(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/digest-28.jpg alt: digest 28)
Welcome to the first Digital Digest of 2016. For those of you who are new, our Dreamers Digital Digests are a simple weekly update of the latest digital news stories to hit our screens. To kick off 2016 there’s been some big news from Twitter and we say goodbye to an old friend.
Longer tweets are coming
Twitter announced this week that they are in the process of building a feature which will allow users to tweet more than the familiar 140 characters, which we have all come to know and love (and sometimes hate). Reports are suggesting that the microblogging giant is considering a 10,000 character limit. This is quite a significant jump which has, funnily enough, caused quite a stir on itsown site with #Twitter10k trending on the day of the announcement.
Before you go into a frenzy thinking your feed will be full of streams of people’s daily rantings this won’t be the case, Twitter are currently testing a version of the product that will show tweets the same way we are used to with the 140 characters but then there will then be a call to action which users can click to reveal the extended content. You can read more about “Beyond 140” (link: http://recode.net/2016/01/05/twitter-considering-10000-character-limit-for-tweets/?platform=hootsuite text: here). What do you think about #Twitter10k? We’d love to hear your thoughts, tweet us (link: https://twitter.com/WeAreSuperdream text: @wearesuperdream).
Goodbye my friend
Next week we will be bidding a very fond farewell to(link: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2016/01/05/web-developers-rejoice-internet-explorer-8-9-and-10-die-on-tuesday/ text: Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10), much to the elation of web developers worldwide. The programme will reach the end of its life on Tuesday meaning they’re no longer supported on Microsoft. A nag box will appear for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 users who are still using the old browser after installing the first update.
The reason this is great for developers is because those who still need to target old browsers are one step closer to not needing to worry about whether or not modern CSS will work in these browsers.
The end of these programmes also means that they will no longer receive security updates so users will be vulnerable in the future. Furthermore, it means that Internet Explorer 11 will be the last supported version of Microsoft’s old browser, as the computing giant continue to transition everyone to Edge on Window’s 10. So if you’re on any version of IE older than 11 upgrade now before it’s too late!
Increased security on WordPress
WordPress is encouraging users to update immediately as the (link: http://marketingland.com/wordpress-releases-4-4-1-strongly-recommends-users-update-immediately-158524 text: newest version of their software fixes 52 bugs )and patches a vulnerability that could let sites be compromised. Users will need to upgrade to the 4.4.1 version to feel the benefits of these security enhancements.