Twitter Announces Plan to Shut Down Vine Updated Oct. 27, 2016 11:13 p.m. ET
Just six months ago, Twitter Inc. called the looping-video app Vine one of its foundational acquisitions. On Thursday, the social-media company said it was shutting it down.
Vines demise shows how difficult it is for an internet sensation to have staying power and turn a profit.
The app rocketed to the top of the rankings in Apples app store in early 2013 within weeks of its debut, resonating with young people who were drawn to the short, snappy format. The best of the sites six-second looping videos helped popularize new cultural memes such as d**n Daniel and on fleek.
Vine quickly carved a path to fame for a group of artists and creators, some of whom have gone on to launch larger careers as digital influencers. They include King Bach, also known as Andrew Bachelor, who recently signed on for a sitcom in development by 21st Century Fox Inc. Others used their Vine popularity to land product placement and branded content deals.
But Twitter was never able to fully capitalize on Vines popularity, and over time the site lost out to competitors like Snap Inc.s Snapchat, Facebook Inc., Instagram and Alphabet Inc.s YouTube, The Wall Street Journal reported in May.
Many top Viners, marketers and ad buyers abandoned the site, frustrated that it never implemented a sustainable advertising model. Dominant creators, such as Viral Nation clients Joey Purpdrank and Max Jr., shifted to making longer videos for YouTube, Facebook and other platforms that drew larger audiences and a chance to make money through advertising. The app was recently ranked 284 among free U.S. apps in the App Store, according to data tracker App Annie.
If Vine was housed inside a company that was growing at 30% a yearit would have survived, said Scott Galloway, founder of consumer-brand research firm L2 Inc. and a marketing professor at New York University. For Twitter, not growing its user base, a part-time CEO and disgruntled investorsall of that adds up to forced focus.
A Twitter spokesman wasnt immediately available for comment. Twitter announced the news on Thursday separate from its third-quarter earnings report, which included shrinking revenue growth and job cuts.
Vines co-founders instantly expressed remorse on Thursday. Dont sell your company! co-founder Rus Yusupov wrote on Twitter. Another co-founder, Dom Hofmann, wrote: busting out the bourbon. Mr. Yusupov left Twitter last year as part of a wave of layoffs. Mr. Hofmann left earlier.
Some users took to Vine to spin the grim news into gags, with lip-sync tributes and comedic acts. There was also some resentment among users who built large followings, directing their anger at Twitter for failing to capitalize on Vines former zeitgeist status.
Vine messed upthey let their top creators leave the app, said Jason Nash, a comedian who got his start on Vine three years ago and has 2.7 million followers on the site. Still, Mr. Nash said he was grateful to Vine, which inspired him to create independent film FML about two social media celebrities trying to drum up more followers. Weird how fast technology changes, Mr. Nash said Thursday. I guess I have my sequel.
You dont have to tell me that director Ron Howards sinfully entertaining screen adaptations of author Dan Browns Robert Langdon pulpy novels are not exactly bait for critical adoration. It seems the first two,The Da Vinci Code andAngels & Demons,were used as target practice by some of my colleagues, and I have no doubt the latest chapter,Inferno which Sony Pictures releases today will also have its detractors. But as I say in my video review above,these movies are comfort food on the highest order and the latest is also perhaps the greatest in terms of viewer satisfaction.
Tom Hanks, star of all three, has settled nicely into his role as Professor Robert Langdon, the art history expert and cryptologist who constantly finds himself in Italy battling evil forces out to threaten the world in one way or another. This usually results in a movie, like the Jason Bourne series, in which our hero would be well-suited to train as an Olympic-class runner before getting on aplane to Rome. It is no different this time as Langdon and his latest obligatory female cohort (Felicity Jones) are being chased all over Italy and other locales by baddies, and even some goodies, who have their own agenda.
