Last night I was sitting at the Good Time Charley’s bar watching the Michigan State vs. Iowa University football game in Ann Arbor, Michigan. All of a sudden I notice that a large crowd started gathering outside of the bar. When I walked out I saw smoke and fire spewing from the top of a building about one block down from where everyone was standing. The roof, the roof, the roof was on fire of a building that used to be known as Pinball Pete’s.
While the firefighters were battling the heat, students were busy taking pictures and updating their Twitter accounts. A couple of people next to me sent out some TwitPics immediately. Shortly after the pictures were taken, a video was uploaded on YouTube [embedded above] and Flickr user moto1986 uploaded a stream of pictures from the event.
When I was standing there watching all of the students sending out tweets and updating Facebook statuses while the firefighters were battling the fire, I couldn’t help but think about how far technology has brought us. Just imagine if this event took place about 10 years ago. Our friends would rely on how well we could describe the fire rather than having the ability to see our pictures on Twitter and our videos on YouTube.
Some of the tweets that were sent out are displayed below [click the image to enlarge]:
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former presidential candidate John McCain uploaded a photo on TwitPic that caused some controversy. After uploading the TwitPic, many Internet trolls left very negative comments. Many of the comments used the word “slut” in it. I reposted the picture because I believe there is nothing wrong with it. I just see a picture of a girl that likes to read.
The picture has been deleted from her account in the last few minutes. Before it was deleted, the picture was seen at least about 160,000 times.
Meghan is wearing a low cut black tank top and is holding a book about Andy Warhol by Arthur C. Danto. Below are some of the tweets that McCain sent out after reading the reactions by Twitter users:
-so I took a fun picture not thinking anything about what I was wearing but apparently anything other than a pantsuit I am a slut, this is
- why I have been considering deleting my twitter account, what once was fun now just seems like a vessel for harassment
- I am going to take some more time to think about it but seriously I was just trying to be funny with the book and that I’m a dork staying in
- when I am alone in my apartment, I wear tank tops and sweat pants, I had no idea this makes me a “slut”, I can’t even tell you how hurt I am
- ok I am getting the f**k off twitter, promise not to delete my account until I sleep on it, thank you for the nice words supporters
- I do want to apologize to anyone that was offended by my twitpic, I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 those that are offended.
The Google U.K. headquarters building caught on fire earlier today. A few hours ago, Jon Swaine of The Telegraph sent a TwitPic to his followers of the building on fire too. The Google U.K. office is based on Buckingham Palace Rd.
The building was evacuated and no one was hurt. The fire is out now. The reason why the fire took place was because a tree caught on fire during a company BBQ.
TweetPhoto is a company that competes with TwitPic. The developers of TweetPhoto were waiting to get approved on the Apple App Store for about 4 weeks before they were rejected. The reason why they were rejected is quite bizarre. Apparently TweetPhoto’s logo has an icon that resembles a snapshot taken from those old school Polaroid cameras.
While I think this was a lame reason to get rejected, it does not surprise me. This story reminds me of when PocketGod was rejected for using an icon that resembled an iPhone.
“We’ve reviewed TweetPhoto and determined that we cannot post your application because it appears to include features that resemble Polaroid photographs. Polaroid has previously objected to other applications that include features that resemble Polaroid photographs, and believes that such features infringe its rights,” wrote Apple in a message to TweetPhoto.
TweetPhoto pointed out that an application called Polarize actually uses a Polaroid photo as their icon. Polarize even gives photos taken on the iPhone a “Polaroid look.”
Its possible that Polarize slipped through the cracks and TweetPhoto was reviewed by someone that is uptight. I believe Apple should reconsider rejecting TweetPhoto.
The Southeastern Conference college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama is not a fan of social media. As a matter of fact, the SEC is looking to have all of their athletes banned from using social media such as Twitter, Facebook, TwitPic, etc.
One of the reasons why the SEC possibly wants to have social media banned is because of a contract they have in place with CBS. The problem is that it is hard to make a conference-wide ban on social media because it is a part of our everyday lives.
On top of the Twitter links, the Big 10 encourages users to join their Facebook groups and watch some of the best Big 10 games on Hulu.
I agree with Bret Feddern of BleacherReport when he writes “The SEC should follow the lead of the Big Ten rather than basing its decision making on the fear of what it doesn’t understand.”
TwitPickr is a new service made for those who enjoy Twitter, TwitPic, and Flickr. Basically TwitPickr grabs the photos that you send to TwitPic and automatically uploads it to your Flickr account.
To start the service you enter your Twitter username into TwitPickr. It automatically grabs all the pics you sent to TwitPic. After that you click on upload for the images of your choice. Once you click upload, TwitPickr redirects you to your Yahoo! login page if you are already not logged in.
