My BlackBerry died again on Wednesday so while I await a real replacement I’m rocking this beat up BlackBerry 8700.  I tried adding a few apps to help with Social Networking, but the old gal’s not having any of it (and since I’ll be handing her back on Monday I’m not jumping through any hoops to make it work) so any updates will need to be performed via the mobile web.

Consider it an experiment and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Don’t Expect Much Social Media From Me Today is a post from: Trumblog

Twitter has joined the ranks of other social networks and social media sites like Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare and LinkedIn and now Twitter has an official BlackBerry application.  I’m pleased to say that despite the significant issues that I had with the beta version of this app that I had a couple weeks ago and Twitter’s denial of its official status, this app is no red headed stepchild.  It’s a quality app that is worth a try.

Like most of the applications that I mentioned above the Twitter app is fully integrated with the BlackBerry OS so alerts appear in the alert header of the home screen and Messenger app and the browser and media libraries are linked with the Twitter app for easy link and photo sharing.  The app is also structured like the others, with a row of icons at the top of the home screen that give you access to most features and then you can dig deeper with the menu.  For the Twitter application these features are

• Home – your tweetstream and tweet entry field
• Mentions – all @replies directed to you
• Lists – your lists and link to create new lists
• My Profile – for reviewing and editing your profile
• Direct Messages – all direct messages to you and a handy direct messaging tool
• Find People – search for twitter accounts
• Search – search tweets including saved searches and an incredibly detailed advanced search feature
• Popular Topics – current and recent trending topics

The Twitter BlackBerry app is particularly good for exploration. For example, double clicking a tweet not only opens it for actions like replying, favoriting and retweeting. It opens the twitterer’s profile giving you access to information like their name, bio, a link to their website, location, number of followers and a link to who they are, number of people who follow them and a link to those followers too, lists subscribed to, favorited tweets and finally options to friend them (handy with Twitter’s retweet style) or block them (handy with stalkers).

The search functionality is similarly feature rich. Not only can I access saved searches from Twitter.com, but the Advanced Search allows me get really granular in searching the tweet stream.  I can search by a set of words, an exact phrase, a hashtag and even eliminate keywords from my search.  I can set the language of the search results, limit the search by who said it or who was referenced in the tweet, where the tweet was sent from, when it was sent, the attitude of the tweet (positive, negative or asking a question) and finally whether the tweet contains a link or not.  Yes, it is THAT granular.  The Popular Topics screen also has two different ways of taking the pulse of the tweet stream. I don’t know what the difference in timeframe is for “current” versus “recent,” but the current tab has a list of popular topics and the recent tab shows a tag cloud of different popular topics.

The Twitter BlackBerry application compares well with Seesmic and ÜberTwitter that I have reviewed in the past.  It looks good, usability is excellent and there are no performance issues that I noticed in my few days testing the app.  It shares most of the same features as the other two applications, but it falls short in a three critical spots. First, it does not support multiple accounts.  This is probably not significant for most users, but for we power users it is.  Second, it does not support @ completion.  Again for power users it’s handy to be able to type “@” and then access a list of friends, which makes finding a Twitter handle easy and ensures that you spell it correctly. And third, retweeting is limited to the new Twitter style, not old school addition of comments to a retweet that we power users prefer.

For more details on how these three applications compare to each other, here’s my chart of features:

Twitter, Seesmic and ÜberTwitter Comparison

The “semi-official” BlackBerry application is a worthy addition to the options for twitterers with BlackBerries. It’s good looking, easy to use and feature rich.  With a few additions it would easily rank up there with Seesmic and ÜberTwitter as a favorite of mine and a recommendation for power users.  It is certainly an application that Twitter should be endorsing and proud of.

Review: Twitter Application For BlackBerry is a post from: Trumblog

Earlier this week, three months after their promised delivery date and a week after a third party developer launched their own BlackBerry application, LinkedIn, the dominant professional online social network, finally launched their first application for the BlackBerry, the dominant smartphone for businesses. In other words it was about damn time and LinkedIn seemed forced to launch it.  But I’m putting all that behind me because the LinkedIn BlackBerry app is here and it’s pretty damn useful.