The film opens with a billionaire environmental zealot Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) being pursued by an agent (Omar Sy) before he jumps to his death out of a tower in Florence. Cut to a hospital where a battered and bloodied Langdon is recovering from an attack he has no memory of except brief flashes of apocalyptic images such as red waves of water gushing toward him. He is befriended by pretty physician Sienna Brooks (Jones) who helps him escape when the hospital becomes a crime zone and another doctor is gunned down. This starts a series of chases by every means imaginable, including through the canals of Venice, where clues based on Dantes chilling poem Inferno lead them down some blind alleys before the revelation that Zobrist, in an effort to curb the worlds overpopulation, had planted a deadly virus designed to kill off most of the human race. In 24 hours everyone could be dead unless Langdon can cut to the chase, as it were, and figure out who is going to set off this catastrophic event, andwhere.
With his short-term memory loss coming back into Hitchcock-like focus, Langdon also comes upon others who are mysteriously into all of this including Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan), who works for a private security consortium; and the World Health Organizations Elizabeth Sinskey (Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen), who also happens to be an old flame of Langdons. As clues are revealed through Dantes writings and several works of art, there are plenty of twists and turns to keep us on the edge of our seats.
No one should plan on getting the tux out for the Oscars for this one, but what is wrong with some good old fashioned fun and a gorgeous swing through beautiful European locations? On top of that, the supporting cast is world-class with a group of terrific international stars like Khan, Knudsen and Sy lifting the material. Foster makes an effective villain, and Jones, who was Oscar nominated forThe Theory Of Everything,proves she can be just as fetching in major studio popcorn stuff. David Koepp cherry-picked the best stuff out of Browns book for his screenplay, even if liberties taken might disappoint some avid readers. Bottom line is it all works on screen.
As usual Brian Grazer produced with Howard for their company, Imagine. Do you plan on seeingInferno?Let us know what you think.
Meek Mill #DC4 is HERE! What To Expect | Kevin Gates 180 Days Jail Wife UPSET | Weezy Vs Baby | LIVE
After weeks of exchangingblows in a heated dispute with The Game, it seems likeMeek Mill is laying the beef to rest toregain focuson his forthcoming album, DC4. On Thurs (Oct. 20), music industry consultantKaren Civil dropped Meek Mill"s tentativeDC4tracklist on Twitter, confirming thatthe Philly MC is indeed back to business.
In recent weeks, he"s been building up the anticipation surrounding his upcoming release, droppingasingle titled "Black Moses" from the politically-charged movie The Birth of A Nation and followingup with an Instagram video of himself rapping a DC4 track snippet:"Regular, regular, regular/ I do not see no competitors." To whet the appetiteof fans, Meek deactivated his Instagram, another clue suggestingtherapper is back inalbum mode.
Check out a draft of Meek Mill"sDC4tracklist below.
Gov. Mike Pence: It"s time for Republicans to come home
Running mates, particularly in this election, don"t get much attention. But when your plane skids off the runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, as happened to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday night, the TV news outlets come calling.
Pence on Friday got a lighter version of the"Full Ginsburg" treatment, so named for attorney William Ginsburg after he appeared on five major Sunday TV news shows to discuss his client, Monica Lewinsky, in the late1990s.
Pence appeared on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox -- either in the studio or by phone.
"It was about 10 seconds of uncertainty," Pence told "CBS This Morning."
"[The plane] fishtailed a bit," Pence told ABC"s "Good Morning America", adding that his son, a Marine Corps aviator, likes to say that "every landing you walk away from is a good one."
"It seemed like the first responders were literally around the plane before we came to a rest," Pence told NBC"s"Today."
Pence was a game guest, modestly recounting the brief ordeal before touting Donald Trump"s presidential bid and deflecting controversial questions about voter fraud and violence.
He downplayed law enforcement concerns aboutpost-election violence on the CBS interview.
I really just don"t see it, Pence said.The people that are rallying around this team, rallying around our cause, love this country.
He said he trusts the voting process "very broadly"but pointed to "ample examples of fraud" before pivoting to a pitch for Trump.
