Tech Week in Review 2-5-2010

Twitter.com Gets Hovercards (finally)

Twitter seems to be getting serious about making the Twitter.com interface more useful to users. Following the complete redesign they did a while back, addition of lists, and new retweet feature, they have now added Hovercards. If you’ve used FriendFeed, Seesmic desktop, Hootsuite, and just about any Twitter client or social media application besides Twitter.com, you may recognize these. When you hover someone’s name, you’ll get a popup that shows you a snippet of a person’s bio along with actions you can take (follow/unfollow, etc). I’m definitely impressed by this feature as it’s now possible to act on users on-the-fly, fly without actually visiting their profile. You can also figure out a little about the people retweeting stuff in your feed. This feature is not available to everyone yet, but you should have it soon. (via TheNextWeb)

Reason #4132 For Changing Your Twitter Password

It seems that Twitter was the victim of a somewhat complicated password scam. What happened is that the Twitter folks noticed a few accounts suddenly getting a lot of new followers. To be on the safe side, they decided to push out a password reset to the users following these suspicious accounts. Check out the Twitter Status blog for details on what actually happened. Basically, poor password practices are the source of the matter.

The takeaway from this is that people are continuing to use the same email address and password (or a variant) on multiple sites.

We strongly suggest that you use different passwords for each service you sign up for.

Sorry Apple – Nexus gets Multi-Touch

Google’s latest Nexus One software update adds Pinch-to-zoom functionality (multi-touch), which is serious business when it comes to touch-screen interfaces. It’s a simple OTA (over the air) software update that went out starting on the 2nd. If you haven’t yet received the update, Intomobile shows you how to snag it manually. Other features in this update include:

Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web
Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:

• Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com – access your favorite places from your phone or computer
• Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history – makes it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before
• Night mode in Google Maps Navigation – automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving

Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications

3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones

Twitter for Black Folks

The Root has put together a list of their favorite black Tweeters. Great for those of us just getting into the Twitter game, or if you’re just looking interesting people of color to talk to. The list not only includes celebs like @HillHarper, @RevRunWisdom, and @BillCosby, but you’ll also find people like @iluvblackwomen, @baratunde, and @blogdiva. Subscribe to the list on Twitter or follow it on the website.

As The Root has documented, the black community—while less represented in tech-heavy professions—is nonetheless a powerful force on Twitter: Topics relating to black American culture continually top the regularly updated list of most popular Twitter commentary. Exact figures for Twitter use among blacks have yet to surface, but The Root has picked its favorite black commentators in the Twitter game. Any of them would make a fine addition to the beginning Tweeter’s catalogue.