Quick guide to Twitter for mobile

June 9, 2009

Here’s a very brief intro to some applications and services which will help you Twitter on mobile devices as well as on your regular computer.

• Dedicated Twitter applications allow you to organize your Twitter communications efficiently.
• Don’t worry if your phone won’t support a dedicated app, there are some web based services which emulate them quite well.
• However if you are mainly interested in following a specific person or topic you can do this effectively just by using Twitter.com and its companion web sites.

PUTTING TWITTER ON YOUR PHONE

iPHONE

29 Twitter Apps for the iPhone Compared
http://mashable.com/2009/05/02/twitter-iphone-apps/

Twitterfon: free
Tweetie:
Nambu: free

iPhone apps are available from the iPhone Apps Store

BLACKBERRY

Twitter Apps for Blackberry compared
http://crackberry.com/twitter-roundup
Twitterberry: free
http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry
Twibble; free
more info:
http://crackberry.com/twibble-new-java-twitter-app
download: http://m.twibble.de

Twibble is also available for the Nokia N95

OTHER MOBILE PHONES
- All mobile phones can send messages to Twitter via SMS.
- If you have internet access on your phone, you can browse Twitter.com or Twitter associated web site.
Dabr.co.uk is a good web based alternative to a dedicated app. - Tweete.net is another.

OPERA MINI
A really excellent browser for mobiles.
Often better than your phone’s default browser.
http://www.opera.com/mini/

FOLLOWING A LIVE #HASHTAG or TOPIC

TWAZZUP.COM
Powerful way to follow a major topic, conference or personality.
Real-time live updates without having to refresh the page.
Works just as good on your mobile as on a regular computer.

AUDIO BOO
If you have an iPhone then this free app lets you send quite lengthy audio blogs to the web and automatically post the link to Twitter. (Future access for other phones promised)
Very high quality audio. http://audioboo.fm/

PHOTOS
Twitpic.com
pikchur.com
yfrog.com (+video)
mobypicture.com
tweetphoto.com
All these web sites allow you to upload images and will Tweet your message as well.
Most will also allow you to upload images via SMS from your phone - subject line usually becomes the caption.

VIDEO

QIK.COM
Live video streaming / recording from your phone
Brilliant service if you’ve got the right sort of phone.
Can be configured to automatically Tweet a notification of a live or new recording.
Download free app for your phone. Works best if you have a ’smart phone’ (N95, iPhone etc).
(Supposedly works with all Nokia S60 type phones)

USTREAM.TV
http://www.ustream.tv/mobile
This is another well established service

12seconds.tv
Lets you make a 12 second video

BIT.LY
One of the favourite URL shortening facilities
If you create your own account, it will save all the URLs you have shortened.

LINKING BLOGS + TWITTER
If you run a stand-alone copy of Wordpress, there are a number of plugins which will send a short extract to your Twitter account every time you add a new post.
This type of facility may be available on other blog services as well.

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This guide is not exhaustive and you may find other applications that better suite your particular phone. I have concentrated on recommendations from the twitter community and the services which seem to be used most frequently.

Many of the services mentioned will happily accept your Twitter login.

Data connections and Multimedia SMS may incur additional charges above your standard tariff.