Updates make my day. Today three favorite apps had updates released. It’s like lifting your cards in poker and seeing three aces.
RunKeeper Pro 1.5.0.7
Tweetie 1.3.2
WordPress 1.3
Downloading All…
CNN URL Shortening on Twitter (@cnnbrk) #CNNFail
Why isn’t CNN using short URLs for their Twitter posts? They have the most popular news account on Twitter and they’re missing a great opportunity.
Most of the announcements from @cnnbrk don’t include links to the breaking news article. They should. And they could do it with style since they’ve got a 3-letter domain.
Current links look more like: http://www.cnn.com/video/world/2009/06/21/von.iran.injured.youtube
Or they’ll use bit.ly (if they include a link at all): http://bit.ly/HnWNV
This could be much more easily inserted in a tweet as (non-working example) http://cnn.com/123xYZ
For that matter, why aren’t all of the major 3 and 4 letter domain news networks using shortened URLs for their tweets?
Flickr + Twitter integration via flic.kr – How to
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It was April 6th, 2008 that I posted How to post images to Twitter and Flickr at the same time from an iPhone. It has been one of the more popular posts on this blog.
Flickr now makes it possible to post to Twitter directly via an emailed photo AND via Blog This. Their integration removes the need for TwitPic, and arguably SnapTweet too (though SnapTweet is faster than using Blog This and can be used for multiple images at once).
Images are posted to Twitter with Flickr’s new flic.kr URL shortener.
Here’s how to get set up:
- Visit Flickr’s beta testing group’s page (actually, this step isn’t necessary, but if you run in to problems, their page is the best resource).
- Associate your Twitter account with your Flickr account here. It leads you through the process and uses OAuth, a safer mechanism than providing your password.
- You will be provided with a second special email address to send images to. If your main Flickr image email address is example42test@photos.flickr.com, your Flickr+Twitter email address will be example42test2twitter@photos.flickr.com.
- Send away!
Photos sent to your primary Flickr image address will be processed as normal (not submitted to Twitter). Photos sent to your new 2twitter version will be processed and then immediately posted to Twitter. Your tweet will consist of [subject_line] [url], with the [url] being Flickr’s shortened flic.kr url.
After signing up for the Twitter integration you also get a new Blog This addition when viewing a single image. Clicking Blog This brings up the option to post an existing image directly to Twitter. You can post your own, as well as other Flickr users, images via this feature. Very powerful.
Switched from iPhone 3G to Blackberry Bold because of two features
I’ve switched back to a BBerry instead of an iPhone. Again. This is the second time I’ve found I’m working less productively on the iPhone. This isn’t a switch because I enjoy working on a Blackberry. The Blackberry simply handles messaging more quickly and seamlessly, and that’s my impression even after using the iPhone 3.0 OS with copy/paste, etc, for the last couple months.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is the best phone on the market for consuming information. Browsing, the many apps and games, media consumption, appearance, performance, etc, make it the best platform. Ever (imho).
But it still sucks for Gmail and IM and these are the two most important features for a lot of us web jockeys. The native Gmail client on Blackberry enables Gmail searching of multiple accounts instantly. This is a feature worth switching platforms for. The web based Gmail on the iPhone enables such search, but it is web based and takes a lot longer to navigate, even with 3G, and can’t run in the background and perform alerts for new messages.
Background processes enable IM and immediate text communication on Blackberry. I’d gotten by on the iPhone with AIM’s SMS features, which is a nice way to work IM on any phone, but it didn’t cover Jabber and other instant messaging services.
I keep the iPhone in my bag, and continue using it on wi-fi for development and testing. And I can’t wait to get to WWDC and attend the iPhone dev workshops. When the 3.0 OS is out of beta we’ll get to see how these services affect a transition for me, and many others, from Blackberry to the iPhone. Again.
Lunchtime mobile test post, nothing but water to see here…
Twitterlike post…
Grabbing a late lunch and testing a blog post via email. Early this morning I finally set up a cron to check for posts via email.
This post traveled from a Blackberry Bold to Gmail, then the cron ran and the email was pulled by Postie and imported as a post.
Along the way, I ran in to the following problems: – Postie Gmail support – Hosting provider had outgoing ports 993 and 995 blocked – Cronless Postie vs standard (now running cron rev)