Twitter just made a huge change to one of its core features | ||
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There are two kinds of ways you can communicate on Twitter: public tweets that anyone who follows you can see, and private direct messages to specific accounts. Starting in July, Twitter will remove the 140 character restriction for direct messages. Twitter Product Manager Sachin Agarwal announced the change today in a message on the company's website for developers. Does this mean regular tweets will soon be more than 140 characters? According to Agarwal, no changes are planned for removing the character limit elsewhere. Still, it's a curious change to the way Twitter has always worked. Group direct messages were introduced earlier this year, which allow multiple people to have a private conversation. You can also embed photos and other tweets in direct messages. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: What It Was Like On The Trading Floor During Twitter's IPO  | ||
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Everything on Twitter has always been limited to 140 characters. It's a fundamental restriction that's made the social network unique from its inception. But now things are changing. One chart from a leaked letter to investors that reveals how staggering Uber's growth in China is | ||
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A leaked letter to investors from Uber reveals the company's expansion in China is going very, very well. In the letter, first obtained by The Financial Times, Travis Kalanick asks investors for more cash to fund further expansion in the country. To back up his appeal, he provides some stunning metrics on just how fast the ride-sharing service is growing. Four of Uber's 10 most popular cities are now in China, with Guanghzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu taking the top three spots. And cities are seeing far, far faster growth than launches did in equivalent cities around the world in the same timeframe. Nine months after launch, Uber is enjoying 479 times more trips in Chengdu than it saw in New York after the same length of time. A graph included in the letter best illustrates just how meteoric Uber's rise in China has been:
The above graph plots the number of monthly trips against months since launch for various cities across the globe. Red lines are Chinese cities, and blue lines are everywhere else. It shows a growth within the country unlike anything Uber has seen anywhere else in the world. Even new cities not in China aren't enjoying similar levels of growth. The short lighter blue lines indicate newer non-Chinese cities, and while they are growing faster than earlier launches did, it's still nowhere on the same level. Of course, it hasn't all been plain sailing for Uber in China. In May, its Guangzhou offices were raided by the police. And drivers have previously been fined, and even had their vehicles confiscated, as the company disrupts the largely state-owned established taxi industry. But the scale of the growth Uber is seeing makes it clear why the company isn't being put off. Kalanick says that "to put it frankly, China represents one of the largest untapped opportunities for Uber, potentially larger than the US." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Uber has a new ad that promises to change everything about the food delivery game  | ||
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S.African man with penis transplant to become father | ||
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Johannesburg (AFP) - A South African man who received the world's first successful penis transplant is to become a father just months after undergoing surgery, his doctor said Friday. Urologist Andre van der Merwe, who led the team that performed the operation, told AFP that the 21-year-old's girlfriend was pregnant. "I was informed by him that his partner is about four months pregnant," said Van der Merwe, who is based at Stellenbosch University. "We are happy that there were no complications and his penis is functioning well," Van der Merwe told AFP. "There was nothing preventing him from having children because his sperm wasn't affected." Van der Merwe has previously admitted surprise at the speed of the man's recovery of sexual function however, saying the original goal was that "he would be fully functional at two years". The man, whose identity has not been revealed, received his new penis from an organ donor in a nine-hour operation on December 11 at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. His own penis had to be amputated three years previously after a botched traditional circumcision. The procedure, which often leads to deadly complications, is performed on boys and young men as a rite of passage to adulthood in some rural parts of South Africa. Van der Merwe said his team had been inundated with requests from men who have had similar amputations but could not take everyone. "Right now we have about nine people on our programme," he said, pointing out that finding penis donors would be one of the challenges, as is the case with any other organ. "I don't think it would be easy but I believe people will now come forward because of this positive case," he said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Orange CEO tells Israel PM: 'I deeply regret' boycott row | ||
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Jerusalem (AFP) - The head of French telecoms giant Orange told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday he was distressed by reactions to remarks seen as backing a boycott of the Jewish State. "I deeply regret the impact resulting from the context and interpretation of those statements," Orange quoted Stephane Richard as telling Netanyahu at a meeting in Jerusalem.
