Return Of The Clients

If you been using twitter (and after reading my previous posts, I sincerely hope you are!), then you are definitely familiar with the twitter website and it's features or lack thereof!
Don't get me wrong, the web-site is very simple and clutter-free (unlike facebook and orkut), but reading tweets from multiple peeps becomes somewhat of a challenge. Also, you have to constantly refresh your page to check on different portions of your twitter page (read favorites, followers, mentions, etc.)

What if you could organize the people you follow, keep all your favorite tweets at easy reach and have a holistic view of your twitter experience?

Enter the twitter clients!


Table Top Wonders!
You've got Outlook (or ThunderBird if you're into open source!) to manage you mail offline. So why should your tweets be treated differently. Desktop clients are the key to tracking your tweeps and their tweets in an organized and fun manner. Here are some of the best desktop twitter clients -

TweetDeck

Managing your tweets couldn't get simpler than this! Built on the Adobe Air, TweetDeck offers integration with your twitter, facebook and myspace accounts.
TweetDeck is the complete package, upload media, shorten your URLs, maintain your hashtag history and even translate your tweet!
A prominent feature of TweetDeck (one which makes it my preferred desktop client) is the column. Create separate columns for different functions, i.e. one to track all your DMs, one for all your mentions, one for your list of followers and so on. This is great if you're interested in organizing all your tweets and focusing on specific aspects of your twitter timeline.
If you are serious about tweeting, TweetDeck is definitely the way to go!



Seesmic

Next to Tweetdeck, Seesmic is perhaps the most sought after twitter desktop client. And for good reason. The client has a web, desktop and mobile avatar and also supports integration with your facebook profile.
Although I've downloaded the seesmic desktop client, I don't really use it much, but those who have,swear by it. So do check it out before you zero in on a client.
Pssst...if you are really interested in a more detailed comparison between TweetDeck and Seesmic, check out this link


HootSuite

Although a web based client, HootSuite offers most, if not all the functions available in TweetDeck and Seesmic. Labeled as the twitter client for professionals, HootSuite is essentially targeted at those organizations who wish to leverage twitter for their social media presence.
But that doesn't mean that you need to be the CEO of a company to appreciate the features provided by this baby!
A few things that I liked, were the customized shrunk links that allow you to track the number of hits on the target web-page, provision for scheduled tweets and profile statistics summary.


Fun On The Run!
Tweeting is all about keeping your updates mobile. Let's face it, not all of us spend hours together in front of the PC, well not voluntarily at least. So if you need to keep feeding the twitter bird on an hourly basis with your tweets, how do you do that? Well thankfully there are a plethora of clients designed for every mobile phone platform (read OS). Some of the most popular ones are -


Gravity

Designed for Symbian smart phones (read Nokia N&E Series and the likes), this is by far the best in its class. Apart from supporting all the standard twitter functions (retweet, reply, favorite, Direct Message, etc), Gravity also features other cool features. These include forwarding a tweet as an SMS (super awesome!), uploading pictures to multiple media sharing sites (Mobypicture, posterous, twitpic, twitgoo, yfrog, img.ly), creating groups of your followers and even schedule your tweets.
Gravity also integrates with Google Reader. So if you have a RSS feeds synced with your Google Reader, then you can read them right off your phone!
Recently even a facebook integration has been introduced. Although it's still a little buggy, but nonetheless a great addition to an amazing mobile client.
Be warned, this application is not freeware and comes with a price tag of $9.95 (plus taxes). But it's worth every cent!


Tweets60

Tweets60 was the first free native twitter application for Nokia S60. Tweets60 lets you change your status, read the tweets of people you follow, re-tweet, and manage who you follow.
With a fairly simple interface and basic functions of twitter, this is the a great mobile client for those who don't want too many fancy features.


Tweetie

Tweetie is the twitter client for the oh so sought after iPhone and iTouch. Well to be fair, it is originally the twitter client for the Mac, and has a mobile version for Apple's touch products.
Needless to say that the features of this bad boy are at par with the other touch applications. And in true Apple style, Tweetie has seamless integration not only with your web profiles but also your phone address book.
Apart from that the client is fully loaded with features like one-touch media upload, group management, landscape support and much more.
If you own an iPhone (or the iTouch), this is the client you need on your device.


And with that, the Twitter Critter series comes to an end. Through this series I have tried to cover as much area as possible to make your twitter experience as simple and hassle-free as possible.

