Stand Back TweetPo.st; SupaSync is the better Facebook-Twitter App

So it has been since October 5, 2009 since I wrote my last blog post, and it's with good reason. With planning a church concert, "The GTCC Praise Party feat. national recording artist G.I.," which was a great success, I didn't have much time to devote to social media. After October 24th after the event was over, (Thank God) I was ready to start back to blogging and sharing my news feeds from Google Reader, but there was a huge problem; after disabling my Tweetpo.st account, I wasn't allowed to re-enable it. Bummer!

Tweetpo.st, introduced to me by Damond Nollan, was the best application to use to update your Facebook status via Twitter. Tweetpo.st also automatically posted your tweet that contained a link into your wall instead of a FaceBook status. A link in my Facebook status seemed dirty to me and other people view it as a potential security risk. But for months I was in a limbo, because I could not re-enable my account. It seemed that I had to create a new account, however it seems Tweetpo.st can't accept new users at the moment because of API issues. To this day, according to their twitter account, Tweetpo.st is working on a new update with "cool new features." They've been saying that for more than a month. After a while, my patience runs thin and I can't wait any longer; I must find another solution.

Here I introduce to some, SupaSync. This is my alternative to Tweetpo.st until they get their act together. However, it seems SupaSync does everything Tweetpo.st does and more! Tweetpo.st and SupaSync both respectfully ignore @replies and posts links to walls. But SupaSync alone ignores Retweets (something irrelevant to FaceBook), strips hashtags and via [text] (with user input of course), they skip tweets that have @mentions (with user input), and you can choose your own keywords, i.e. #fb to send an update to Facebook. The only thing that SuperSync doesn't do that Tweetpo.st does is change @mentions to real names, but that's petty.

Right now, SupaSync tops Tweetpo.st, but I look forward to see what the new Tweetpo.st update is going to bring to the table. Try SupaSync, you won't be disappointed.

On Twitter

@SupaSync

@Tweetpo.st

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BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 to be Pushed Out October 7th

In a past post, Stay Away from the BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 Beta, I griped and complained about the leaked release of the newest version of the beloved BlackBerry Messenger. Well, in 2 days, it seems RIM is pushing out the official release of the app. Hopefully every kink and bug that was in the leaked version has been corrected in the new official version.

According to CrackBerry.com, the new release will have these features:

• Enhanced SMS -Allows for a conversational chat-like user experience with a single contact list for the most personal mobile-to-mobile communications
  
  
  
  • Note: BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 and later is required for the SMS functionality.
  
  
• Avatars - Users can choose a picture from the BlackBerry Smartphone gallery and save it as their personal avatar, which will be seen by their contacts. They can also view other avatars in the contact list and zoom in on the avatars of contacts participating in a conversation by selecting "View participants."


• Large Media File Transfer - Users can send/receive large file transfers up to 6 megabytes for pictures, files and audio.
  
  
  
  • Note: BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 is required to receive large media files.
  
  
• Enhanced Group Functionality - Allows for the ability to update, share & communicate with a subset community.


• Bar-code Identity - A user can add a contact to the BlackBerry Messenger contact list by displaying a 2-dimensional bar code that invitees can capture with their device cameras.


• Reliable Contact Backup and Restore - Contacts are backed-up on a server and do not require the need for BlackBerry® Desktop Manager.

I wonder whether or not this will be a forced OTA download. We'll see what will happen on October 7th. What do you think?

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RIM vs. UberTwitter

If UberTwitter hasn't heard, which I'm sure they have, they should know that the word on the street is that RIM is developing their own Twitter app for BlackBerry devices. What they probably don't know yet... that date is approaching sooner than they think. Try November 16th.

According to BlackBerryRocks, the features in this new app is the same like any other Twitter app for BlackBerry except for a couple of major new features: Address book integration and automatic refreshes. If UberTwitter isn't crapping in their pants they should be. Here are other features mentioned on BBNews.pl:

• Notification of number of new tweets on the home screen with icon, like text messages
  
• Main app opens friends timeline
• Ability to view followers
• Follow/unfollow functions
• Create direct messages, replies and new tweets
• Keyword search and saved results
• Tweet photos directly from camera or memory card
• View photos from other tweets
• View trending topics
• Address book integration

One thing I haven't heard mentioned yet is the integration of the GPS functionality in to RIM's proposed app. So far UberTwitter has the edge over that feature and over a period of many updates, they've enhanced it to users' liking. Where UberTwitter has been lacking is their delay in refreshing tweets according to the user's option. With RIM's enormous resources, they have the ability for users to receive new tweets in real-time.

RIM should also look into implementing Twitter's new Lists feature that should be out any day now. No BlackBerry tweeting application to date has this feature that will put members into groups. As soon as this feature becomes more popular in Twitter, my hopes is that RIM will capitalize on this.

With RIM being the parent company to BlackBerry, they have a major advantage of UberTwitter, which in the end, UberTwitter can say that, "It was fun while it lasted."

What's your take on this latest news?

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Cut Your Time In Half: Use These Shortcuts in Google Reader

There are days that I have a hard time trying to keep up with what's hot in Google Reader. For those that don't know, Google Reader is an excellent tool used to keep your RSS feeds all in one place. Instead of going to individual blogs and sites to read up on updated daily content, they can go right into Google Reader and it's there for you to read.

Sometimes, life can have you so busy that you either forget or don't have anytime to check Google Reader on a daily basis. After a day or two, you return only to find that you have 1000+ plus items to read through. Yikes! Before, I spent countless hours going through my items in Google Reader scrolling down each item with my mouse until I was finished. This is surely time consuming. But then I find out there is hope... something called "shortcuts".

