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A good change for most! Inconvenient for others.
This morning marked the official deprecation of Twitter's basic authentication system. I had been working toward the changeover, and at about 8 am I switched iTweet.net over to OAuth-based authentication.
Things went pretty smoothly, I hope. Most people seem to have been able to refresh, authenticate with Twitter, and start tweeting again right away. Even aside from the improved security, the nicest immediate benefit is the API rate limit of 350 calls per hour instead of the 150/hour available through basic authentication. This will allow me to do some fun stuff that wasn't possible before.
The people who were most affected by this change were those who use iTweet because twitter.com is blocked due to a company firewall/filter or censorship. These folks are not able to sign in via OAuth, just due to the nature of what OAuth is. I'm bummed that this is the case, but don't immediately see a way around it - however I am open to ideas from any direction.
For the time being I've put a basic-authentication version of iTweet up at:
http://itweet.net/basic/ - and you can use it at that address for the next two weeks.
However, please note that Twitter is going to be cutting down the number of available API requests by 10% every business day until August 31, when basic authentication will be switched off entirely. You can read about this in the twitter-development Google group. If you're one of the folks who use iTweet to get around a filter, this is a bummer.
So by the end of the month people needing a proxy for twitter.com will be out of luck. I'm open to suggestions as to how this inconvenience could be avoided, as this change will happen for all apps, not just iTweet.net - feel free to post ideas in the comments.
Things went pretty smoothly, I hope. Most people seem to have been able to refresh, authenticate with Twitter, and start tweeting again right away. Even aside from the improved security, the nicest immediate benefit is the API rate limit of 350 calls per hour instead of the 150/hour available through basic authentication. This will allow me to do some fun stuff that wasn't possible before.
The people who were most affected by this change were those who use iTweet because twitter.com is blocked due to a company firewall/filter or censorship. These folks are not able to sign in via OAuth, just due to the nature of what OAuth is. I'm bummed that this is the case, but don't immediately see a way around it - however I am open to ideas from any direction.
For the time being I've put a basic-authentication version of iTweet up at:
http://itweet.net/basic/ - and you can use it at that address for the next two weeks.
However, please note that Twitter is going to be cutting down the number of available API requests by 10% every business day until August 31, when basic authentication will be switched off entirely. You can read about this in the twitter-development Google group. If you're one of the folks who use iTweet to get around a filter, this is a bummer.
So by the end of the month people needing a proxy for twitter.com will be out of luck. I'm open to suggestions as to how this inconvenience could be avoided, as this change will happen for all apps, not just iTweet.net - feel free to post ideas in the comments.
A handy way to share links from your feed reader.
I'm a big fan of Google Reader. Recently iTweet user @leavingearth requested a "Send to iTweet" feature for Google Reader, and I thought this was a fantastic idea so here it is.
In Reader, select "Reader Settings" from the Settings menu in the top right corner of the page. Then choose the "Send To" tab, and click "Create a custom link" at the bottom of this page. A short form will be shown - enter the following items into the fields.
Name:
URL:
Icon URL:
In Reader, select "Reader Settings" from the Settings menu in the top right corner of the page. Then choose the "Send To" tab, and click "Create a custom link" at the bottom of this page. A short form will be shown - enter the following items into the fields.
Name:
iTweetURL:
http://itweet.net/web/?share=true&t=${title}&s=${short-url}Icon URL:
http://itweet.net/favicon.icoThen click "Save" and you're done! Go back to Google Reader and in your "Send To" menu you'll have a new iTweet option. Clicking it will open iTweet.net with the post's title and shortened URL pre-filled in the post field. Have fun sharing your links - if you have any feedback on this new feature please let me know in the comments.
Setting up this application for future growth.
My pet project iTweet.net has been a great success for me. It gets plenty of traffic, enjoys a steadily growing community of users, and is a lot of fun to work on. The list of things I'd like to explore with this project grows every week, and with all the new additions to the Twitter API of late - OAuth, RTs, Lists, Geolocation etc - there is much more to be done in order to keep up.
