Video Preview in Timeline

New & Fixes in v.1.2:

• Video Previews right on your Timeline
• Quote Tap: two-finger tap on Tweets to quote
• Timeline Scrolling Performance and Improvements
• Changing Timeline size and settings doesn’t require reboot anymore
• Bug Fix: Sharing Image from Pictures Hub/Camera
• Bug Fix: List Timeline Limitations in Quickline

The big news for some is that this version adds a trial version that many apps in the Marketplace offer. The bad news is that the trial version limits use rather than adding ads or something. Either way, it’s good that they are offering this trial version.

Trial Mode Limitations:

•  Single Account
•  Can’t Retweet or Favorite a Tweet
•  Can’t Attach Images to Tweet
•  Quickline is disabled
•  Can’t send Direct Messages

Grab it in the Windows Phone Marketplace

Source: Carbon (via)

For me, there are a couple of features that are important:

• Live tiles with push notifications
• Ability to retweet with comments
• Ability to customize text size

There are 3 Twitter clients that meet most of my needs out there right now. I am sure some others would suffice, but these are the three I have narrowed it down to. Rowi, Mehdoh, and Carbon. Carbon and Rowi offer threaded Direct Messages too. Not having this feature isn’t a breaking point for me, but I do like threaded conversations. Something I really like about Carbon is the conversation view.

I decided to do a video that showcases all three of these clients showing the basics of their operation to help readers get an idea of the pros and cons of each. The video is 24 minutes long and I just skimmed the surface of each of them. The video was done on an HTC Titan running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. I was running the most current version (available on the Windows Phone Marketplace) of each of these apps.

Like I said, I am sure to have missed a killer feature or two for each of the apps, but I wanted to show the basics for the most part.

Here are the Twitter Clients that I have tried so far:

MehDoh - This one is one of the crowd favorites right now. It has live tile support as well as toast notifications. It doesn’t provide an option for multiple accounts though. It does remember where you left off and that’s something earlier Twitter clients couldn’t do. There is no push for the live tiles, but it does go out every 30 minutes and brings back data for the live tiles.

• Price: Free
• My Rating: 8/10

The Official Twitter App- This one works well, but I find it slow. It’s definitely a far cry from the official apps for Android and iOS. No Live Tile support, no notifications at all that someone has sent you a DM or @ reply.

• Price: FREE
• My Rating: 6/10

MoTweets - MoTweets was a great client on Windows Mobile prior to Windows Phone’s release. Today, the app is still very solid. You can added multiple accounts and it has Facebook support. I purchased the pro version to support the developers before I found that there were so many capable apps available now. The biggest thing I do not like about MoTweets is that you have to keep tapping more to load more tweets. It’s also a little slow to refresh. It is very customization though. The description says that it has live tile support, but it’s not working for me.

• Price: $1.99
• My Rating: 6/10

Seesmic - Seesmic is one of the bigger brand names in Twitter clients. It should be good right? This one is free too. It’s good, offers multiple accounts, and did I mention… free? Seesmic has live tile support as well. The live tiles appear to work, but they don’t always update from what I can see.

• Price: FREE
• My Rating: 7/10

Beezz - This one had a ton of promise, but appears to have no support now. They were supposed to have notifications now, but I haven’t been able to get it to work. This worked fine on my Samsung Focus last fall.

• Price: FREE
• My Rating: 2/10

Birdsong - Live tile and push notifications aren’t working for me with this app. This was a bummer because the customization and speed of this one is great. Bing integration. Multiple Accounts. Low Price. This app is primed to be good, but I just couldn’t get notifications to work.

• Price: $0.99
• My Rating: 7/10

The Verdict is…

Rowi for me. The main reason I choose Rowi is push notifications. If not for the notifications, it would be a 3 way tie. Rowi, Carbon, and Mehdoh are all quality Twitter clients, each with their own killer feature. It would be a toss up for me if they all didn’t have push notifications. I really like Mehdoh and Rowi most though. Carbon is poised to be awesome, but they are the new guys on the block.

Screenshot Gallery

What do you use on your Windows Phone?

Carbon has had a hard time getting approval in the Windows Phone Marketplace. They have had the app ready and polished for months but they got rejected 3-4 times. I recently asked the folks from Carbon on Twitter if they had given up on Windows Phone since they are almost ready to launch an Android version now. They weren’t about to give up and little did I know that it would make it in not to long after that conversation.

Carbon has had quite the buzz since the beta version made it out to many folks I follow. Tonight, Twitter is on fire with all the buzz so it must be awesome. The funny thing is that I missed this until seeing a half dozen tweets tonight. Apparently it’s been in the market for a couple days now. Oops. I need to be more observant.

The process for authorizing the app is a little wonky, but so is Twitter. They change their API so much it’s hard for an app to live it’s life without change.

Here’s what Carbon says about Carbon…

Twitter experience for your digital Metro life. Simple, unique, and yet feature rich. Kitchen sink included!

