Twitter -- For The Laugh!

I realise that some of us have real lives, but for those who don't, I'd like to introduce you to Twitter.  You can read about Twitter in the Twitter Help Center or Mashable if you've never heard of it before.  

In a nutshell, Twitter is a social networking thing, similar to Facebook.  You can access Twitter via your Internet browser or download the Twitter app to your phone.  If your phone is so last century that you can't download apps for it, well, that is a discussion for another day.  When you post something on Twitter, it's called a tweet.  If you follow someone on Twitter, that means you can read their tweets.

In addition to a very small, very select group of friends and a smattering of politicians and journalists, I follow some very funny people who are always good for a laugh, although you might not want to check Twitter during a meeting or anywhere that spontaneous laughter is not appreciated.  

Here are my Twitter recommendations for the laugh:

• A couple of The Chasers boys:  Andrew Hansen, Craig Reucassel and Chas Licciardello 
• MrsStephenFry, noted author and wife of ... wait for it ... StephenFry  
• GreySkyThinking  
• LetsTalkSchmidt  
• StephenatHome, comedian Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report
• ShitMyDadSays, the basis for the comedy series of the same name on US TV

They don't all post often ... MrsStephenFry is the most prolific of the bunch ... but when they do, it's a ripper!

As with most internet things (and sex with strangers), best to be safe.  There is information on how to control who can follow you here.

If you have any other good Twitter recommendations, please share!

We Are All a-Twitter

If you've never heard of Twitter or don't understand what the big deal is, read on ... enlightenment awaits!

What is Twitter?
Twitter is micro-blogging, that is, you answer the question "what are you doing?" in 140 characters or less. OK, it sounds pretty geeky, but it is really lots of fun.

Sometimes tweets (what Twitter posts are called) can be pretty banal. But, when there was an earthquake out in California, how did word get out? CNN? Fox News? Internet? Nope. Tweets posted through Twitter beat them all by a couple of hours.

There was a Twitter contest to see who could get to 1million followers first, Ashton Kutcher or CNN Breaking News and Ashton Kutcher won. Though, for news, I prefer to follow The Onion, American's Finest News Source.

And, my favourite, Brett Spinner tweeted a whole adventure leading up to the premiere of the new Star Wars movie. It was a ripper!

How Do I Use Twitter?
There are a couple of ways ...

1. Sign up on-line: Go to the Twitter site and set up an account. As with most networking sites, you can then find other friends and start to follow them (see their tweets).
2. On your phone option #1: If you live in one of the 'special' countries (US, UK and India), then you can set up your mobile phone so that you get the tweets from those you follow sent to you as an SMS
   
3. On your phone option #2: If you have an iPhone, or other smart phone with internet access, there are a number of applications that you can download to make sending and reading tweets easier. I've used Twitterlator and am looking at trying TwitterFon. Both of these apps, and more, are available from the App Store
   
4. On the web: I use Firefox as my browser and downloaded TwitterFox which logs into Twitter as me when I'm online and pops up a window with any tweets that my friends have sent
   

Anyone that I don't know or who has a marketing focus also gets blocked from following me (seeing my tweets) straight away. I also block anyone who posts inane tweets. Life is too short for boring tweets. Depending on how public you want your presence on Twitter to be, you can choose who to follow and, more importantly, who can follow you.

There are plenty of interesting things happening in Twitter. Give it a go!

Where Have All The Good Ringtones Gone?

In the early days of mobile phones, there were plenty of web sites that provided cool and fun ringtones. But as the mobile phone market has matured, most sites providing ringtones require you to pay for them or, even worse, subscribe to a service that charges you $5 every week whether you download anything or not. It makes me nostalgic for those old ringtone web sites.

So, how do you get cool ringtones so that you don't have to use the dogsbody ringtones that come with your phone? I have found two solutions that have saved me from boring ringtones.

Good Web Site
The Tones 360 site has tonnes of cool and funny ringtones in a number of different formats, including MP3, AMR and M4R, the one that works on my iPhone. Once I download the M4R ringtone, I import it into iTunes, remname it to something meaningful and sync my iPhone to iTunes.

