Archive for the 'Applications' Category
-image-App Review: Hootsuite for iPhone
I just got Hootsuite for iphone yesterday. At first I thought it was a nice app which seems to be a mix of Tweetie 2 and tweetdeck. I said Tweetdeck because I can make groups and if I want to go to replies, groups, etc I have to swipe the timeline. I said Tweetie 2 because Hootsuite has “pull down to refresh” feature, just like what Tweetie 2 has. I like owl and the colours of Hootsuite. But after tweeting for a while, I noticed that Hootsuite crashes whenever someone added a geotag on his/her tweet. Then I tried to compare it with other twitter apps and ended up thinking that Hootsuite app is an unfinished app, or you can say: a very beta one! Here’s why:
- Hootsuite crashes if someone added a geotag on his/her tweet.
- I can’t view thread conversation.
- I can’t browse my followings and followers lists.
- I can’t see the RT if someone uses a new RT style to RT.
- I can’t browse tweeple list if I want to mention someone on my tweet.
- Hootsuite has no inline image viewing.
- On profile, you don’t know whether or not I’ve followed/unfollowed someone
- No “mark twitter as spam” option
- No instapaper integration
- I have to go to someone’s profile if I want to DM him/her (I could do d @twitterusername message, but it’s not handy if someone doesn’t know how to do it, his/her tweet can easily go to the twitter timeline, while in Tweetie if I want to DM someone, I can go to DM tab, click on the compose button and it will let me choose whether I want to send a DM or a tweet).
- It doesn’t recognise the hashtags I have used like what Tweetie and Twittelator Pro do.
Afterall, I like the organised tabs which I can edit the way I want to, I’m also able to add lists, view my stats although it only gives me a statistic about the links I’ve created with the built in ow.ly shortener.
Maybe you have found another disadvantages of using Hootsuite app for the iPhone, just let me know. But my advice for this app is that you better wait til the developers released a better update, unless you’re a big fan of Hootsuite. For now, Hootsuite isn’t my favourite twitter app for the iPhone, even though I like the looks. I still prefer Tweetie, Twitterrific and Twittelator Pro because these apps have better features and Twitterrific has a really nice design! I’ve noticed that IconFactory team has made their apps with a big love! ;-)
-image-Harvesting my farm?
How could it be? I have no farm at all! The answer to that is facebook games! I got to play FarmVille, thanks to a friend who has invited me to wait for my plants to be harvested that I sometime can’t sleep because of that! :P at first I didn’t get it and ran out coins (income) quickly, but as soon as I noticed that visiting and helping my neighbours’ farms increases my coins, I began to visit them daily. I can see that some of my neighbours have a lots of plants on their farms and their farms always seem to be taken care of as I found no crow to destroy, no wild leaf to rake, and no weed to clear, and none of the plants is withered; I can say that they visit their farms every day, every hour (I think!) ;-)
What interested me in this game is that this game makes me do a math, for the example I bought a strawberry seed for 10 coins, it will harvest in the next 4 hours and will be sold for 35 coins, I plant it in 10 plowed lands. In the next 4 hours I’ll have to check my farm and harvest my strawberry seeds, I will get 350 coins in total. Keep in mind that if I plant it in 10 plowed lands, I will lose 100 coins. The price of the seed depends on the seed itself and each of it has a different time to harvest:
Eggplant:
buy for 25 coins.
Harvest in 2 days.
Sell for 88 coins.
I want to plant it in 20 plowed lands, I’ll lose 500 coins (25×20) and I’ll sell for 1.760 coins (88×20).
That’s just one of the examples. I even made a list about what I’ve planted, when I have to visit my farm and how many coins I’ll get. This game is addicting, at least for me then :)
But I haven’t only been invited to FarmVille, I’ve also been invited to Farm Town. And yeah, you guess it, another farm game! It works similar like FarmVille, but for some reasons I like Farm Town better. It has different prices of seeds than FarmVille, but in Farm Town I can chat with my neighbours, can hire and get hired to plow and harvest their farms, and Farm Town also has a market to sell my harvests (in FarmVille, once I harvest my plants, I’ll get the coins directly, while in Farm Town I won’t get it till I sell my harvests. See the difference now and why I like Farm Town better? I collect my harvests first before selling them :-)
And no, I not only have 2 farms, I have 3!! The third one is Barn Buddy. It’s a small farm but once it’s ready to harvest, the sell price is much higher than in those 2 games. I noticed that people have stolen my fruits and vegetables so I started to steal theirs, too. These games are so addicting and make me want to check them every hour! My friends said I’m crazy when I told them I write down what I’ve planted and when it’s ready to harvest, but it’s because I don’t want to check my farms every hour and don’t want to worry about them being withered if I’m outside and not able to check as I’m not going to plant a seed that will harvest on that day. Making this list sounds crazy, but I have an obvious reason why I do it! :)
-image-3 twitter apps I can’t delete from my iPod
I have 3 active twitter apps on my iPod:
- Birdfeed
- Tweetie
- Twitterena
All of those surely have advantages and disadvantages! Well, all of these twitter apps surely have DM, replies, tweets, and search, just like how a twitter app must have!