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Germany drops probe into alleged US tapping of Merkel cellphone | ||
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Berlin (AFP) - Germany's chief prosecutor has dropped a probe into the alleged tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone by US intelligence agencies, his office said Friday. "The Chief Federal Prosecutor has closed the investigation over suspected spying on a mobile phone used by the chancellor by US intelligence services ... because the allegation cannot be proven in a legally sound way under criminal law," it said in a statement.
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Europe's industry disappointed analysts in April | ||
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European industrial production came in below expectations for April. Production rose by 0.1% from March, leaving output up just 0.8% from 12 months ago. Analysts had been expecting a 0.3% boost, which would have left production up 1.1% from its level in April 2014. The recent bounce in European economies has certainly been felt more in services than manufacturing, mirroring the British experience in the last couple of years. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how Floyd Mayweather spends his millions  | ||
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Dogs snub people who are mean to their owners: study | ||
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Tokyo (AFP) - Dogs do not like people who are mean to their owners, Japanese researchers said Friday, and will refuse food offered by people who have snubbed their master. The findings reveal that canines have the capacity to co-operate socially -- a characteristic found in a relatively small number of species, including humans and some other primates. Researchers led by Kazuo Fujita, a professor of comparative cognition at Kyoto University, tested three groups of 18 dogs using role plays in which their owners needed to open a box. In all three groups, the owner was accompanied by two people whom the dog did not know. In the first group, the owner sought assistance from one of the other people, who actively refused to help. In the second group, the owner asked for, and received, help from one person. In both groups, the third person was neutral and not involved in either helping or refusing to help. Neither person interacted with the dog's owner in the control -- third -- group. After watching the box-opening scene, the dog was offered food by the two unfamiliar people in the room. Dogs that saw their owner being rebuffed were far more likely to choose food from the neutral observer, and to ignore the offer from the person who had refused to help, Fujita said. Dogs whose owners were helped and dogs whose owners did not interact with either person showed no marked preference for accepting snacks from the strangers. "We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest," Fujita said. If the dogs were acting solely out of self-interest, there would be no differences among the groups, and a roughly equal number of animals would have accepted food from each person. "This ability is one of key factors in building a highly collaborative society, and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans," he said. The trait is present in children from the age of about three, the research papers said. Interestingly, noted Fujita, not all primates demonstrate this behaviour. "There is a similar study that showed tufted capuchins (a monkey native to South America) have this ability, but there is no evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate a preference unless there is a direct benefit to them," he told AFP. The study will appear in the science journal "Animal Behaviour" to be published later this month by Amsterdam-based Elsevier, he said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Greece needs rescue deal by June 18: ministers | ||
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Athens (AFP) - Greece needs to clinch a deal with its EU-IMF creditors at a eurozone meeting on June 18 to prevent it from defaulting on its debt, two ministers said on Friday, a day after the IMF pulled its team out of the negotiations. Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said in an interview with Mega channel that a deal "will come about by June 18 or never". Minister of State Alekos Flambouraris, a close associate of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, told state television ERT: "I hope (an agreement) comes very soon, on June 18, when the Eurogroup convenes." Athens stocks slumped four percent at open as optimism a day earlier for an imminent deal evaporated. Greece needs to find 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to repay to the International Monetary Fund by the end of the month. It therefore needs to clinch a deal to unlock 7.2 billion euros in bailout funds by the end of June before its current EU-IMF rescue programme expires, leaving the cash-strapped country with no means of support against a looming default. Kammenos -- whose populist Independent Greeks party is the junior government coalition partner and is not involved in the talks -- said Friday the IMF payment would not be made if the talks founder. "If a solution is not found by the end of the month, we will not pay the IMF," he said. The five-month talks are stuck on disagreement between Greece and its creditors on its future budget goals, economic reforms and tax revenue. Athens is facing mounting pressure, with the IMF saying Thursday there remains big gaps between both sides and the EU warning the Greeks to stop "gambling" with the possibility of default and a messy exit from the eurozone. "There are still major differences between us in most key areas," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters in Washington. "There has been no progress in narrowing these differences recently. Thus we are well away from an agreement." The fund said its Greek talks team had returned to Washington from Brussels and that the "ball is very much in Greece's court right now" -- although it added that "the IMF never leaves the table and remains engaged." European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Tsipras would have to face down his anti-austerity party, where a number of cadres have proposed early elections if forced to accept unpopular cuts. "This is not a real party but a group of movements, tendencies, sentiments and resentments," Juncker told France Culture radio. