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

Back in January Seesmic, the Twitter client developer, bought Ping.fm, the service for simultaneously updating multiple social networks.  At the time they boldly promised a BlackBerry application that merged the two services by the end of the month, but version 1.2.19, that was released at the end of January, had no Ping.fm functionality at all.  This week Seesmic rolled out release 1.3.28 and my dream of total social network access from one app has been realized.

Adding your Ping.fm account to Seesmic is simple and done through the menu options Accounts > Add account… from there you select “Add a Ping.fm account,” enter your email address and password and your Ping.fm account, with access to all of the 50+ social networks that it supports, is set up.  Your Ping.fm account is treated like any of your accounts on the application and when you want to post an update it appears as one of the account tabs that you can select.  You can post to one account (Twitter or Ping.fm), a Twitter and a Ping.fm account, multiple Twitter accounts, and even multiple Twitter accounts and Ping.fm. Multiple Ping.fm accounts are not allowed, but if they were I bet you could post to all of them at the same time too. Posting is very reliable and easy, but I’ve had issues using the Ping.fm @ short codes (such as @li to post just to LinkedIn) to send an update to individual or sets of social media accounts.

When I reviewed the previous version of the Seesmic application I compared it to ÜberTwitter and while it held its own it did not unseat ÜberTwitter as my favorite Twitter client for the BlackBerry.  I’ve updated that chart comparing the latest versions of Seesmic and ÜberTwitter below.

Seesmic - ÜberTwitter Comparison 2

As you can see from the chart above the latest version of Seesmic maintains the same feature set and stands up to ÜberTwitter similarly to how the last release did. Primary Twitter functionality is all there on Seesmic and works well. I even think that pictures load a little faster on Seesmic than on ÜberTwitter. But ÜberTwitter has people search, tweets near you, tweet deletion, profile editing, trending topics, alerts and other small enhancements that Seesmic doesn’t. The only feature like this that Seesmic has is the ability to save searches.

But then there is Ping.fm and its integration with Seesmic. That addition is huge. With the addition of Ping.fm to the Seesmic app goes from an also ran to a product with a significant differentiator. The issue becomes do I (or will I now) update my social networks enough to be worth the trade for losing features like Tweets Near You, Find a Person and a nicer look and feel? Time will tell.

For now the novelty of Seesmic and its ability to post to multiple social networks has made it my go to Twitter app on the Blackberry. But I find myself drifting back to ÜberTwitter now and again for some of those missing features and realizing how important some features that I took for granted are. I can’t say anymore that ÜberTwitter is my favorite BlackBerry Twitter app, but I also can’t say that Seesmic is. Seesmic is in a great position, will need to keep evolving to take the lead. And only time will tell if the feature that I thought would be a game changer turns out to be little more than a novelty.

Review: Seesmic For BlackBerry with Ping.fm Integration is a post from: Trumblog

The rumored Twitter Blackberry app begins to see the light of day, while the LinkedIn BlackBerry app continues to languish.

’nuff said.

Want to read more of my complaints about LinkedIn bungling the launch of their BlackBerry App?
Still Waiting For Promised Social Media BlackBerry Applications In 2009
LinkedIn For BlackBerry Delayed to 2010
LinkedIn, Where’s Your BlackBerry App?

Native BlackBerry Twitter App In Beta, LinkedIn App MIA is a post from: Trumblog

When Seesmic and Ping.fm merged last month they promised a new version of the application with Ping.fm features included.  Yesterday I checked in on how they were doing and lo and behold  a new version of Seesmic was released last month.  That is the good news.  The bad news is that unfortunately it does not include the cross network posting of Ping.fm.

The new release, version 1.2.19, does bring Seesmic closer to the amazing set of features in ÜberTwitter’s most recent release, but still falls short of the features and ease of use that make ÜberTwitter my favorite Twitter client for the BlackBerry.  None of Seesmic’s features are ground breaking so I won’t describe them.  The following chart will let you know all you need about why ÜberTwitter remains my choice.  The upgrade does give me hope that the version of Seesmic that does include Ping.fm’s cross posting functionality will be feature rich and a worthy competitor in this space.

Seesmic - ÜberTwitter Comparison

New Seesmic For BlackBerry, No Ping Integration is a post from: Trumblog

Last December I wrote about 3 BlackBerry social network applications that were expected by the end of 2009. They were Foursquare, Twitter and LinkedIn. This week the well done and extremely useful Foursquare BlackBerry app was released as a public beta and also a screen shot was released of the native Twitter app that has been rumored. Twitter was the long shot of the bunch and I was pretty surprised to see it considering its mere existance was a rumor and the number of quality Twitter apps available for the BlackBerry like my fav ÜberTwitter.

Then there is LinkedIn, the social network for professionals. First they blew their end of year deadline and then they insulted the BlackBerry community by releasing a new iPhone app with expanded features.

It is so puzzling to me that the business social network does not have an app for the business smart phone. It seems like a no brainer. Sure the iPhone is cool and an app for it will give you more buzz, but doesn’t LinkedIn want to fish where the fish are? Perhaps BlackBerry users on LinkedIn are taken for granted. Of course they are on LinkedIn. Maybe it’s the young iPhone users that LinkedIn is courting? But if so then LinkedIn needs to be careful about neglecting their base. Facebook and Twitter are fun and have BlackBerry apps.  The line between business and personal in social networking have blurred and mobile is the future of all social networks.  LinkedIn neglects this situation at their peril.