At its simplest, LinkedIn is the most robust Rolodex ever and the BlackBerry app gives you access to that amazing tool.  With it you can  access the work history and how you are connected to anyone who is on LinkedIn, which means just about anyone you’ll ever do business with.  The application makes this exceedingly easy by being completely integrated with all the BlackBerry applications so that you can view the LinkedIn profiles of anyone invited to a meeting directly from the calendar appointment or from a list of people cc’ed on an email.  You can also see access current profiles directly from your address book.  In other words you now have no excuse for not knowing the title and previous experience of the person sitting across the conference table from you, not to mention how you are connected to that person.  Consider yourself warned.

From all of these BlackBerry applications you can also invite people to connect through LinkedIn.  For example from a meeting in your calendar you can select any attendee and send her an invitation to LinkedIn, which is very handy.   Unfortunately the link backwards from your LinkedIn connections to your address book is less complete.  From most LinkedIn application screens you can send an email to your connections using their LinkedIn email address.  You can also link a LinkedIn profile to a BlackBerry Contact, which transfers the profile picture, business and title from the LinkedIn profile to your BlackBerry Contact if the field is empty, but will not overwrite existing information.  Presumably that data also remains up-to-date as well.  That is a nice work around the contact synchronization issues that the Facebook BlackBerry application has with BlackBerrys using BES and I hope that the Facebook and upcoming Twitter applications will include this functionality.

Otherwise the application itself is pretty basic with six screens

1. Network Updates – LinkedIn’s answer to Facebook’s news feed with updated from all of your connections and where you can update your own status
2. Search – for finding people in your immediate and extended network
3. Connections – your LinkedIn address book
4. Invitations – people who want to connect with you
5. Messages – your LinkedIn mail inbox, where you can also send messages via LinkedIn
6. Reconnect – LinkedIn’s recommendations for people you may know or want to connect with

Together that all serves your needs to connect with or find out about anyone you are interested in, but it leaves out the community building features of LinkedIn.  You can’t see how you are connected to 2nd degree contacts.  You cannot add recommendations.  You cannot read or respond to discussions.  You can’t update your profile, though you can update your status. Accessing or adding to your address book is supported, building your reputation is not.

LinkedIn still couldn’t get this exactly right and left out one group of BlackBerry users.  The application does not work on the BlackBerry Storm s0 while the majority of BlackBerry users now have a LinkedIn application there is still a group of BlackBerry enthusiasts who will be giving them grief.  In Chad Whitney’s blog post announcing the application he states

The BlackBerry platform is a top priority for the LinkedIn mobile team, so expect regular enhancements and additions to the application through 2010.

Hopefully those enhancements and additions include support for the Storm and some of the reputation management tools.  Unfortunately his words echo a similar statement from Adam Nash last November when he said that the LinkedIn BlackBerry app was  “one of our most important mobile efforts for 2009.”  Let’s hope that Mr Whitney’s timeline for “regular enhancements and additions” is shorter than 5 months.

Review: LinkedIn for BlackBerry is a post from: Trumblog

Viigo, developers of my favorite news reader application for BlackBerry, announced today that Viigo has become a part of RIM. In a press release on their website they announced that

Our team has joined RIM’s global organization and will continue to bring our expertise in BlackBerry® application development and real-time content delivery to the BlackBerry platform. The Viigo for BlackBerry app will also continue to be available for download through BlackBerry App World™.

I have been a fan of Viigo for a long time and  wish everyone at Viigo the best and hope that this will lead to improvements to the application and benefit BlackBerry.

Viigo Now Part Of Research In Motion (RIM) is a post from: Trumblog

I’ve written a lot about the lack of a LinkedIn application for the BlackBerry and specifically LinkedIn’s missed deadline for releasing the application.  I mean I’ve written a lot.  Maybe I’m obsessed.  Anyway it’s reached a state in the BlackBerry community that people are taking things into their own hands. 

Jason Remillard (who is not associated with LinkedIn or BlackBerry in any way and is very careful about how he mentions the business social network in his communication and website) has produced an application for accessing your LinkedIn social network on the BlackBerry called Social Business Communicator.  It’s a bare bones application and not as integrated with the BlackBerry address book, calendar or phone as I suspect a native application would be, but it’s something and it shows the need and desire in the community for this app that was promised last year.

