We’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software. We are working with the developers to make sure they’re using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps.

Yahoo just took the lid off its new audioless livestreaming app, Livetext. The idea is similar to what Skype would be if your Skype was muted and you can see chat texts overlaid atop the video stream.
During Yahoo’s announcement, many of us in the TNW virtual newsroom were skeptical. With Periscope, Meerkat, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Vine and Skype already crowding the market, it seemed odd that Yahoo decided to create yet another an app for the internet generation who are used to the noiseless world of GIFs.
Really, go ask the next teen you find and see if they know what Yahoo is.
I get the idea of Livetext. There are many times where having calls just isn’t convenient, or people just don’t feel like speaking out loud. It’s why apps like Seamless and the basic premise of texting work so well.
But if Livetext is meant for you to be natural, uninterrupted and covert with your video livestreams, pray tell who would want to watch me text my friends from virtually the worst angle ever.

“People understand expressions better,” Yahoo says during the announcement. “You don’t have to use LOLs or OMGs with video.” If anything, Livetext will prove to your friends you are not actually LOL-ing when you sent that
 emoji.
During the demo, you can also see Livetext’s senior product management director Arjun Sethi fumbling to text properly without making typos. Maybe it’s a simple case of stage fright, but this much holds true: It just feels unnatural. There’s nothing sexy about watching someone text from under their chin, but watching them move and emote while looking at the camera might be. Why would you want to try to do both simultaneously?
We already have a problem with walking and texting at the same time. Now we have to worry about potentially walking, texting and livestreaming all at once.
The fact is, we like GIFs because they’re often better at expressing our thoughts than our faces. Also, GIFs don’t have unflattering angles. And on the Web, all we ever want is to put ourselves in the best light.
The premise of Livetext might work well if it was incorporated as part of Yahoo’s Tumblr blogging scheme. I can see this possibly working in-line on a user’s Tumblr stream, and it would better target the correct demographic.
At best, it would be ideal for the deaf community or those in emergency situations (i.e. kidnapping, domestic violence) where audio cannot be used. It’s potentially quite useful, but the marketing on it seems off. Yahoo’s got the right idea in mind, but it seems to be unsure of what to do with the concept.

There’s a lot of hooplah on Twitter today about… well, Twitter.


The company has just started a series of tests that tweak major changes to its design on iOS, including the replacement of the ‘fav’ button with a heart which we saw on Android last month.
It appears that Twitter is performing a series of A/B tests which revolve around the design of the reply, retweet and favorite buttons found directly below tweets in the timeline.
The first test makes the buttons significantly more prominent than their faded counterparts in the current design (pictured lower left), adding a circle to draw attention.
Another test fills in those buttons with a dark color to provide contrast, which looks awful.
A third test adds the circular border and replaces the favorite button with a heart.
As you may have noticed in the final screenshot, Twitter has also been testing a white variation of its design for the last few weeks.
These button tests are obviously for a single purpose: pumping up engagement on the service. The company has very publicly said it wants to increase engagement across its social network and this is latest way to boost that.
Twitter pushing the new ‘like’ button test to iOS users as well as Android testers indicates that the company is seriously mulling killing the current favorite button.
I actually dig the new buttons — it makes them more obvious and encourages the user to stab them. I suspect the test will be very successful.
What I am worried about, however, is the death of the favorite button. The test expansion to iOS shows the company is seriously considering killing off the star in favor of the ‘like’ heart and I think it’s a bad idea.
Favorites mean hundreds of different emotions and responses  — I’m done talking to you, I saw your message, I hate your message, etc — so simplifying it to a ‘like’ action dumbs it down to Facebook-level reactions. That may simply be because more people understand what the button actually means.
The change seems small enough that it won’t matter, but I think it’ll fundamentally alter the way people use the button. I’d be more interested in seeing the company extending the favorite in new ways, like Slack recently did with ’emoji favorites.’
Twitter, you can change anything you like, but please leave our favorite buttons alone.