The steady increase in traffic means that we've had to spend extra time and money on iTweet's server in order to keep up with all the users. Hosting has graciously been sponsored by The Illusion Factory, but the monthly demand keeps increasing and it's clear that something needs to change. The growing nature of both the to-do list and the server cost has led me to think of ways in which iTweet can become self-sustaining. This app needs to start earning its keep, peoples! One thing that I've decided to try is the insertion of sponsored tweets by 140 Proof.
This company has a very unique system of advertising delivery, promising very targeted content in an unobtrusive format. How does that work? 140 Proof's system scans your (publicly available) tweets and delivers you an ad tailored to your location and/or favorite topics. This means that you'll see content that is interesting and relevant to you. And the ads come in tweet format so they fit right in with the flow of the app. Most of them are real tweets, from a real Twitter account, and behave pretty much like the other tweets in your stream - you can reply, favorite or retweet them too. (I'm giving these sponsored tweets a slightly different style so you can tell them from regular tweets.)
Since a lot of people have asked me what my plans for future development are, here's a nutshell version:
iTweet.net has no database behind it. It doesn't store any of your information, and only uses data from the Twitter (and TwitPic, bit.ly, etc) APIs. In order to do some more "interesting" stuff, such as multiple accounts, decent Lists and follower management, autocompleter, etc, I need to put a database behind the front end and rewrite a whole bunch of stuff. This will let me do a lot more *interesting* things with the app, as it currently operates within the exact constraints of the API.
My immediate goals for iTweet are this:
Cheers, and thanks for helping to make my little project take off. As always the user community will directly influence the direction of future development. Please let me know your thoughts below or by contacting me directly - I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.
The steady increase in traffic means that we've had to spend extra time and money on iTweet's server in order to keep up with all the users. Hosting has graciously been sponsored by The Illusion Factory, but the monthly demand keeps increasing and it's clear that something needs to change. The growing nature of both the to-do list and the server cost has led me to think of ways in which iTweet can become self-sustaining. This app needs to start earning its keep, peoples! One thing that I've decided to try is the insertion of sponsored tweets by 140 Proof.
This company has a very unique system of advertising delivery, promising very targeted content in an unobtrusive format. How does that work? 140 Proof's system scans your (publicly available) tweets and delivers you an ad tailored to your location and/or favorite topics. This means that you'll see content that is interesting and relevant to you. And the ads come in tweet format so they fit right in with the flow of the app. Most of them are real tweets, from a real Twitter account, and behave pretty much like the other tweets in your stream - you can reply, favorite or retweet them too. (I'm giving these sponsored tweets a slightly different style so you can tell them from regular tweets.)
Since a lot of people have asked me what my plans for future development are, here's a nutshell version:
iTweet.net has no database behind it. It doesn't store any of your information, and only uses data from the Twitter (and TwitPic, bit.ly, etc) APIs. In order to do some more "interesting" stuff, such as multiple accounts, decent Lists and follower management, autocompleter, etc, I need to put a database behind the front end and rewrite a whole bunch of stuff. This will let me do a lot more *interesting* things with the app, as it currently operates within the exact constraints of the API.
My immediate goals for iTweet are this:
- Switch to OAuth - this will eliminate API limit hassles
- Database-driven back end
- Support for new APIs - RT, geolocation etc.
- Support for multiple accounts, other oft-requested features
- Support for internationalization (multiple languages)
Cheers, and thanks for helping to make my little project take off. As always the user community will directly influence the direction of future development. Please let me know your thoughts below or by contacting me directly - I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.
Ongoing DoS attacks are affecting both my Twitter client AND my tweets.
iTweet.net has been down since yesterday morning (with a few short reprieves) due to the DoS attacks that are happening. I'm keeping an eye on it and will update this post when service is restored.
Adding to the confusion, I am not able to post any tweets from Twitter.com or even via SMS, so I am unable to respond to those of you who have asked me what is happening. Sorry! I hope you've subscribed to my blog's RSS feed.
Twitter has confirmed that the downtime is only affecting some clients, also that SMS is unavailable for some users, and that they are working on the issue. I guess I'm just lucky enough to fall into both categories!
Update: iTweet.net is back online, after some changes from Twitter and some refactoring on my end to accommodate those changes. Yippeee!
