Macgasm

HootSuite is a web-based Twitter client and statistics tool aimed mainly at hardcore users (although regular users should find it simple enough for normal tweeting).

Today their brand new companion app, HootSuite for iPhone, just went live in the App Store ($1.99 for a limited time) and it does not disappoint: it’s very quick, it has a gorgeous UI and it includes some popular features (lists, multiple accounts, columns for different streams…) along with some exciting new functionality that will make it that much more useful for businesses and people who rely on social media for networking:

- Tweets scheduling: In HootSuite, when composing a new tweet, you have the option to pick out a date and time for publishing it. This is very useful if you have a lot to say but don’t want to overwhelm your followers with too much tweets at once, by easily spacing them out throughout the day. It’s also a great way to maximize how many people you will reach since you can schedule them to be posted at a time when there’s more Twitter traffic so you’ll get a bigger response.

- Analytics tool: If you use Twitter for business, and not just as an outlet for your daily ramblings, the ability to analyze how many people click on your links and how that traffic is distributed is essential for figuring out the best strategic course of action to leverage Twitter to improve your social media presence, drive traffic to your blog or just to get some following for your own very important self.

- Sync: Last but not least HootSuite for the iPhone syncs seamlessly with the web client. That means that all your scheduled tweets and your shortened links (with the analytics graphs that go with them) are always up to date whether you’re using the iPhone app or the web version. Also this makes it extra easy to set up HootSuite on the iPhone if you already have an account: just login and all your Twitter accounts will be instantly set up.

I definitely will keep an eye out for HootSuite’s development, since it has some interesting possibilities, but I don’t think it will ever completely replace Tweetie for me (although some of its features might complement it nicely).

That being said, even though I really like this app and its features I’m not sure if I’ll use it for much more than just scheduling tweets. Why? Because for link shortening and tracking of traffic StumbleUpon’s su.pr format is still my favorite since it has the huge advantage of also sharing your content with the StumbleUpon community, which can potentially improve your social media presence by exposing it to a larger audience.

On the other hand the HootSuite iPhone app makes it that much easier to track and analyze your stats on the go, which can be very useful for busy people who might need instant access to all this information in order to make quick decisions and changes as they’re needed. Plus HootSuite has the cute owl icon.

Decisions, decisions…

Here’s a quick video demonstrating some of HootSuite’s features on the iPhone:

Have you tried HootSuite? Will it replace your regular Twitter client?

I don’t think I’ve written about it in the past, but I just had to mention this nice little app on the site. It’s been seriously saving my butt lately. If you haven’t heard of PhoneView, then you seriously need to check it out. It’s the perfect companion to your iPhone, and I pretty much couldn’t live without it these days. For me, keeping track of calls with clients is a major must. When a third of my work day is starting to be spent consulting on the phone with clients, it has become abundantly clear that I need to start tracking those calls. You’d be surprised how much revenue you can get back just by simple tracking your time spent on the phone.

Some other things the application gives you is some better access to your media on the device, the files put into storage on the phone, as well as SMS, and contact information. The Ecamm team really struck gold with the application in my opinion. It would be super awesome if they were able to build in a way for me to get my call log data into something like Billings. I’m not sure it would be possible without a partnership, but I’d pay again for that kind of integration into my workflow.

If you’re anything like me you’re constantly looking up information about an actor or actress while you’re watching a movie at home, watching a TV show, or just out and about. Since the inception of the iPhone there has always been the capability to obtain the latest information via imdb.com. This has been handy, but Amazon has outdone themselves with the IMDB iPhone OS application.

As with the website, there is a ton of information that is accessible via the application. All of the expected information of your favorite actor is pulled from the internet with ease. Amazon has brought out the red carpet for the actors by formatting their information into a readable format.

The biggest asset for the application, I believe anyway, is that the application has the ability to pull forth lesser known aspects of the IMDB website. Take for instance, the ‘US Box Office Results’ item. Previously, before the redesign of the IMDB.com website, it was somewhat difficult to find the Top movies of the week. Now, just like the in the iPhone application, it’s easy to see how much the top movies made last weekend and exactly how much they’ve grossed. One thing that the app shows that the website does not is all of the movies and how much they have grossed for the weekend. You only get the top ten on the website.

