This is cool :: the TWITTERVISION app for iPhone

October 29, 2008 By

Twittervision for iPhone

Thomas (Headphonaught): I am a follower of God in the way of Jesus.  I dig great beats, inclusive faith, innovative design, and a good cup o’ cha. I am big on Apple… open source ideas… new means of connecting with people… and exploring the wonderful ‘tinterweb. 
See Thomas’ latest posts here.

I love people-watching… sitting in a coffeehouse somewhere and watching peoples’ comings and goings. It’s fun to follow their interactions… check out their style… you get the picture.

Online I love to look at the featured pics in Flickr… and I love to follow the tweetflow on Twittervision – reading random tweets from all over the world… placed into context by a map of the world.

Twittervision have a free app available for the iPhone that enhances, imho, the experience. Worthy addition to the twitterverse and my iPhone.

Check it out!

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This is cool :: Xperia’s panels

October 22, 2008 By
Sony Ericsson Xperia

OK whilst I’m not the biggest fan of Windows Mobile… I am mighty impressed with the Xperia. Sony Ericsson’s first Windows Mobile phone.

I haven’t had a play with it… so I can’t talk about the user experience. The thing that excites me is the panels option. The phone has space for 9 different panels on its desktop… with panels available from providers such as Google, Microsoft and Sony Ericsson themselves.

Cool Hunting: Xperia Version

What I especially like is that Sony Ericsson have opened up their code to developers so that people with the know-how and willingness to try something new can develop their own pages.

Cool Hunting… one of my fave blogs and a go-to site for the best in design… has created a panel specifically for their website.  I respect their proactivity here.

Cool Hunting: iPhone Version

This proactivity has manifest itself previously with their iPhone/iPod Touch-specific mobile website. There’s is the kind of forethought that I love as a consumer of meaningful content… and is the kind of thing that keeps me going back for more.

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This is cool :: Chauhan’s DECT phone :: Colombo Two

October 15, 2008 By

Chauhan's DECT Phone I really like this DECT phone from designers Tej and Sach Chauhan for SunCorp.  Its different from the current brace of DECT phones on the market.  I think it has something special about it… a tactileness that is beguiling.

They have deliberately gone for a design that seeks to re-establish the relationship between the earpiece and the mouthpiece… and I get it.
Chauhan's DECT phone
It is available at Colloco in white and orange… although they appear to be in high demand and are experiencing Nintendo-esque stock shortages.  Although, me thinks they will be worth the wait… as my folks said when they finally got their paws on a Wii Fit.

£39.95 each or dual for £59.95 (P&P free over £50)

Edit: The phone is no longer available from Colloco, but you can find it on Amazon.co.uk*

* Affiliate link

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Finally… VoIP for the iPhone via Fring

October 8, 2008 By
Fring website

I like to surf the app store to check out the new free apps… I tend to keep most of the ones I try and, on the odd occasion, do upgrade from a lite version to a full fat app.

A couple of nights ago I checked out Fring because it looked promising… with the potential to bring VoIP (voice over IP aka using your data connection to transmit your voice) to my iPhone. I run a podcast with a good friend in Texas and we use Skype and Twitter to make it happen.

Fring gives you access to MSN, Gtalk, AIM and Yahoo Messenger as well as the ubiquitous Twitter and Skype… via your iPhone or iPod Touch. It also provides access to other less well known VoIP too (to me anyway) such as SIPNET, EuteliaVoIP, VoIPVoIP and VoIPTalk… which is cool.

The messengers and Twitter only need a data connection… whereas it needs wifi for Skype and the VoIPs to work… but still… it looks awesome… and brings to the iPhone some long requested functionality.

Fring

So far I have conducted a gtalk IM conversation with Chris (see pic) and a Skype call via my iPhone… again with Chris.

The IM conversation was sweet… clear and concise onscreen with an unique “ring” when the message arrived.

The Skype call was good too… albeit there was a satellite delay.  I put this down to the difference between London (where Chris is just now) and Motherwell where I am based… afterall London is so far ahead of everywhere :-)

Fring on various handsets

What gets me about Fring is the number of devices it supports… it isn’t an iPhone only deal… in fact, they have established themselves prior to creating their iPhone app.

In addition to the iPhone app, they support Symbian 8 and 9, Windows Mobile, and UIQ. They also have a “mini” version for J2ME phones and support Linux too.  Their support for Nokia and Sony-Ericsson phones (including my old phone… the fab K800) is pretty extensive, which significantly extends their userbase… although they don’t appear to support the Crackberry… which leaves a gap, I suppose.

