Android – Iphone – Applications

Tweet Library is a powerful client capable of more than just accessing Twitter. The app provides a lot of features that users won’t be able to find anywhere else, but the price tag will likely block more than a few potential customers. It’s an app that may actually only appeal to a niche of its potential clientele, hampering its own potential for wide-scale success.

The best quality of this client is the fact that, true to its name, Twitter Library acts as an archive for Tweets. Your conversations and the things you follow won’t disappear into thin air over time. Everything you access is stored locally on your iPad. In addition, the content on Twitter can actually be downloaded to your computer for local storage or published to the web for longterm, remote access. That’s probably a blessing for people that depend on Twitter for business and other highly important conversations.

Users can view Tweets by a specific day, rather than sifting through timelines while trying to find something that was said last week. What’s even cooler is the ability to grab Tweets and copy them to specific collections. These collections, just like other Tweets, can then be saved as a local file that can be downloaded on your computer, or they can be published to the Tweet Library website for remote viewing. So, if an event is happening and Twitter users are responding, all of those Tweets can been lumped up into one list and then saved for later viewing.

Being able to manage multiple Twitter accounts is an added bonus. Anyone who works in Community Development or operates a Twitter account for their company will find being able to hop between their personal and business accounts extremely useful. Couple that with the ability to collect Tweets and publish them, and things like customer support conversations and Twitter contests become much easier to manage.

The app makes good use of the screen space offered by the iPad, presenting users with a large feed on the right and a menu of sorting options on the left. Tweet Library, like the newest version of Twitter, actually uses this real estate to let you preview links and images in small, floating windows. Tap a tweet and the link within pops up and can be explored individually. Aesthetically, however, this app is bland. Those that like nice textures and strong uses of the great display on the iPad will actually be disappointed by the gray and lackluster visuals.

Some elements here simply don’t make sense. When taping on a single tweet, you’re able to reply, retweet, favorite, show the conversation, copy the link or copy the tweet to a collection. Fine and dandy. It takes a few taps to actually select the user and then another tap to see their timeline. But, rather than seeing their timeline, the client actually performs a search with the terms “from:USER” and “to:USER.” That means you’re getting every message sent to the account your searching for, rather than just their messages. In order to see just their messages, you’ll need to enter the search bar and get rid of the “to:USER” term.

Other features are missing from, or are poorly approached in this application as well. The clever method of refreshing by pulling the feed downward, as in the official Twitter app, is absent. Accessing user names and hash-tagged items within Tweets can be a pain. It takes several taps to actually be able to select a hash-tag within a message, which, obviously, is pretty frustrating.

Tweet Library is a strong application that introduces several unique features to the Twitter platform. Being able to publish collections online and filter Tweets for individual elements like pictures and links makes it powerful. But the price tag suggests that there should be more separation from the official, free Twitter client already in the App Store. In fact, it’s because of the price that the only people that will get their money’s worth here are power users that make a living off of the service. Everyone else will likely be just as happy with the free alternative. Especially since the alternative already does a lot of what this app has to offer.

What’s strange about Tweet Library is that it feels like it’s targeting the wrong audience. Perhaps that’s a misstatement. It’s not that this app is targeting the wrong audience, it’s that Tweet Library isn’t aiming directly at the right audience. The bland aesthetics lead the charge, but the entire app feels extremely professional. And professionalism, oddly enough, seems to oppose the foundation of social networking for the majority of users out there. It needs to be emphasized that Tweet Library would probably work well for power users that are seeking professional success on Twitter. In fact, for professionals, Tweet Library may be the best Twitter resource in the App Store.

[ Tweet Library Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by rockingevil \\ tags: Application, client, ipad, ipad apps and games, money, personal, price, rating, search, timeline, tweet, tweets, twitter, user

With the recent hybridization of social networking and location sharing applications such as FourSquare and Facebook, it has become increasingly common to share your whereabouts with the entire world at all times.  The problem is, this can also prove to be a double edged sword, because not only are you sharing where you are, but this also points out where you are NOT.

For example, if I were a web-connected criminal of the 21st century (though I am not, rest assured), I might view a FourSquare check-in from the secluded island resort where you are vacationing as a “please burgle my house” notification.  This is the exact reason why I have not taken part in these social networking experiments.  If big brother is already looking at you, why make it easier, right?