(August 7 2009, 4:30pm PST)
Great news for Twitter developers!
Twitter had mentioned that this was in the works, but so far I haven't heard mention of them actually launching this upgrade. I hope it is here to stay!
They have also recently fixed a long-standing bug that caused followers/following methods to report incorrect data. Along with this fix came some new API methods for managing follow relationships - I will be updating iTweet with a new follow/unfollow UI just as soon as I can get to it!
There are some really great improvements coming soon to iTweet.net - stay tuned for much much more.
We have disabled the site until a worm going around Twitter is blocked.
A nasty worm is sweeping through Twitter this weekend. Up till now iTweet.net has been immune to the attacks, but a newer, trickier version was causing browsers to redirect to the spammer's website.
In response I've temporarily disabled the site while I work on a fix. Thank goodness I seem to have caught it within minutes of the new version spreading through the Twitterverse.
IMPORTANT: The worm was not able to spread via iTweet, nor was any data compromised (usernames and passwords are well-encrypted). The worm was exploiting actions specific only to twitter.com and causing people to automatically tweet deceptive links which caused itself to spread as others clicked those links. This didn't work with iTweet's different structure, it simply caused the page to redirect to their script where it stopped. I do recommend clearing your browser cache and cookies as a safety measure, and avoid using web-based Twitter clients until this worm is dealt with.
Please check back here on my blog for updates about iTweet, and check the Twitter status blog as well as their main blog for up-to-date information about the worm.
In response I've temporarily disabled the site while I work on a fix. Thank goodness I seem to have caught it within minutes of the new version spreading through the Twitterverse.
IMPORTANT: The worm was not able to spread via iTweet, nor was any data compromised (usernames and passwords are well-encrypted). The worm was exploiting actions specific only to twitter.com and causing people to automatically tweet deceptive links which caused itself to spread as others clicked those links. This didn't work with iTweet's different structure, it simply caused the page to redirect to their script where it stopped. I do recommend clearing your browser cache and cookies as a safety measure, and avoid using web-based Twitter clients until this worm is dealt with.
Please check back here on my blog for updates about iTweet, and check the Twitter status blog as well as their main blog for up-to-date information about the worm.
Now you can follow conversation threads infinitely using iTweet.net!
The recent improvements in Twitter's conversation threading have made the "in reply to" links in iTweet.net SO much more focused and useful! I am really enjoying being able to see what people are talking to without those confusing misdirected threads.
I'm enjoying it so much that I've made the "in reply to" links stack on each other - so when there are several @reply tweets in a row, you can follow a conversation thread until the beginning.
In addition, the "in reply to" links now fall back on an authenticated API call for users with "protected" accounts, so you can now see @reply tweets from these folks - as long as they have authorized you to see their tweets.
Enjoy! I'd love any feedback on ways to improve this feature - leave a comment on this post, email me, tweet me or use the iTweet contact form (in the right column).
I'm enjoying it so much that I've made the "in reply to" links stack on each other - so when there are several @reply tweets in a row, you can follow a conversation thread until the beginning.
In addition, the "in reply to" links now fall back on an authenticated API call for users with "protected" accounts, so you can now see @reply tweets from these folks - as long as they have authorized you to see their tweets.
Enjoy! I'd love any feedback on ways to improve this feature - leave a comment on this post, email me, tweet me or use the iTweet contact form (in the right column).
A bookmarklet to help you tweet shortened links using bit.ly and iTweet.net.
Here's a bookmarklet to help you tweet links to Web pages from your iPhone using iTweet.net and bit.ly:
Post Link via iTweet
Adding and using this bookmarklet is simple. Just drag the above link into your Safari bookmarks and sync your iPhone to transfer the bookmarklet to your iPhone.
Then, from any Web page that you would like to post on Twitter, just go to your Bookmarks, locate the "Post via iTweet" bookmarklet and select it. A new web page will be opened to http://itweet.net, the link will be shortened using bit.ly, and placed in the Post field ready for tweeting.
Thanks to Matt Teske for providing the motivation to make this bookmarklet - I will definitely find it useful and I hope you will too.
