Twitter - Word of the year 2009!

Twitter usage seems to be growing exponentially and is now considered a crucial form of communication by many individuals and organisations. Until recently, the main focus of the Twitter developers has been to scale the service and make it more reliable. Based on Twitters current performance, they seem to have cracked these particular issues.

So now, the focus has shifted to increasing functionality with the recent addition of two significant changes to the Twitter platform, Twitter Lists and a new ReTweet Mechanism. In order to take advantage of this new functionality, most third party developers are in catch up mode to re-code and release new versions of Twitter client applications. One of the recent releases to fully take advantage, is Tweetie 2.1 from Atebits.com

If you’re new to Twitter, you might want to checkout the previous Twitter shows I did to grasp some of the basics - SCO0163 - Twitter

This week's show is in two parts:

The first part explores and explains the new Twitter features using the hugely improved Twitter Web interface.

The second part features the latest version of the best iPhone Twitter client available (well, in my humble opinion) and that's Tweetie 2.1. Tweetie 2.1 for the iPhone has been re-written to take advantage of the new Twitter features and the show exposes and explains how to access and make the best use of them.

In detail, the show covers:

• Twitter Lists
• New Retweet Mechanism
• Tweetie 2.1
• Setting up your Twitter account
• Timeline Screen Icons
• Reading & Responding
• HashTag Support
• Translation Support
• Replying & Managing
• Sending from Multiple Accounts
• ReTweeting
• Gap Indicator Zone
• Creating and Sending Tweets
• Sending Attachments
• Creating Hashtags & Links
• Settings, Profiles & Lists
• Accessing Your Profile
• Accessing & Managing Your Lists
• Accessing Favourites

Discussions: Forum

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About This Weeks Show


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I’ve been a huge fan of Tweetie, the Twitter client for the iPhone and it's been my firm favourite for quite a while. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the developer was working on a new version of Tweetie, but this time, for the Mac desktop.
The Mac community has been buzzing with anticipation for quite a few weeks until finally, the application was launched this week.

Well, has it lived up to expectations?

Most definitely, and then some!

Tweetie for the Mac has firmly established itself, in just a few short days, as the application that brings the Mac experience to Twitter users. Packed with features, tons of eye candy and rock solid, Tweetie certainly delivers on all accounts.

This week's show takes your on a tour of Tweetie and introduces you to some of its great new features. The full show covers:

• Introduction to Tweetie
• Tweetie user Interface
• Reading Tweets & Conversations
• Preferences
• Sending Tweets
• Viewing Profiles
• Replying to Tweets
• Search & Bookmarklet
• Multiple Accounts

Links: Tweetie

Discussions: Forum

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As promised, this weeks show follows on from last week, and covers some of the top Twitter clients available for the Mac (and Windows in two cases)

The Twitter web interface is functional but could be better. Luckily, and some would say one of the catalysts of Twitters success, the Twitter developers have released a Twitter API or Application Programming Interface, that allows third party developers to create external clients for Twitter for the Desktop and Mobile devices. In this weeks show I cover three of the top Twitter Desktop clients:

Twitterrific - A native Mac application that is the application of choice for many, many Mac users. A combination of small desktop footprint, support for keyboard shortcuts and access to many of OSX's inbuilt functions such as spell checker, makes this application ideally suited to the Mac environment. Link



Twhirl - The first of two applications built on Adobes AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) - a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or Ajax, that can be deployed as a desktop application. Consequently, Twhirl can run both on OSX and Windows. The only downside is that this application doesn't have access to standard OSX components like Twitterrific, or support for keyboard shortcuts. This is offset by a much more feature rich Twitter environment along with support for other social networks built right into the Application. Link


TweetDeck - The second application built on AIR, TweetDeck takes a unique approach by organising your Tweets into a multicolumn layout as well as keeping a local store of all your tweets. Add in support for some great realtime search features plus some other specialised support for Twitter services make TweetDeck a great option, but you need to have plenty of screen real estate to get the most out of it. TweetDeck is ideally suited to those of us with multiple monitor setups. Since this show was recorded, a new version of TweetDeck has been released with support for 12seconds, a sort of Twitter service but for video clips. Link

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
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Twitter! If you haven’t used it, you don’t know what you are missing! Launched in 2006, Twitter has become the de-facto standard for micro blogging and even after suffering problems with downtime and the famous “failwhale” people still go back to it, refusing to jump off Twitter onto the other micro blogging platforms. Ok, they might try others out, but they always keep one foot firmly in the twitter camp!

Twitter has long transcended its original intended usage and has been transformed by the user base into an indispensable social and business communications tool.

Basically it’s a simple centralised messaging system, which allows you to post text messages of up to 140 characters.

Simple!

You can follow other like minded people, news sites, commercial organisations, friends, family, colleagues, in fact all sorts of people and organisations and exchange messages with them. Twitter is both a noticeboard and a conversational tool allowing you to have your own “virtual watercooler” and feel more connected in this ever increasingly digital age. You really have to try it to fully understand the benefits it can bring.

Update: @jane73 from Australia has posted a typical story about a new twitter user finding her way around over on her blog - Twitter Explained, Well Sort Of... - worth checking out!

So this weeks show takes you through the basics of Twitter. The show covers:

• Setting up a Twitter Account
• Twitter Settings
• Using the Twitter Web Interface
• Finding People Using Twitter
• Twitter Messages
• Twitter @Replies
• Twitter Direct Messages
• Using Twitter Notices

That’s just for starters and will give you a good grounding in Twitter basics and using Twitter on the web.

Next week, I’ll be taking a look at some popular Twitter clients that further enhance the usability of Twitter and make it even easier to use.

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
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