New mobile updates for Android, iPhone and mobile web

  www.blog.twitter.com

We just released a new version of Twitter for Android. Its new design reflects a native Android experience: wider and taller timelines that fill the screen, a flat navigation bar, tap and hold for quick actions, and more. You can now quickly navigate between tabs by swiping across your screen. And as you type your Tweet or search, you’ll see username and hashtag suggestions, making it easier to connect with friends and join conversations.

In addition to the Android app, we’ve also updated Twitter for iPhone and mobile.twitter.com. All three mobile apps, plus twitter.com, now show more types of content in expanded Tweets: photo galleries, apps and product listings.

You’ll also see a new link right below content that is shared from another mobile app, such as Foursquare or Path.

The link lets you open or download the app right from the Tweet, depending on whether or not you have it installed. As an example, if you expand a Tweet to view a photo from Flickr, you can tap the link to open the photo in Flickr. If you don’t yet have the Flickr app on your phone, you can tap to install it from the Tweet.

These updates, which are rolling out to users over the next several days, are part of our ongoing effort to make it easier for you to connect with interesting and relevant content on Twitter. If you’re interested in the under-the-hood details, there are more on our Developer blog.

Mobile phone

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station.
In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.
The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 1 kg.^[1] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. In the twenty years from 1990 to 2010, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.^[2][3][4][5]

Nokia Lumia 800 How can saves on 3G downloads compared to iOS and Android

Every day we’re finding more reasons why we love our Nokia Windows Phone and we’ve just found a new one, as the great Windows Phone 7.5 OS has managed to automatically help us to save money on our monthly phone bill. Join us as we show you what we’ve found on our Nokia Lumia 800.

When it comes to using our smartphones, we always try to be as careful as possible not to exceed our minutes, texts and data usage each month, but with so much to say and do with our Nokia phones, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. Well now our Nokia Lumia 800 has stepped in to help us out.

While we were sitting on the train home from yesterday, we thought we’d catch up on downloading the latest apps and songs we’ve been meaning to try out on our Nokia Windows Phone. So we quickly activated 3G on our handset, got connected and got down to business at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

As usual it hadn’t crossed our minds that downloading so much content might push us over our monthly limit (hey, we’re stupid like that), so we were busily downloading when Windows Phone 7.5 decided to save us from ourselves and stepped in with a great little feature that we hadn’t spotted until now.

Any time you try and download a large file over 3G on your Nokia Windows Phone, the Windows Phone 7.5 OS automatically steps in and puts the largest files in a queue to be downloaded when you’re in range of a Wi-Fi connection, saving you money and letting you download the file faster.

Of course you might be more sensible about your downloads then we seem to manage, but for us this great feature on our Lumia 800 is our new best friend and we can’t wait to see how much money we’ll have saved on our monthly bill (which we’ll no doubt then somehow manage to go and spend on something else).

Facebook Allows Users to Upgrade to the New Messages Product, Why You Should

Some users are seeing a prompt when they visit their Facebook Messages inbox allowing them to upgrade to the New Messages product launched in closed beta in November. The product automatically filters non-essential communications into an Other folder, allowing the main inbox to show only important messages. It also routes sent messages to whichever device or interface Facebook deems is the most convenient for the recipient, whether that’s Chat, Messages, SMS, or email. While initially only available to press and an early tester-base, it appears all users will soon be able to upgrade to New Messages.

At the product’s launch event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that New Messages was built to facilitate modern communication which is simple, immediate, lightweight, and personal like SMS and instant messaging, opposed to more formal, asynchronous email. Though users get an @facebook.com email address, Facebook doesn’t expect users to shift things like payment receipts and newsletters there. Instead, the product reduces noise, eases cross-interface conversation, and creates a more comprehensive record of the communication users already perform. Users who don’t see the prompt to upgrade on their inbox can visit the New Messages about page to request an invitation. We expect a full rollout to occur in the next month or so, similar to how the profile redesign is now being pushed to all users.

The best part about New Messages is how it brings Chat into threaded, searchable conversation history. If someone sends you Message, but you’re online, you’ll see it as a Chat. If you send them back a Chat and they’ve already logged off, it will be routed to their New Messages inbox, and shown in the same thread as your previous Chat. This means you don’t have to worry about conversations breaking down because one person changed the interface through which they were communicating. Or if you accidentally close your last Facebook web interface window or head out the door, you’ll still be able to access those Chats from your phone in the form of Messages.

This system is similar to the interplay of Gchat and Gmail, and its adoption could pull users away from Google who use that company’s product for their reliability of delivery. The New Messages product also separates conversations by people rather than by interface, between which the lines are blurring as users increasingly use Chat, email, and Facebook Messages from their mobile device as well as the web. Other useful features of New Messages include forwarding and attachment support, and a one-click “Mark as Read/Unread” option.

The main problem with New Messages at present is the filtering of conversations. Event, Page, and Group updates are usually filtered properly into the Other inbox, leaving a high-signal, low-noise main inbox of one-to-one messages. However, Messages, including time-sensitive businesses communications, from people who aren’t your friend and don’t have mutual friends are filtered into the Other inbox as well. Without the red notification counter on your home page or gray counters on your Messages sidebar navigation link, it’s easy to forget that important Messages may be being filtered out.

For instance, I didn’t check my Other inbox for a few weeks and had multiple Messages from people who wanted to show me their soon-to-launch products. When Facebook sought to inform users of the five-day window to give feedback on proposed changes to its privacy terms via the Facebook Site Governance Page, that Message was also filtered out. Some users prefer to Message someone they’ve met before adding them as a friend, but these personal, social, one-to-one Messages might not reach their recipients until much later. Users can move a conversation between inboxes once it has started, but Facebook could address part of the problem by allowing users to opt to have the first Message from someone they aren’t connected to routed to their main inbox.

Overall, Messages will help most Facebook users. It anticipates the shift to using multiple devices and interfaces to conduct a single conversation. It also declutters the inbox by removing spammy and low-value Page and Event updates. Professionals who are frequently contacted by those they aren’t connected to will need to pay attention to their Other inbox. But for most, we advise upgrading or requesting an invitation to New Messages because it improves one of the core uses of Facebook — instant communication with friends.