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 10 things in advertising you need to know today (TWTR, FOX, FB, KO, NFLX) | ||
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Good morning! Here is everything you need to know in the world of advertising today. 1. Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down. We spoke to Costolo and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who is taking over as interim CEO. 2. Here's what one former Twitter insider thinks could happen with the CEO search. Our source says Twitter could look to Flipboard for its next CEO, but it could risk losing its head of revenue Adam Bain. 3. Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as CEO of 21st Century Fox. He is being replaced by his son James. 4. Facebook tried to copy Apple with its big Oculus unveiling on Thursday night. But it failed miserably. 5. Video ad tech company TubeMogul raised $83 million in a secondary market offering. The CEO told us the the big financing proves there is confidence in the company, at a time when other ad tech stocks are getting hammered by the markets. 6. Sprite is covering its cans in rap lyrics. The soda's packaging will feature lyrics from rappers Drake, Rakim, Nas, and Notorious B.I.G. 7. One of the most popular services people use to access Netflix for free overseas is spamming users with demanding ads. ViperDNS has flooded people's Netflix apps with ads saying they need to visit its website. 8. The world's biggest sponsors want to work with these 10 European soccer players. Sports intelligence company Repucom has released a ranking of the top 10 "most marketable" European footballers. 9. Making Justin Bieber the face of Calvin Klein "was the hardest choice I ever had to make." That's according to Calvin Klein's marketing chief Melisa Goldie. 10. FIFA's communications director has quit after making an awesome joke about the organization on Swiss TV. Walter De Gregorio had quipped: "FIFA president Sepp Blatter, the media director, and the general secretary are sitting in a car, who is driving? The police!" Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here are all of Google's awesome science projects — that we know about  | ||
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Warriors rout Cavaliers to pull level in Finals | ||
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Cleveland (AFP) - Andre Iguodala helped re-energize Golden State in his first start of the season and the Warriors ripped Cleveland 103-82 Thursday to level the NBA Finals at two wins each. On a night when Cleveland superstar LeBron James needed stitches after cutting his head on a camera, the Warriors had 22 points each from Iguodala and NBA Most Valuable Player Steph Curry while forcing a fast tempo to frustrate the Cavaliers. "The biggest difference was we played a lot harder," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We didn't do much differently against LeBron. We were just more competitive and more active. "We controlled the tempo and rhythm of the game. It's not just about playing hard. It's about playing every possession like it's your last."o team has ever recovered from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Finals, which made it vital the Warriors avoided their first three-game losing skid of the season, which they did by starting Iguodala and using a smaller line-up to end a run of slow starts. "When we have that lineup out there, we were able to pick up the tempo and pace of the game," Curry said. "We thought we would put some pressure on them and not let them be so comfortable with the lead like they had the past couple games." Hitting 36-of-77 from the floor with 12-of-30 from 3-point range, the Warriors kept Cleveland to 29-of-88 from the court and only 4-of-27 from beyond the arc as the best-of-seven series moves to Oakland for game five on Sunday. Russian center Timofey Mozgov led Cleveland with 28 points, his NBA career high, and 10 rebounds while James, who had been averaging 41 points in the finals, had 20 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. James suffered two cuts to the right side of his head on a camera after falling into a photographer late in the second quarter, writhing in pain on the floor at the feet of fans while grabbing his head. He also battled leg cramps and fatigue in the second half. "I was just trying to regain my composure. The camera cut me pretty bad," James said of his spill. "Our medical staff did a great job stopping the bleeding." James said he had a lingering headache after the game but did not undergo the NBA's concussion protocols. Instead, he went back into the game but struggled to be effective. "He's a human being and I've got to give him a minute here or there," Cavaliers coach Dave Blatt said of James. "If I don't, I'm really going to put him under more duress than he already is. When he's out, everyone else has got to step up and give a bit more."
