The second new feature being added is a Twitter classic. You are now able to mention users in your Vine messages by using the @ symbol. By typing @ and a person’s username or real name, you will be offered suggestions of people you would like to mention in your message. This new feature will promote social interaction in Vine and encourage more conversations and usage of the app.

For those of you who don’t know, Vine is a social app released by Twitter that allows people to send each other short video messages. Each message can be up to 6 seconds long, and is easily shared to the internet. You can choose to upload your content to only Vine, or you can choose to upload your content simultaneously to Twitter and Facebook as well. Once your content is uploaded, it will be in public view for anyone to see.

Currently, Vine is only available for the iPhone and the iPad, but it should be making its way to Android devices sometime in the future. It’s unsurprising for these apps to head to iOS before they’re ported over to Android. The same thing happened with Instagram, which came to Android 2 years after its debut on iOS. Now 50% of Instagram users come from Android, which shows developers the importance of bringing their apps to both operating systems. If you want to take advantage of the new Vine update, you can download it from the App Store right now. For those of you patiently waiting for Vine to head over to Android, it shouldn’t be too long now before that’ll happen.

A similar tactic has been used for the recent release of the iOS-friendly Gmail app “Mailbox”. This app saw thousands of sign-ups in a very short period earlier this year as they kept a virtual line going to keep users waiting for their turn to activate the app they’d downloaded. They recently opened that door, presumably after interest had begun to simmer.

Vine on the other hand is an app that’s already generated a large amount of interest in both positive and negative PR events. When Vine launched, it was an app that only worked on the iPhone. Soon after launch, the developers behind Vine showed a web browser homepage for every single user onboard. Soon after that, Vine embedding began.

Here nearer the Summer of 2013 it would appear that the Android release of the Vine mobile app is close. Having spoken with The Verge earlier this week, news that they’ll be bringing their Android app to the market was joined by a “soon” timeframe and note that they’ll be adding features along the way.

Below you’ll find additional information on Vine as it expands beyond its original iPhone home, perhaps even to the iPad sooner than later! For now it’s time to start up your Android device with a camera, whatever that may be.

It’s actually kind of creepy, like something out of the Saw movies, but we’d probably feel a bit more comfortable if we knew what the teaser was about. The LP is of The Moonbeam Trio, directed by George Shackley, called “Planned program service program no. 416.” We’re not sure what connection this had to Bethesda, but we’re guessing it means something.

And if you’re guessing Fallout, then you better “guess again,” according to Pete Hines, Bethesda’s vice president of public relations and marketing, who says that the Vine teaser is related to Fallout. Then again, it could just be misdirection on Hines’s part, and maybe it is a new Fallout game we’re expecting.

It honestly could be any number of things. Maybe a new Wolfenstein? Who knows, but it seems the developer is looking to gain some attention by teasing a new game, now that they discontinued support for Skyrim and won’t be releasing DLC for it anymore. What do you think the teaser is all about? What game is Bethesda teasing us? Let us know in the comments.

[via PC Gamer]

This marks the first time that Vine has hit the number one spot in the iTunes App Store, and frankly we’re surprised that it took this long, even despite app’s controversy. Vine’s co-founder and creative director, Rus Yusupov, tweeted the announcement today with a sort of wise-guy attitude, saying “Hey guys, remember that time we made the No. 1 most popular app in the world?”

The app’s controversy stems from an issue that saw adult content being posted on the service, without a 17+ age warning. Of course, this is against Apple’s terms of service for the iTunes App Store, so Vine was required to tack on an age warning. However, that didn’t stop Apple from removing the app from its list of Editor’s Choice apps for the week.

Vine is available for free on iOS devices, but it’s mysteriously missing on Android. While it’s been reported that the company was looking for Android developers, we have yet to hear anything about an Android version of the app making its way to Google Play, but it could be anytime soon, as an Android version would surely take off.

You can embed Vine clips through two different avenues. You can either embed a clip directly from the webpage of the clip, or you can embed it using the iOS app, which can be found by tapping the ellipses in the bottom-right corner, tapping “Share this post,” and the hitting “Embed.” One thing to be aware of, though, is that Vine uses “iframe” to embed clips, which some websites and blogging platforms don’t support.

