Pros and Cons of Twitter for iPhone
A couple of weeks ago, after getting the new version of Twitter for iPhone (iTunes), I found myself unsatisfied. I set out to write exactly why and found that creating a pro and con list led to many more cons than pros. Instead of writing a post about it I ended up trying a few different Twitter clients for the iPhone. If you follow me on Twitter you’ve probably read my critiques and praises of some of the features of the clients I’ve tried. Unfortunately each one had an issue that drove me back to Twitter for iPhone.
Here is my list of cons in no particular order:
- In previous versions of the app you could swipe your finger over a tweet in your stream to bring up a menu bar of actions you could take on it (reply, retweet, etc.). In the new version you must tap on the tweet to enter the details page for it before taking any of these actions. This takes away some convenience and hurts the user experience.
- Previous versions had an icon on the top left corner of the stream view that would go to a list of accounts (for those users who had multiple accounts). In the new version you must enter your profile (by tapping the Me icon on the bottom right) and then tap Switch Accounts at the bottom of your profile. Once again some convenience is sacrificed as well as user experience.
- There is no option for a URL shortener or custom photo sharing. These features were actually removed several versions ago but are important to the way I use Twitter so bears repeating in my own list of cons. I understand why they removed these features (they have their own versions that help their own income that they want people to use) but it’s annoying to me nonetheless.
- Poor use of screen space. There are margins on the left and right of the stream and the top bar, which bears nothing but a Twitter logo and a post button, is too big. I’d have no problem with the size of the top bar if it were more functional but there’s no reason for the margins. An iPhone’s screen is only so wide so why not make use of the whole width?
- The time of tweets given as how much time has past since the tweet was posted as opposed to the actual time of the tweet. This is not such a big deal for tweets within the last hour as they are given in the format of x minutes ago. But anything over an hour is approximated by the hour. For example anything between from 60 minutes ago to 119 minutes ago is 1 hour ago, anything from 120 minutes to 179 minutes ago is 2 hours ago, etc. When I’m catching up on tweets in the morning seeing “5:23 am” is more useful to me then “2h”.
- There is no way to add someone to a Twitter list. No joke. Twitter’s own app cannot use their own feature.
- One of the things I liked about the previous version was that the date a user joined was on their profile. The omission of this information in the current version is not a big deal but I liked it.
- When someone does a twitter style retweet their real name is displayed instead of their Twitter handle. I’m more likely to recognize who the retweeter is if they Twitter name is displayed.
- When viewing a Twitter retweet (tapping it in the stream to see the tweet itself) the name of the retweeter disappears so you have to go back to the stream to see it.
- Discover has replaced the DM button on the bottom of the screen. I’d rather have DM there and put Discover in the Me section. Again, this is one I understand (Twitter trying to spread it’s wings and commercialize itself) but it hurts the user experience since this is pretty much a useless tab.
Twitter for iPhone isn’t all bad. In fact I have a list of pros as well. Here they are in no particular order:
- When you opened the old version it would load the last 100 tweets in your stream. If there were more than 100 tweets since the last time you opened the app there was no way to fill the gap between the last 100 and the last tweet previously downloaded. The new version has a ‘load more Tweets’ link that loads 100 more tweets to fill in the gap. If there’s still a gap just hit ‘load more Tweets’ until the gap disappears.
- When viewing a tweet (tapping it in the stream to see the tweet itself) replies to the tweet are listed. There are also links to lists of the people who have retweeted and favorited the tweet.
- The Replies button on the bottom of the screen has been replaced with Connect. Tapping this gives the user the option of showing Interactions (mentiones, retweets & follows) or just mentions.
- Search functionality has been added to the Connect section.
- When viewing a mention in the Connect section the previous and later replies (if any) are displayed. It’s like reading a conversation.
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Making The Atom Feed For A Tag in Google Reader Public
Google recently changed it’s sharing functionality in Google Reader to share exclusively with Google+. As part of this change starred and tagged items changed too. Specifically the behavior of their associated ATOM feeds have. The feeds still exist and work in the same way but you no longer have the option to make them public.
