Twitter Cuts Off ‘Find Friends’ Access to Tumblr

Tumblr was forced to remove Twitter as a source of finding friends for its users on Wednesday.

The news, first reported by The Next Web, comes after the microblogging service debuted stricter API rules that negatively impact third-party app developers. Both Tumblr and Twitter later confirmed the removal.

Now, Tumblr users are left with Facebook and Gmail to find friends when signing up for the service.

The blogging platform, which has always been tightly integrated with Twitter, expressed its disappointment over the turn of events in a statement.

“To our dismay, Twitter has restricted our users’ ability to ‘Find Twitter Friends’ on Tumblr. Given our history of embracing their platform, this is especially upsetting. Our syndication feature is responsible for hundreds of millions of tweets, and we eagerly enabled Twitter Cards across 70 million blogs and 30 billion posts as one of Twitter’s first partners. While we’re delighted by the response to our integrations with Facebook and Gmail, we are truly disappointed by Twitter’s decision,” Tumblr told The Next Web.

Last month, the same fate befell Instagram, whose “Find Twitter Friends” feature was disabled. At the time, a Twitter spokeswoman gave a rather cryptic message about the decision: “We understand that there’s great value associated with Twitter’s follow graph data, and we can confirm that it is no longer available within Instagram.”

When contacted by The Next Web for comment, Twitter pointed to its original statement, without providing any further information.

Pinterest Android and iPad app launches

The virtual pinboard site has been ringing in the changes recently, much to the delight of its users, and this move will further add to the sites popularity with the greatly requested Andriod app.

Android users will be thrilled by this news after being ‘very vocal with their requests for an app’. Pinterest have ensured a job well done by designing the app to be fully functional on both Android tablets and phones, allowing users to spend more of their time productively on the site. This news will be similarly welcomed by Kindle Fire owners who can download the app from the Amazon Appstore later this week.

As well as addressing the need for an Andriod app, Pinterest have simultaneously released their iPad app, which they believe may be ‘the best Pinterest experience yet’. This is because the app makes it even more effortless to discover and pin new material. Furthermore, it has always been part of the vision of Pinterest as the sites co-founder, Evan Sharp, has recalled witnessing Steve Jobs demo of the iPad and realising that “Pinterest would be used [like that] sometime in the future”. According to the Pinterest blogpost, the app will also offers new ways to engage with pins through the ‘embedded browser’ and swipe screen feature, which returns the user to the main screen. Whilst the iPad app has just been created, Pinterest have updated their existing iPhone app to allow users to see more pins in a more efficient 2 column layout.

Part of the aim behind these apps is to allow users to go out and do the things they love, inspiring them to later contribute to the site. By having it in the form of an app, users will be able to utilise the site when and wherever they feel. It is expected this will increase usage of the site and possibly even see a growth in the number of users. This may increase even further with hints that Pinterest will be working on an app for Windows mobile platforms.

Becoming a force in the mobile market may have another consequence in leading to further brand engagement. With already51% of the top 100 global brands on their site, this is destined to rise. The brands must follow where the users go to maintain their status and Pinterest is often the perfect platform to showcase them. The creation of new categories will also suit these brands as it becomes even more crucial to their social media marketing work.

Overall, these new developments at Pinterest represent clear steps they have taken to address the needs and requests of their users. Maintaining a clear line of communication and stressing how invaluable the Pinterest community of users is, has really endeared people to the site. It must also be noted that Pinterest has risen to these impressive heights by working with existing social networks, not shunning them. A lot could be learnt from the examples Pinterest are setting.

Microsoft Surface Will Sell for $199 in October

A few weeks ago, a retailer posted some pre-order prices for Microsoft’s Surface tablet that were nothing less than astronomical. But it didn’t take long for the truth to come out: These guesses didn’t reflect any actual knowledge of what the tablets would actually cost.
Microsoft has yet to provide the official word on prices, but there’s a new rumor that seems to be the opposite of last month’s, painting the picture of a very budget-priced Surface.
Supposedly, the source behind this new info comes from a closed-door session Microsoft held at its TechReady15 conference late last month. There, the company reportedly discussed the details of the Surface launch, including that it would arrive on Oct. 26 for just $199.
This is the Windows RT version we’re talking about, presumably the 32GB model. Microsoft had already stated that the RT Surface would be priced competitively with other tablets. But we weren’t expecting something quite this low — maybe in line with iPad prices, instead.
If this news is true, Surface could end up making a huge splash when it arrives, maybe even attracting away a few Android tablet fans who are interested in checking out a tablet that supposedly works so seamlessly with their desktop PCs, especially once everyone starts moving to Windows 8.
A price this low is just a bit hard to believe, but maybe Microsoft really is willing to take a hit on Surface hardware revenue in order to build up its user base, especially in the mobile sphere, where it’s been playing catch-up.