Twidgit Lite & Twidroid for Android
Jul 14th
Perhaps one of my favourite widgets on my homescreen is Twidgit Lite, this lightweight Twitter application is available free from the Android market.
Tapping on the widget brings up the last 20 posts of your friends timeline and allows you to ReTweet or Reply to your friends. The settings are limited to username password and refresh rate.
With Twidgit Lite you can post your status direct from the homescreen by simply tapping on the bubble icon.
As good as Twidgit Lite is and as the name suggests it is Lite, it lacks url shortening, picture uploading, @ mentions and messaging. Twidgit Website
Which is where Twidroid steps in.
Twidroid is a fully functional Twitter client, which features alert notification for tweets, @ replies & direct messages, photo uploading to Phodroid, Twitpic, Twitgoo or YFrog, with settings for picture quality low, medium or high, a choice of several URL shorteners, and the option to show up to 250 tweets, the settings list goes on quite a bit so I’ll let the screen shots tell the rest.
Posting a tweet within the app allows you to attach a photo from the gallery or from the camera, (Twidroid is also an option when selecting share after taking a photo from the camera app) your current location can also be added to your tweet and again there are many options for doing this.
Replies and Direct Messages are handled in their own screens again with full options for handling those tweets.
Another cool feature in Twidroid is the search function, a quick search for photography using my current location brings up @LesleyWoodPhoto “Pet Photographer of the year” local photographer and a new acquaintance of mine through Twitter. Lesley’s Website
Twidroid also places a shortcut icon in the notifications bar whilst the app is off screen and allows quick access to the app itself. Twidroid Website
For me if the developers of these apps could get together and pull together their resources we could have one cool application (twidgitroid?) but in the mean time we have 2 cool apps equally as good as one another for the purposes they serve!
Live Android for your PC
Jul 14th
Really want to give Android a try? don’t want to shell out for a new device? then this may well be for you. . . .
Want to give Google Android a try, but don’t feel like buying a T-Mobile G1? LiveAndroid lets you download a LiveCD disc image of the Google Android operating system. Just burn the image to a disc, stick it in a CD-ROM drive, and reboot your computer and you can check out Android without installing it or affecting any files on your PC.
You can also use the disc image in a virtualization application like VirtualBox or Microsoft Virtual PC if you want to try the operating system without even rebooting your computer
I’m just about to download this and give it a go and will report back later, want to give it a try yourself? head over to this link for the download and full information and more screen shots!
Who’s Nanu anyway?
Jul 12th
Those of you who are avid BlackBerry fans may know me as the one who sniffed out the link to the BlackBerry media sync little over a year ago, as reported by Ronen over at BerryReview.com which is the best feed for all things BlackBerry in my opinion. I also released BlackBerry Maps and Windows Live Messenger to fellow Orange users in the UK over at CrackBerry.com with a little help from NintendoLinky weeks ahead of Oranges official release.
In the “real life” I am a self employed Joiner/carpenter and run Phoenix Joinery I also hold an interest for photography though it is little more than a hobby at the moment, I am currently putting together a personal website which will host a gallery of some of my better shots! As you may well have figured I have a great interest in gadgets and computers etc, so I have decide to start studying through the Open University to try and gain a degree in computing, to either keep me from getting bored or as a midlife career change.
Nanu’s BLOG goes mobile!
Jul 10th
EDIT: Thanks to WPTouch there is no need for the mobile URL…….
OK so yesterday I get a BlackBerry message from my good friend Fatreg, whinging about my blog being unfriendly towards BlackBerry, I immediately apologised and went on to explain that I still carry a torch for RIM. Foolish me Fatreg didn’t mean the content but the site itself.
So, a quick google search leads me to Mofuse.com and within 10 minutes I have my first mobile website. Yes it really was that easy first I registered the site name then pointed it to the feed from my blog and hey presto Mofuse do the rest, I then spent a little more time making a few enhancements for example for quick access I pointed the DNS to m.nanu.me.uk and added a quickly made logo!
There are a few little quirks I wish to iron out put that will come with time, for now there is a link at the top of this site directing to the mobile site if you stumble across this site on your mobile, unfortunately auto mobile detect and redirect doesn’t work for Blogger yet, but as soon as there is a work around it will be implemented.
The mobile site works really well on the iPhone and for android users you too can share that love, there is a little problem with some images not being displayed on the main menu but I am working to fix this!
Let me know what you think!
BlackBerry App World
Jul 9th
BlackBerry App World, RIM’s answer to Apple’s app store, now holds 2000 Applications. But is it enough?? not for me, the pricing of apps is ridiculous in comparison to those of the iPhone and Android and RIM need to step up a gear in encouraging developers to release more apps at affordable prices. The usability of App World is somewhat lacking too! there is no way to separate the free apps from the paid for or the old from the new, and for PayPal haters there is no way of purchasing.
Before Apple’s iPhone, the apps found upon a BlackBerry where somewhat unique, I mean when RIM released the FaceBook app no other phone manufacturer or developer had such an amazing piece of kit others tried and failed miserably, RIM had this knack of making things work and making them desirable.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t think BlackBerry have taken a step backwards, but I do feel they need to be quicker in taking a step forwards. The iPhone really has taken off and people will stop at nothing to get one, even the ridiculous pricing doesn’t seem to put people off. Google and its Android OS is coming on leaps and bounds with views of the “Hero” leaving many a jaw dropped and now with Sony Ericsson’s effort “Rachael” confirmed by GSMArena, very soon the market will be flooded with sexy looking Android devices.
OS 5.0 for BlackBerry cannot come soon enough in my opinion, especially now that the iPhone has push capabilities, even my G1 buzzes before the Bold™ when I get an email!
Though for anyone who has ever used a BlackBerry you will know they still have a mysterious attraction which will keep me coming back to a phone that “just works”.