The application currently is just a tool for reviewing your network’s profiles and updates. Along the top of the application are three icons for My Profile, Recommendations and Network Updates, but it seems that only the Network Updates screen is complete so far and the others are still in development.  The Network Updates screen shows five activity types, each set of which can be collapsed and expanded.  They are:

1. Profile Updated – connections of yours who have made changes to their profile information,
   
2. Connection Added – people who have accepted your request to LinkedIn,
3. Status Updated – connections of yours who have updated their status,
4. Connection Updated – connections of yours who have connected with other people and
   
5. Group Joined – connections of yours who have joined groups.

In all cases the name of the connection is a link to a profile page on which you can see your connection’s name, title, current employer, location, industry, number of connections, a summary of their experience, status, specialties, interests and associations, depending on what information they have entered for their profile.  You can also email your connections directly from the application.

There is plenty to be done on the application.  It’s pretty slow and a lot of features that would really make the application useful are still in development. Based on the icon at the top of the screen it seems like viewing recommendations and maybe even adding them is a feature in the works.  Accessing a complete list of your connections would be another useful addition as would the ability to search and sort them.  Allowing you to update your status view your profile and maybe even edit it are some other feature I would like to see.  Of course the holy grail would be integration with your address book so that LinkedIn profile information is accessible directly from there.  Finally the application needs an icon for the BlackBerry application screen and better interface design.

I hate to even mention those things because the application is a labor of love for the community of BlackBerry users who understand the value of LinkedIn, but have been left in the cold by RIM and LinkedIn.  It is giant step forward from having nothing to being able to access our business social network from our business smart phone and I want to thank Jason for doing this.

Review: Social Business Communicator is a post from: Trumblog

The following is a liveblog of a panel discussion with Ryan Sarver,  Sam Altman, Tina q Unterlaender, Clara Shih and Steve Lee on geolocation, social networks, privacy and monitization.  The panel was excellent with great back and forth, insight into issues around geolocation and social networks and the future of this functionality.  The panel took place at South by Southwest on March 15, 2010.

Lifegraph: sum of all places that you have been.

Within a year or so most apps will have a geolocation element

Great app for Android will track your commuting history and nudge you for shorter commute times.

Anonymous geolocation does not exist. Data is uniquely identifiable

Geolocation data must be opt-in for privacy reason.

Transparency & control critical to geolocation & privacy

Geolocation and relevancy is key. Starbucks app buzzes when near a store, but what if I don’t like coffee?

Active geolocation (Foursquare), passive (Latitude), future is a hybrid of the 2

Checkins have no inherent value, it’s what you do with the data

Used to be “next year is year of location” now every year is

W3C Geolocation spec API has been huge

Passive utility of geolocation with big value – knowns when you are coming home & turns on the heat

Smart phone penetration key driver to geolocation adoption

Privacy gaff will hamper major impact of adoption of geolocation

Q: Future of geolocation? Silence… Uh oh.

Lee and Altman agree loaning out profile for set period of time is coming for social networks and geolocation

Altman: expects that Facebook will become the aggregator for all geolocation data

Hedge funds are calling for data on what stores people are shopping at.

Integration of geolocation with key phone functionality will drive usage.

Altman: massive consolidation of geolocation apps in 9 mos

Lee: Consolidation of geolocation apps countered by addition of functionality to all apps

Location based coupons via geolocation mostly for small businesses and HUGE ROI

Big brands using geolocation for loyalty card style marketing

YES, I’d use it. RT @luckylou Asked unified LBS login app Q to the panelists & they seemed to like it. Think I will develop it

The following video coda shows checkins at SXSWi 2010 using a variety of different services and superimposed over a map of Austin and showing times when the checkins took place.

The Life Graph: You Are Your Location is a post from: Trumblog

It’s March 12, the first day of South by Southwest interactive when the social media digerati come together in Austin Texas and mobile sites and apps are launched or touched up with new features in order to take advantage of the opportunity.  But there is one social network who is bucking the trend and going their own way.  Who?  Why LinkedIn of course, who promised an app in December and is letting excitement build… and build… and build.

I know that it’s a bit of a dead horse, but I just can’t help myself.

No LinkedIn BlackBerry App Launch for SXSW is a post from: Trumblog

Last week I wrote about the ÜberTwitter and Seesmic Twitter applications for the BlackBerry and noted while Seesmic‘s integration with Ping.fm was a great leap forward, it was missing some convenient features that could make it difficult to stick with that app over ÜberTwitter. I haven’t come to a conclusion about that yet, but after more time with the applications I have some pointers for what each app needs to do to overtake their competition.

