Twitter tweaks its site and mobile apps to make conversations easier

IDG News Service - Twitter is updating its site and mobile apps to make it easier for users to carry out conversations on the site and share them with others outside of Twitter.

The updates were announced Wednesday by the social network in a blog post and will start rolling out immediately to Twitter.com and the company's apps for the iPhone and Android-based devices.

The changes are intended to let users more easily follow along and join in on conversations that are typically carried out on Twitter using the "@ reply" function. To date, "such exchanges haven't always been easy to follow," Twitter product manager Jinen Kamdar said in a blog post.

With the update, tweets in a conversation will be connected with a vertical line and will be shown in chronological order. Up to three tweets in a sequence will appear in people's timelines; users will be able to click a link to see all the replies in the conversation, including from people the user does not follow.

The changes, Twitter explained, are aimed at making it easier for users to see conversations as they take place on the site.

The modifications are not groundbreaking, but they do constitute some changes to a feature on Twitter also offered by one of its biggest rivals -- Facebook. On that site, conversations already play out in chronological order, with some number of posts usually hidden, through Facebook's "comment" button.

Twitter declined to comment about the extent to which tools from rivals like Facebook may have influenced Twitter's decision to make the update.

Brian Blau, an industry analyst with Gartner, was more bullish on the update's significance. While Twitter did have some conversation management features before, Wednesday's changes "will reinforce Twitter's unique ability to reach a wide range of people in real time," he said.

Also, the update "will help them better compete with Facebook and other social sites who already have a full features conversation model that includes external embedding," he said.

For instance, another interesting feature included in Twitter's update is the ability to share conversations outside of Twitter.com. Under the changes, conversations on Twitter.com can be shared over email, whether or not the person's friends are on Twitter. On iPhone and Android users will be able to share individual tweets over email, and Android tweets can be shared via direct message as well, the company said.

It is curious that Twitter is providing a way for users to share their interactions outside of the site's walls. But by allowing people to share tweets via email with others who are not on Twitter, the site may be hoping to attract new users.

Facebook introduced embedded posts last month, to bring public posts from Facebook to the wider Web.

Some other new Twitter features were announced Wednesday related to safety. Now, people can report individual tweets for abuse or spam directly from Twitter for Android and Twitter.com, the site said. This feature, which is already available for the iPhone, will be rolling out gradually, Twitter said.

Twitter said it has also improved its site on Android for people who have entry-level smartphones with limited storage, such as the Samsung Galaxy Y, HTC Explorer and Micromax Bolt. For those devices, Twitter's app is now less than half its previous size, the company said, making it faster to download and easier to install.

"We'll continue to work on improvements targeted at entry-level Android smartphones so that Twitter is more accessible to people everywhere around the world," the site said.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Acronis True Image 2014 review: Still powerful and feature-rich, now easier to use

You might think Windows has you covered with its own imaging/system backup, but there's still a need for programs such as Acronis True Image. Windows' built-in utility is extremely limited and reacts badly to new hardware. True Image handles bare-metal restore and diverse hardware without hiccup. Owners of recent versions of True Image probably won't find anything particularly compelling about this latest rendition, as only the online service is really new, but the new interface is a breeze to use. It also takes Acronis Backup to the cloud for the first time.

Acronis True Image 2014's new backup pane is simplicity itself.

If there's one thing that stands out about the latest version of True Image 2014, it's how friendly it is. Gone are the poorly rendered dialogs and oddly phrased instructions. The interface is clean, efficient, and simple. You can perform a backup without answering a confusing stream of questions. All the options advanced users want—including password protection, sector-by-sector backup (the program defaults to backing up only occupied sectors),  pre- and post-run commands, splitting (or not) of files, and validation—are still present. They're simply hidden away in a very cleanly organized dialog.

True Image 2014 can perform file and image backups, one-off backups, multiple tracked backups, incremental, differential, scheduling, notifications, and more. There's really no imaging trick from the last fifteen years that the program doesn't have in its bag. In addition, if your laptop lacks a boot-time recovery option, True Image will provide it. The SecureZone and Try and Decide options are still available, and there's a full list of secure erase options. You can even convert Windows backups to Acronis's format, and vice-versa.

Acronis True Image 2014's friendly new interface and vibe are major improvements to the once obtuse GUI.

In keeping with modern times, there's an online backup option in Acronis's own Acronis Cloud. You get one year of 5GB (enough only for data, not system backups) for free with the program, but after a year, or for more storage, it'll cost $10 per year for 5GB, $30 a year for 50GB, $40 for 125GB, and $50 for 125GB. That's highly competitive pricing.

Every imaging or backup program should feature the ability to create disaster recovery boot media—ideally, both CD (for older systems), and USB flash drive. The ponderousness of TI's older boot media forced me to abandon previous versions of the program, as it wasn't good for older, memory-challenged PCs. R-Drive Image is better for those. True Image 2014's rescue disc still requires 512MB of system memory, and the new interface isn't implemented, making it less friendly that the Windows UI. However, Acronis provides the means for adding it to a Windows PE boot disc, though it's not as simple a process as it should be.

Though they aren't available until you ask, True Image's options are advanced and myriad.

If  If If If you're more than a version or two back on True Image, the 2014 version is well worth a look.you're new to backup products, simply know that it really doesn't get any better than Acronis True Image for the average user, though I recommend R-Drive Image for pros.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Juilliard, and now he power-mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

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Facebook's communal photo albums make it easier to share snapshots—or ignore them

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