Twitter is killing its Twitter for Mac desktop client

On Friday, Twitter announced that it would abandon its lesser-loved Mac app, directing users to Twitter.com instead. The company declared that it will refocus its efforts on “a great Twitter experience that’s consistent across platforms” rather than continuing development for Twitter for Mac, a message that doesn’t sound great for TweetDeck lovers. The Twitter for Mac app no longer lives in the Mac App Store, though its one and a half star rating lives on in the hearts and minds of its few tenacious users, maybe.

Over the years, Twitter has often seen its own official app eclipsed by slicker, more feature-rich third-party clients, which it sometimes buys up. Twitter bought the software that evolved into Twitter for Mac (formerly known as Tweetie for Mac) back in 2010, though it’s largely believed to have languished following the acquisition.

Many Twitter users are expressing their concerns that the company could similarly sunset TweetDeck, a well-loved client with multi-column organization, list-making tools and robust notifications that the company acquired for $40 million back in 2011. For a normal company, ending a product that everyone feels pretty good about wouldn’t be a likely potential outcome, but Twitter isn’t exactly known for making choices in lockstep with the desires of its opinionated user base.

While most people aren’t likely to mourn the passing of Twitter for Mac, the choice does highlight the gaping hole where a solid multi-platform client should go. Considering its resources and the lessons the company should have learned from unnecessary bickering with its development community over the years, it doesn’t seem like a big ask.

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Polymer scientists at the University of Akron in Ohio have developed a transparent electrode that could change the face of smartphones, literally, by making their displays shatterproof. In a recently published paper, researchers show how a transparent layer of nanowire-based electrodes on a polymer surface could be extraordinarily tough and flexible, withstanding repeated scotch tape peeling and bending tests. This could revolutionise and replace conventional touchscreens, according to Yu Zhu, UA assistant professor of polymer science. Currently used coatings made of indium tin oxide (ITO) are more brittle, most likely to shatter, and increasingly costly to manufacture. “These two pronounced factors drive the need to substitute ITO with a cost-effective and flexible conductive transparent film,” Zhu says, adding that the new film provides the same degree of transparency as ITO, yet offers greater conductivity. The novel film retains its shape and functionality after tests i...

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