There are a couple of things missing though. The biggest is the inability to navigate the message boards. It’s not the end of the world,  although it would be a nice feature to have to sit back and talk to the other movie fanatics.

The second missing feature is the ability to see which movies are being released on DVD in a particular week, and then being given the option to purchase them on Amazon. It just seems natural to me to have a link to purchase the DVD, if one is available, from Amazon.

If you’re a movie buff who hates scrolling on the IMDB.com website while in Safari or if you’re just somebody who likes native applications, then this is the app for you. Go and grab it from the App store. It’ll only cost you the bandwidth to download the 500kb file.

Earlier this year, NewsGator decided to alter the way their RSS reader applications (NetNewsWire for the Mac, NetNewsWire for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and FeedDemon for Windows) work. They removed the ability to sync the status of your feeds using their own service as well as removing the ability to sync using MobileMe. If you’re interested in knowing more about the situation, you can check out this article that I wrote way back when. I’m not really writing this to convince you to stop using NetNewsWire. I just want to explain why I’m happy that I switched.

I began using Google Reader as my method of reading my feeds. It is fairly straight forward, but some people are uneasy with Google having any information about them. Luckily, I’m not one of those people. I used Fluid to create a dedicated application to display Google Reader. As a bonus, it also shows a badge in the dock that counts the unread messages. I find that very handy. For my iPod Touch, I just use the built-in bookmark to home screen feature in the OS. Whenever I tap the Google Reader icon, it launches the mobile version of the site in Safari.

I am very happy with my new setup. NetNewsWire was good, but NewsGator started going down a path that I wasn’t very happy with. I respectfully expressed my opinion to them via e-mail, and then I stopped using their product. It’s simple as that. We have choices galore, not only as Mac users, but as citizens of the Internet. Don’t hesitate to explore a little bit from time to time. You might just find something you like more than what you have now.

Photo Credit: CarbonNYC

It would be the day a tech company tells me what device I can or cannot use to cover their event. What is surely the manifestation of the remnant of yesteryear, a mid-level manager was sure to point out to journalists yesterday that Apple hardware was not going to be permitted in the media room, and that any mention of the device was reprehensible.

You know what’s even more reprehensible? A corporate entity thinking it can put an end to the awkwardness of Ballmer having a meltdown at some point in the future, by banning a competitors device from their media scrums. Talk about delusions of grandeur and narcissistic tendencies, and it seems like they are starting so show up between the cracks in the armor over at Microsoft. This is almost as bad as a filtered internet.

Hey, you want to go to South By SouthWest, you have to use a netbook made by Nokia. Oh, you want to go skiing in Whistler? Only Burton gear is allowed on the slopes. See how ridiculous that sounds? If I had money burning a hole in my bank account, I’d be paying every single one of those journalists to show up with an Apple product, just to see the management staff freak out. The tech press release, and song and dance that has become normal at these events is getting way out of hand.

Don’t tell people what tools they must use to get the job done; instead, create tools that help them get the job done. You might win back some switchers that way.

What would you do?  I’d totally show up with my Macbook Pro anyway, but that’s just me.

Article Via Cult of Mac

Here’s our second installment of the Macgasm Video Podcast.  Things get pretty heated when we discuss AppleCare and how smoking is no longer covered under your warranty.  We also discuss the game Orba, in game purchases, and the DOS emulator Boxer (LONG LIVE COMMANDER KEEN!).  Don’t forget to subscribe to us in iTunes!

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The coolest eBay mashup I have ever seen is a site called PicClick. PicClick is a visual eBay shopping experience and allows you to see every single listing in a very cool grid (with resizable icons) before you click and buy. PicClick lists millions of products, but you can then narrow down by category. For example, the search query that generated the screenshot above was the Macbook query in the Computers and Networking category (which had over 27,000 products). If you want to see before you buy, you can narrow down to geographic location. You can also narrow down to price points.

If you use eBay, and I’m sure you do (for holiday shopping, perhaps), you’ll absolutely love using PicClick to make your product search a more tolerable one. With hundreds of images showing up on one single page, you don’t have to drill down to the deep hidden pages of eBay.com. Just go to PicClick and let it do the hard work for you.

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In this episode, we talk about Christmas-y things.

[01.6 MB] [00:04:50] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner] [Subscribe]