Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

BlackBerry shoots, it SCORES! GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

The World Cup is upon us and off to a rousing start with South Africa and Mexico playing to scintillating 1-1 tie in the opening game. One of the best parts of the World Cup is we all have our favorite teams. Maybe it is the USA or a team related to your heritage or just rooting for the underdog. It is truly the World’s game.

BlackBerry and Android both have great apps to help follow all of the games. Moreover, if you are anything like me, you will need an app to follow all the scores and news since the games are being played early or in the heart of the workday for most of us.

Search the BlackBerry App World for a good World Cup app or try this one: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/10914

Or on an Android phone, search the Android Market for two of the best named “Goal.com Mobile” or “2010 World Cup.”

No smartphone? No problem.

Twitter has setup a special World Cup mini site that you can follow all of the action: http://twitter.com/worldcup/worldcup Find a couple of good tweeters to follow and have updates send straight to your phone via text messaging.

Enjoy the World Cup. For some of us it is a month of sporting bliss. And if someone randomly yells out “GOOOOAAAAALLLLL” while looking at their phone, you’ll know what is up.

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Posted in Entertainment, sports | No Comments »

Off the Beaten (News) Path – Staying Informed On My Commute, Thanks to My BlackBerry

Friday, November 13th, 2009

I like to use my morning and evening SF MUNI commute as time to read – books, newspapers, magazines…sometimes even over the shoulder of my fellow streetcar riders if I’ve forgotten my own reading material (oops!). Since getting my CREDO BlackBerry Curve about six months ago, I have been opting to read the news on my smartphone – something easily enabled by the growing availability of BlackBerry RSS feed apps, mobile sites for the New York Times and BlackBerry shortcuts for NPR.org right on the homescreen of my phone. However it’s important for me to continue to seek news from less mainstream sources (no offense to the NYT) and I’m pleased that so many “alternative” press organizations have websites that are enabled for mobile phone access. Colorlines, an incredible newsmagazine about race and politics, recently launched a mobile version of their site with blog posts and articles about racial justice that I’ve since bookmarked and read regularly on my BlackBerry. Indymedia.org is a network of “collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth” whose site I have bookmarked on my home computer. While their website isn’t specifically built for mobile phone access, its structure is such that I can browse headlines or read articles easily from my phone.

In lieu of an “official” RSS feed or app, I typically use Twitter from my BlackBerry to stay on top of progressive issues and breaking independent news. Twitter is a useful one stop shop for my favorite independent news outlets, magazines and blogs like Treehugger, The Nation, Feministing, Democracy Now!, VegNews, WEND and other news sources who might not have mobile phone enabled websites or BlackBerry apps. From these groups’ Twitter feeds I can click through to both breaking news stories and in-depth features. In case you were wondering, the latest CREDO Actions are also available on the CREDO Mobile Twitter feed, twitter.com/credomobile.

Of course, staying informed on progressive issues shouldn’t be limited solely to commute times – I just happen to be able to take advantage of my 30 min train commute to stay on top of independent news from my phone.

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Posted in News | No Comments »

Viigo: Top Rated RSS/Newsreader for BlackBerry

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Viigo is a free RSS or Newsreader for BlackBerry.  It gets a five star rating from CNET and is by far the most downloaded app in its class.  Viigo aggregates news feeds from various sources (sports, weather, stock quotes, etc.) into an elegant reader application.  You can select from various preselected feeds (Huffington Post, whitehouse.gov blog, The Onion) or add your own.  With Viigo, there is no need to launch your browser or sort through bookmarks – all of your content is located in one place.  The application even integrates with aggregators (Google Reader), social network sites (Facebook and Twitter), and search engines.

Search on “Viigo” in the Blackberry App Store to find and download the app.a

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PocketTwit for Windows Mobile phones

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

I’ve been a twitter user for a few years but only over the last six month have I really been getting into it. After testing PockeTwit today on a Motorola Q9c, I have to say I’m a bit bummed I didn’t have/use this app when I was using this as my full-time phone (I’ve since switched to Blackberry Curve and am using twitterberry).