Embedding a Vine using the web link allows you to choose different sizes and styles. You can choose between 600 pixels wide, 480 pixels wide, or 320 pixels wide. There’s also two different styles, one of which is called “Simple,” which only displays the Vine and nothing else, and then there’s the “Postcard” view, which shows other details, such as the username, date, and any captions written.

We can’t embed Vines here on SlashGear, but here’s a still screenshot of what the “Postcard” style looks like:

However, even though Vine is still constantly updating its Vine service, they still have yet to release the app to Android. However, we’d be surprised if an Android version didn’t arrive at some point. Back in February, Vine was looking for an Android developer, according to their job listings, so it’s possible they’re working on an Android version right now.

The app will stream music via SoundCloud. It will feature 4 tabs. The “Suggested” tab recommends you songs based on the musical artists you follow. The “#NowPlaying” tab lists links to songs tweeted by your followers who tweet using the #NowPlaying hashtag. The “Popular” tab lists the songs that are currently trending on the music app, and the “Emerging” tab lists a bunch of up-and-coming artists featured on We Are Hunted.

The app will display artists and songs in a grid design. Clicking on an artist’s panel will cause it to expand displaying a short bio on the artist, as well as links to songs the artist has on SoundCloud, or on iTunes. Users can tap the play button to begin streaming music from the artist. Users will also be able to follow artists directly from Twitter’s “Twitter Music” page.

iOS users are said to have first dibs on the Twitter Music service, just like Twitter’s video sharing app, Vine. The Twitter Music service is speculated to be released to iOS devices by the end of this month. Twitter hopes that by integrating music into its network, it can attract more new users to its service. It will, however, have a hard time prying users away from popular music services like Pandora and Spotify.

[via CNET]

Vine co-founder Colin Kroll tweeted that the team was looking to expand, and heading on over to Vine’s jobs webpage will give you a glimpse as to what they’re looking for. They’re mostly looking for product and software enginners, as well as an iOS developer. However, a listing for an “Android engineer” is particularly interesting.

The Vine app initially released only for iOS last month with great fanfare. However, it was hit with a pornography controversy shortly after its release, requiring the app to instill a 17+ age rating and blocking most of the porn from the app. During the fiasco, Vine was eventually removed from the Editors’ Choice section of the iTunes App Store.

However, all that is behind us now, and it seems Vine is now focusing their efforts on improving the app, and bringing in more team members to help possibly introduce more features, as well as release an Android version that we know many of its users are dying to start using. Hopefully we’ll see it relatively soon.

The update arrives after a wave of controversy slammed Vine over adult content, and the app was even featured in the “Editor’s Choice” section of the iTunes App Store before it eventually was removed from that section. The same thing happened with 500px, although its app was pulled from the App Store altogether until it came back with a mature age rating.

Other than the addition of the 17+ age rating and the new reporting system, the Vine update comes with some usual bugfixes, as well as the ability to share Vines (is that what we’re calling them?) to Facebook or Twitter after it has already been recorded and posted. The app also allows you to block users in case you find out that their Vines aren’t particular up to your standards.

If you’ve been MIA for the past couple weeks and aren’t sure what Vine is, we have a thorough primer on the subject that shows you what the app is and what it does. Essentially, Vine records short, six-second videos that you can post to Twitter, similar to GIFs but they’re a bit more creative and a lot quicker and easier to make. You can grab the app on iOS for free right now.

Many users prefer Chrome over Safari for a lot of different reasons, and now Tweetbot makes it easy for you to specify which browser you want to open links in. Also, if you use 1Password, you can use the app’s built-in browser to log you into websites automatically, a handy feature for those wanting to stay secure online.

On top of that, embedded Flickr and Vine views are also available. Instead of having to tap a link in a tweet to open up a Flickr image or Vine video, you can now see a small thumbnail that shows up inline with the rest of the tweets in your feed. These updates aren’t big by any means, but it’s a significant update, and it’s nice to see the developers behind Tweetbot giving the app some attention.

