MacRumors

Twitter has confirmed to TechCrunch that all of its first party iOS app users will today begin to see a new location-based feature that aggregates tweets tagged to a specific geographic location. Called "Twitter Location Feeds," the update lets users scroll through tweets and profiles surrounding locations like the headquarters of a business, sporting event, music festival, or an entire city.

Powered by Foursquare, users can jump into any Location Feed they want by first tapping on a tweet to check out more details, then tapping on the location tagged within to see a list of tweets compiled within the area. Once in the feed for any specific location, users can scroll through all tweets posted by users in the area, or specify a media-only category to stick with photos and videos.

Location feeds will unlock the ability for users anywhere to immerse themselves in a place. You could drop into a sporting event, see what people think about a museum, find the favorite dish from a restaurant, check the vibe at a local park, virtually visit a concert, or even become engulfed in a protest.

Instead of browsing a noisy hashtag with tweets from everywhere, you can discover what people on the ground are saying. This ability to immerse yourself in an unfiltered sea of information has always been one of the best parts of Twitter.

Due to its focus on navigation starting from tags in other users' tweets, a lot of the functionality of Location Feeds rides on automatic location tagging, which many users might have turned off. As such, TechCrunch considers that an update with searchable geographic areas is "a sensible next step."

Twitter said that Location Feeds will be rolling out to all iOS users starting today, and that more platforms are planned for the future, but didn't give any specified information on which will be coming next. Today's news follows an update to the social network earlier in the week that expanded its video lengths from 30 to 140 seconds.

Ride hailing app Uber has begun testing a version of its app in six United States cities, with a new UI that makes periods of surge pricing more subtle to discover for users. Surge pricing is a term dedicated to windows when riders greatly exceed drivers, resulting in heightened fare prices due to the increased demand.

When this would happen prior to Uber's new test, anyone signing into the app would get a pop-up notification that surge pricing was in effect, along with a general multiplier that they would have to add into their driving fare to figure out its total cost.

The update nixes both features, simultaneously making it harder to know when surge pricing is in effect without notifications, but also benefitting users thanks to an "upfront fare" with "no complicated math and no surprises," according to Uber.

Upfront fares are calculated using the expected time and distance of the trip and local traffic, as well as how many riders and nearby drivers are using Uber at that moment. And when fares go up due to increased demand, instead of surge lightning bolts and pop-up screens, riders are given the actual fare before they request their ride. There’s no complicated math and no surprises: passengers can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Now, when users want to know when surge pricing is in effect, a faint line of text references "increased demand" beneath their fare. The company is testing the upfront fare system in New York City, Miami, San Diego, Philadelphia, Seattle, and some parts of New Jersey, in addition to five cities in India: New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The surge pricing update is expected to hit the rest of Uber's markets around the world "in the next few months."

Previous Coverage: Uber Attempts to Address Driver Concerns With New App Update

After Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the company is keeping an "open mind" in regards to offering offline viewing to its customers, a new report from LightReading this week hints that the feature could be coming to the streaming platform "by the end of the year" (via Gizmodo). The information comes from industry insider Dan Taitz -- COO of Penthera, a company that works on mobile video -- who described a potential "landscape shift" in the streaming video market when an offline viewing option arrives on Netflix.

"We know from our sources within the industry that Netflix is going to launch this product," says Taitz. "My expectation is that by the end of the year Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers."

Another source, Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Dan Rayburn, called Netflix's offline viewing feature an "open secret" within the streaming community. Rayburn commented that rumors have been swirling "for months" about the impending launch of a download-to-go alternative for Netflix subscribers, potentially even prior to Hasting's comments on the service back in April.

"It's a natural progression for Netflix to want to have some of their content available for consumers to watch offline, and we've been hearing for months now that they are in fact going to roll something out soon," says Rayburn.

Netflix's biggest roadblock on the service could be copyright issues with downloaded film and TV shows, according to Rayburn, who mentioned that -- besides Netflix's own original content -- it'll be a studio-by-studio basis to see how much content is supported as an offline viewing option.

Prior to Hasting's optimistic comments in April, Netflix Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt, had previously said offline viewing was "not a very compelling proposition" in the company's future because it would add too much complexity into a simplistic service. Given that rival platforms, like Amazon and YouTube Red, now offer users the ability to watch downloaded videos offline, it makes sense for Netflix's interest in the feature to be piqued.

Grammy award-winning singer Adele's latest album, 25, became available on Apple Music and competing streaming services at midnight last night, seven months after its initial release.

According to Billboard, the full album can also be found on Spotify, Amazon Prime and Tidal, following months in which only the singles "Hello", "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)", and "When We Were Young" could be found on music streaming platforms.

Sony released physical and digital copies of Adele's 25 in November, when it broke the single-week sales record in the U.S., shifting 3.38 million albums. The previous record was set by *NSYNC's No Strings Attached in 2000, which sold 2.42 million copies in its first week.

The move comes after reports in November last year suggested that Adele had personally chosen not to share the album on streaming music services.

That decision came after Taylor Swift initially refused to share her songs on streaming platforms that offered free tier listening services. Swift later took a stand against Apple when it emerged that the company didn't intend to pay artists during the Apple Music free trial period. But after the company reversed course, she too changed her mind and allowed Apple Music to stream 1989 and her other albums.

BitTorrent has announced it is launching a new content distribution app called BitTorrent Now, which lets users stream music and video from a library of independent artists and filmmakers.

The app will soon be available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, and offers a catalogue of free, paid, and ad-supported, on-demand content, including VR content as and when it becomes available.

Use of BitTorrent's Bundle format will allow content creators to require users to register or pay for media distributed through the platform, and give them greater control over how their content is offered, presented, and shared:

This is what happens when artists have agency: our shared culture becomes more diverse, more whole; more sustainable. And that’s why we started BitTorrent Bundle: to give artists options. Not rules. The freedom to share your story, no matter what form it takes. The right to know, understand, and reach your audience. The right to choose your business model.

The app's launch can be seen as an attempt by the company to distance itself from the file-sharing protocol of the same name and reframe its brand as a legitimate media service, quite apart from the pirated content often associated with the peer-to-peer network.

The app doesn't currently rely on peer-to-peer technology, although The Verge reports that BitTorrent is working to include support.

BitTorrent Now is "coming soon" to iOS and Apple TV. Those who request an invite to the service will receive updates on its availability.

Today at its VidCon keynote address, YouTube announced that its mobile app will be getting updated with a brand new live streaming option, allowing users to easily stream video from their iPhones directly from the YouTube app.

YouTube mobile live streaming will be baked right into the core YouTube mobile app. You won’t need to open anything else, just hit the big red capture button right there in the corner, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and you can broadcast live to your fans and chat in near real time.

The feature will work similar to Facebook Live and Periscope, with streamers having the ability to see live comments from viewers. However, YouTube's live streaming will take advantage of the company's live streaming infrastructure, which it has been enhancing since its debut in 2011. Mobile live streaming has become increasingly popular since Meerkat launched in 2015, and has been used to document a variety of events, from NBA Final press conferences to the sit-in at the House of Representatives.

YouTube opened up live streaming in 2013, after two years of testing the service with big events like the Royal Wedding and Felix Baumgartner's leap from space. The video platform then began expanding it to verified accounts and creators with at least 1,000 subscribers.

Live streaming will launch today for select YouTube creators The Young Turks, AIB, Platica Polinesia, SacconeJolys, and Alex Wasabi, and will be rolling out to all users in the near future.

YouTube for iOS is available in the App Store for free. [Direct Link]