All of Twitter on one screen. No need to tap many buttons to reach to desired timelines. Apart from your all day timelines, Lists, Saved Searches, Retweets, all accessible through a unique timeline called Quick Line.

Images right on the Timeline, if you choose to enable it! Get a full view of images without even leaving the Timeline.

Double tap on a tweet to start a quick reply without leaving the timeline that you’re skimming through. Access your profile right from the home screen and check out your stats and favorites without even going to a new screen.

Oh, and tiles! Compose Tile, pin this beautiful tile on your phone’s home screen and start tweeting in seconds without having to open the whole application. You can do the same with a Search Tile. Live tiles too! So you don’t miss any of your mentions or messages notifications. And if we add more tiles, we’ll be starting a flooring business.

We’ve got you covered in Multi Account support, Read Later, Image Upload, Custom URL shortening, Threaded Direct Messages and image & video Previews right in the app.

And, Push Notifications are coming soon, real soon!

Without having push notifications, I am not interested. Once that comes, I will be all over Carbon WP.

I did purchase and download Carbon to give it a try but I will reserve judgement until I’ve had some time to play.

Get more info and purchase Carbon here.

1st off, why did I quit Twitter?
I haven’t really decided if I will quit for good, but some things have transpired over the last few months that make it where I feel I can’t be myself  on Twitter any longer. I don’t really want to put it out here where everyone can see, but I feel that I can’t really use Twitter how I’d like to anymore. I can’t put out the good without throwing in the bad comments about certain products and services. If I can’t have it both ways, I should just shut up. I might pop back on after my 1 month, self imposed ban and read here and there, but for now, I am calling it quits. Posts I make from this blog will still be piped into my Twitter channel, but I won’t be commenting on replies on Twitter. It’s not as simple and saying “Screw it, I’m going to say whatever I want” either. It’s kinda complicated.

It’s not just Twitter.
I have also decided to discontinue use of some other social media sites as well. Foursquare is the main one. Foursquare has no real use in my life. Do any of you really care where me and my family are eating? I didn’t think so.

Why did I shut this blog down?
Truth be told, it was an impulsive act that coincided with my decision to quit on Twitter. I decided since I can’t blog about mobile tech anymore, I need to distance myself from the past. The Aximsite years were awesome, but I am not a journalist, I am not a current site owner/admin, I left the Microsoft MVP program, I can’t blog about mobile any more, and I am no longer a part of the mobile community, so there is no real reason to hang out on twitter anymore. There also is no reason to operate a personal blog anymore since I can share on Facebook. I am also trying to privatize my life a little since I am no longer any of those things. Short and simple version is that I am not important enough to really have more than Facebook to share on.

It’s back online now, why?
Simple. I missed having a place to bitch and complain that I control. My own piece of the internet. Facebook is cool and all, but I don’t own my own content there. Here I do. Not to mention, making $2-3/day with 1 single ad doesn’t hurt. It’s not gonna pay for devices, but it almost covers the server (although another site here I host for a friend covers that already).  I have so many gripes and complaints I want to share that I needed to have this back online. I might not have much to say about mobile here anymore, but I will have some things to say.

Should I change the site’s domain again? Maybe www.talesfromawashedupcommunityleaderthatnolongerhasavoice.com?

Shall we begin? Remember, this string of tweets came shortly after Google announced the Nexus S, which is basically the Galaxy S with Android 2.3.

New cell phone came out today. It’s exactly the same as every other cell phone. Really, think about it. Just kidding. No I’m not.

Dogging Android:

what if android and symbian had one tenth the visual appeal of iOS, windows phone 7 or webOS?

On iOS:

iOS is the most insanely stupid operating system. I can’t customize the home page. I can’t upload photos in the background. No SD slot.

Apple won’t let me get an iPhone on my choice of carriers in the US. WTF is that? What a backwards, reductionist approach to the future.

There’s only one iOS form factor available? What is that? What am I, a sheep? And no widgets? And notifications grind everything to a halt?

Now, it’s Palm’s Turn:

Palm would have the best mobile phones in the world. If only they had any clue about build quality, business deals, or marketing.

I mean seriously, Palm, you staked your comeback on a portrait slider made from 2nd rate plastic that’s a Sprint exclusive? GENIUS. Really.

I know. Let’s build the best mobile OS in the word. And then let’s launch it on the freakin’ Pre. What’s not right there? Jeez.

Next up, Nokia:

Nokia is the most clueless, dinosaur-like company in the tech world. It’s like they actively chose not ban the word “future” at HQ.

Q: What do you call a company who rules a marketplace and then takes four years off to see if they can self-destruct? A: Nokia, duh.

and finally, some WP7 Bashing:

Hey, I know! Let’s launch a brand-new mobile platform. In 2010. And NOT give it copy and paste! That’ll sell billions! Nice work, MSFT.