Post Link via iTweet
Adding and using this bookmarklet is simple. Just drag the above link into your Safari bookmarks and sync your iPhone to transfer the bookmarklet to your iPhone.
Then, from any Web page that you would like to post on Twitter, just go to your Bookmarks, locate the "Post via iTweet" bookmarklet and select it. A new web page will be opened to http://itweet.net, the link will be shortened using bit.ly, and placed in the Post field ready for tweeting.
Thanks to Matt Teske for providing the motivation to make this bookmarklet - I will definitely find it useful and I hope you will too.
Improved conversation threading for Twitter and iTweet.net.
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 tweet input will show you the tweet you're replying to. If you don't want to mark your tweet as a reply to that status, simply click the "cancel" button.
One bonus of this is that you don't necessarily need to begin a @reply tweet with "@username" - the tweet will get marked as a reply (and appear in the user's Replies tab) whether you use that convention or not.
The only thing you'll need to be careful of is accidentally marking a tweet as part of a conversation if you changed your mind about the original @reply - so don't forget to click the "Cancel" button if you're not going to reply to that tweet.
One idea that occurred to me would be to also tie the "RT" retweet button to this behavior, so that if you retweeted someone they would see that retweet in their "Replies" tab - kind of a nice way of letting them know you liked their tweet enough to retweet it. Does that sound like a helpful addition?
Let me know in the comments, or tweet or email me with your thoughts!
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 tweet input will show you the tweet you're replying to. If you don't want to mark your tweet as a reply to that status, simply click the "cancel" button.
The only thing you'll need to be careful of is accidentally marking a tweet as part of a conversation if you changed your mind about the original @reply - so don't forget to click the "Cancel" button if you're not going to reply to that tweet.
One idea that occurred to me would be to also tie the "RT" retweet button to this behavior, so that if you retweeted someone they would see that retweet in their "Replies" tab - kind of a nice way of letting them know you liked their tweet enough to retweet it. Does that sound like a helpful addition?
Let me know in the comments, or tweet or email me with your thoughts!
Will there become a universally accepted standard?
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
Unfortunately I looked into it and found that the symbol doesn't render in SMS messages or on the iPhone. Since iTweet.net is an iPhone web app, and since a large number of Twitter users rely on SMS, IMO this makes it a no-go for a standard retweet convention. Bummer! Many other Unicode characters display just fine on the iPhone - I don't know why some do and some don't, but ♺ is not one of the friendly ones.
My point here is that if a convention isn't able to be communicated through all channels, it shouldn't become a standard. For this reason I have made the ♺ symbol available in the "symbols" section, but can't recommend using it as a retweet symbol for anyone who wants maximum exposure and clarity in their tweets.
Anyway there is some great discussion on the topic over at Stowe Boyd's blog - go check it out if you're interested - and this made me think I should put my two cents in on the subject.
There has been other discussion about whether "RT" or "via" makes for a better standard. I personally think "via" is a bit more friendly to newbies and a lot more readable, but "RT" seems to be the most common convention, so that's currently what I use in my Twitter client.
I also found this interesting article at Dan Zarrella's blog where he states:
I am quite open to the idea of using something different if a better standard is proposed. What's your favorite retweet convention?
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
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.net is an iPhone web app, and since a large number of Twitter users rely on SMS, IMO this makes it a no-go for a standard retweet convention. Bummer! Many other Unicode characters display just fine on the iPhone - I don't know why some do and some don't, but ♺ is not one of the friendly ones.
My point here is that if a convention isn't able to be communicated through all channels, it shouldn't become a standard. For this reason I have made the ♺ symbol available in the "symbols" section, but can't recommend using it as a retweet symbol for anyone who wants maximum exposure and clarity in their tweets.
Anyway there is some great discussion on the topic over at Stowe Boyd's blog - go check it out if you're interested - and this made me think I should put my two cents in on the subject.
There has been other discussion about whether "RT" or "via" makes for a better standard. I personally think "via" is a bit more friendly to newbies and a lot more readable, but "RT" seems to be the most common convention, so that's currently what I use in my Twitter client.
I also found this interesting article at Dan Zarrella's blog where he states:
Contrary to what I initially thought, “RT” is used more than 4 times more often than the full word “retweet”.