Leading Chinese smartphone maker, Coolpad has been in the news for quite some time now. The company has produced some of the immensely popular phones like Coolpad Note 3, Coolpad Mega, and the Coolpad Max.
Coolpad entered into the highly competitive Indian smartphone market with the launch of Coolpad Note 3. Coolpads success mantra includes launching premium quality phones at an affordable price tag while keeping its customers satisfied with its after-sales support. The company was also ranked #1 in customer satisfaction on Amazon.in.
Now Coolpad is launching a new beast of a smartphone on 30 September 2016. The company has been teasing about it for more than a week as the unveiling was earlier slated to happen on 23 September, but it has now been pushed by a week to the last day of this month.
Here Are Some Interesting Teasers About The Phone
Coolpad has been calling the phone as the Beast among the best indicating that it would offer best-in-class performance in its segment. Also the company has been hinting at number 5 in every teaser. This could mean 5 GB RAM (which sounds odd), 5000 mAh battery, or 5 interesting features.
Fast & Powerful
The company has also shared many teaser images revolving around the performance of this upcoming phone. One of my favourite teaser image shows a sprinter ready to start the race with current running through his/her veins and number 5 printed on the start line.
We will make you roar again. "Beast" is on the way. Stay tuned. #BeastAmongTheBest #Coolpad pic.twitter.com/AUI1nq2id4
Coolpad India (@CoolpadInd) September 3, 2016
Battery Backup
The phone is also hinted to have a great battery backup with the use of a phrase- The Endurance Of A Camel. The teaser image shows a camel having a battery icon drawn on its skin. This is more than enough to take a guess about the battery backup of the phone.
Strong, sturdy and ever ready, #BeastAmongTheBest! Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/WdMLlsmcZ9
Coolpad India (@CoolpadInd) September 16, 2016
Powered By Qualcomm Snapdragon
The next teaser shows a dragon alongside the SoC indicating that the phone would be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. It is worth noting that most of the people perceive the Snapdragon chips to be superior than other chips.
1.2.3 just like that. The beast is as fast as it gets, it really is a #BeastAmongTheBest. #StayTuned #Coolpad pic.twitter.com/fgVHeN00fs
Coolpad India (@CoolpadInd) September 15, 2016
Master of The Darkness
The teaser shows the image of the night sky hinting at the low-light imaging prowess of the rear camera. They have used the phrase The Vision Of An Owl to highlight this feature.
The image shows stars and two constellations in the sky, one of which has figure 5 at its centre, while the other resembles an owl. The teaser also brags about the front-facing LED flash of the phone.
"See brilliance" with our newest offering. #BeastAmongTheBest! Coming soon. #StayTuned #Coolpad pic.twitter.com/IbjBg83yQd
Coolpad India (@CoolpadInd) September 17, 2016
Also in another tweet the company has managed to morph the front side of the phone into a train moving in a tunnel with its headlight ON. The headlight again hints at the presence of the front-facing LED for taking better selfies during the night.
Speed, performance & elegance are all set to hit new benchmarks. Our Beast is on the way. Stay tuned :) #BeastAmongTheBest #Coolpad pic.twitter.com/ZlEgZXWkcG
Coolpad India (@CoolpadInd) September 24, 2016
The company has recently slashed the price of Coolpad Max by a whopping Rs. 11,000 and it now retails for Rs. 13,999 on Amazon.
Now, with whatever information we have from the teasers it is safe to assume that the upcoming phone would be a premium phone with a price tag similar to that of the launch price of Cool Max which was Rs. 24,999.
Expected Specifications Of The Upcoming Coolpad Phone
We are expecting that with the launch of this phone, Coolpad is expecting to one up its previous flagship model- Coolpad Max.
Talking about the specifications, we are hoping that the phone would feature a Snapdragon processor in all probability. Other specifications should be 4 GB RAM, 64 GB ROM, 5.5 full-HD display, front-facing LED flash, Android Marshmallow 6.0, rear fingerprint scanner, dual SIM support with 4G VoLTE, and a 5000 mAh battery (fingers crossed).