While reading Damond Nollan's blog post entitled, "A Day in the Life of an IT Manager: Staying Connected," he listed key keyboard shortcuts that I could use while navigating through Google Reader.

• J/K - Toggles up or down through the list of items
• Space Bar - Pages down
• S - Star (favorite)
• Shift-S - Shares item
• Shift-D - Shares item with a note

With these shortcuts you can cut your time in half or more, especially for those articles that you're not interested in reading, the J/K keys will help out tremendously. I hope this helps someone.

There are is a full list of shortcuts in Google Reader's Help page, although the ones listed are the most necessary.

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UberTwitter: Your End May Be Near

Today, rumors have been swarming that RIM, BlackBerry's parent company, could be developing their own Twitter client for BlackBerry users. Indeed, this is a smart idea. While BlackBerry has been able to capitalize in the Instant Messaging world and even social media apps like Facebook and Myspace, RIM were missing out on a key demographic that they could've easily targeted earlier: CrackBerry addicts who tweet. If the rumors deem to be true, RIM could loosen the strangle that UberTwitter has on other BlackBerry tweeting clients.

Earlier this summer, UberTwitter was able to gain attention from Orangatame's TwitterBerry with great reviews. While TwitterBerry seemed like a great solution for users to tweet, at the time, they were lacking great features that UberTwitter had plus, it was a memory hog. BlackBerry users quickly jumped ship to UberTwitter, an app that didn't use up as much memory, that had excellent GPS features, notifcation features, followers and following count, intergration with Google Maps, a list of the Trending Topics and on top of all of that, the refresh rate was exceptionally remarkable. Although the app had its tiny flaws that were fixed with many updates, users were willing to ignore them.

Then came the DDOS attack this past summer that had Twitter on its knees. UberTwitter's API issues came where the refresh rate to receive and send out Tweets lagged. Since then, the UberTwitter experience changed and unfortunately for UberTwitter, with possibly no fault of their own (according to them,) they jumped the shark. But still even, UberTwitter happened to be the best temporary solution for BlackBerry users. You were either forced to stick with UberTwitter or just wait until you logged on to the web or desktop client.

Now we wait for the war to begin. Will UberTwitter become diligent and begin to improve on the issues that users complain to them about and fight head on with RIM or will they become less popular like TwitterBerry and let RIM become the premier client for BlackBerry? At any rate, this should make UberTwitter sweat and have the looming concern over their heads that their end could possibly be near.

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Bill Joy and the 10,000 Hour Rule. Could That Be You Too?

Image via Wikipedia

For the past couple of weeks, I have been a reading a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. In the book, Gladwell discusses how one's success could be measured by their birthdate, their genes, their birthplace etc. In the chapter called The 10,000 Hour Rule, Gladwell explains that in order for one to be excellent at what they do, it requires 10,000 hours of practice. He furthers his thesis by bringing in a gentleman by the name of William Nelson Joy better known as Bill Joy.

So why am I talking about Bill Joy today? Well the story goes like this. Joy, being a 16 year old from Detroit, Michigan decided to further his studies at the University of Michigan in 1971. According to Gladwell, the school had an advanced state of the art, single computer that stood tall in a room that used punch cards for programming (Think the 1970s). Being an excellent mathematician, it wasn't until he went to the school and saw the giant computer that he decided he going to study Computer Science become a computer programmer.

After getting a job with his professor at the time, Bill spent numerous hours programming. When asked how long did it take for him to be good at programming, his response was 10,000 hours. He calculated the times he spent in that room on that big computer and the times he spent on the terminal he had at home while attending Berkley for his masters. There were days he stayed up until 3 o'clock in the morning or falling asleep at his keyboard.

So again you ask, what's so special about Bill Joy? Bill Joy is credited with rewriting UNIX, cofounding Sun Microsystems, Inc., best known for the Java language and helping develop the "software that allows you to access the Internet" (Gladwell, 36). Cool huh? It took him 10,000 hours to become proficient in programming to lead him into a prosperous, yet tedious career.

Today, President Obama presented his "controversial speech" to students across America. In the speech, he encouraged students to study, do well and practice so they can be like the founders of Google, Twitter etc. Bill Joy is a perfect example. His dedication to studying and practice helped him to get to what he is today; think Bill Gates, sorta.

I take this and ask myself, "What must I do to be like Bill Joy?" The answer is simple. Strive for those 10,000 hours. Are you now striving for those 10,000 hours? I would love to hear from you.

1. Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. New York: Little,Brown, 2008.

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Facebook Chat: "A MAJOR FAIL!"

I just want to rant for a few. How annoying it is when you're having a great conversation with your Facebook buddy and the message either doesn't go through or your friend is logged off quickly when they're actually logged on. Welcome to the Facebook Chat feature: the worse feature on Facebook to date.

Take Facebook Chat and compare it with Gmail Talk on Gmail. Gmail wins hands down. While browsing emails, you can converse with your email buddies and you don't have to worry about your chat not being processed or your friends being kicked off constantly.

On the other hand you have Facebook chat. It's not guaranteed your friend will get your message and at times it takes maybe up to 3 minutes before your friend receives the message. There are even times when you think Facebook has on size 14 Timbalands because you can be booted from chat and not even know it.

As Facebook continues to find better ways to make their site more interactive, I think they are neglecting their chat feature and they're losing to Gmail Talk. Perhaps, Facebook will poach employees from Gmail and develop a much more better and effective chat feature. Who knows. However, at the rate that they're going, Facebook chat will continue to be a "MAJOR FAIL!!!"

I'm done venting now. What can Facebook do to improve their chat feature? I'd like to hear from you.

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