I hope that these posts have been helpful in demystifying the twitter universe, oops I mean Twitterverse.
Do let me know if there are any other aspects of Twitter that you'd like more gyann on. Till then...


Happy Tweeting!


Previously in the series:
The Twitter Critter Strikes Back!
Attack Of The Apps

The Twitter Critter Strikes Back!

 I know I have already sung songs of high praise about twitter in an earlier post. But many of my friends, who are quite active on other social networks (facebook, orkut), don't seem to be very accepting of the latest entrant in the soc-net scene. So I decided to break the ice, so to speak, between these skeptics and twitter by spreading some 'gyaan' through my blog.

This post is the first of a three part series detailing (in a manner of speaking) various aspects of the Twitter Universe (or as we tweeps call it, the twitverse!). This post will talk about the basics of twitter and how to use it. The next post in the series will talk about third party applications that help you enrich your twitter presence and the final post in the series will discuss various twitter clients to help make your twitter experience simple yet effective.




So What is this twitter thingie?

Conventional Blogs tend to be lengthy and are usually topic/theme specific, periodic and well let's face it sometimes downright boring (qualities that this particular blog hopes never to live up to!). It's almost impossible to leverage your blog to stay in touch with your friends, family and colleagues, well not on a personal basis at least.

Enter the micro-blog. Same concept as a blog but with a size limit. You pen your thoughts, but since the length of your "post" is limited (with 140 characters, that's an understatement!) your thoughts are pretty short. This lets you get creative with your posts and lets you  update people about what's happening with you or as the tag line on your twitter page says it - What Are You Doing? Users 'tweet' their thoughts, rantings, comments, jokes and absolutely anything that can be put into words. Well within 140 characters to be more precise.

If you're familiar with facebook, twitter is essentially the 'What's on your mind' section of your facebook page. At the core, Twitter is all about letting the world know what you are upto, plain and simple! To start off, simply go to the twitter website, register yourself and you are ready to be part of the twiterrati!


What do I tweet about?
Most newbie tweeters get intimidated by this thought (I know I was!). Well it's simple. Tweet about what ever catches your fancy. What are you doing, or going to do, or have already done! Start with a simple "Hello World" (programmers you can dig this one right!), talk about the weather, the news, latest movies, music, food, pets or even  the color of your boss's secretary's eyes! Yes tweeting is all about being who you really are and what goes on in that head of yours!

But you can only hold up a conversation with yourself for so long. Being on twitter (or any other soc-net site) is about building your network. So start following other tweeters. Start by finding your personal friends who are already on twitter. Invite a few from your mail address book if they aren't already users. You can even use twitter's own Recommended Users list. But don't go overboard and follow every tweep you see. Gradually build up your twitter network. Then start tweeting with them, about them, or just at them!

Follow The Leader

In twitter lingo, following someone is equivalent to adding that person to your twitter network. Following someone automatically lets you see their tweets. Conversely if someone follows you, they get to see all your tweets. Following someone results in their tweets being displayed on your twitter page. The list of tweets you see is commonly known as a time-line.

And don't be surprised if you find random tweeple (twitter people a.k.a peeps) following you. If you don't like that kind of thing, don't sweat it. you can keep your tweets private and allow only people whom you authorize to follow you and in effect your tweets.

Apart from your own network and other random people, there are many celebrity tweeters out there who are worth following, start with them. Since following anyone on a twitter is fairly unrestricted, you can follow your favorite celeb tweeters and stay in the loop about the latest gossip and happenings in their lives.

Do keep in mind, just because you are following them doesn't mean they are following you as well. With twitter, the follow could be one-way. But don't worry,if your tweets are interesting, they'll soon turn around and start following you!

Give And Ye Shall Receive

Want to mention your fellow tweeter in your tweet? Simply send out a tweet by prefixing his/her user name with a @. You'll see that the peep's name is now a link redirecting to their profile. Neat nah? This is a great way for you to mention your friends on twitter and encourage others to mingle with them.

Another way to mention your fellow peeps is by retweeting. Retweeting is similar to the concept of forwarding messages or emails. Retweets are prefixed with a RT followed by the fellow tweeter whose tweet you are retweeting. Its a fun way of spreading jokes, news articles or any interesting material across the twitverse. Retweeting is equivalent to flattery in the Twitter World (hmmm shouldn't that be Tworld?)