Coming to the price of the phone We all know that Coolpad offers extremely competitive pricing on most of their handsets, and if same remains true, we are hoping that Coolpad Beast would be priced between around Rs. 15,000 to max Rs. 18,000. Anything above that and it will be termed over-priced. A lot will depend on which processor is used in the phone!
Now all we can do is wait and watch while trying to get more sense out of teasers unveiled by Coolpad India.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post written in partnership with Coolpad.
"Coolpad Launching A "Beast" On 30 Sept; Here Is What You Should Expect From It!", 5 out of 5 based on 5 ratings.Check These Related Articles!
Beyond The Vine Compilation | Best Vines October 2016 Photo Neil Wampler was greeted by supporters as he left federal court in Portland, Ore., on Thursday. He is one of seven antigovernment protesters unexpectedly acquitted of federal conspiracy and weapons charges. Credit Don Ryan/Associated Press
(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)
Good morning.
Heres what you need to know:
On the campaign trail.
The Republican Partys biggest donors are shifting their cash to congressional races and away from Donald J. Trump, the latest campaign money disclosures show. The nominee also appears to be cutting back on funding his race as well.
Photo Donald J. Trumps running mate, Gov. Mike Pence, had a scare at La Guardia Airport in New York when his plane skidded off the runway on Thursday. Credit Lucas Jackson/Reuters
President Obama is scheduled to hold a rally for Hillary Clinton in Florida today. Mrs. Clinton will be in Iowa. Mr. Trump will be there, too, along with stops in New Hampshire and Maine.
Photo Chelsea Clintons comments about her fathers aides were revealed in the thousands of emails obtained by hackers and released by WikiLeaks over the past month. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
Separately, our review of the latest hacked emails found that they portray Chelsea Clinton as devoted to her parents and being confronted with the cutthroat world surrounding her family.
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Verdict in Oregon standoff case.
The antigovernment protesters Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and the five followers who helped them carry out the armed takeover of a wildlife refuge last winter, were acquitted of conspiracy on Thursday.
The surprise decision was a blow to federal prosecutors, who have two similar cases coming up.
North Dakota pipeline protest.
More than 140 protesters were arrested overnight during a standoff with law enforcement officials, the police said. Pepper spray and armored vehicles were used to disperse the demonstrators, according to the local sheriffs department.
Russian foreign policy under scrutiny.
Moscow rejected the findings of an investigation led by the United Nations that found that Syrian forces had used chlorine bombs. Russia also denied responsibility for airstrikes that hit a school in northern Syria, killing more than 20 children.
And documents released by Ukrainian hackers claim to provide new evidence that the Kremlin had a direct role in creating and directing the rebel uprising in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Twist in George Washington Bridge trial.
The possibility of a major snag arose in the lane closing case involving two former aides to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. The judge abruptly sent the jury home and adjourned court on Thursday just as lawyers were about to begin their closing arguments.
They are scheduled to begin today.
Seeking an apology, not a pardon.
We recently told you about Britains decision to issue a posthumous pardon to thousands of men who were convicted of gross indecency under a law that targeted gay men.
George Montague was one of the men arrested. But the World War II veteran, now 93, says that accepting the pardon would be to admit that he was guilty. How can I be guilty for being born the way I was? he asked our reporter.
Business
New federal privacy rules require broadband providers to get permission to collect data on a subscribers web browsing, app use, location and financial information.
Photo The F.C.C.s passage of new privacy rules dealt a setback to companies like AT&T and Comcast, which rely on user data for sophisticated targeted advertising. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times
The economys expansion since 2009 has led many in the news media to speculate that the next president will face a recession. But its not a given, our writer explains.
Expansions dont die of old age, he says. They die because something specific killed them.
In memoriam: Vine, the video app owned by Twitter, will be shut down in the coming months. We look at what led to its demise.