- LeBron 'gassed' late -
Golden State opened a 63-50 edge in the third quarter before a 20-10 Cleveland run in which James scored 10 points and Mozgov added eight, cutting the Warriors lead to 73-70. But a weary James went to the bench while Golden State went on a 20-7 run, Curry scoring eight points and Iguodala sinking two 3-pointers in the span as the Warriors seized a 93-77 edge with 5:35 to play, too much for the tired Cavaliers to overcome. "I was hoping our team could buy me a few minutes. I was pretty much gassed," James said. "We weren't able to do that in the fourth quarter. It's difficult. You want to be out there but you want to be effective while you are out there. They made a huge run and we just couldn't regather." That's just what the deep-benched Warriors had in mind by pushing the pace. "They made that comeback and they just ran out of gas," said Golden State's Draymond Green. "Pushing the tempo, that was able to wear them down." Added Curry: "If you try to make him uncomfortable the whole game, you might wear him down. I think it worked."
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Germany wants Greece out of the euro and is done with concessions | ||
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Out of 1,230 randomly selected voters, 627 people (51%) would prefer Greece out of the euro, while 41% think Greece should stay. On the other hand, 70% of voters said they wanted no more concessions in the ongoing bailout talks. In fact, only 48% of Germany's far-left Die Linke party want further concessions — that figure drops to 21% for supporters of the CDU, Angela Merkel's party. Germans are also becoming more confident that their own country would be undamaged by Grexit: 65% believe that, up from 57% when the same question was asked for a previous poll. Based on recent reports, Greece's current negotiations to unlock billions of euros in bailout cash are not going well. These figures support this suggestion — Germany (and many other parts of Europe) are not at all happy to see another bailout for Greece, while Greece's governing party doesn't think they're getting a good enough deal. That leaves the negotiators between a rock and a hard place. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how Floyd Mayweather spends his millions  | ||
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Asian stocks follow US gains, euro hurt on IMF walkout | ||
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Hong Kong (AFP) - Asian markets mostly rose Friday, tracking advances in New York, while the dollar edged up on a better-than-forecast US retail sales report. But the euro struggled after the International Monetary Fund walked out of Greece's debt reform talks, saying Athens was not doing enough to find a compromise with its creditors. Tokyo climbed 0.10 percent, Hong Kong added 0.71 percent, Shanghai gained 0.62 percent, Seoul was 0.25 percent higher and Sydney dipped 0.26 percent. US shares jumped for a second consecutive day Thursday after the Commerce Department said retail sales in May rose 1.2 percent, better than the 1.1 percent gain forecast by analysts. The figures are the latest in a string of data showing the world's number one economy is back on the road to recovery after a wobbly few months at the start of the year caused by a severe winter. The Dow gained 0.22 percent, the S&P 500 added 0.17 percent and the Nasdaq rose 0.11 percent. Forex traders pushed the dollar higher after the news, which will give the Federal Reserve more ammunition to hike interest rate from their record lows. The dollar fetched 123.58 yen against 123.45 yen in New York late Thursday. "After the 'deep freeze' figures from January to March, the thawing of consumer spending is another positive for the US economy and a further reason to believe in liftoff in the Fed funds rate," Evan Lucas, an IG markets strategist in Melbourne, wrote in a client note, according to Bloomberg News. The euro edged lower after the IMF pulled out of the Greece's bailout talks, saying a deal was still far off after a five-month stalemate. "There are still major differences between us in most key areas," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters in Washington. "There has been no progress in narrowing these differences recently. Thus we are well away from an agreement." The fund said its Greek talks team had returned to Washington from Brussels and that the "ball is very much in Greece's court right now", adding key disagreements were on pensions, taxes and financing. Greece must reach a compromise with its creditors -- the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank -- before the end of the month to unlock much-needed cash to service its debts. Failure to do so will lead it to default and possibly exit the eurozone. "The fact the IMF walked out of talks overnight and flew straight back to the States doesn't help sentiment or give you confidence a deal will be done by June 19. This will get messy," Lucas said in the note. The euro bought $1.1250 and 138.90 yen against $1.1260 and 139.00 yen in US trade. Oil prices slipped after the International Energy Agency predicted a recent surge in global demand will end soon. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July fell 28 cents to $60.49 while Brent crude for July eased 32 cents to $64.79. Gold fetched $1,182.32 compared with $1,179.55 late Thursday.
