By Paul Thomson :: 10:22 AM
The web interface to Twitter is down for some users this morning, and other users are reporting issues with retweets and broken links across the service.
Problems started around 10:00 AM with Twitter’s website, which either displays the typical “fail whale” screen, or a message that reads, “Twitter is currently down for maintenance. We expect it to be back shortly.”
Twitter’s status blog was updated with the following: “Some users may be experiencing an issue with our service. Our engineers are currently working on this issue.”
No further details or expected time of resolution have been given.
By Gilbert Falso :: 10:42 PM
Brown University will launch a campaign tomorrow to help find missing student Sunil Tripathi.
The campaign, entitled “Lend a Hand,” was intended to inspire a way to find Tripathi, or to encourage his return to the Providence, Rhode Island Campus.
Tripathi, 22, has been missing from the campus since the middle of March. Originally from Radnor, Pennsylvania, Tripathi is the son of an Indian father and an American mother.
Last week, he was falsely identified on social media and sites like Reddit as one of the Boston Marathon bombers. His name was eventually cleared in connection with the attacks, but not before Internet vigilantes and real law enforcement officials alike descended on his family and friends.
Tripathi disappeared from his apartment in Providence on March 16, and left both his wallet and his cellphone behind. No one has heard from him since his disappearance.
The family posted the following message to a Facebook page set up to help locate the missing student:
A tremendous and painful amount of attention has been cast on our beloved Sunil Tripathi in the past twelve hours. We have known unequivocally all along that neither individual suspected as responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings was Sunil. We are grateful to all of you who have followed us on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit—supporting us over the recent hours. Now more than ever our greatest strength comes from your enduring support. We thank all of you who have reached out to our family and ask that you continue to raise awareness and to help us find our gentle, loving, and thoughtful Sunil.
Beginning tomorrow on the Brown campus, members of the university’s community will be asked to “Lend your Hand” on the College Green. The university is inviting all attendees to write messages for Tripathi on their hands. Photos of the messages will be taken, posted to Facebook, and shared via multiple social media outlets to support the search for Tripathi and inspire his return.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 10:16 PM
Two Twitter accounts belonging to the international Football (Soccer) association, FIFA, were hacked earlier today.
A series of Tweets were posted to the compromised accounts that alleged of corruption within the organization and in its leadership ranks.
FIFA’s president, Ă‚Â Sepp Blatter, was directly accused of corrupt activities in the Tweets. “It was decided that the president Sepp Blatter is to step down due to corruption charges,” said one of the hacked messages.
Although the agency was ultimately able to regain control of the accounts with help of Twitter, it was not before a number of Tweets were posted from both FIFA’s official account as well as Blatter’s personal account.
The hacking was the work of the Syrian Electronic Army – a loosely organized group of hackers who are sympathetic to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The same group also claimed to have hacked the Twitter accounts of the BBC’s Arabic service, broadcaster Al-Jazeera, and several Twitter accounts owned by CBS, including the account for 60 Minutes. Members of the group posted several messages around the Internet claiming responsibility for the hacks.
By Paul Thomson :: 9:04 PM
Search giant Google and 3D gesture control device maker Leap Motion have partnered on the latest version of Google Earth to allow the virtual reality Earth map to be navigated with Leap’s motion controller.
The Leap Motion device allows Google Earth users to pass their hands over the 3D reader to fly over the Earth, as displayed by the Google Earth product. User hand movements allow for zooming in, zooming out, and simulate flying across the globe.
While the newest version of Google Earth is available now for download, the Leap Motion 3D controller won’t be widely available until May.
A demonstration video of the two technologies in action is below.
By Leslie Spellman :: 9:04 AM
Apple and Volkswagen will jointly introduce a special model of Volkswagen’s Beetle this week at the Auto China 2013 show in Shanghai.
The customized bug will will be a special-edition model outfitted with a custom iPhone dock, new color schemes, unique wheels, and a downloadable Volkswagen application for Apple’s iOS.
Apple and the car maker have situated the dock front and center on the Beetle’s dashboard. The driver’s iPhone can be used to navigate, place calls hands-free, listen and manage music, and will integrate with the car’s electronic systems via the specialized application.
Functionality offered by the app includes using the car’s interface to control iPhone functions. This includes using Spotify for streaming music, the ability to read out Facebook updates and the content of incoming texts, and a feature called “Postcard” that allows drivers to send their current location, includingĂ‚Â a map graphic, to their friends.
In addition to entertainment and social networking capabilities, the app also supports driving functions, such as a feature that lets drivers review and compare different trip routes, with the app storing real-time information as each route is driven, to discover which is fastest.
Although the new iBeetle is being introduced in China, it is expected that the vehicle will be available in U.S. markets in 2014.