All of these services that Tweetbot now supports have become more and more popular recently. Google Chrome on iOS is one of the most popular browser choices on the platform, and Flickr has become the new go-to source for sharing images after the Instagram fiasco. And with Twitter’s new Vine app, mini-videos are starting to take over the microblogging platform.

Tweetbot for both iPhone and iPad costs $2.99, and the update is available now in the iTunes App Store.

Amazon delivered its Q4 2012 results today, posting a net loss of $39 million for the year. Just the same, Gameloft’s Q4 2012 saw record sales, so the company is looking pretty good going into 2013. The EFF clarified the new laws against jailbreaking today, and this week retailers gained the ability to charge you for credit card purchases. XMBC 12 is now available with support for Android and Raspberry Pi, while Google is donating 15,000 of the inexpensive computers to UK students.

The HTC HD2 has been hacked to run Windows RT, while Electronic Arts announced that SimCity will be coming to Mac this spring. We learned of some rather strange-sounding fixes to the iPhone 5′s “greyed Wi-Fi” issue, and Samsung has announced that it will buy medical imaging company NeuroLogica. After a bit of a situation involving adult videos on Vine, Twitter has remedied the problem, while YouTube is said to be considering paid content in 2013.

500px is now back on the App Store after a porn problem of its own, and the ban on unlocking phones has resulted in a petition on the official White House website. New interest from the US Department of Justice will probably result in delays for the Sprint/Softbank deal, so don’t expect to close very fast. Acer is hinting at some new budget tablets to take on the likes of Google and Amazon, while we also heard that the iPad 5 will be smaller than previous iterations. NVIDIA has released a new beta driver in time for the Crysis 3 multiplayer beta, Pinterest is readying a new site design, and Hawken showed us some fancy PhysX graphics in a new trailer. Finally tonight, we have a review of the Dell XPS One 27 for you to check out, along with a first drive of the KIA Sorento and Forte. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!

Here on Tuesday the 29th of January it would appear that the Vine development team has cut out one entry into the porn problem with a rescinding of hashtags such as #porn, #nude, #sex, and #naked. Searching for these terms now results in a complete lack of results, not because none exist, but because the back end of Vine can be modified to kick out any terms they deem undesirable.

While no official comment on the situation as far as search terms has yet been issued by Vine or Twitter, we do know the results of the app having been “infected” by “Not Safe For Work” content have been dire. The first was the iTunes App Store cutting the app from it’s Editor’s Choice picks: though again, no official word on its disappearance has been made. Another result of the porn issue is the massive amount of press Vine has gotten almost immediately after its initial release.

This begs the question: should Twitter’s Vine team want to kick nudes out of the the mix, or should it simply pretend to be attempting to do so? You can still download the Vine app from the iTunes App Store for your iOS mobile device right this minute (or perhaps just for the time being) and we’ve still got no word on an Android release (or a Windows Phone release for that matter).

Make sure you keep your ear to the wire here on SlashGear for more Vine news as this epic saga continues to unfold! The timeline below should keep you up to date on all the excellence as well – and keep on recording those work safe videos with Vine, too!

According to Business Insider, Vine had a featured spot in the iTunes App Store as late as this morning, so the change must have occurred just recently. It’s unclear whether or not the app will get pulled, but it remains for now. Last week, popular photo-sharing app 500px was removed from the App Store over nude photos.

According to Apple’s own developer guidelines, apps “that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic” are not allowed in the iTunes App Store, so it may just be a matter of time before the app gets pulled for good, unless Twitter takes charge and enforces some guidelines against pornographic content.

However, it looks likes the social media service is, in fact, cracking down on inappropriate content. Certain hashtag searches within the Vine app, such as #porn, #sex, and other risque searches are blocked, but workarounds are easily accessible still, like #pornvine. Then again, it may only be a matter of time until the workarounds are blocked, so if you need to get your six seconds of pleasure, better now than later, folks.