LinkedIn was where I first dipped my toes into social networks. It was a social networking kiddie pool for a gen X guy. My experience there led me to get involved with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Yelp, Del.icio.us, blogging, Foursquare, etc. Through my activity with these networks I began to see LinkedIn less like a community (I was friends with most of my LinkedIn connections on Facebook, Twitter, etc. anyway) and more like a resume.  It was required, but only brushed up every year or so unless you were actively looking for work. That was until this fall when I began to hear a lot more LinkedIn love from colleagues and at conferences. So I dove in again and engaged with the LinkedIn community for awhile. But the self advertising on LinkedIn (by non-connections) and the lack of interaction from my real connections compared to the mobile fun in other social networks kept me updating Facebook, Twitter and the rest while giving LinkedIn my leftover scraps of attention.

LinkedIn, you were my first and your utility is clear. But unless you want to continue being seen as a utility by many of us (and I use utility here in the water, electricity and gas company sense that they are vital, but we only think about them when they are gone) rather than a community you need to get on the stick and give us the mobile access that we require. I wish you the best and hope to see you on my BlackBerry soon.

LinkedIn, Where’s Your BlackBerry App? is a post from: Trumblog

Foursquare just released their application for the BlackBerry as a public beta, giving the largest number of smartphone owners access to the location based social network that iPhone and Android users have had for awhile. Foursquare members who have been using the mobile site on the BlackBerry will be very, very happy with the new app that makes checkins and keeping tabs on friends so much easier and engaging. I was lucky enough to be chosen as a beta tester and have been using iterations of the app for a month. Trust me BlackBerry users you will be happy.

To start with finding a venue for checking in is a breeze since the app uses the BlackBerry’s GPS or cell phone triangulation to determine nearby locations. The app even let’s you know where it thinks you are with a blue bar at the bottom of the Places screen, which can be helpful for realizing that the reason distant venues are appearing is because the cell phone tower triangulation is way off.

Favorite locations are listed at the top of the screen with other nearby locations beneath. If the GPS fails to turn up the venue where you are you can search for it by name and if it still can’t be found you can just check in or add it as a new venue, which I’m doing less and less as the number of Foursquare users in Boston grows.

The venue page is nicely detailed with a map of where the venue is located (powered by Google), a link to view tweets nearby and to the venue’s page on Yelp.  With Yelp encroaching on Foursquare by adding check-ins I wonder how long that link will last?  The venue also lists the mayor and anyone else there with links to their information and finally venue tips with the option to add a tip or to-do and mark the location as closed.  I think that the order of these options is a little skewed and I think that the Twitter and Yelp links invite less engagement with the app and Foursquare in general than information on the people in the social network around the venue and tips.

Checking-in is as simple as selecting your venue and then clicking the Check-in button. Your check-in can be customized with a lot of information or you can keep all of your information private and remain “off the grid.”  You can write a shout to your social network, basically a Foursquare status update, do can select whether or not to tell your friends where your are and whether to update Twitter with your location as well.  I imagine that if you have Facebook notifications set up for Foursquare there is also an option to send your location to Facebook.  When the check-in is complete the confirmation screen will let you know the number of points you’ve earned for checking-in and who is mayor of the venue.

Of course Foursquare is a social network and the home/ Friends screen lets you know where your friends have checked in most recently. It also has optional popups alerting you to real time check-ins. From the Friends screen you can click through to more detail about your friends, the venue where they are, email, text, phone and Twitter contact information, and their badges.

If you are looking for the leaderboard I’m afraid that it is accessible from the More screen as a link to the mobile website. Personally I’m more interested in badges and mayorships than the points, but it is one of the game elements of Foursquare and it seems odd to have it relegated to the website.

Overall I’m really pleased with the Foursquare BlackBerry app. It makes checking in easy, helps you keep track of friends and you can get venue information and add venue information in a snap. Foursquare is a simple concept and their BlackBerry app follows that model with quick access to core features and overall ease of use.

Review: Foursquare For BlackBerry is a post from: Trumblog

The Google Mobile app for BlackBerry rolled out a new trick earlier this week and is now searching your contacts and messages as well as the web. While this immediately seemed like a nice addition to the functionality as I’ve been using it the new functionality seems more like a logical addition, but not one that I’ll be using that often.

On the search screen of the app search results from your contacts and messages are auto filled just like any other term.  For example a search for the term Carlos turns up my buddy Carlos’ contact info as well as the search suggestion of Mr Santana. If Carlos would email my work address once in a while those would show up as well.  From the auto fill you can click directly through to call or text your contacts.

In the search results the number of contact and email results appear as icons above the web results.  Clicking on those icons displays the full set of results. In the full results you can also call or text your contacts as well as forward or reply to emails. I’m not sure how emails are selected to be forwarded or replied to in the link, but it doesn’t really matter.  The emails actually open in the app and it takes a second menu selection to bump you into the native message application and editing the email.

Voice search works for this feature and it is an option, so if you get tired of it, feel like it clutters your search results or just don’t want Google nosing in your data you can easily turn off the feature from the Options screen.

The issue with this new functionality is that I’ve been trained that if I need to look up a contact I do so from the Address book or Call Log.  If I need to search for an email I do that from the Message app.  I don’t know what it will take to get me to switch.  It’s also not searching Gmail or giving you options to call or email with Google Voice, which is a curious gap.  Perhaps those additions are coming.  Time will tell if this feature becomes a benefit or just another one that I never use.

Google Mobile Searches BlackBerry Contacts And Messages is a post from: Trumblog