Before Twitter implemented features that allow images linked in a Tweet to be shown directly on Twitter as part of that Tweet, the role of attaching pictures to Tweets was one mainly followed by the third party service, Twitpic. Though largely redundant since, Twitpic still retained a following with its own subset of loyal users; and some would argue there was a small feeling of comfort in knowing that despite all, the service was still around.

Sadly, that’s all about to change.

Due to a legal demand from Twitter, Twitpic has found itself forced to close its service on September 25th. The exact reason, according to founder Noah Everett, falls over a dispute regarding the company’s five-year old trademark:

A few weeks ago Twitter contacted our legal demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API. This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008, and our trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009.

So why not take up the battle, you may ask? Surely if they’ve owned and use the trademark for five years, Twitpic should have a case regarding their legal right to use “Twitpic” as a name? Unfortunately, Mr. Everett believes the legal costs for such a defence are such that the company can’t afford to pay, so closing is the only option.

Twitpic will be building a photo/video exporting feature to help users past and present reclaim their pictures and videos for a short while before the service shuts up shop for good, though it was not ready at the time of writing.

The Indie Game Show with DJs Digmbot and PredictedCyborg
Sunday night, 6pm til 9pm GMT, 1pm til 4pm EST.

On the Indie Game Show this Sunday…

Pumpkin Interactive!

Currently Kickstarting their MMO that takes cues from Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon – Pumpkin Online. The main goal of this game is one of complete inclusivity – everyone can be represented within this game, no matter the gender, sexuality, identity and so on.

Remember to tune in so you can join in our Q and A session in the IRC!

Pumpkin Online Website: [x]

Kickstarter: [x]

Click the link for your player to tune in:

Join us both on the website and in IRC @ irc.sanitarium.fm 6667 for indie gaming discussion and your chance to ask our guests questions!

The Xbox Wire blog posted up an announcement about the new Xbox One version of Minecraft, revealing that the game will be available to be downloaded from the Xbox store on Friday, September 5th.

For owners of the Xbox 360 version the price is just a simple $4.99/£3.99 to upgrade the game, and it will be possible to port across worlds from the 360 version to the One version, meaning that all the hard work can be implanted into a world that is now up to 36 times larger than before. And if you’ve purchased DLC for the 360 version, that’ll also transfer across for no extra charge. For players who don’t own the 360 version, the price is $19.99/£15.99.

So for all you console Minecrafters; enjoy your new larger world. I’ll be in the PC version enjoying 1.8 😛

The forth Sims game has launched in North America at last, although in Europe we still have a little time to wait. Maybe that’s a good thing because it means that we get to find out how good or bad the game is by the results we hear back from our American cousins. Unfortunately it does mean we miss out on some of the more entertaining original bugs before they get patched.

A day one patch was available for the Sims 4, which tackled a number of things including making it impossible to date the Grim Reaper and stopping a number of game-freezing bugs related to babies in household inventories, including the the one that had babies multiplying while in the household inventory if the lot was being edited in Manage Worlds. The big question I have though is, why can a baby be placed into the inventory in the first place??

The Sims 4 has already come under criticism before launch after it was revealed that a great many features common to the previous games had been removed from the new base game. Judging by the need for a day one patch… something makes me think that the Sims 4 might be headed towards Simcity territory as far as reception goes…

Full patch notes: [x]

After the success of many other ‘donation’ set-ups for video makers, it seems Google are finally following suit. Today they have released their new ‘tip jar’ function so that you can donate to Youtubers you particularly enjoy.

The tip box can be access through clicking a small box on the top left hand corner of the video screen on those Youtubers who have activated theirs. The viewer then chooses how much to donate and sends it off. Obviously Youtube/Google take a cut of the donation, and how much varies by country. For the US it’s 5% plus 21 cents, which seems to mean that a decent amount of the donation money will go to the video maker rather than Google.

The new feature was teased first at Vidcon in July and has now been rolled out in the US, Mexico, Australia and Japan with Youtube aiming to get the feature working in other countries soon. It remains to be seen if those video makers who previously used sites such as Patreon to help fund their video making will be swayed over to using Google’s new system or not.