[via Business Insider]

Twitter’s new video clip sharing service, Vine, is already prompting controversy with a proliferation of pornography, potentially putting the new social network at risk from more prurient app store masters. Launched last week as a way to easily create and share brief, looping video clips, Vine has unsurprisingly been quickly adopted by users distributing snippets of sex, either DIY or pieced together from commercial releases.

As with Twitter, Vine users can tag their clips with hashtags, and it doesn’t take much searching to find “#sex” and “#porn” well populated with the sort of content that wouldn’t be appropriate for younger Viners. Apple, for instance, rates the Vine app as suitable for those aged 12 or over, calling it out for infrequent or mild suggestive themes, nudity, or sexual content, though that description is at odds with the hardcore pornography readily available today.

In response, Twitter has said it has a two-stage complaints system which relies on users to initially report anything they deem inappropriate. Questionable content such as ”nudity, violence, or medical procedures” can be flagged within the app or on the website, the social company told Business Insider, at which point any future viewings will be preceded by a warning message.

However, that flag will also trigger a review by the Vine team itself, which will decide whether or not the content should be left in place or removed. Vine users can also have their accounts terminated, Twitter points out, if the material does not meet with the terms of service.

Whether the rise in adult material will force a more dramatic move by Apple remains to be seen. Only last week, iOS developer 500px saw its apps pulled from the App Store after the iPhone maker decided sexual content was too readily available.

Meanwhile, if you want to see the sort of content that’s being shared on Vine – and, as far as we can tell, without rogue genitalia – then Just Vined is gathering up recent clips in one big preview (that’s happily muted by default). There’s more on Vine in our full SlashGear 101.

Vine is an app that allows you to record videos from your smartphone or tablet device (though it’s optimized for smartphones) in segments or all at once. You can hold your finger down on the screen (also a viewfinder) to record one long 6 second video, or you can hold it down in bursts, recording as many short moments as you like inside 6 seconds total. These videos are processed extremely rapidly and are able to be uploaded to the internet (hosted by Vine) quickly as well.

Once you’ve created a video in Vine, you have the option to do several things with it, the first being absolutely nothing at all:

1. Save only to your device, a 6 second video existing on your smart device on its own.
2. Upload to Vine only.
3. Upload to Vine and share on Twitter.
4. Upload to Vine and share on Facebook.
5. Upload to Vine and share on Twitter and Facebook at the same time.

At the moment unless you exit the Vine app and upload the resulting video through some other non-Vine service, you’ll need to upload to Vine in order to see your video shared anywhere else. Also at the moment the two services you’re able to share with (besides the app-centric Vine itself) are Facebook and Twitter. Vine is very similar to the app Instagram in that you’re able to create media and share it only with your other friends in-app, but unlike that environment, Vine makes no effort to hide the fact that everything you upload to the web is, indeed, entirely public.

If you upload anything you record with Vine to the internet, it will be public. That’s the long and short of it. According to Vine’s Privacy Policy, anything you choose to share with Vine is considered information (and media) that you choose to be made public. This includes data of all kinds, video, location information, the profile you create, and everything in-between.

If you like Vine but you’d rather create your miniature moving images in gif form (that’s less like a video and more like a moving photo file), you may want to check out Cinemagram. They’ve been open for business for many months at this point and have just (this week) revealed a new way to create media called “Shorts” which combine several of their own “cine” clips to create a mini movie – that’s not a coincidental release at all – no way!

You’ll be able to download Vine from the iTunes App Store right this minute for free, if you feel the urge to jump in on this mini movie party – it’s optimized for iPhone and iPod touch, but you can use it on your iPad too if you don’t mind the tiny layout. This app will almost certainly be coming to Android very soon, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Windows Phone 8 got a taste of the joy before Summer rolls around.

According to the original pop-up, Twitter’s new app “is not authorized” to grab Facebook’s data, leaving users facing manual adding of their friends on the site. That warning has since been changed to a more generic “An error occurred” dialog; there are also reports that Vine users have been unable to share their videos to their Facebook timeline.

A Facebook spokesperson told Mashable that the social network had no comment beyond the vague text of the error message. However, it’s not the first time the company has yanked down the shutters to prevent rival social services from getting their teeth into Facebook data.

