Recent Posts

Twitter made an alteration to their API for "in reply to" statuses this week that I felt required a change in the way that iTweet.net handles sending @replies.



One of my personal favorite iTweet features is the "in reply to" links that show what tweet a person was @replying to inline - so you can follow conversations without leaving the page you're on.



Previously if no particular status was specified, Twitter assigned the "in reply to" link to the last tweet of the person who was replied to.  As of this week, they are only assigning that link if a particular tweet was specified - otherwise there will be no "in reply to" tweet marked.  This will help make conversation threading much more clear, but it also required that Twitter API clients get on board with the new method to ensure that threads are clearly designated.



(In case you're wondering, @replies to you will still show up in your Replies tab if no tweet was specified - but there will not be a particular thread attached.)



Here's how I've decided to handle this change - when you click the @ button to send a reply, a small box above the...

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