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Twitter bans third-party clients in developer term update Twitter bans third-party clients in developer term update

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Twitter bans third-party clients in developer term update

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Twitter updated its developer rules to ban third-party clients on Thursday following the recent blocking of several apps’ access to the platform this week.

Some of the apps, such as Tweetbot, which provides a subscriber-only ad-free Twitter experience, would compete with the platform’s subscription service, Twitter Blue. This week several major third-party Twitter applications lost access to the platform. On January 14, The Information reported that the outage was an internal decision by Twitter.

In a statement, Twitterriffic, another third-party app that provided an ad-free Twitter experience for $9.99 per year, said the app has been discontinued by a Twitter that “we no longer recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer.”

Twitterriffic encouraged its customers who subscribed through iOS to consider not requesting a refund from Apple. “The loss of ongoing, recurring revenue from Twitterrific is already going to hurt our business significantly, and any refunds will come directly out of our pockets,” Twitteriffic stated.

Several third-party clients charge Twitter users for various services that range from scheduling a tweet to accessing the platform without using the Twitter app or website. When Tapbots launched the newest version of Tweetbot in 2021, it introduced a subscription-based payment requirement. This required users to pay either $0.99 per month or $5.99 per year. Tweetbot is but one example of the many third-party applications that are now no longer able to access the platform.

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An update to Twitter’s developer rules on Thursday explained why Twitter banned third party-apps from accessing the platform. The update followed the company’s tweet from its Twitter Developer account that said it was enforcing its long-standing API rules, which would result in some apps not working.

According to Twitter’s Developer Agreement, the platform defined the term Twitter Applications as its “consumer facing products, services, applications, websites, web pages, platforms, and other offerings, including without limitation, those offered via Twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile applications.” 

Twitter’s Restrictions on Use of Licensed Materials further elaborates that developers will not “use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Application.” This completely eliminates third-party apps, especially those competing with Twitter Blue.

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In November, The Wall Street Journal noted that Twitter hasn’t recorded an annual profit since 2019 and posted a loss in eight years of the past decade. In 2021, Twitter recorded a net loss of $221.4 million.  When Elon Musk purchased the platform in October 2022, he has since commented about the platform’s close call with bankruptcy and moved to save it from that fate.

The new CEO revamped Twitter Blue, the platform’s own subscription service, merging it with verification and later relaunching the service. Although Twitter Blue isn’t an ad-free Twitter experience, it does offer users an ad-free news experience for those reading articles inside the app. Other features include bookmarking folders, themes, and personalization–similar to what several third-party apps would provide users for a fee. Twitter noted that it hopes to offer fewer ads for Twitter Blue subscribers in the future.

Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.

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Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge writer covering Tesla, Elon Musk, EVs, and clean energy & supports Tesla's mission. Johnna also interviewed Elon Musk and you can listen here

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Tesla teases new market entrance with confusing and cryptic message

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla teased its entrance into a new market with a confusing and what appeared to be cryptic message on the social media platform X.

The company has been teasing its entrance into several markets, including Africa, which would be a first, and South America, where it only operates in Chile.

In September, Tesla started creating active job postings for the Colombian market, hinting it would expand its presence in South America and launch in a new country for the first time in two years.

Tesla job postings seem to show next surprise market entry

The jobs were related to various roles, including Associate Sales Manager, Advisors in Sales and Delivery, and Service Technicians. These are all roles that would indicate Tesla is planning to launch a wide-scale effort to sell, manage, and repair vehicles in the market.

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Last night, Tesla posted its latest hint, a cryptic video that seems to show the outline of Colombia, teasing its closer than ever to market entry:

This would be the next expansion into a continent where it does not have much of a presence for Tesla. Currently, there are only two Supercharger locations on the entire continent, and they’re both in Chile.

Tesla will obviously need to expand upon this crucial part of the ownership experience to enable a more confident consumer base in South America as a whole. However, it is not impossible, as many other EV charging infrastructures are available, and home charging is always a suitable option for those who have access to it.

