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I saw a lot of discussion going on in the Twitterverse recently about standard conventions for "retweeting" - the increasingly popular habit of repeating someone else's tweet verbatim with a credit to their username (or as close to verbatim as possible inside of the 140-character limit).



I personally don't retweet often, but I see it happening more and more every day. (Whether or not this increases the quality of Twitter conversations is a debate for another post.) Enough users of iTweet.net, the Twitter client for the Web and iPhone that I make, requested a retweet button so I went ahead and added one several weeks ago.



Several weeks ago, savvy iTweet.net user David Simmons had written me to ask if iTweet could use the Unicode "recycle" symbol ♺ as a standard for retweeting.  I immediately liked the idea - it's expressive, cool-looking and best of all it's only one character long, conserving space for more tweet.



Unfortunately I looked into it and found that the symbol doesn't render in SMS messages or on the iPhone.  Since iTweet.netis an iPhone web app, and since a large number of Twitter users rely on SMS, IMO this makes it a no-go for...

iTweet.net user John Haydon made this fantastic "How To" video called Setting Up And Using iTweet.Net and posted it on his blog, CorporateDollar.org.  Nice work John!





The response to iTweet 2's web interface has been truly extraordinary and now WAY surpasses usage of the original iPhone interface.  It is so wonderful to see a larger user community developing and producing great stuff like this video.  Thanks everyone!

Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

Technorati tags: itweet, twitter, video, iphone, howto, diy, web app

I've made a couple additions and modifications to iTweet this week, they are lots of fun and add some great functionality!



In the Web interface I've added Statistics to your profile in the top right - so you can see at a glance your number of updates, favorites, following and followers. This updates itself as you tweet, fave and follow.  There is also an "Appearance" preference in the Settings menu - you can keep the default iTweet look OR import your Twitter profile's appearance - background image, font colors, sidebar color and everything!



If you are wondering "where did the nifty follow/notifications/block buttons go?", I have moved them all to the Profile pages to make better use of the API and make these methods more intuitive.  The old method assumed whether you were following a person or not based on the timeline they were found in; this was a little confusing and inconvenient, so I've moved it to the Profile page.  Here the page can tell (via the Twitter API call) whether you are following that person or not, and present the correct options depending on that status.



There's also an "is so-and-so following me?" button so you can see...

Twitter just made a great addition to their Search API: Twitter Trends!



This method allows you to see the hot topics of discussion across the entire Twitterverse.  This is a neat way to keep up on breaking news, technology trends, political sentiments, or the latest Internet meme that everyone's tweeting about.



When I hear about some fresh news or tech rumor, I do a quick Twitter search before I go to any news website; it's a great way to find a wealth of links to pertinent content across the Web.



I've added the Twitter Trends method to both the iPhone and the Web version of iTweet.net.  I think it will become a fun way to keep up on current events, and to entertain myself when I'm stuck in line at the bank.  ;)   Enjoy!

Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.

Technorati Tags: itweet, itweet.net, twitter, iphone, trends, api, colby palmer

Today I'm releasing a major upgrade to iTweet, an interface for Twitter that is one of my pet projects.  This is a double release: a hugely improved iPhone Web app, and an all-new interface for any Web browser.



Click here to give the new iTweet a try!



Beginning with the iPhone app, there are some key features to note:

• Tap user pictures to toggle bio information. This section allows you to see a user's location, bio, and URL.  There are quick links to send a DM, view extended profile, turn notifications on/off, block, and follow/unfollow.
• "In reply to" links allow you to see the tweet a person was replying to, without loading a new page.
  
  
• Built-in search and hashtags via the Twitter Search API.
  
  
• Monitor your remaining API requests using the number in the "refresh" button.
  
  
• Update (and check) your location from the Settings menu.
  
  
• Change your notifications device, get more detailed API usage info, set hashtags preferences, and more from the Settings menu.
  
  
• Vastly improved speed in loading all timelines.
  
  

As before, a basic rule of thumb with iTweet goes: tap the avatar to see a person's profile, tap the username to see a person's tweets.



There...