U.S. stocks were down on Thursday. Heres a snapshot of global markets.
Noteworthy
Stardom, up close.
Four years ago, Kesha was a superstar. Then a contract dispute and her rape claim against her producer sent her career into exile. Shes making new music and hopes she can soon release it.
In April, the writer Michelle McNamara died in her sleep. Her husband, the comedian Patton Oswalt, shared with us his struggle to overcome grief while raising his young daughter, and has vowed to finish the book his wife had started before her death.
Photo Grief is an attack on life. Its not a seducer. Its an ambush or worse. It stands right out there and says: The minute you try something, Im waiting for you, says the comedian Patton Oswalt. Credit Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times
At the movies and on TV.
We have reviews for the new film Inferno starring Tom Hanks, along with two new shows: Amazons Good Girls Revolt and Netflixs The Crown, about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
Lastly, our critic explores why pop culture just cant deal with black male sexuality.
Sports roundup.
Game 3 of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians is tonight (8 p.m. Eastern, Fox). On Sunday, our writer will attend his 100th World Series game. He looks back on some of the most memorable moments hes witnessed.
If you have time this weekend, check out our story on Maurice Lerner, a top baseball prospect in the 50s who later became a hit man for the mob. And we review a new book that celebrates the unsung women in sports history.
Recipe of the day.
Youve made it to the end of the week. Treat yourself to a martini. While you relax, read about our writers barbecue-themed road trip with his fiance.
Back Story
The trees are losing their leaves. There is a chill in the air, pumpkins on porches and fake spider webs hung as decorations. All signs indicate that fall is in full swing or is it autumn?
The season with two names is among the many differences in British and American English. It hasnt always been so.
Photo Im told this Yankeeism sounds unpoetic and almost illiterate. That is how a Times writer described the word fall in an essay in September 1942. Credit Patrick Pleul/DPA, via Agence France-Presse Getty Images
Harvest was used before autumn, by some accounts in the 12th or 13th century. Autumn had joined it by the 16th century, which is also about the time that the terms spring of the leaf and fall of the leaf appeared. They were shortened to spring and fall.
But it was later that the divergence of who used what happened. The settlers who colonized North America preferred fall to autumn.
Over the years, letter writers to The Times have cited British literature in our pages as a reminder of falls roots.
A honey tongue / A heart of gall / Is fancies spring / But sorrows fall, was part of a 1599 poem by Sir Walter Raleigh brought to our attention by a reader in October 1942.
So whichever side of the pond youre on, take a moment to enjoy the colors (or colours) of fall er, autumn this weekend.
Karen Workman contributed reporting.
Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning.
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‘The Crow’ Actor Michael Massee, Who Accidentally Shot & Killed Brandon Lee Is Dead At 61
Last updated13:25, October 27 2016
Miramax
Brandon Lee"s final film. The actor Michael Massee accidentally shot and killed Lee during the making of the film.
Prolific actor Michael Massee, who played villain Ira Gaines on 24, has died. He was 61.
With more than 80 screen credits to his name, Massee is probably best known for his part in the accidental death of up-and-coming actor Brandon Lee, who was shot and killed on set during the making ofThe Crow.
Massee pulled the trigger on the faulty gun.
He was also well known for his guest starring role on 24, where he played the leader of a terrorist cell for 12 episodes in 2001.
READ MORE:*Actress and activist Alexis Arquette dead at 47*Sound of Music actress Charmian Carr dies at 73*Renowned "mobster" movie actor Jon Polito dies at 65
Frank Trapper
Massee spoke about Lee"s death in in 2005 saying it was something that that still haunted him.
"I just took a year off and I went back to New York and didn"t do anything," he told Extra magazine. "I didn"t work. What happened to Brandon was a tragic accident... I don"t think you ever get over something like that."
Massee returned to work in 1995taking small roles on TV and film, including a bit part in Se7en.
His rugged, sneering look made him a popular character actor in gritty, urban crime films and TV.
