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Twitterrific 5 for Mac Drops to $7.99 Following Discontinuation of Twitter's Main Mac App

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Third-party Twitter client "Twitterrific" has dropped the price of the latest Mac app -- Twitterrific 5 for Mac [Direct Link] -- to $7.99, down from $19.99. The new price tag marks the lowest that Iconfactory's app has ever been on the Mac App Store, and follows a 50 percent discount to $9.99 that emerged in December 2017.

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Twitterrific's sale for Mac appeared over the weekend on February 17, the day after Twitter announced it would officially stop supporting the main Twitter for Mac app. Twitter said that it plans to focus its attention on a "great Twitter experience that's consistent across all platforms," confirming that the Mac app wasn't on the company's list of priorities. Beginning last Friday, Twitter for Mac is no longer available to download, and within the next month the company will stop supporting it completely.

While Twitter guided users to the social network's desktop website for the "full Twitter experience on Mac," Twitterrific is now a cheaper alternative for those looking for an app to browse Twitter on a Mac. Twitterrific presents Tweets as they were originally seen on the social network, in a chronological order that filters out other extraneous content, like which Tweets your followers like.

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Twitterrific 5 also syncs your timelines across devices (including iPhone and iPad), supports mute filters, has multiple font and text size options, integrates with the Voice Over accessibility feature, and more.

Re-imagined from the ground up to be the Mac's most friendly, powerful and modern Twitter client. Twitterrific makes Twitter fun.

Twitterrific feels right at home on the Mac. Support for Notification Center, Retina displays, built-in sharing, beautiful animations, full-screen mode & more.

With the new $7.99 price tag, Twitterrific has also undercut Tweetbot's $9.99 price on the Mac App Store [Direct Link]. Thanks to ongoing updates and developer support, both Twitterrific and Tweetbot have been better received on the iTunes and Mac App Stores with 4-star ratings, compared to Twitter for Mac's 1-star rating at the time of its removal.

Tags: Twitter, Twitterrific
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New Footage Captures Drone Crash Over Apple Park

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It's been well over two years since monthly drone updates have been shared online covering the construction progress of Apple's second campus in California, called Apple Park. Over the weekend, drone videographer Matthew Roberts posted his latest video on YouTube, but instead of covering the newest updates to the campus, the video captured a drone that malfunctioned and crashed over Apple Park.


Roberts said the crashed drone's operator got in touch with him, asking for help in locating the downed drone on Apple's new campus and sharing the footage from the crash with Roberts. The drone that crashed is said to be one of DJI's devices, so the owner was able to review a cached version of the video on the DJI app on their phone/tablet following the incident. "There were no signs of premature failure," the owner said, and it's still unclear why the drone malfunctioned.

Roberts eventually discovered the drone crashed among the solar panels on the roof of the main Apple Park building. The drone's owner has contacted Apple and notified them of the incident, and Roberts said that "it remains to be seen" if Apple will return the drone back to its owner. In the video, it appears that the drone has remained mostly intact following the crash.

apple park drone crash video
In the latest monthly update of Apple Park shared by Roberts earlier in February, the new campus was described as seeing increased activity from employees now that more have moved in, with bicycles appearing throughout parking lots and on walkways. The maintenance facility has also been completed, but Apple is still working on landscaping in a large area located between the main building and Steve Jobs Theater.

Tag: Apple Park
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Industrial Design Experts Say HomePod's White Ring Issue 'Shouldn't Be Too Hard to Fix' for Apple

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Last week, Apple confirmed that the HomePod can potentially leave white rings on the surface of wooden furniture with oil or wax finishes. In an effort to help users prevent seeing these rings appear on their own furniture, Apple shared a support document on "Where to place HomePod," detailing how the interaction between the HomePod's vibration-dampening silicone base and a wooden surface has the chance to result in a white ring.

Business Insider recently spoke with a few industrial design experts who believe that the problem "shouldn't be too hard to fix" for Apple." Gregor Berkowitz, a product development consultant for numerous consumer electronics brands, expects Apple to "re-tool" its HomePod manufacturing process to address the issue with the silicone base, which could take between two to six weeks. Although the fix could take several weeks, the experts said it's "likely not very costly" for Apple.

HomePod rings 1

Image via Wirecutter

Senior industrial designer at Y Studios, Cesar Viramontes, referred to the white rings issue as something customers will "probably forget about" in the next few months.

Apple may need to "re-tool" the manufacturing process since silicone is manufactured using a different process than the other kinds of elastomer," said Berkowitz. If that's necessary, the process could take anywhere from two weeks to six weeks, he noted.

"It's an issue, but I think it's probably going to be one that'll be corrected in the next round of manufacturing," said Y Studios' Viramontes. "I think it will be a minor issue, and people will probably forget about it in the next couple of months when it goes away."

While the experts see a quick fix for the issue coming from Apple, all were surprised it happened in the first place. Product design expert Ignazio Moresco explained that more is expected from Apple's well-known attention to detail, and the company "should have caught the issue if they followed a rigorous QA process." The white marks aren't an Apple-specific problem, but have appeared with other speakers -- like Sonos One -- that have similar silicone bases.

Berkowitz believes the white rings could be a result of Apple's "inexperience" with making stationary speakers, in contrast to the company's familiarity with making mobile products like the iPhone and MacBook.

"This is sitting on a bookshelf. Is it going to work? Or are there going to be problems? A traditional consumer product company or a speaker company or a traditional Hi-Fi company is going to worry about that and think about those problems and have experience with it," Berkowitz said. "This shouldn't be new for Apple but it is."

"They didn't test the product enough and in the right variety of circumstances, especially considering that a wood surface is a very likely support for the product," said Ignazio Moresco, a product design expert who has worked at frog design, Microsoft and Ericsson.

For those who have discovered rings on their furniture, Apple said that these marks "will often go away after several days" once HomePod is removed from the wooden surface. Users can hasten this process by wiping the surface gently with a damp or dry cloth. Still, the company explained that if anyone is concerned about these marks, it recommends "placing your HomePod on a different surface."

Accessory makers are already creating products to act as a fix for the situation, including new leather coasters for HomePod from Pad & Quill. The $19.95 coasters are advertised as letting users place their HomePod on the wooden surfaces that have the potential to be marked by HomePod, without having to worry about the appearance of such marks.

Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral)
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