Yesterday, I downloaded Poker Face by Lady Gaga, I Want to Be Famous by The Pussycat Dolls and Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas, amongst others, and the only hard part is deciding which ringtone to download next.

Make Your Own Ringtone
This blog post by Lifehacker explains how to use GarageBand to create custom ringtones on your Mac from songs you have ripped from CDs. I haven't figured out how to do this for music I've downloaded from iTunes, but haven't really looked too hard.

The only drawback here is that it's only for Mac users.

How Do You Keep Up With Blogs?

Nothing is more frustrating than checking your favourite blogs only to find that they haven't been updated since the last time you looked. And bookmark lists of blogs can look a lot like other bookmark lists. Surely there has to be a better way!

Well, there is and I'm going to tell you about one of my favourites: Google Reader

What is Google Reader?
Google Reader is a tool provided by our friends at Google that will keep track of your favourite blogs and let you know when one of them has changed.

Here is what my Google Reader page looks like:



From this, I know that 7 of the blogs that I've told Google Reader to keep an eye on have been updated since I last looked.

To have a look at the blogs that Google Reader is watching for me, I just double click on All Items (7) and then hit the space bar to move down the list a screen at a time. When All Items goes down to zero, I'm all caught up.

You can also see that I've organised the blogs I like into folders. If I don't have a lot of time to read blogs, I can pick which bunch I want to read first and save the rest for another time.

How do you get started using Google Reader?

If you are a total computer novice or would like to get an overview before you take the plunge, watch this tutorial. It lasts for about 10 minutes and covers lots of stuff that beginners would need to know and some that beginners won't need to know until later on. Worth a watch.

If you don't have a Google account, this tutorial will help walk you through this process. Remember that you don't have to use Gmail in order to have a Google account or to use Google Reader.

For more information about Google Reader, check out the FAQs (frequently asked questions, pronounced 'fax').
I hope you enjoy using Google Reader.

Fun iPhone Apps

I had lunch with some friends yesterday and, as you would expect, the conversation turned to iPhones. Being a bit of a GadgetGirl, I have fallen in love with my iPhone. Not just because it looks cool, which it does, but because of the fun apps (applications) you can download for it. Why be all grown up and mature if you don't have to? So, I've decided to share some of my favourite iPhone applications to encourage all you normal iPhone owners out there to explore your Inner TechNerd.

You can download these applications to your iPhone through the App Store on iTunes and most of my favourites are free. How can you go wrong?

Lightsaber
One of the first applications I downloaded for my iPhone was Lightsaber. When you turn it on, the screen changes to a light saber, just like in the Star Wars movies, complete with sound effects. When you move your iPhone around, like you are Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader, it makes all the sounds of a light saber battle. And, with the latest version, you can turn on music so it's almost like being in the movie.

Too cool. Check it out.

Shazam

Ever hear a song during a TV show or on the radio and wonder what it's called and who recorded it? Your days of wondering are over.
Shazam is an application for your iPhone that listens to the song and then does a Google-like search for it in cyberspace. When it finds it, it shows you the album cover art, song title, what album it is on and who recorded it. It also gives you links to the song on iTunes and any videos on YouTube, the biography of the band and their complete discography.

Too cool Check it out.

Just a word of warning, though. Don't Shazam a song while you are driving. :-)

Nightstand

This is an application that displays the time on your iPhone like it's a digital clock. I plug mine into a small docking station on my desk or on my bedside table and use it instead of a proper clock. I turned on the Disable Auto-Lock feature under Settings and it stays on all night long. There are a couple of different display layouts and it works a treat in either horizontal or vertical orientation.

You can set alarms through the Clock app that comes with your iPhone but you might want to mute your phone before you go to bed. I find those pesky calendar reminders at midnight to be a bit of a nuisance. But the alarm will still sound even if you have muted your iPhone.

Too cool. Check it out.