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Twitter an Awkward Child As It Turns 10

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Twitter an Awkward Child As It Turns 10 SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2016 t e c h n o l o g y Broomstick flying or red-light ping-pong? Gadgets at German fair HANOVER: Virtual reality and 3D of virtual reality glasses and earphones Bob that helps its user save money. replaced crosswalk signal buttons with Not satisfied with the final product? printing are among top technologies offered by LocomotionVR. The German Linked to a smartphone, the belt tight- touchscreens that offer a modern ver- The bioplastic material is easily recy- showcased by thousands of IT compa- company offers encounters with “drag- ens itself when the user spends money sion of the videogame hit “Pong”. The clable. nies attending this year’s technology ons, unicorns and magic owls” through using his or her mobile phone. To opponent: the pedestrian on the other show CeBIT in the northern German its virtual reality technology. Users can avoid leaving spendthrifts out of side of the road. AIR QUALITY ARBITRATOR city of Hanover. Here are some eye- imagine scenarios that “do not exist, breath, Bob stretches back to its origi- Too hot? Too humid? Too dusty? catching gadgets from the annual fair: which are yet to exist or no longer nal breadth after delivering its mes- PRINT YOUR OWN TOYS Airboxlab created Foobot-a gadget it exist,” it said. sage. Can’t find new toys to keep your described as a “good-air guru”-to help QUIDDITCH ON A BROOMSTICK child entertained? How about letting the user determine the finer details of Harry Potter fans dying to get a BELT-TIGHTENING, LITERALLY RED-LIGHT PING-PONG little ones have fun creating one them- air quality-from CO2 levels to optimal taste of what playing quidditch on a A group of students from the For pedestrians who get fidgety selves? TinkerToys offers software temperatures. The device sends the flying broomstick feels like can climb University of Applied Sciences at while waiting for the green light, allowing a child to make his or her toy, measurements directly to a smart- on a plastic lookalike and put on a pair Osnabrueck have created a belt called German company Urban Invention has before printing it out with a 3D printer. phone. —AFP Twitter an awkward child as it turns 10 SAN FRANCISCO: As Twitter marks paign and Tesla founder Elon Musk Summer Olympics this year may has become so cluttered with infor- its 10th birthday tomorrow, it is has been shaking up the auto sector prove pivotal to the success of this mation that it becomes hard to navi- somewhat of an awkward child-hav- with the help of the messaging plat- strategy,” said eMarketer’s Martin gate. ing become a powerful communica- form. Twitter and other social media Utreras. “Twitter is still incredibly relevant tion tool but still struggling to win have been important tools in move- when it comes to major cultural users and reach profitability. ments such as the Arab Spring, and CHANGE BRINGS RISK events, major news events, the kinds Since making a star-quality in protests in Turkey, where the gov- Twitter bears the weight of being of things people are discussing entrance a decade ago, Twitter has ernment has sought to ban it. measured against Internet titans around the world,” said Debra Aho become a must-have tool for journal- An advantage of Twitter is that it such as Facebook, which is only a few Williamson of eMarketer. ists, activists and celebrities but has lets users “amplify” messages with years older but has eclipsed the bil- “But anyone who follows just a struggled to show it can expand tweets that echo on the Internet, and lion-user mark. couple of hundred people can easily beyond its devoted “twitterati” to assess public sentiment in real-time Flight VC partner Lou Kerner, be overwhelmed by the amount of become a mainstream hit. by getting quick feedback. whose investor group watches information. It becomes work rather While Internet lovers might have Trump has boosted the number emerging companies, said Twitter than fun.” Dorsey currently is manag- trouble envisioning life without of his followers to nearly seven mil- has done “an amazing job” creating a ing two firms, Twitter and mobile BEIJING: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, listens as Jack Ma, executive Twitter, the San Francisco-based lion, and has managed to beat rivals new communication medium but payments startup Square-both multi- chairman of the Alibaba Group, speaks during a panel discussion held as company has seen its stock tank, a part of the China Development Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in chief executive leave, and its staff cut. Beijing, yesterday. —AP Twitter’s woes include a slump in its stock price to all-time lows this year-down nearly half from its 2013 Zuckerberg meets propaganda stock market debut-and ongoing losses, even as its