And his commentary has concluded:

Okay, that’s all folks. Thanks for coming, try the Chicken Kiev, and be sure to tip your servers! See ya next time …

or has it?

Dear Apple, We TOTALLY ripped you guys off in every way possible with our Nexus S page. Eat it, Google. http://bit.ly/eX4eqn <– referring to the Apple-like page Google put up to show off this Nexus S.

What do you think? He’s got plenty right there, I don’t think I would argue with a single point. He’s put out there what most are thinking but don’t have the balls to say.

Here is a look at the webpage that Google apparently got inspiration from Apple on:

About that Nexus S, I have to agree, it’s really nothing special aside from a new version of an OS I am not too fond of personally. If you check out Kent German’s comparison chart, you will see that there isn’t much difference in the hardware between the Nexus One and the Nexus S. To top this off, the phone is not capable of HSPA+ and doesn’t have a MicroSD slot. Wow!

Google Voice App hit the market place for the iPhone only. (iTunes)

• Access your Google Voice account right from your iPhone.
• Receive push notifications for new text or voicemail messages.
• Send free text messages to U.S. numbers and make international calls at cheap rates.
• Listen to your voicemail, read transcripts and manage your Google Voice inbox.
• Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls.
• Call contacts from your iPhone Address Book or enter new numbers on the dialpad

Official Twitter App adds push notifications. (link)

All these changes are making me want to use my iPhone 4 more and more. Google Voice is a great service and the official Twitter app is also great, but after coming from Android for the last month, not getting @reply notifications was getting on my nerves.

So, this poll has been created for my curiosity. I want to know who follows me and why. I know who about 1/4 of my followers are, but I still don’t know why.

I totally expect 1/2 of them to be inactive or bots. I expect a large number to be online friends and coworkers. I also expect a large portion of the followers to not even bother clicking through to this link.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and vote. Maybe I can get a good response on this one. You can choose more than one option if you fall into a couple categories here.

[polldaddy poll=3950474]

To cut down on noise, I have limited my list of people I physically follow to under 50 (down from 350+). Instead, I moved most of the 350 to my list. That way I can follow them (friends, colleagues, and mobile/zune related stuff) when I am in the mood for more noise and turn that column off in Tweetdeck when I don’t want to. Just because I don’t “physically follow” you does not mean I don’t read your tweets or care. I do, really.

I just wanted to post this so people that I don’t follow understand how I am rolling now. If you aren’t on either list, let me know, I might have missed you. I have noticed several I have missed lately.

You can also read my “Twitter Policy” for more about me and Twitter. I have had such a love/hate relationship with Twitter. Anyhow. See ya on Twitter!

1. By protecting your tweets, others can’t see what you tweet. That is the point right? Right. BUT, what about when you want to say something to someone that isn’t following you. You can @theirname all you want, but they aren’t going to see it. I had thought that they would as long as they were @’ed, but I was wrong.  I did a test with a couple people on my new account yesterday and no luck. I am not going to be able to protect my tweets. Being able to have conversation with others that do not follow me is important.
2. I also realized yesterday how many accounts and how many services I will have to log in and chance stuff on to reflect the new account. I had not thought about that.

That said, I have to go unprotected and I am going to return to my original account. No, I don’t mind losing 3500 tweets and almost 800 followers. In fact, I removed 250-300 followers one by one before I said screw it, this is taking too long. I wasted almost 2 hours removing about 200 of the followers. It’s ridiculous… I have decided to just leave those that are left in place. I unfollowed everyone I followed on that account when I moved to the new account too. I will refollow the same folks I followed on my new account. My new outlook on Twitter will remain the same too.

I plan to continue to use the @Mobilitysite Account to share our stories and contests on a non-personal level.

With my new account,  I am only following a select few people. These people are local friends and family, personal online friends, the celebs that are real that I care to hear, and colleagues that I have become friends with. Don’t be offended if I don’t follow you back. It’s not personal. I am just separating things to make my life easier online. Many of the people I used to follow are now part of my private list (~200), but I have no need to follow many of them on a personal level.

2 new innovations with Twitter have made it where I can pull off this plan without affecting others.

• With the lists, I can follow these people selectively without having to actually follow them. This allows me to separate personal and business (or in my case, hobby). I can choose to not read the list on a particular day.
• With the part where followers won’t see tweets that start with @_____ unless they also follow that account, the static for my followers will be reduced since they won’t see many of my tweets.

As for my followers, if you send me an @reply,  I will probably answer no problem. I just might not follow back. It’s not that I don’t care about the individual, it’s just that I need to tone down the noise.

If want to follow me, my username is now @Leckness. My tweets are private. Don’t be afraid to request to follow me. I will most likely approve the request. 

• I won’t approve you if you have a 1/2 naked avatar.
• I probably won’t approve you if you have about the same amount of followers and you are following and those numbers are 1K+
• I probably won’t approve you if you have 5K+ Followers.

Twitter can be fun. I enjoy it now too. I used to hate Twitter.