I am quite open to the idea of using something different if a better standard is proposed. What's your favorite retweet convention?
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
A valuable iTweet resource created by a member of the user community!
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.
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.
Some fun new stuff I've been cooking up...
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 if that person is following you, and a "Twittering Since" date that shows when that person joined Twitter. That part has been interesting to me as it's neat to see how long someone has been part of the Twitter community. That data is made available via the Twitter API, although for some reason you can't find that info about a user on twitter.com - another reason to use iTweet!
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
The Following and Profile methods are the same for both the Web interface and the iPhone interface. I love hearing feedback from users; that's been an important part of the development process for me and interacting with the community of iTweet fans is really half the fun for me. So please use the contact section of iTweet or this website to email me your thoughts, feature requests, etc. And keep on tweeting!
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
There's a great new way to follow hot topics using iTweet.net!
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!
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.
A major upgrade to the iPhone version, and an all new app for the Web!
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:
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 is also a contact form on the About page, please use this for feature requests and bug reports! (It sends messages directly to my email so you will get a quick response, especially if you're following me and I can DM you.) <3
The Web interface has all the same features as the above, but adds some more information that doesn't fit on a tiny iPhone screen:
Known issues and limitations:
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
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 is also a contact form on the About page, please use this for feature requests and bug reports! (It sends messages directly to my email so you will get a quick response, especially if you're following me and I can DM you.) <3
The Web interface has all the same features as the above, but adds some more information that doesn't fit on a tiny iPhone screen:
- Detailed user info and API limit info available at top right.
- Speed Tweet mode! Hitting the "Return" key from the text-entry field will send your tweet, more like an IM client than the Twitter website. Give it a try! I love it... if you don't you can turn that feature off using the Settings menu.
- Really simple method for sending DM's, I use this one all the time too.
Known issues and limitations:
- Character counter on the iPhone version still slows down typing. This is the biggest problem with the app, by my own reckoning and others' as well. I've tried many, many different methods of doing this. We're talking HOURS of experimentation! Basically I find that inspecting a textarea just kills MobileSafari's performance, especially in a Web page that has a lot of other elements in it. I'm open to suggestions, as always. I've pared it down to 3 simple lines of Javascript and I don't think it can be any lighter than that.
- User profile pages are missing information for most users. Also profile information such as "last update" are running behind something like 5-18 hours. This is due to a bug in the Twitter API which I have reported here. I will post an update when this is fixed. This will allow some very cool functions to be brought back to the Web version especially!
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
And our tumultuous relationship with the Bluebird of Happiness/Crappiness...
Twitter has decided to remove a certain call from their API that the iTweet 2 private beta relied on to create the "ticker" effect that kept it updating at nearly real-time speeds. The rate limit for API calls also remains handicapped, cut to 30 per hour from the usual 70. This makes using Twitter API tools extremely inconvenient, and developing them is also quite frustrating.
For now I have removed the "ticker" feature and the friends timeline will refresh every 140 seconds, though this number may be adjusted slightly as I attempt to keep the page open and in use today. (Big thanks to all my helpful beta testers for your excellent feedback on the last iTweet 2 development cycle!) Further development on the beta will continue when the API rate limit returns to normal. Until then, Twitter API development is a waste of time as most people seem to be ditching API apps for the non-limited Web site.
This is actually a good thing for me, as I am working hard on developing some other tools for The Illusion Factory that I will be posting more about soon. Apologies for the lack of updates recently, I've been in "workshop mode" for quite some time but I will be posting details about the new ideas, tools and projects I've been working with in the coming weeks. (I call this "pimp" mode as I will be hawking the bejeezus out of my work.) I'm building some really neat ways of connecting with people, and I am very excited to share them as soon as possible!
Twitter has been very cool about keeping the community updated on its current status, present challenges and plans for future improvement, despite some really nasty attacks and and the lively scrutiny of about a million people speculating on who is to blame, or how a business model could be developed, or how they can fix Twitter's problems in a single blog post/comment/tweet. They were also kind enough to post a poll in the dev group about removing the friends_timeline/username API call. This is not something they HAVE to do, so I thought it was nice of them to bother. And — even though I was getting great use out of this feature — I voted that if removing it meant a tangible improvement to Twitter's stability, I would take it out back and shoot it myself.