revenue grows. czar in China charm drive Twitter’s base of monthly active users remained stuck at 320 million BEIJING: Facebook’s co-founder and CEO against “Western anti-China forces”. at the end of 2015. While that is a big Mark Zuckerberg met China’s propaganda China, the world’s second largest econ- accomplishment, Twitter has failed to tsar Liu Yunshan in Beijing yesterday as omy, has the biggest Internet population, keep pace with fast-growing rivals part of a charm offensive in one of the few numbering almost 700 million people. and to expand beyond its base. markets where the social network cannot On Friday, Zuckerberg posted an The troubles have forced Twitter be accessed. image of himself running through smog to bring back co-founder Jack Dorsey as chief executive, but that has not The rare meeting, reported by China’s in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, past the stemmed rumors about a possible state news agency Xinhua, suggests portrait of the late Chairman Mao Zedong buyout or merger. “It’s not dead yet,” warming relations between Facebook and hanging over the Forbidden City. independent analyst Rob Enderle of the Chinese government, even as Beijing The 31-year-old has achieved celebrity the Enderle Group said of Twitter. steps up censorship of and control over status in China, one of the few markets “Watching all the metrics, you see the Internet. where Facebook and other foreign they are not getting a lot worse but Liu, who sits on the Communist Party’s Internet platforms, including Alphabet they don’t seem to be getting better Politburo Standing Committee which is Inc’s Google services and Twitter Inc, are either.” Some analysts believe the apex of power in China, praised not available due to tight government Twitter’s true value is being demon- Facebook’s technology and management controls. strated in the US presidential race, with a campaign largely based appears to have leveled off instead of billion dollar companies struggling to methods, Xinhua said. He has long sought to improve his especially by the Republican fron- around Twitter. becoming ubiquitous. achieve profitability. Zuckerberg was in Beijing for the China company’s relationship with the Chinese trunner, Donald Trump. “I am pretty sure most of his fol- “Like any other company, Twitter Dorsey said Twitter priorities for Development Forum, a government- authorities, and now sits on the advisory “Eight weeks ago I would have lowers are not on Twitter, but they is judged on growth,” Kerner said. this year include making it more intu- sponsored conference bringing together board of the School of Economics and said the days of Twitter are over; I know what he is saying on Twitter,” “They have stagnated.” Even more itive to use; live-streaming video, and top business executives and the country’s Management at China’s elite Tsinghua don’t say that anymore,” Global analyst Omar Akhtar of the technolo- troubling, Kerner noted, is that making it safer for people to freely ruling elite. University. Equities Research analyst Trip gy research firm Altimeter Group, engagement at Twitter has been express themselves on the platform. China “hopes (Facebook) can strength- Zuckerberg began his remarks to the Chowdhry told AFP. said of Trump. “The Twitter effect can- ebbing in an indication that “people Twitter recently revamped its en exchanges, share experiences and forum in Mandarin, speaking about the not be ignored. Twitter has a life have tired of it.” While Facebook has timeline, allowing the “best” tweets improve mutual understanding with promise of artificial intelligence, particu- TWITTER HAS ‘LEGS’ beyond its platform, the trouble is it evolved with new features, Twitter to rise to the top, despite warnings of China’s Internet companies”, Xinhua quot- larly devices such as self-driving cars and The analyst said Trump has shown doesn’t know how to monetize that has changed little since it began, a revolt from members loyal to the how potent Twitter can be for those part.” The research firm eMarketer according to Kerner. real-time flow of the messaging plat- ed Liu as telling Zuckerberg. medical diagnostics. who embrace it. lowered its revenue estimates for “In order to reignite engagement, form. “If you look at the 10 years as a He sidestepped sensitive issues, talking Earlier this year, Beijing introduced “I think that probably the worst Twitter this month, saying its “mone- they would have to make profound whole, you will see that Twitter really new rules on online publication, which instead about technology and his family. for Twitter is over,” Chowdhry said. tization” efforts-the selling of adver- changes to what they do,” he said. has revolutionized the way we com- analysts say may place further curbs on “The one thing I am extremely opti- “This platform has legs.” tising or “promoted tweets” for those “The problem is, you can’t make a municate,” Akhtar said.
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