Advantages
Birdfeed (Current version v1.0)
- Very cool design! Even though my own timeline has light purple’s background. But I’m okay with it so long it doesn’t hurt my eyes. If you like the chat bubbles theme on tweetie, I think you’ll like Birdfeed, too.
- Although it has no sound notification like what Twitterena has, it notifies you when you got a new DM and replies in numbers.
- I can view my own timeline and profile without having to click on my past tweet.
- Once I viewed my profile (or just someone’s profile), there’s a service link:
- Twitter.com which opens twitter timeline
- Favrd: mine. Not sure what the fuss it’s all about
- Followcost: to detect how annoying it will be to follow me on twitter. Currently, my average updates is 2.31 (108.95 milliscobles) and my last 100 updates is 91.88 (4331.81 milliscobles)
- Auto pagerize loads the older tweets automatically without having to click on load more
- I can choose retweet style: quote, retweet (RT), or post text only
- Save drafts option: ask, always, never
- Availability to turn on/off: warn on clear, “via” on posted links, scroll to first new and hashtag trends
- Setting nearby status to 2 km till 100 km
- Integration:
- Instapaper (to read posted links on your instapaper so you can read it later)
- tr.im (this url shortener is added automatically once you post link to tweet)
- Image sharing service: yfrog and twitpic, and the availability to set photo quality to low, medium and high
- Maximum tweet loads: 20, 50, 100
- You can mail link to tweet
- Multiple accounts
- Availability to view the tweets (doesn’t load the newest tweets, obviously) when you get no internet connection
Tweetie (Current version v1.3.2a)
- Clean and simple! Has 3 available themes: chat bubbles, dark, and simple. All good!
- Image service: yfrog, twitpic and mobypicture
- It doesn’t notify you when you get a new DM and replies, but if you like silence, then this is an advantage! I put this in my advantages list because I like the silence :)
- Viewing your profile, go to user, nearby, trends, search and save searches, all in the “more” tab
- You can view your following and followers lists
- When your tweet has more than 140 characters, you can choose whether you want to use twitlonger or tweetshrink (this one is to shorten your characters)
- Detect location
- Landscape keyboard (only when you’re tweeting, not when you view tweets, reply, dm, favorite, more, etc)
- a good organised tabs: tweets, mentions, messages, favorites, more
- Multiple accounts
- You can view someone’s profile picture by clicking on his/her profile picture (on his/her profile)!
Twitterena (Current version v2.4)
- Colorfull! Has 5 different themes: Twitterena clouds, Twitterena rainbow, Twitterena stars, Twitterena lights out, Twitterena plain.
- Availability to turn on/off: at launch load all tabs, magic scroll to unread, show username, auto landscape, color new & mentions, left handed controls, send tweet sound, new message sound, tweets & mentions sound, install bookmarklet, forget messages
- The auto landscape: you’re able to view tweets, mentions, favorite, direct messages, searches, etc in full landscape mode!
- You can view your following and followers counts as well as the lists!
- Twitterena uses twitlonger to make “read more” link when your tweet has more than 140 characters
- Availability to view the tweets (doesn’t load the newest tweets, obviously) when you get no internet connection
- Has Tweeple list: makes it easier to send reply, and direct message.
Disadvantages
Birdfeed
- Only has 1 theme (even though I have no complain about it, I noticed that other users don’t like the light purple background)
- No landscape keyboard (I also have no complain about it, I don’t really like landscape that much)
- It can’t detect your location (I again have no complain about this, I use ipod touch currently, which won’t allow it to detect my location)
- When your tweet has more than 140 characters, it doesn’t have twitlonger and the tr.im url shortener will be added automatically only if you post link to tweet
- Most known and annoying bug: if your username has capital letters, Birdfeed will forget your log in information, you have to log in again once you view Birdfeed. The only solution is to change your username to all lowercase. They’re aware to this bug, though. My username has no capital letter, so I don’t get this problem
- You can’t view your followers and following lists!
- The trends view is here:
When I just purchased it I spent about half hour to figure out where I could view the trends!
- Has no tweeple list! And it’s also difficult to send a direct message to someone
Tweetie
- You can’t see how many people you follow and how many followers you got (the counts)
- Get landscape keyboard only when you’re tweeting, but not when you view tweets, mentions, dm, favorite, etc.
- When you get no internet connection, you can’t view tweets
- Has no tweeple list
- When someone just changed his/her display picture, tweetie will take so long to change it
Twitterena
- If you have Twitterena lights out and Twitterena stars, the display is not very nice: the homepage url on profile is dark blue and has white shadow
- If you use iphone 3 GS you oftenly will get blank page. Never happens to me yet, though. I use iPod and my ipod version isn’t yet 3.0
- The themes might be childish for the guys (the twitterena clouds and rainbows), these are girlish themes. I obviously like these themes.
- I have to click on my past tweet to view my profile and my own tweets
But, from all these twitter apps, there’s one conclusion which may get a plus point: Tweetie never crashes, the other apps do! But I still keep all of these twitter apps! Tweetie and Birdfeed are on the front! :)
If there are another advantages and disadvantages which I haven’t mentioned here, you can add it on comments page :)
