Wade over at Technology Review has written a cool overview of Twitter and how it’s being used.
Link: Technology Review: Is Twitter Here to Stay?
Is Twitter Here to Stay?
Me? I’ve got an ultra basic problem with Twitter — in the form of the cost of text messaging.
I don’t have a problem with Twitter per se — it’s the medium — the cost of sending 160 characters of text — that still, even today, even with my Flext 75 T-Mobile tariff, still winds me up.
I know you can use it via IM — I’ve got that set-up… it’s just, it’s not the same is it? It’s a psychological issue I’ve got:
“MacLeod-Vodatextitis” — the inability to commit to sending hundreds of text messages across a week lest it triple the cost of your phone bill at the end of the month, most commonly found in current or former Vodafone subscribers, used to blowing 12.5p per text.
So I have been using Jaiku instead. In fact I think Jaiku is a lot more powerful. Loving it.
I am going to try and take some time and email the chaps over at Jaiku to try and work out how I use the ‘friends’ thing on the application.
Looking forward to your email! 🙂
We’ll introduce quite a few new features in the next 1-8 weeks, both to the site and the mobile client. It is great to know that you like even the current service though.
Looking at the current user growth, I think we need to scale up the service quicker than we originally planned 🙂
I’ve got Jaiku installed on my phone too but, assuming it’s because I’m on an old operating system on my N70, it seems to hamper my phone’s capability and just slows everything down so I turn it all off.
On the other hand, I use twitter a lot – but only online. I don’t bother with the SMS, except for direct messages, it’s too much noise. I’d love to be able to update twitter on wap, but my phone doesn’t seem to want me to do that [yet]. Or better still, to have a java app that I can keep running in the background like I keep the gmail’s java app running in the background all the time.
I’m overdue an upgrade to my phone so maybe then I’ll play with Jaiku a bit more as I like the concept…
My Sprint plan has unlimited text messaging so I don’t have an issue with the cost (only the volume). But if your phone supports it, you might want to take a look at Tiny Twitter