Tweets

FTC places new rules on celebrity tweeters

The Federal Trade Commission has updated its consumer protection rules for online activities, and has specifically taken aim at celebrity tweeters.

The agency released the rules yesterday (PDF), and outlined how celebrities who want to promote a product on Twitter should do so. To illustrate its point, the FTC used a fictional celebrity it called Juli Starz. The original tweet shows her endorsing a "Fat-away" pill that helped her lose 30 pounds in six weeks. That tweet was accompanied by a URL to the product's site.

According to the FTC, that kind of endorsement is now illegal. … Read more

SimCity: The new game you can't play

CNET Update builds cities on rock and roll:

Friday's tech news roundup explains it all:

- BlackBerry Z10 could hit AT&T stores on March 22

- SimCity's launch is a complete disaster

- Nook Free Fridays now include free apps

- Trulia helps you home hunt with new suggestions

- Try these alternatives to TweetDeck, before the app stops working

Watch CNET Update in the video above, and subscribe to the podcast via the links below.

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Lost without TweetDeck? Try these alternatives

The folks at Twitter announced Monday that the standalone TweetDeck apps for mobile will no longer be supported after May of this year. While Twitter says that it is putting more resources toward the Web version (which can easily be used on the desktop), there are surely plenty of people who are upset that their beloved mobile clients are going away.

For those of you looking for an alternative to TweetDeck, here are a few mobile apps that should prove adequate for your tweeting purposes.

TweetDeck alternatives for iOS

Tweetbot ($2.99) is an extremely popular Twitter client for good … Read more

Apple marketing chief jabs Android security on Twitter

Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller has been a semi-regular Twitter user since 2008, though mostly tweets about things like music, movies and sports.

But that changed earlier today with a post linking to F-Secure Labs' latest quarterly Mobile Threat report, with a casual mention to "be safe out there."

The 29-page report's (PDF) key finding is that malware on Google's Android is getting worse, in part because of the platform's brisk growth and a new variant of malware that spread using SMS.

"Android malware has been strengthening its position in the mobile threat scene,&… Read more

Galaxy S4 could have eye-scrolling tech

CNET Update has eye-scrolling superpowers:

Samsung Galaxy S4 reports continue to roll in before the smartphone's big reveal on March 14. The latest report: being able to scroll down just by looking at the bottom of the screen. The New York Times suggests it could be related to Samsung's patent on Eye Scroll and Eye Pause. But this technology isn't far fetched. The Galaxy S3 camera already tracks eye movement to prevent a screen from dimming while users are watching a movie or reading. And at CES, TheEyeTribe demonstrated how easy and affordable it was to install … Read more

Twitter kills Android, iPhone and AIR desktop apps for TweetDeck

Twitter is shutting down the TweetDeck apps for Android and iPhone, as well as axing the Adobe AIR desktop version, the company announced today through the TweetDeck blog.

This means TweekDeck is taking the apps out of app stores in May and, shortly afterward, the apps will stop functioning altogether.

"Over the past few years, we've seen a steady trend toward people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices," according to the blog post. "This trend coincides with an increased investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android -- adding photo … Read more

How the Copyright Alert System works

It's legal to share CNET Update:

If you use a peer-to-peer network like BitTorrent, then pay attention to today's Update video. I offer a quick explanation of what Internet service providers will be doing to discourage customers from sharing copyright-protected music, movies and television shows.

Also in Tuesday's tech roundup:

- Apps and websites are now letting users sign in with a Google+ account, as well as share activity with circles.

- Get ready to be annoyed by hundreds of new Internet domain extensions, like .cadillac, .vegas and .app.

- The Guardian reports that all games on … Read more

Great expectations for next PlayStation

Watching Friday's CNET Update can earn you a trophy:

It's likely that Sony will show off a new PlayStation at its event on Feb. 20, and CNET's Jeff Bakalar takes a look at what to expect -- and what the PS4 needs. There is also a report of a new PS4 controller, with images obtained by Destructoid.

Also in today's tech news roundup:

- Skype has a new feature that lets users leave a video message for a friend when they are offline or on another call.

- Facebook is filtering Graph Search results when it … Read more

Twitter to enable searches for tweets older than a week

Twitter said today that it has begun slowly rolling out the ability to search for tweets older than a week.

In a blog post, the social-networking giant said it plans to enable users to find more than just the most recent tweets.

The announcement is the second this week aimed at letting users surface more content on Twitter. Yesterday, the company rolled out updates to its iOS and Android apps, as well as to mobile.twitter.com, designed to streamline the discovery process on Twitter.

As we roll this out over the coming days, the Tweets that you'll see … Read more