WASHINGTON: Iranian users are having trouble accessing Gmail, Google said yesterday following a newspaper report that Iran's telecoms agency had permanently suspended the Internet giant's email service.

"We have heard from users in Iran that they are having trouble accessing Gmail," Google said in a statement.

"We can confirm a sharp drop in traffic and we have looked at our own networks and found that they are working properly," the Mountain View, California-based company said.

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter yesterday announced plans to hold its first conference for developers interested in making applications to synch with the wildly popular microblogging service.

"We're happy to tell you that Chirp has now officially launched!" members of Twitter's "Chirp Team" said in an email message.

Speakers at the two-day event will include Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone.

SAN FRANCISCO: Iran's controversial presidential election was the top Twitter topic this year, the popular
microblogging service said yesterday.

"Among all the keywords, hashtags and phrases that proliferated throughout the year, one topic surfaced repeatedly," Twitter said in a blog post.

"Twitter users found the Iranian elections the most engaging topic of the year."

The San Francisco-based sensation that lets people broadcast news in short text messages was a primary
communications tool by protestors in Iran angered by their presidential election.

TWITTER is fun but not very useful.

That was one of the earlier criticisms received by its creators when realtime social online network Twitter.com was first created.

It’s response? “Neither is ice cream”, said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who was the first speaker to grace the stage at the Youth Engagement Summit (YES 2009) yesterday.

TWITTER, the hottest Web 2.0 service, doesn't have to do much to be in the limelight nowadays.

Unfortunately, the attention it's receiving right now isn't on something that's flattering - it centres on Twitter the company being hacked, with looted business information making it into the open.

DELL has launched the latest addition to its expanding line of Vostro laptops, the 12.1-inch Vostro 1220.

This new addition has been designed expressly to meet small business needs and is custombuilt to maximise productivity amid shrinking travel budgets with free, pre-installed videoconferencing and webcam software with the purchase of integrated webcam and microphone.

A FEW months ago, I had a rather rude awakening on the rave-rage of Twitter - the 'SMS of the Internet' - no thanks to my 16-year-old cousin.

I was driving her to downtown KL when the sight of her fidgeting with her iPhone annoyed me immensely. What kind of parents bought that overrated gadget for a mere child, anyway?

"I'll Facebook you before I pick you up in five hours" I said in jest as I neared the entrance to the Pavilion.

SAN FRANCISCO: Protesters in Iran yesterday used Twitter for battle cries and to spread word about clashes with police and “hardline supporters” of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Messages, some with links to pictures of wounded or dead people that senders claim were Iranian protestors ricocheted about Twitter and wound up posted at online photo-sharing websites such as Flickr.

A protestor was reportedly shot dead during clashes in Teheran yesterday as massive crowds of people defied a ban to stage a rally against the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad.

IN the event of a rejected marriage proposal, ever wondered what men do with the engagement rings? There are certainly many options…

And in the case of Anthony Gardiner, a 29-year-old call-centre worker from New Zealand – no one can deny that his approach is not original.

 

FOR a communication tool that espouses brevity, there is certainly no shortage of buzz and lengthy discussions.

 

This could very well be the year of Twitter, the micro-blogging service launched in 2006, and the beneficiary
of an immense surge in popularity in recent months.