social network versus Twitter or Facebook. I used Myspace for music but not anything else. Ping would be ideal for me because I’m a musician and like music.”
Have you used Ping? Do you prefer it over other social networks, such as Twitter or Facebook?
In a blog post, Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams wrote about changes in the way people are reaching Twitter. He trumpeted the social network’s mobile apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. He noted that Twitter mobile users have jumped 62 percent since mid-April, and that 16 percent of new users start on mobile phones.
Nonetheless, in the last 30 days, 78 percent of unique users visited Twitter through its Web site, and 14 percent accessed the mobile version. No native or third-party apps came close.
Unfortunately, Twitter’s Website stinks. I’m all for simplicity, but Twitter.com is primitive to a fault. When someone replies to your Tweets, you aren’t notified. There’s no way to view as string of replies in a single chronological timeline, so you end up piecing together conversations in reverse, like you’re watching Memento. Photos are offloaded to separate Web sites like TwitPic, when they should really be embedded as pop-ups — same with video. And when you hover the mouse over someone’s name, it creates this obnoxious bubble that gets in the way of your timeline, despite a wealth of unused screen real estate on the left side of the screen.
These aren’t new complaints, but they get harder to ignore as Twitter pushes out its own shiny native apps for iPhone, Blackberry and iPad. My goodness, those apps are beautiful. They do all the things described above that Twitter.com doesn’t. At least someone at Twitter understands that the Web site isn’t good enough.
I’m one of those people who sticks with Twitter.com for regular use, despite its problems. I’ve tried third-party desktop apps, like TweetDeck, and while there’s nothing wrong with them, I’m just too lazy to fire up another program. The Web browser is my main piece of software, so it’s just easier to open a new tab for Twitter, which sits neatly next to my Gmail tab and doesn’t suck up considerable resources.
But the real problem for Twitter is not folks like me, who are going to use the service no matter what. Twitter really needs to be worried about people who try the social network, mostly likely through Twitter.com, and never come back. Certainly, some of those people just don’t like the service, but I’m willing to wager that some of them are repulsed by the Web site.
Shameless plug: If you’d like to suffer with me, I’m @OneJaredNewman .
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In light of this week’s Discovery Networks hostage standoff which ended with police killing the gunman, perhaps John Cusack might want to tone it down a bit.
The 44-year-old actor found himself in a war of words with Fox News after he issued a tart reply on his Twitter page to a fan’s question about whether he’s for or against the so-called Ground Zero mosque.
“I AM FOR A SATANIC DEATH CULT CENTER AT FOX NEWS HQ AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICES [OF] DICK ARMEY AND NEWT GINGRICH-and all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS,” Cusack wrote in a sarcastic all-caps tweet Sunday evening to his 200,000-plus followers.
That didn’t go over so well with the touchy right-wing network, which blasted the Say Anything star and self-described progressive, accusing him of “making threats.”
Fox News columnist Joe Piazza on Tuesday quoted Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist, who said that Cusack’s “provocative tweets could easily incite a rabid fan to commit violent acts against Fox News Headquarters and others he names.”
“Fans could not only be influenced because of their devotion to Cusack, the man, but also because of their love for one of the characters he plays,” she said.
It would also be nice to know what Dr. Lieberman thinks of Fox News months-long campaign of incitement against the proposed Islamic community center, but no comment was forthcoming on that topic.
For his part, Cusack remained unapologetic.
“Thanks for all the fact-challenged souls who don’t like opinions—you may not like me but never had one person debate the facts,” he tweeted later.
The thesp further vented his feelings on the mosque issue, writing in a follow up post that his previous Tweet was an “absurd over the top joke” made “after the 900th time I was asked about ground zero center-they can’t even print it.”
Cusack’s rep has yet to comment on the dust up.
The A-lister meanwhile just signed on to play Edgar Allen Poe in the fictional drama The Raven which, per the Hollywood Reporter, finds the famed writer trying to track down a serial killer who takes his poems, ahem, a bit too seriously.
Connect with the celebrity-Tweet zeitgeist in our Big On Twitter: Hot Trending Topics gallery.
Relax! Fitty is only stepping away for a few days
50 Cent will be taking a brief Twitter hiatus over the Labor Day Holiday. Fitty is keeping off the social network site for a few days in order to focus on writing his next album, the cheerily titled The Return of the Heartless Monster.
“Ok ladies and [gentlemen] I’m writing my new album,” Fitty Tweeted. “I will not be on twitter again till Sept 6. This album will be a classic.” Producer Swizz Beatz recently told MTV News that he has been in the studio with the rapper, who reportedly shelved much of the dance-music vibe he originally envisioned for his new album.
Will you miss Fitty while he is Twitter-free?
—Amy Sciarretto