At the risk of sounding like a paranoid mess, I can see the merits of the aforementioned FourSquare and Facebook tools — the problem is that there is no control over who you are sending the notifications to.  This is where a brilliant new app BePut from Grip’d steps in.  The developer best sums up the application’s functionality this way:

“Send driving directions of your exact location to whomever you want. Whether you want to invite your friends to a secret party or tell your client where to meet, Be Put works. Recipients receive a secure and unique “FindMe” key that is required for getting directions…

…Best of all, if you send your location to a friend who doesn’t have the app, they can still get directions with no hassle.” — VIA Be Put Development Blog

I can only imagine that this would be the dream of poor navigators like myself.  No longer am I limited to following the crummy directions of my friends, because with a click of the button I can get a location and turn by turn walk-through at a moment’s notice.  Better yet, you don’t have to be sharing this information with the entire world in the process.  So if you really love your navigationally challenged friends, go out and get this app now.  I, erm, I mean THEY will all thank you for it later.

$0.99

BePut

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-19 :: Category: Utilities

[ Securely Share Locations with BePut is a post from 148Apps ]

written by zulu \\ tags: aforementioned, Application, client, development, entire, house, Iphone, navigationally

We all know that Android phones have Live Wallpapers, and we also know about the special R2-D2 editions. Someone has seen fit to combine the best of both worlds with this R2-D2 Edition Live Wallpaper.

They also come in the non-Live edition if you want to go that direction, and they come in designs ranging from Boba Fett, Yoda, to the man/droid himself.

Just a friendly reminder, the release date for the R2-D2 edition is still September 30th, as far as I know.

Source

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written by j4352 \\ tags: article, client, droid 2 r2-d2 edition, google android, opportunity, permanent-link, phone, r2-d2 edition, r2-d2 live wallpapers, search, seo, tagging, wallpaper, work

If you’ve been following Google (and who isn’t now a days) you may have heard that they recently integrated their Google Voice VoIP service within Gmail. This integration allows for completely free calls to anywhere within the U.S. and Canada straight from the Gmail web interface – pretty amazing if you ask me.

However, Gmail isn’t the only platform that will be getting some Google Voice love as the search engine giant is also looking to heavily integrate the service within their Android mobile operating system. In fact, today, it was made official that Google Voice widgets for Android are a go and now available for download through the Android Marketplace.

Google says that these widgets will allow users to easily compose and send free text messages, access the Google Voice app and more.

Read (Google)

Incoming search terms for this article:

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written by husain \\ tags: Application, article, black, cell phones, client, Download, google-voice, Iphone, permanent-link, seo, tagging, terms-tagging, voice, voip

Cerulean Studios first rolled out Trillian more than a decade ago, back in July 2000. Today it exists as an application available on all major operating systems, both desktop and mobile. The iPhone version alone took over two years to create, from the initial alpha development to final release in November 2009.

Presently, Trillian for iPhone supports a lengthy list of clients: MSN / Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook Chat, MySpaceIM, Jabber, AIM, ICQ and Google Talk. In terms of connectivity, the application doesn’t disappoint; even in comparison to the mammoth IM+ client. As with all multi-client applications, Trillian allows you to sign into all accounts at once, preventing the need of having multiple applications at your fingertips.

Getting started is a relatively painless process – you’ll need to first register an account with Trillian (free) before you can begin logging in to all your clients. Once registered, you can begin connecting to your services at will.

Trillian includes all of the expected features for an IM messaging client, such as intelligent push notifications that tell you the contents of a message when it has been received, and low-bandwidth support for those on restricted data packages. Visually, it is a clean and smartly designed application. Contact list groups are collapsable and expandable, names can be edited, avatars can be viewed and a search is present. Of note are the size of avatars: small, which not only reduces data and loading times but also makes more contacts visible without having the need to scroll. Contact information is also viewable with a tap.

The chat windows are similarly sleek. An iPhone SMS style conversation gives Trillian an official feel, and if you’re running multiple chats Trillian’s tab feature means that switching between conversations requires only a single tap at the top of the screen. The keyboard can be hidden. The application also features typing notification support, meaning you can see whenever a user is typing you a message.

In addition to text, photos can be sent between contacts. Photos are first uploaded to Trillian’s servers, meaning a smaller preview picture appears like what an MMS looks like in the SMS application of the iPhone. Buzzes can also be sent to supported clients, to alert the recipient of your existence. If you quit Trillian it will still be running in the background – even on older generation iPhones – so if a message is received a badge will appear on the Trillian icon alerting you. You go can go offline by signing out within the application.

Overall, the client is very visually appealing, and its features are ample for instant messengers. My only problem was that on my iPhone 3G I did find it somewhat slow, particularly in re-initiating the application after it has been closed. Nonetheless, Trillian is stable, secure and well worth the $4.99 price tag.

[ Trillian Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by husain \\ tags: $4.99, aim, Application, client, clients, facebook, gtalk, msn, myspace, overall-rating, rating, trillian, trillian-review