Like something a fellow peep tweeted? You can save it for quick reference by simply making it a favorite. Keep in mind that your favorites, like your tweets, are public.

Talk Back

Want to answer a question someone tweeted? Have some advise for another tweeter? Then reply to their tweets. Replies are similar to mentions. The difference is that a reply begins with the user-name mention and continues with your message.

A reply only appears to those for whom it is meant. However if someone were to visit you profile page, these replies along with the intended recipients are visible to them. So a more secure way of communicating with a fellow tweeter is using the Direct Message (DM) feature. Simply start your tweet with a D followed by the reply message.

Keep It Relevant

A feature of twitter which I find personally very useful is the hash tag. Prefix any word with a # and it becomes a keyword with a hyperlink which can be easily searched. Any and all tweets in the twitverse that contain that particular word can be found by simply clicking on that word in any tweet. This feature is particularly helpful when you are tweeting (either randomly or to fellow tweeters) about a particular topic and want to review all past tweets containing that word.

The hash tag is also used to start trending topics which can be followed and continued by other fellow tweeters. This is very useful when you want to track what people are talking about and keeps you updated on the latest news and trends across the globe.




Voila, it's as simple as that! Hope this hs been helpful in understanding the way twitter works and has cleared most of the queries that you have about the soc-net site.

So go ahead and create your twitter profiles. Start following interesting tweeps. By the way, my twitter profile name is Aaragorn1984, in case you were considering to follow me!

The next post in the series (may not be the very next post!) will shed some light on the different third party applications that will enrich your twitter experience via media sharing.

Happy Tweeting!

Next in this series - Attack Of the Apps

Why Newspapers Will Become Dinosaurs!

Be it a city slicker or a small town simpleton, most of us receive our newspapers at our doorstep. Some young lad employed by the "newspaperwallah" cycles into your building compound or society or "gully" and hastily makes the rounds of all the neighborhood doors, smacking them with the requested daily. Now this young lad, bloke, simpleton, "chokra" obviously isn't living his dream by running around every morning at the crack of dawn.  But until he wins the lottery, this is his bread and butter.

But for how long? Economies rise, purchasing powers expand and standards of living improve across the populous. There will be a time when the ubiquitous "chokras" will be no more since they would have climbed up the socio-economic ladder and established themselves as bona-fide white collar employees. Who then will bring your daily dose of news at your doorstep? And if not delivered in the morning for your reading pleasure, where will you go to get that "reading material" for those early morning rituals? Think about it for a minute. How many of us are willing to go to the neighborhood newsstand just so that we can buy something which is already available to us for free (in a manner of speaking of course!) on a 24x7 basis.

Where is it available on a constant basis you ask? Well silly, through the electronic media of course! Yes that idiot box of yours has roughly about a a news channel in virtually every regional language of this country, the AIR (All India Radio), broadcasts news bulletin on a daily basis throughout various time slots in the day and the internet probably has a gazillion odd sites dedicated to reporting current affairs and breaking headlines. A new entrant in this list is the mobile phone. With GPRS, EDGE and 3G, a variety of news-related content is readily available for the average cell-phone user.

Television has been around for some decades now and we all have witnessed the power of moving images when it comes to news. How many cringed when they saw the towering landmarks of New York succumb to terrorist attacks and turn into dust? The war reports brought Kargil, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to our living rooms. Watching Yuvraj Singh's six-sixes over and over on every sports channels was electric! There is no denying the fact that television has revolutionized the way we perceive news.

Now consider the web for instance. type in news on google and you'll get 26,000,000 results listing prominent names such as BBC, NDTV,CNN and also inane ones like Tundra, Sun and The Onion! But the fact remains that news sites are dime a dozen. Many sites focus on special segments of news, i.e. sport (http://www.cricinfo.com), weather (http://www.weather.com), finance (http://www.bloomberg.com), etc, offering a more in-depth and detailed analysis of the affairs.

Apart from the obvious contenders, the web also has it's share of amateur reporters and paparazzi. Whiz through the status updates of your friends on twitter, facebook or orkut and you're bound to come across some bit of  local and international (depending on the reach of your friend-circle) news. Sports fans will let you know which football club won the previous night with great regale or whether the pole position was claimed by champion Hamilton or underdog Sutil. Financial pundits will keep twitting about the next big bull-run or at least the best performing stocks for the day. Even this year's Central Government Election results were on facebook before they were in newsprint! The most compelling factor about the web as a source of news is its ability to be absolutely instantaneous! News from any part of the world is available at your fingertips (with web browsing phones that is a pretty literal statement!).

