On PR Newswire: Twitter Redesigns App, Barbie Reveals Diverse Ken Lineup, Tobacco Use Drops

With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire for Journalists. Here are some of this week’s most newsworthy releases you might have missed.

Source: PRNewsFoto/Twitter

Twitter Redesigns App to Make it Faster and Easier to See What’s Happening

Twitter on June 15 announced a new design that emphasizes simplicity, making it lighter, faster, and easier to use. Changes include bolder headlines, more intuitive icons to make it easier to engage with Tweets, and live updates to reply, Retweet and like counts so people can watch conversations unfold in real time. The design also brings together the Profile, additional accounts, settings, and privacy tabs in a new side navigation menu on iOS, following a successful rollout of the feature on Android last year.  These updates will roll out across twitter.com, Twitter for iOS, Twitter for Android, TweetDeck, and Twitter Lite over the coming days and weeks.

Youth Tobacco Product Use, Including E-Cigarettes, Drops During 2015-2016

The number of middle and high school students who say they are current tobacco users – defined as having used a tobacco product in the past 30 days – dropped from 4.7 million in 2015 to 3.9 million in 2016, according to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products. These findings from the 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey appear in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The decline in use of tobacco products was primarily driven by a drop in e-cigarette use among middle and high school students from 3 million in 2015 to just under 2.2 million in 2016. In addition, declines were also seen during 2015-2016 among high school students who used two or more tobacco products, any combustible tobacco products, and hookah.

Source: PRNewsFoto/Mattel

Barbie Brand Reveals Most Diverse Ken Lineup to Date

On June 20 Mattel announced the expansion of its Fashionistas line with 15 new and diverse Ken dolls, featuring three body types – slim, broad and original – and a variety of skin tones, eye colors, hairstyles and modern fashion looks. The new Ken dolls join an expanded Barbie Fashionistas line, making it the most diverse fashion doll line in the marketplace.  In 2016, Barbie introduced three new Barbie body types – tall, curvy and petite – along with new skin tones, eye colors, hairstyles and countless on-trend fashions and accessories.  The Barbie brand has always reflected the times, so modernizing Ken is the next step in the brand’s evolution to offer more diverse products.

#1 U.S. Drama NCIS Named the Most Watched Drama in the World

CBS Studios International said on June 20 that NCIS, the #1 drama on U.S. television for the eighth consecutive year, is the most watched drama TV series in the world, according to Eurodata TV Worldwide. At the 57th Monte-Carlo Television Festival, CBS’ series received the prestigious 12th International Television Audience Award for a Drama TV Series. NCIS has now won the award three out of the last four years. The annual International Audience Award is presented jointly by the Monte-Carlo Television Festival and Eurodata TV Worldwide. It rewards programs that delivered the highest ratings in 2016 worldwide across five continents, in three categories: Drama TV Series, Comedy TV Series, and Telenovelas/Soap Operas.

Source: PRNewsFoto/Solar eclipse

Solar Eclipse Across America: Science, Yes, and So Much More!

Astronomers and solar physicists will be out in force during this summer’s total eclipse of the sun, now just two months away. They’ll use ground-based telescopes, airborne instruments, and orbiting satellites to shed new light on some of the sun’s best-kept secrets. But if there’s one thing the American Astronomical Society (AAS) wants you to know, it’s that the Aug. 21 solar eclipse is much more than a scientific bonanza — it’s an opportunity for ordinary people from all walks of life to experience what is arguably nature’s most awesome spectacle. When the moon totally blocks the sun’s bright face (https://eclipse.aas.org/eclipse-america/eclipse-experience), the landscape darkens suddenly, bright stars and planets shine forth in a twilight-blue sky, pastel hues of sunset glow around the horizon, the temperature drops noticeably, and birds and animals behave as if night has fallen.

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Larry Grady is online content manager at PR Newswire for Journalists.  He has worked in business media for nearly 30 years and enjoys reality TV and daydreaming about travel and wine.