Of the twitter apps I’ve used this stands apart.  Starting with a really large, nicely designed graphical interface of my friends’ timeline I have access to the full suite of twitter features with a quick touch of the Moto’s navigation keys. Here’s just a few features that are easily accessed with a click or two off the main interface:

  • updates
  • search
  • direct messages
  • take/send photos via twitpic
  • @reply
  • retweet
  • favorite
  • stop following
  • add/create groups

If you are using a Windows Mobile phone and are a fan of twitter I recommend downloading this one right away, just visit http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/ from your (Windows) mobile phone’s browser. It’s easy to use, well designed and brings the best of twitter to your phone. Plus it’s free (and open source).

And for all the tweeters out there – using WinMo or not – be sure to follow @CREDOMobile for the latest action alerts, progressive news and breaking product announcements.

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Posted in Messaging | 1 Comment »

Another reason to join Twitter (San Francisco edition)

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is a media virus these days. People ask me all the time how it works and when I explain they say, “Is that all?”

For a lot of people, the ability to subscribe to real time feeds of 140 character messages (including spaces!) holds no attraction (in fact, just the opposite.)

But here’s a practical use of the microblogging platform that San Francisco Twitterphobes might embrace.

Mashable reports that San Francisco is the first city to implement a city-wide 311 twitter program.

What does this mean and why should you care?

It means San Franciscans can now report non-emergency problems by sending a direct message to our 311 service via Twitter.
311
Here’s how it works according to SFgov.org:

You can now use the Web, your Smart Phone, or any phone that will send an “SMS” message. If you are using your cell phone, just send a text message to “40404.” You’ll need to use the following format “d sf311 Text of the message.” Don’t forget the spaces between the “d” and “sf311″ and the start of your message.

You can see our full FAQ, but here are some key tips:

  • d sf311 The garbage can at the NW corner of Market and 7th is overflowing onto the sidewalk.
  • d sf311 I saw a huge pothole on Van Ness (between Farrell and Geary). I was heading northbound and was driving in the middle lane.
  • d sf311 I was just at Dolores Park and I noticed that the park benches on the north side were broken.
  • d sf311 The metal streetlight in front of 25 Van Ness Ave has not been coming on for the past couple days.

Why would you want to “tweet” a report to 311 rather than just call? Reasons might include:

  • Sending a text message or SMS is faster than dialing a number, waiting on hold, and then talking to an operator
  • Texting is also quieter. You can make a report without disturbing the people around you.
  • It’s probably cheaper. If you’re on your cell phone and you are making your report during the day, one text message is likely to be cheaper than burning through your anytime minutes, depending on your plan.

Want to join the CREDO Mobile Twitter feed while you’re at it? We’re #CREDOmobile.

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Help Iranian tweeters protest the Presidential Election

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

CREDO Mobile has always been a company whose goal was to change the world. We sell mobile phones, but the real goal is to help ordinary people change the world in their everyday life by taking action on issues they care about. Today, we are seeing mobile phones and websites like Twitter and Facebook really making a difference in Iran by giving individuals the ability to report what is happening on the ground and in the streets of Tehran, instantaneously. Individual Iranians are standing up in protest against the what is believed to be a fraudulent presidential election at great personal risk by using the internet and their mobile devices in any way they can to speak up and speak out.

Despite the very serious efforts by the Iranian Government to shut down mobile telecommunications and the internet in order to suppress popular protests, we are seeing a revolution in Iran. And much of this is facilitated by a 25 year old in San Francisco who is setting up proxy internet servers for Iranians which bypass censorship by allowing individuals access to government restricted sites like Twitter. In his words:

Americans ignored the subversion of their democracy. When a people, better than us, stand up to secure theirs, I could not, I would not, let them down. The revolution may not be televised, but it will be tweeted.

Proxy servers might sound boring and technical, but it is a very important tool for Iranians to tell their story and be heard so I can read about it in San Francisco, CA; post a tweet and add a feed to by Facebook profile via my mobile phone that 200 of my friends will see and all of their friends will see. Freedom of the internet is essential to the promotion of democracy and human rights.

Help cover the Iranian Tweeters by changing your Twitter settings and diverting the government’s efforts. Iranian security forces are looking for protesters using location and timezone searches on Twitter.

  1. Login to Twitter
  2. Go to Settings in the upper right hand corner of the page
  3. Under the Account tab, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT+3.30.

One person can change the world by acting now. To honor those in Iran (and here) who are fighting for their right to be heard – today, try to use your right to be heard to change the world. Maybe you can use your mobile phone to do it.

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Posted in News, Political | 5 Comments »