Now I know that most of you feel that all the technology in the world cannot replace "that" feel that a newspaper provides. Paradigm shifts are often met with such weak criticism. People said the same thing about digital watches when they were introduced in the analog era. But today, digital clocks are everywhere! Newspaper barons and conglomerates are aware that this shift is taking place slowly but surely. That is the reason why they have begun foraying into the digital media to capture the escaping demographic. Think of any major news daily and they are bound to have a presence on the web, mobile content and in  many cases even the television and radio!

Let's not forget, that a paperless medium is also beneficial to the environment. With seven trees being cut to make a sheet of paper, your gossip section alone is responsible for deforestation of small forests! So environmentalists would definitely be tooting for the online and other non-paper based media to ensure the survival of the environment.

Are you beginning to sense the next big wave? A few years (maybe 10, maybe 20, maybe more!) from now, newspapers will cease to be the de-facto source of your daily dose of current affairs. Coupled with factors such as a rising economy, abundance of content and reduction in charges, online and digital media will be the choice of millions across the nation and, of course, the world.

If you've been reading carefully (and I hope you have!), you're probably wondering why did I even mention the little tid-bit about the newspaper-boy. How does that fit into this piece about the phasing out of newspapers? Especially when other compelling factors have been presented simultaneously. Simple, because that is the one factor which will ultimately cause the shift in our country. History is witness to the laid back approach that most of our nation prides itself upon. Unless, the balance of things is not upset, when it comes to our convenience and comfort, we do not tend to take things seriously. In the absence of that "somebody", who does the work, we feel the pinch and it is only then that we wake up and smell the coffee! So i don't foresee any amount of technology, availability or resources causing our chai drinking and newspaper reading nation to evolve and explore new options. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a generalization but an observation of the attitudes of many old-timers. The younger generation is willing to indulge their senses, try different ideas and accept new paradigms. They will be leading this shift voluntarily; the others would be joining the band-wagon out of compulsion.

For the time being, your daily "akhbaar" is safe and you can indulge in your "garam chai and tez khabar" routine. But remember, "Nothing is permanent but change!”

Twitter Critter

Yet another social networking web-site to invade our lives - Twitter!

What began with Orkut, Hi5, myspace and reached a dizzying frenzy with facebook, has now seen the emergence of multiple social networking sites. So powerful is the force of online networking that it prompted companies to begin specialized networking sites, focussing on professional and technological (and god knows what else!) interests.

So what's so special about twitter? It offers nothing new, in fact, in terms of functionality, it is clearly akin to the ubiquitous "status" update feature on facebook. No special applications, no photo-albums, no info page! All it has is a little text box which can cram a maximum of 140 characters and a question on top which reads "What are you doing?"! I mean what was the big idea about dedicating an entire site to status updates!!!

But after using the micro-blogging site, quite fervently, I have done a 180! Twitter is absolutely wonderful! I am addicted, hooked and completely enamoured by this latest web offering! I also have an application, Tweets60! for my symbian phone. I keep updating my status, even post my thoughts and generally shout out my comments on what ever grabs my attention (hmmm does this mean my blog's gonna get jealous of twitter!). But seriously, I can't help myself as i keep refreshing my mobile device's twitter application seeking out new tweets to retweet and tweet some of my own! Now I am a complete twitter-critter!

Twitter, although not brand new, is relatively fresh for Indian audiences (I say this coz most of my facebook friends are not using twitter yet!). But am sure after a certain minister's faux pas, the nation witnessed a flurry of desis twittering away!
However it's sure to pick up and is also poised to give competition to the current hot social-networking site, facebook. Although primarily designed to post simple updates, thoughts, comments, twitter also offers, albeit through third-party applications, options to upload pics, songs and videos. There are plenty of apps that can empower your twitter presence, (some even as inane as finding out if the International Space Station is above your city!).

Whether or not twitter becomes the next facebook or has an app list to put the itunes app store to shame, this bloke is happy to be part of the twitterati!

PS: You can follow my tweets @ http://twitter.com/Aaragorn1984