They also provide functionality that isn’t included with the iPhone app – Facebook… vTap… Orkut… and a Gmail notifier – for the other devices.  Personally, I think we’ll see great things from Fring when the Gphone is finally in the open.

Well worth checking out.

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Twitter + Jaiku + Plurk = ???

June 6, 2008 By

Headphonaught’s Twitter

As you all know… I LOVE Twitter and have become something of an addicted evangelist for the platform… and, more importantly, the concept of tweets. I communicate with friends in Texas and the Far East in 140 characters or less. I even planned the majority of my latest podcasting adventure :: something beautiful :: with my good friend JD. I love Twitter because a good whack of my friends are on it… and it has a number of sweet apps that work with it, some I have covered before.

However… the big problem with Twitter imho is its unreliability… its been like a rollercoaster of late… up and down and up then down again etc etc. Its a great concept… delivered well… and has a really loyal following… and that’s why I haven’t given up on it.

But there are alternatives…

Headphonaught’s Jaiku

I recently received an invite to join Jaiku and have been playing about with it. Twhirl is fab because it allows you to post to Twitter and send a duplicate message to Jaiku… which takes the hassle out of duplicate posting. What I like about Jaiku is the threaded conversations… you can respond to a “presence” (as Jaiku call a Tweet) by replying… and, in doing so, you create a thread… which keeps the conversation in one place rather than all over the place. You can also use “icons” to aid the message… which is cool… and you can update via text (just like Twitter) which is handy when you are out and about (believe it or not… I don’t have mobile internet on my phone… just yet, anyway).

The downside of Jaiku is well… its like a cool “third place” that nobody you know goes to… and you need an invite to enter. You need to spend time getting to know new folk… because all the pals you have on Twitter aren’t on Jaiku too… and you can’t invite them yourself.

Just like Twitter… Jaiku displays messages in a newest at the top reverse chronological order… which is great for keeping current… but causes problems when seeking to follow a conversation.

Headphonaught’s Plurk

This is where a new service called Plurk comes into its own… because Plurk displays your messages on a timeline… with a similar ability to respond to messages… keeping the conversation together in space AND time. Plurk is new… looks great… and is open to all, unlike Jaiku… but I don’t know how it will fare in a mobile setting or behind corporate killjoy firewalls.

There is another service called pownce that I have yet to try… which already works with Twhirl… but I have my limits… for now.

Personally… I would like to post once via a tool like Twhirl and follow all my conversations from one place. I guess this is the microblogging equivalent of myspace/ bebo/ facebook/ orkut not really talking to each other… let’s see where it goes.

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Is it just me…

May 19, 2008 By

or does the ad for Smokefree – NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s (NHSGGC’s) stop smoking services – look kind of familiar???

Twitter’s bird


Smokefree’s bird



Hmm… what do you think?

Edit: Thanks to John, who points out in the comments that the bird is available on iStockPhoto!

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This is WAY cool :: Again & Again” by the Bird & the Bee

May 15, 2008 By

Great song and A W E S O M E video… fantastic! Makes me happy.

Filed Under: Media

This is cool :: Iconfactory

May 6, 2008 By

Check out iconfactory for some sweet wallpapers and icons… especially their latest for the new Indiana Jones film or for Patapon. Nice kit for Mac and Windows.

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This is cool :: Paparazzi!

May 6, 2008 By

MacOSX alert!!! Paparazzi is a fab piece of donationware that is so simple and yet so effective – basically it is a small utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of webpages.

Here’s a pic I took for a post on my blog…

I think it works a treat… and is going to be an important tool in my Mac toolbox. Nice!

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This is cool :: Skitch

May 4, 2008 By
iTunes
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

I like Skitch – its a fab wee app that I discovered from the top 100 Mac apps that I posted about previously. It is a screen capture tool on steroids… designed for online collaboration.

I took the above snap when my iPod was updating and added a couple of things to try to demonstrate Skitch’s usefulness:

  1. I highlighted my iPod’s stats… and was able to add what the stats translate to – number of songs etc.
  2. I was also able to blacken out my serial number.

I did all this in minutes… and then posted it to Skitch’s webspace.

    Skitch.com > headphonaught > iTunes
    Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

I then had a number of sharing options (see above):

  1. URL for this page
  2. Direct URL
  3. Embed
  4. Full Size
  5. Forum

I have used the “embed” option so far… and am working my way through the others. What is a nice option is that the picture can be “public”, “secret” (as in you need the URL to get to the page) or “private”. Again, I need to explore these options.

One last feature that I think is cool is that, because I logged my twitter account on sign on, I can post this pic on twitter.

I live Skitch and would recommend it. It is a freeware app for Mac OSX.

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