Here's why I would vote to remove a feature that made iTweet's beta the most bitchin' Twitter interface for the Web: The problems Twitter is suffering from are going to take a while to solve, and more downgrades may happen. The Twitter team is working on it, and I am willing to be patient during the downtimes and downgrades while they get their app sorted out. I enjoy using Twitter and making fun stuff with their API. But I have lots of other things that I like, and plenty of projects in the works. I know they are doing their best to improve and/or rebuild their service, so when they've gotten through the current setbacks, I'll be back for more. Rather than getting cranky about it, obsessing over it, or otherwise wasting my mental energy on it, I'll just go play with some other toys until this one gets glued back together again.
And of course, in the meantime a shinier toy may come along and Twitter may end up collecting dust. That is the risk they are running every day that their service is downgraded... and I am sure no one is more aware of this than the Twitter team themselves.
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
Tags: twitter, downtime, api, web development, itweet
iTweet featured in "The Best Web Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch"
There's no shortage of Twitter clients out there that will work well on your iPhone. Twitter even offers its own: m.twitter.com. But iTweet takes the cake for us. The client offers a great UI, and most importantly, the ability to download only new tweets each time you refresh, saving a lot of time and bandwidth if you're using AT&T's snail-slow EDGE data network.
I just saw this really nice mention of iTweet, my Twitter UI and iPhone web app, here on Wired.com's Epicenter blog. Thanks guys!(This article contains a voting system for "best app". If you enjoy using iTweet, please visit this page and click the green "UP" arrow to vote for iTweet!)
I've also received a few requests now for a BlackBerry version of iTweet. I have never made a BlackBerry app before but how hard can it be, right? I will try to create a BB iTweet as soon as possible for those of you who don't have iPhones yet.
In other iTweet news, I'm working on a complete rewrite of the desktop app (and the iPhone app pending a review of the upcoming iPhone SDK). It's lean, mean, and Ajaxy. My favorite new feature: Speed Tweet mode! It's so much fun I can't stop Twittering lately.
Reminder again: please give iTweet an "UP" vote here. Thanks!
The iPhone version of iTweet.net now offers search and #hashtag support.
I've added Twitter search and #hashtag search to iTweet.net's iPhone interface. I did it before I took off for Macworld last week, so I could see who was talking about what. Unfortunately, this didn't quite work out as apparently we Twitterbugs got a little excited with Macworld fever and crashed Twitter right down. The API didn't become usable till about 24 hours later!
I started tracking "macworld" that morning and my IM sounded like I'd won a jackpot! I had to turn it off 'cause it was way too distracting.
Anyway, #hashtag support is in as well, #hashtagged words are green. Click them to see an archive of words with that tag. For now I've decided to strip the preceding # off of the tagged word to make the system totally legible.
I made the search button in the menu BRIGHT RED just to beat you over the head with it for now.
Search is provided by the Terraminds Twitter Search API.
Tags: itweet, twitter, iphone, hashtags, terraminds, twittersearch, colby palmer
iTweet featured in "The Voice of the iPod Generation"
The January 2008 issue of iProng Magazine just came out and I am featured in an interview about iTweet, the Twitter UI for the iPhone (and now the desktop) that is my pet project. iProng is an iPod- and iPhone-centric website, magazine, and podcast that is headed up by Bill Palmer (no relation, I swear!).iProng's tagline is "Voice of the iPod Generation" and this really describes the focus of their collective efforts well. The magazine and podcasts feature Mac-geek interests such as Macworld Expo articles, interviews with Web/iPhone developers like Joe Hewitt (and, um, me I guess), coverage of PodCamp, BlogWorld Expo and VON events, and also cultural interests like album/concert reviews, interviews with musicians like Silverchair, Rebecca Loebe and Internet darling Matthew Ebel, features about yoga podcasting, iPod games and more. There's a little something for everyone.
iProng has a main website where you can contact them for information, read reviews and find out where they are appearing at events. You can find the magazines available for download here. They are also provided in an iPhone-friendly format here (nice touch!)