Back in August, microblogging platform Tumblr discovered its friend-finder functionality had been blocked by Facebook, for instance, while Android dropped native Facebook contacts sync in early 2011, after the social site refused to allow exports for backup purposes. Facebook isn’t the only company to wage war with data access, mind; only a month before the Tumblr block, Twitter had thrown up a similar block to Facebook-acquired Instagram.

What remains to be seen is whether Facebook has a Vine-style short video sharing feature of its own in the pipeline; the company has proved adept at mimicking rival apps with its own, home-grown versions, such as happened with Snapchat-esque Poke last month. Expanding Facebook Camera or Instagram with brief video support would hardly be difficult.

This app and the videos it makes are really, really simple. The service appears here at first to be working really swiftly right out of the box and has clearly been tested to work at Twitter-speed. That means right here and now that you’re not going to have to wait around to see the videos as they’re just 6 seconds long – ain’t nobody got time for anything longer than that, shall we say.

Click the image above to visit the Twitter post where the Vine video can be seen – be sure to take the audio off mute, too.

You can connect to your friends on Facebook as well as your friends on Twitter to create your own Vine feed when you open the app up, otherwise you’ll be seeing a feed consisting of videos from the most popular sources in the Vine library. This service is both a standalone environment and a connected environment with Twitter and Facebook – you can use it on its own, you can connect with Twitter and Vine, you can connect with Facebook and Vine, or almost any combination therein.

The only thing you cannot do is send your videos to Twitter or Facebook without them being posted to Vine. To keep everything running as swiftly as possible, Vine is taking the hosting duties from top to bottom. We’ll be discussing the privacy issues and worries that will inevitably come up with regards to this sooner than later, I’m sure – for now though, feel free to enjoy the quickness with which you’re able to work with this app.

Hot Tip: to find this app on the App Store, you’ll need to search for “Vine make a scene”, otherwise it’ll be buried under loads of other apps with the name “vine” in them that came before this beast.

Vine is at the time of this posts’s publishing an iOS-only app. It’s also restricted (sort of) to the iPhone and the iPod touch. You can open it up on your iPad if you wish, but it’s optimized for the smaller displays without a doubt. If you do end up downloading this app, be sure you’re connected with @t_chrisburns on Twitter as well as @SlashGear on twitter (more on the way) so you can keep up to date with us as we head to some of the biggest tech events through the immediate future.

We’ll be bringing Vine with us to Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona in just a few weeks – stick with us all the way!

“Although we’ve joined Twitter, you don’t need a Twitter account to use Vine (but signing up is a little quicker if you do!)” the team responsible for Vine said today. If you’ve already logged into your iOS device with your Twitter account, you can register – with the same username – with just a couple of taps. Vine asks for a cellphone number, but it’s not mandatory.

Clips support both video and audio, and automatically loop. It’s also possible to share them not only on Twitter but on Facebook, too. Recordings don’t have to be all of one scene, either; Vine only captures video when your finger is held on the preview screen, so you can quickly join a few different scenes together for a mini-movie.

You can download Vine from the App Store here [iTunes link], and Twitter says it’s currently hard at work readying versions for other platforms. No word on when that might result in an Android app or software for other phones, however.

Vine is a pretty straight-forward app, allowing mobile users to take a maximum six second video and share it easily with other users online and on social networks. Sources say that the app allows users to compile multiple short clips into a single video by activating when the screen is touched and stopping when it is released. Users can then essentially take individual snapshots and compile them into a video.

Twitter recently acquired the start-up, which had planned to launch Vine solely on iOS before the social network came into the picture. Things are going to continue on as they were originally planned, and according to the sources, the app will not be pushed to the public as Twitter’s video service, but rather just as a video service. That could change in the future, of course.

Vine does support publishing the video clips to Twitter, however, as the social network’s CEO demonstrated on his Twitter feed earlier to day with a six-second video tweet. For now, the Vine.co website reads “Coming soon.” Nothing official has come from Twitter or Vine in regards to when we’ll see the app, but all signs point to “soon.”

[via AllThingsD]