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Surprisingly, Tesla seems to be more concerned about these middle-market countries as opposed to the larger markets in South America, but that could be by design.

If Tesla were to launch in Brazil initially, it may not be able to handle the uptick in demand, and infrastructure expansion could be more difficult. Brazil may be on its list in the upcoming years, but not as of right now.

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Tesla expands crucial Supercharging feature for easier access

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

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tesla supercharger
Credit: Tesla

Tesla has expanded a crucial Supercharging feature that helps owners identify stall availability at nearby locations.

Tesla said on Tuesday night that its “Live Availability” feature, which shows EV owners how many stalls are available at a Supercharger station, to Google Maps, a third-party app:

Already offering it in its own vehicles, the Live Availability feature that Teslas have is a helpful feature that helps you choose an appropriate station with plugs that are immediately available.

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A number on an icon where the Supercharger is located lets EV drivers know how many stalls are available.

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

Essentially, when those drivers needed to charge at a Supercharger that enables non-Tesla EVs to plug in, there was a bit more of a gamble. There was no guarantee that a plug would be available, and with no way to see how many are open, it was a risk.

Tesla adding this feature allows people to have a more convenient and easier-to-use experience if they are in a non-Tesla EV. With the already expansive Supercharger Network being available to so many EV owners, there is more congestion than ever.

This new feature makes the entire experience better for all owners, especially as there is more transparency regarding the availability of plugs at Supercharger stalls.

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It will be interesting to see if Tesla is able to expand on this new move, as Apple Maps compatibility is an obvious goal of the company’s in the future, we could imagine. In fact, this is one of the first times an Android Auto feature is available to those owners before it became an option for iOS users.

Apple owners tend to get priority with new features within the Tesla App itself.

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Elon Musk’s Boring Co goes extra hard in Nashville with first rock-crushing TBM

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

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Credit: The Boring Company/X

The Boring Company is gearing up to tackle one of its toughest projects yet, a new tunnel system beneath Nashville’s notoriously tough limestone terrain. Unlike the soft-soil conditions of Las Vegas and Austin, the Music City Loop will require a “hard-rock” boring machine capable of drilling through dense, erosion-resistant bedrock. 

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

A boring hard-rock tunneling machine

The Boring Company revealed on X that its new hard-rock TBM can generate up to 4 million pounds of grip force and 1.5 million pounds of maximum thrust load. It also features a 15-filter dust removal system designed to keep operations clean and efficient during excavation even in places where hard rock is present.

Previous Boring Co. projects, including its Loop tunnels in Las Vegas, Austin, and Bastrop, were dug primarily through soft soils. Nashville’s geology, however, poses a different challenge. Boring Company CEO and President Steve Davis mentioned this challenge during the project’s announcement in late July.

“It’s a tough place to tunnel, Nashville. If we were optimizing for the easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here. You have extremely hard rock, like way harder than it should be. It’s an engineering problem that’s fairly easy and straightforward to solve,” Davis said.

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Nashville’s limestone terrain

Experts have stated that the city’s subsurface conditions make it one of the more complex tunneling environments in the U.S. The Outer Nashville Basin is composed of cherty Mississippian-age limestone, a strong yet soluble rock that can dissolve over time, creating underground voids and caves, as noted in a report from The Tennessean.

Jakob Walter, the founder and principal engineer of Haushepherd, shared his thoughts on these challenges. “Limestone is generally a stable sedimentary bedrock material with strength parameters that are favorable for tunneling. Limestone is however fairly soluble when compared to other rack materials, and can dissolve over long periods of time when exposed to water. 

“Unexpected encounters with these features while tunneling can result in significant construction delays and potential instability of the excavation. In urban locations, structures at the ground surface should also be constantly monitored with robotic total stations or similar surveying equipment to identify any early signs of movement or distress,” he said.

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