Seesmic

It would be easy for you to take a breather after the hard work of integrating Ping.fm, but instead now is the time to keep enhancing your functionality and take advantage of the work you’ve done. Here’s what to do.

Aid Exploration

Right now the Seesmic BlackBerry application is great at sending status updates, but less so when it comes to conversation.  I’m talking about things above and beyond checking out a friend’s tweetstream.  Adding features like finding tweets near you and identifying trending topics help we twitterers to engage with the community around us, but who we are not necessarily connected with.  For the same reason adding a “find people” feature would also be useful for when you want to check someone’s tweetstream or mention them, but aren’t following them or know their handle.

Kick up the UI

Compare the two screen shots below of the status update screen for Seesmic (on the left) and ÜberTwitter (on the right).  Notice ÜberTwitter’s use of color, an icon and the friendly “What’s Happening?”  Now compare that with the Soviet era design of Seesmic’s screen.  I like that I can update multiple accounts from one screen with Seesmic, which you can’t with ÜberTwitter, but a little design would go a long way.

The Timeline screen design for the two applications is a little bit of a tossup.  Seesmic (on the left) gets more on the screen and has no ads, but ÜberTwitter has the nice bubble layout and the Über bar.

Finally Seesmiuc, let’s talk alerts and retweets.  Seesmic you MUST add alerts. It is crazy that I can’t set my BlackBerry to buzz me when someone replies or direct messages me.  That is a major issue that you need to clear up pronto.  As for retweets, did you not notice the hoopa over Twitter’s new retweet format?  An option to retweet old school would be a nice addition, especially since your competition has it.  Your quote functionality is a close workaround, but without copy and paste menu options on the update screen it’s a struggle.  Other features that would help we power users is friend picker autofilling of friend names in tweets and a list of friends and followers (2 separate lists, not 1 combined list please) that would help us find members of our community that may not be so active and ensure that we spell our friends’ Twitter handles accurately.

And last but not least change the logo.  I have no idea what’s up with the raccoon, but it’s not not doing it for me.

ÜberTwitter

Don’t think because I had  long list of things for Seesmic to do that you would get off easy.  Seesmic’s list may be long, but the features and changes are simple to implement.  You have the harder road. I’ll start with a simple enhancement for you; add saving of search terms.  This is pretty handy at conferences when you want to search for more than one hashtag or keyword and saves you from having to type each one in repeatedly.  It’s small, but it’s a nice feature.

The big thing that you have to work on is integration with other social networks. If you would let me post to Facebook and LinkedIn from your application (just post, I’m not greedy enough to ask for timeline views from other social networks too) that would be huge.  I wouldn’t even need posting to multiple social networks from one input screen as long as I can cut and paste.  It’s a big thing I know, but let’s face it, with a few features and tweaks Seesmic’s feature set with be equal to yours.  If you want to maintain your position you need to have all the features AND allow cross social network posting.

That’s it. Some suggestions for you both.  ÜberTwitter and Seesmic, the position of my favorite Twitter application on the BlackBerry is up for grabs.  The next move is yours.

An Open Letter to ÜberTwitter and Seesmic is a post from: Trumblog

WordPress is probably the dominant blogging platform used today as well as an acceptable content management system. One of the aspects of WordPress that has led to its broad use is that it is open source, the code is free and updated and extended by users so that not only is it an affordable option, but it also has been enhanced through design (themes) and feature specific modules (plugins) to do just about anything that you’d want it to.

Despite that, WordPress did not have a BlackBerry application until last summerwhen a beta was released. It was a bit buggy and had some UI issues, but since then updates to the WordPress BlackBerry application have been rapid, developing a useful application for managing your blog. That part is key. WordPress for the BlackBerry is for existing blogs only.  Setting up a blog and refining the design and functionality of an existing blog are beyond the capabilities of this app (that will go without saying for most bloggers, but it’s worthwhile to point out to the newbies).  This app is for managing a blog that you already have, writing new content, editing existing content and reviewing comments.

Before you get started with the app you’ll need to set up your blog (the app supports multiple blogs either self hosted or on WordPress.com) with your log in information in order to download and sync your content changes. That’s how the app works; download content from you webserver, edit or create and then synchronize.

The app has four areas of functionality:

• Posts - blog posts,
• Pages - pages on your WordPress site,
• Comments - reader comments on posts and pages,  and
• Options - application settings.

