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09
Mar 11

My favourite Twitter client gets an update

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I’m using Echofon on my Mac, iPhone and iPad. Every time somebody mentioned how great all these other Twitter clients are I tried them, but none of them even came close.
My favourite features:

  • Echofon will synchronize your unread Tweets between systems. This is something I have not seen in any other client so far.
  • Echofon is light and fast.
  • The UI is easy and consistent – no fancy graphics that take away reading estate.
  • Lots of innovative features, like integrated URL shortening and image previews.

Now the one feature I have been waiting for made it into the new version: Echofon allowed filtering before, but 1.4 will finally allow filtering by client – no more paper.li in my feed!

Can’t wait until I get home to install it….

Echofon - naan studio, Inc.

Blogging — Comments Off
02
Sep 10

iTunes Ping – Finding people, adding friends

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There’s a lot to write about Ping, but before I get to that I need to play with it for a while. iTunes 10 was only available for download late late last night, so I haven’t done a lot. I have created an account (yet another network to maintain – ), and like many other people I have been unsuccessful in adding a picture. People have hinted that Apple may review pictures. If that is the case, new Apps in the store will probably be delayed even longer ;)

Anyway, after I created the account I started looking for friends I knew had also created accounts, but I couldn’t find any. Again, somebody said that you probably only appear in the directory after your image has been approved (not that this is available as a status message somewhere).

But I have found a way to add people nonetheless: go to your profile and right-cllick on your name:

Click on “Copy Link” and send it to your friends, tweet it or post it on Facebook. Friends can then find you and connect to you easily.

Blogging — 2 Comments
10
Jan 10

Old gadgets are still useful: Blackberry 7290

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When I’m on the road, I usually have my work laptop with built-in 3G with me. I also carry a Nokia 3270 Classic for phone calls (robust, great keyboard, fantastic battery life) and an iPod Nano for podcasts and music (the iPod Touch is a lot more fun, but crap for in-car usage).
My work phone does not have a data plan, so I have to use the Laptop for Twitter and emails. As the &%$%§ Vista machine needs 10 minutes to wake up from standby, this is not exactly perfect. I have a dual SIM for my data card (it’s my personal SIM), so I decided to get a cheap device with QWERTZ keyboard for email and Twitter.

I quickly found a Blackberry 7290 in mint condition on eBay for EUR 50 – not bad for a start!

Now, the problem is that you usually need to buy Blackberry Service from your operator to use data services, which I did not want to do. So the first step was to update to OS 4.1, which allows you to simply enter a GPRS APN that apps can use.

Then of course the BB still refuses to let you use the built-in browser to download apps. In order for the browser to even appear, you usually (again) need to subscribe to BB service, then your operator will push something calles a “Service Book” to your device, which unhides the browser.
It’s a good thing there are smart people out there, so please got to “Blackberry without BIS” where you can simply download a service book and install it through the BB desktop software.

Then use the browser to download some apps – unfortunately not all will work with OS 4.1.

What I got:

  • The GMail Client which even works with my Google Apps account, and will flash the LED when new mail arrives. This is as good as push for me, without requiring the BIS service.
  • Opera Mini for browsing
  • GoTalkMobile for GTalk
  • BlackBird as a Twitter client (not great, but haven’t found a better one yet)

All in all, a decent experience with minimum spending. It’s an incredibly robust device with USB charging, outstanding battery life and a great keyboard. Recommended.

Blogging — 2 Comments
07
Sep 09

Smart and not so smart uses of Twitter

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More and more companies are using Twitter as an infrastructure to built new services on, most focussed on marketing related issues.

The latest one I stumbled upon is The Symbian Foundation’s Screen Saver that seems to pull in mentions of the word “symbian” from twitter and displays them on users screens.

greenshot_2009-09-07_14-46-37

I can think of soooo many ways how this could backfire – I guess being a security consultant just makes me think in weird ways sometimes ;)

Blogging — 10 Comments
06
Jul 09

Bye bye, Plaxo!

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I’ve been using Plaxo for several years now. Plaxo’s main advantage over any over solution has always been that it will automatically keep my address book up to date whenever people change their own data. We use Outlook at work, so to be able to keep my address book current was fantastic.

Today I realized that my sync from Outlook did not seem to do anything. Then I saw people tweeting that Plaxo will start charging for the Outlook sync feature. A quick look at my sync options confirmed this:

greenshot_2009-07-06_11-58-15

They didn’t even offer to export your contacts. I used the trial upgrade to premium, but even that did not offer an export function.

I don’t need another silo. I’m done with Plaxo, and I cancelled my account today. Looking at Twitter, I’m not the only one…

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