For most people this isn’t a problem. But if you want to use one of these feeds to feed another service (such as a Twitter account) you’ll only be able to do so if the feed was made public before the redesign. If your feed wasn’t made public before the redesign you’re stuck.
Or are you?
I recently faced this issue and could not figure out a way around it. That is until I came accross a page in the Google Reader help forum that described a solution. Rather than look through the posts on that page I’ll outline the solution here.
- Log into Google Reader.
- Paste the following JavaScript into the address bar of your browser and hit enter:
javascript:(function(q){var x=new q(),y;x.open("GET","http://www.google.com/reader/api/0/token",false);x.send();y=new q();y.open("POST","http://www.google.com/reader/api/0/tag/edit",false);y.setRequestHeader("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded");var o={"s":"user/-/label/"+prompt("Enter tag name to make public"),"pub":"true","T":x.responseText},p=[];for(var k in o)p.push(k+"="+ encodeURIComponent(o[k]));y.send(p.join("&"));alert(y.responseText);})(XMLHttpRequest)(Your browser may prompt you to allow the script to run.)
- In the resulting prompt enter the name of the tag you want to make public and click the enter button.
- Click OK to the next prompt.
That’s all there is to it. To see if it worked log out of Google Reader and go to the following URL:
http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/USERID/label/LABEL
where USERID is the numeric ID associated with your Google account and LABEL is the name of the label used in step 3 above.
Here’s an example of a feed I made public to test if this solution worked:
http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/14018125097206515583/label/d
It’s certainly possible that Google will close this hole at some point but until then have at it.
UPDATE
Newer versions of Firefox have the ability to run JavaScript from the address bar disabled. There is, however, a workaround that allows you to run this scrip.
- After logging into Google Reader open the Scratchpad by selecting Tools->Web Developer->Scratchpad from the menu bar.
- Past the script into the Scratchpad and hit CTRL+R or select Run from the Execute menu or right click and select run from the context menu (any of these solutions will execute the script).
- continue the steps above from step 3.
The script will execute in the Scratchpad the same way I described it would work from the address bar previously.
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Scheduling WordPress Posts
I remember a time several years ago when a colleague of mine got in trouble at work for having posted to his blog during business hours. This didn’t stop him from blogging on company time but made him more creative about it. He’d save drafts then post at the end of the day or early the next morning or, more frequently, he’d post under a different name during business hours.
I haven’t spoken with this colleague in a while but I bet he’d like the WordPress scheduling feature. I know that I use it very often. In fact I used it to publish this post.
Picture this scenario: You have your WordPress blog set up to tweet every time you publish a new post. You’d like to publish a post at a time when your Twitter followers are actually paying to their Twitter feeds. But now it’s the middle of the night and you have a great idea for a post.
Or: You blog about a particular sports team and publish game previews a few hours before each game. But you’re going to be in a meeting when it’s time to post.
Both of these situations are perfect for scheduling. Simply write your post and schedule it to publish at the time you want.
The process is quite easy:
- Write the post as you’d do normally but instead of clicking the publish button when you’re done click the “Edit” link where it says “Publish immediately” text in the Publish widget.
- The current date and time (in 24-hour format) is revealed.
- Enter the date and time you’d like the post to be published.
- Click the OK button.
- Click the Schedule button.
- Wait.
Your post is now scheduled to be published at a time that works best for you.
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New Year’s Adjustments
The other night I posted the following on Facebook:
I’m not much into new years resolutions. I believe any time is a good time for a resolution. As for me I’m always trying to be a better father, husband, son and friend. I may not be perfect in any of those roles but life isn’t about perfect. Just trying to be the best you can be.
Though my sister sister noted that I left brother off of my list I got some positive feedback for this statement (curiously, most of it was offline). Obviously I assured my sister that the omission of brother was purely inadvertent but it’s interesting to note I haven’t heard from her since she left her comment.
Usually when I write something like this on Facebook it’s the product of prior reflection. And though this falls into that category the feedback I received made me reflect even more on the subject after I posted it (which I rarely do).