Posts

The posts section of the app is of course for writing and editing blog posts. By syncing this section (each section of the app can be synchronized independently, which is a benefit for memory and time or causes unnecessary repetition depending on how you work) the number of posts that you pre-set are downloaded from the server. Those posts can then be edited and re-synched.

The landing page displays your recently posted and submitted posts with the title and date. Using the pencil icon at the top of the screen you can open a new post, the folder icon displays drafts, both local (on your BlackBerry or on the server) and when they were last saved. The icon with two arrows refreshes the list of posts.

The edit screen has the same basic content fields as the online version of WordPress: Title, Tags, Categories, Status and Content. The post title is naturally whatever you want to name your post. The tags (words that describe the post) are added as a comma separated list. Existing categories on your blog are imported to the app for selection and new categories can also be created from the app as well. The status refers to the status of the blog post in regards to it’s being posted. With some statuses not yet posted and others posted in different ways I don’t understand the logic behind their order.  Status options are:

• Pending Review – a post that has been uploaded to the web server, marked for review, but has not been published,
• Private - a post that has been uploaded to the web server, published and marked private,
• Draft - a post that has been uploaded to the web server, but not published,
• Published - a post that has been uploaded to the server, published and is currently live, and
• Local Draft – a post that only exists on the BlackBerry app and has not yet been uploaded to the web server.

Finally there is the post content, which is the HTML text for the post. I find it burdensome to write HTML markup on the BlackBerry so I tend to just write posts and then add the markup online later. But you may be more proficient with HTML.

I prefer to do the same with media. In the application image files from your BlackBerry can be inserted into posts and you can add a title, description, caption, etc., but the media can only be positioned at the top or bottom of the post. More precise positioning must be done online.

Once the post is complete it must be submitted to the web server. The status selected for the post determines whether the post is immediately public, is a draft, etc. Personally I prefer to submit posts written on my BlackBerry as a draft so that I can review the spelling, grammar, formatting and media before I promote it to live, but you can push posts live directly from your BlackBerry.

Pages

The pages section of the app functions basicaly the same as the post section. The main difference is that you can set the options for Parent Page, Page Template and Page Order instead of Tags and Categories. Parent Page and Page Template are drop down menues with data pulled from the live site. The Page Order option allows you to determine where in the order of pages on the site the new one will go by using a numbering system. Other than that the structure, submission and content entry functionality is the same.

Comments

Managing comments on a blog seems like a small thing, but it’s critical to maintaining a community and can be rather difficult with a mobile browser. WordPress for BlackBerry app makes managing comments easy allowing you to spam, hold, approve, delete and reply to multiple comments or individually with little time or effort.

Options

The WordPress application doesn’t allow for much customization and the options screen just gives you the ability to change the blog username and password for logging in, the number of posts that are downloaded and an option for uploading images at a smaller size. More options for things like memory usage, default location of media, etc would be nice add-ons in the future, but for now this will do.

Verdict

This application is a must have for any WordPress blogger with a BlackBerry.  It simply provides the primary features that bloggers need for writing and editing content on the go as well as managing their blog’s community.  It is everything that you expect from WordPress, stable, clean user interface, simple to use.  I find it extremely useful for blogging on the go (this post was written in subways during my commute and a parked car waiting for my daughter’s plane to arrive) or capturing an idea before it gets away.  I’ve published a couple posts directly from my BlackBerry, but for the most part I feel that some extra polish is required that this app really can’t do without a more feature rich text editor and finer media placement control.  With that and some memory management this application would be perfect. But even without it I am very pleased with the app.

Review: WordPress for BlackBerry is a post from: Trumblog

Forgot to mention this a couple weeks ago when the latest release of Foursquare for BlackBerry came out, but the application has added a tab in the top navigation for Tips.  The purpose of the screen is obvious enough, it’s a listing of tips for places near where you are and from each tip you can link to the venue, mark tips as done and see the profile of the person who left the tip.

It’s not earth shattering, but it’s a move toward expanding activity on Foursquare beyond just checking in to earn points, mayorships and badges.  Leaving tips has been sort of a secondary feature on the social network and is not promoted, but by making these tips a different way to explore the locations around you, not just by showing their names (that you probably already know), but what about them makes them interesting.

It also adds a little cache to adding tips.  A couple months ago when looking at how social networks were stealing functionality from each other I asked “how could Foursquare support and reinforce the tips and to-do’s for venues?”  This is one answer.

Nice Tips Foursquare is a post from: Trumblog