I've been listening to the podcasts for a while and I'll vouch that they're as entertaining as the magazine. You can listen to them from your browser or subscribe to them in iTunes for free.
Bill lives in Los Angeles and has a remarkable talent for getting pictures of himself with celebrities. His Twitter updates often make me laugh and miss living in Hollywood, you can follow him here if you're interested.
Click here to download the latest issue of iProng Magazine. (My interview is on page 4!)
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
Tags: iprong, interview, ipod, iphone, colby+palmer, itweet, twitter, podcast, magazine, apple, bill+palmer
Create groupings and search the Twitterverse for information!
I started experimenting with the Terraminds Twitter search API last night and wired it into iTweet, my Twitter UI. Originally my intent had been to add the capability of searching #hashtags, as a way of better indexing my own tweets. After I spent a while with it and I was happy with the tagging implementation, I realized that I could also add a simple search box to the interface and it would be useful on a different level.Now you can do a quick search to mine the Twitterverse for anything you want, in the same place you do your Twittering from. Enjoy.
You can also embed groupings into your Twitterstream by employing the use of #hashtags. These links will appear in green, and clicking them will lead you to a search page for that term. iTweet also "cleans" the pound sign from your search tag to make a nicer-looking, easier to read Tweet. (But yes, it still counts in your allotted total of 140 characters.) Easy, right?
What's the big difference between the two methods (tagging and searching)? The system of tagging is a more specific way of tracking and contextualizing conversations on Twitter; people are embedding the tags purposefully, to create ad hoc channels or groupings. What TerraMinds does is different, it's a generalized search engine for the Twitter service. You can read more about #hashtags in my blog and at the Twitter Fan Wiki. Stowe Boyd and Chris Messina were early proponents of the idea and they have written about it at length as well.
Hashtags.org also has a great service for employing hashtags. Why am I using Terraminds for #hashtags then? Users must be following the @hashtags Twitter user in order to have their tweets scanned and registered by the hashtags.org service. At the time of this writing there are only about 620 users following @hashtags, so IMO this service doesn't really permeate the Twitterverse enough to establish ubiquity (yet). For this reason, I recommend following @hashtags on Twitter. I would prefer to use the hashtags.org service until Twitter adds this feature natively; unfortunately at this time I don't feel like hashtags.org is widespread enough to add it to iTweet without confusing a ton of people. (I also do not know if they support 3rd-party services via an API.)
The development of iTweet has been very fun due to feedback from you, the users...so let me know what you think. Get in there and try to break that sucker, as I know you will.
Leave comments on this blog, or let's talk on Twitter or Facebook.
Cross-pollinate social networks? Sure! Join the iTweet Facebook group.
Note: iTweet.net's browser interface currently works great in Firefox and Safari. I will debug it for the evil Internet Explorer as soon as possible. I will also be adding the search and tagging functions to the iPhone version as soon as possible.
Tags: iTweet, twitter, hashtags, search, terraminds, tagging, webdev, social+media
Bringing the iTweet UI to your desktop.
Enough people have expressed interest in a desktop browser version of iTweet (examples: one, two, three) that I started putting one together tonight. Twitter's recent dropping of the hyperlinks in @replies is fixed by just a few lines of code in iTweet... so if you like using @replies, here you go. A lot of iTweet's functions are built around convenience for the iPhone, so expect this version to change a lot as I modify it for the desktop browser. Eliminating the constraints of bandwidth and Mobile Safari's funkiness, lots more is possible. On the other hand, without Safari's wonderful CSS3 support, this version doesn't have all the lovely rounded corners of the iPhone version.Anyways, it's a work in progress, but seeing how everyone misses the linked @replies I thought I'd just publish this early so people can use it. Enjoy.
Click here to give it a try.
So far I have only clicked around this version a bit in Firefox and Safari on the Mac before I blew through the API limit on both my accounts. I will test and debug it for other browsers soon.
I welcome your opinions and feature requests for the desktop browser version; please leave notes for me in the comments.
Or maybe even better, follow my updates on Twitter and join the conversation there.
