The rumors are true: Twitter is turning into Facebook.
The pioneer of the 140-character text update is rolling out a new image-centric Web profile page for users that bears a striking similarity to those of a certain other social network.
The first thing you'll notice is a huge new header image that extends across the top of your profile page, along with a missing background image. You can change your theme color by selecting “Edit profile,” but the background will remain uniformly gray.
Less obvious at first glance are a few new features—best tweets, pinned tweets and filtered tweets. Tweets that have more retweets, favorites or replies will appear slightly larger in your timeline. You can show off your favorite tweet by "pinning" it to the top of your page where it won't get lost among your stream. Filtered tweets let you choose how to view other people's tweets, photos, or @-replies.
Viewing photos, tweets or followers no longer shows you just lists, but rather large Twitter cards that emphasize visual elements such as a profile photo or embedded album—similar to a Facebook post.
An Over Simplification
The changes are a big bow by Twitter to the Visual Web, the trend toward more picture-focused websites, apps and social networks. Twitter's roots, of course, extend deep into the pre-Visual Web; its iconic short text messages gave rise to a unique social culture that evolved shorthand features such as hashtags and retweets—features that can be off-putting to new users.
See also: The Triumph Of The Visual Web
In a blog post today, Twitter described the new timelines as “an easier way to express yourself.” Easier being the keyword.
The company has struggled to appeal to new people and keep the users it has, largely because Twitter itself is complicated. Most people are accustomed to Facebook and comfortable in that environment, so Twitter is taking a page from Facebook, literally, in an effort to attract, and retain, more users.
Twitter has also reportedly toyed with the idea of eliminating hashtags and @-replies, two major (and beloved) features of the social network that new users have a hard time understanding. It recently introduced tweet albums and photo tagging features that made timelines a lot more Facebook-like, and the new profile pages is just more evidence of the “Facebookification” of the social network.
For now, the change only affects user profiles, not your timeline; you'll still see real-time updates from people you follow. But it's likely we'll begin to see more changes that emphasize simplicity creep into our timelines and profiles. Twitter wall, anyone?
The new profiles are available to a small number of users today, and rolling out to everyone in the coming weeks.
Lead image courtesy of Twitter
-- For more information read the original article here.When it comes to ubiquitous technologies, few can beat Bluetooth. The wireless protocol has sunk its teeth into practically every modern consumer gadget there is. You name it, it's in there—from phones and fitness tech to TVs, connected home appliances, cars, and so much more.
But Bluetooth has bigger plans. In a few short months, it will upend the status quo by doing something it's never done before: bypassing the smartphone, its constant companion, and going online directly.
And when that happens, it could change the way tech makers approach numerous categories, from wearables and health devices to smart homes.
Bluetooth's Plan To Nix The Pairing Blues
Typically, it works like this: You pair an accessory to a main computing device—say, a smartphone, tablet or laptop—and the primary unit receives data from the smart home sensor, smartwatch, fitness band, weight scale, heart rate monitor, or other gadget. From there, an app decides if the device merely acts as a receptacle for the information, or sends it to an online account.
All that's set to change soon, thanks to Bluetooth's latest Version 4.1, dubbed “Bluetooth Smart.”
Launched last year, that version got a lot of press for its Bluetooth Low Energy profile, says Suke Jawanda, chief marketing officer for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. It made sense at the time. Old versions of Bluetooth had a bad reputation for fussy, glitch-prone pairing protocols and battery drain. But BLE enabled peer-to-peer wireless connectivity without a major hit on battery life.
I caught up with Jawanda at the Bluetooth World developer conference in San Jose, Calif., and he emphasized to me that there was more to Version 4.1 than just a low energy profile. “The coolest thing is, it allows for IPV6 connectivity down to wearables" and other Bluetooth devices, he told me.
IPV6, or Internet Protocol Version 6, essentially allows technologies to identify and locate computers on networks, as well as route Internet traffic. This means many Bluetooth Smart devices, accessories and sensors can identify themselves and communicate over the Internet—to any Web services developers want. And they can do that directly, without having to rely on a smartphone as an intermediary.
“These,” he said, pointing my smartwatch, “talk to the phone, and that app talks to the cloud. That works well right now. But what if I don't want to speak to the device right now, but to the cloud directly?” Jawanda brings up another example—the glucose monitor used by diabetics. “My mother pricks her finger, then she has to sync it to her phone,” he said. But if the glucose data goes right to the cloud, then it's immediately available to her doctor who can watch for signs of trouble.
The implications of this approach for health, as well as other things like fitness tech and home automation—anything that relies on remote monitoring and management—could be profound. If Bluetooth's IPV6 support works the way Jawanda describes, it could effectively make numerous complicated, esoteric technologies extremely simple to use -- For more information read the original article here.