It’s true that I don’t believe in new year’s resolutions. In fact I don’t really believe in resolutions. The word resolution sounds very strong to me. If I need to make a resolution about an area of my life then that area of my life must be really messed up. Though I’m far from perfect I like to think that the various areas of my life are not sufficiently unruly to necessitate a resolution to bring it under control.
I prefer the term adjustments. And life is full of them. As mentioned in the Facebook status I’m always trying to be better in the different areas of my life including, but not limited to, the areas I listed (just ask my sister). For example, perhaps the biggest adjustment I made in 2011, adjusting my diet so as to take off a few extra pounds while not depriving myself of any of the foods I like, was made in May.
Anyway, my point is this: regardless of the calendar any day is a good day to make an adjustment (or resolution or whatever) in your life. Whether it’s trying to shed a few pounds or read more or learn to code just get started. Don’t wait for a birthday, anniversary or New Year’s Day. Once you’ve decided to do it just get started. After all, you can’t improve anything until you get started.
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Don’t Email Me At Work!
I’ve written before about my pet peeve about recruiters calling me at work. But this morning I think I may have found something that irks me more: poorly written recruiting emails in my work inbox.
This morning I received the following missive:
It is my hope that this finds you well. The reason for this message is that my firm was recently entrusted to conduct a search for an exceptional QA Manager in the (location withheld) area. Our client is very stable, offers strong benefits and is just started to assemble a new digital platform team. This QA Manager position is one of the first positions to be hired for the group and will have tremendous input to the direction of the team and product development cycle.
Your name has come up as someone knowledgeable in this area that would be able to point me to qualified QA professionals. So, I am contacting you to engage your help. If you know of qualified QA professional I would love to speak with them. My services are free for recruits and candidates.
Please feel free to forward this communication to any of you colleagues and/or to connect via Linkedin. All Inquires are confidential and (company name withheld) will never forward information without the individual’s express prior approval.
Best regards,
(name withheld)
There is so much wrong with this email that I don’t know where to begin. I’ll start with the obvious: do I really want an email like this going through the corporate email system of my current employer? I’m sure I’m not alone when I answer this question in the negative. I understand you’re trying to reach out to people any way you can to fill a position but whatever source you got my work email address from must also have my personal email address which is far more easily found and listed as my primary email address on LinkedIn.
Next is the actual language of the email. “It is my hope that this finds you well” is a very odd opening since the word “this” is vague. It should be “It is my hope that this email finds you well” or “It is my hope that this message finds you well”. (In fact, you don’t really care how well I am as long as I can help you fill a position.)
Perhaps that’s nitpicking and, when taken alone, that sentence would be acceptable. But there are other problems in the email as well. “Our client is very stable, offers strong benefits and is just started to assemble a new digital platform team.” Really? “…is just started to assemble”? It should be “starting” not “started”.
And “So, I am contacting you to engage your help.”. No comma is necessary in this sentence. I would even leave out the word “So” and start the sentence “I am contacting you..”.
How about “If you know of qualified QA professional…”? It’s either “If you know of a qualified QA professional…” or “If you know of qualified QA professionals…”.
Ok. Perhaps I’m still nitpicking. But the second paragraph is where things got interesting for me in terms of content. Apparently my name has come up as someone who may “be able to point me to qualified QA professionals”. Though I’m flattered that I’m being asked for recommendations (it shows reverence to my experience in the field) it seemed by the first paragraph that the author was actually interested in me. But no, he’s writing me to ask me if I can recommend someone else. Am I not good enough for you? What if I were interested in the position? Would you not accept my application? If you’re going to email me then pitch to me. If you’d like to cover your bases then add a line that requests recommendations should I not be interested.
To recap, when sending me a recruiting email please observe the following rules:
1 – Send the email to my personal email address and not my work email address.
2 – Pitch to me not to people I may know.
3 – Always proofread (or better still have someone else proofread) your message. The last thing any potential candidate wants to see in a recruiting email are spelling mistakes and language miscues. A pitch email is akin to a first interview. It’s your chance to make an impression. A poorly written pitch will make a bad first impression and make me less likely to want to apply for the position for which you are recruiting and more likely to rant about it in a blog post like this.
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