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REPORT: Germany is preparing for a Greek default with time for a last-minute deal running out | ||
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The bottom line is that it has not been good. On Thursday evening the International Monetary Fund (IMF) effectively walked away from bailout talks, citing "no progress" on the "major differences" with the Greek government. Now Germany's BILD tabloid reports that Berlin is now increasingly resigned to a Greek default, making preparations for debt haircuts and capital controls. The Greek government is still scrambling to unlock billions of euros as part of a deal which would allow it to make debt repayments — but would also require austerity measures and economic reforms that the new far-left government was elected in opposition against. At least one Greek minister is still hopeful of a deal by the time of the next Eurogroup meeting, when eurozone finance ministers gather on June 18. After that, Athens has "bundled" payments to make to the IMF on June 30, and further massive ones in July to the European Central Bank. Even if a deal was reached by June 18 (which now looks less likely), it may not be enough. Here's what Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Athanasios Vamvakidis said on Monday (emphasis ours): Greece and its creditors will have to finalise the deal by the end of this week, the Greek parliament will have to approve the deal the following week, and the European parliaments will have to approve it during the last week of June (assuming away problems with the summer recess). Such a deal will have to include at least €5bn to repay the IMF by June 30 and the ECB bonds that mature on July 20 — to cover all IMF and ECB payments during the summer, Greece needs about €10bn. We're now at the end of the week and are, if anything, further way from a deal. Though the hard deadline is still weeks away (and could be as late as July 20 according to some Greece-watchers), as BAML's Vamvakidis notes, a tentative agreement would take weeks of processing and back-and-forth. The later that comes, the more chance that some spanner is thrown into the works, or that Athens simply runs out of cash before everyone signs off on the deal. Peter Spiegel, Shawn Donnan and Kerin Hope at the Financial Times report that a deal was all but agreed earlier this week, during the head-to-head talks between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker. After the four-hour session, Mr Juncker thought he had a deal: Mr Tsipras had accepted new budget surplus targets that were tougher than Athens had hoped but lower than the existing bailout programme... Members of Mr Tsipras’s radical Syriza party angrily denounced the plan as soon as they caught wind of the details. Faced with a political firestorm back home in Athens, Mr Tsipras cancelled a follow-on meeting with Mr Juncker and instead delivered a strident rejection of the plan before the Greek parliament, calling it “absurd” and containing “irrational, blackmailing demands”. Meanwhile, Olaf Gersemann, business editor of Germany's Die Welt reports that the IMF negotiating team were effectively left twiddling their thumbs, stuck in a Brussels hotel for two weeks. If the FT is correct and Tsipras really is as beholden to his party as that version of events suggests, there could be massive issues ahead. Juncker has already said that this was his "last attempt" — if Syriza can't bear whatever details it includes on pension reforms or other red-line issues, it may not get any compromises from now on. As Dan Davies says, the Greek saga is now really into "squeaky bum time." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million  | ||
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We're now getting snippets from around Europe on just what the last few days have been like inside the Greek negotiations.