So, what is the best Twitter Client?

Not exactly a Twitter client, but tool to manage social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and more.

When I created my first Twitter account in 2006, there weren’t any applications for desktop or mobile. But, it’s 2011 and the service grows so fast. It’s around one billion tweets sent per week (according to March 2011 data). I love Twitter, and I also joined some other services. I don’t use all of them on daily basis, but more about learning how the service works, and how they’are designed. This is something I consider as something-I-like-to-do.

We are connected to each other using social media services. Many people want to be in the front row to get the latest news. They also want to know what is the latest information in the industry they’re involving with. I want to get the news shared by people I’m following on Twitter, or just to see what’s happening from my timeline.

At the same time, I want to share updates. These things seemed easy to be done. But, when it’s involving multiple social media accounts, I can be very busy. Not always, but sometime.

I have been trying and have some application installed on my gadgets — and also my MacBook Pro. I’m having Nokia N8, BlackBerry, and iPhone 4 now. Okey, don’t ask me why I need to have those gadgets. I just have them and don’t use them at the same time. But, I usually switch between those gadget — and of course, applications installed.

The thing is that not all applications works on every device I have with me, even they share similar features. Among many applications (free or paid) to manage my social media account. And these are some applications (including Twitter clients) I use — I switch between applications when I’m on my iPhone as my primary device right now.

I don’t have iPad and Android-based devices anyway. So, why bother having (too) many applications when I don’t use them all? Again, I like exploring how those things work. And, I like working on my account using its native application. For example like using Facebook for iPhone to explore Facebook, even HootSuite also works fine. Why? Switching between application is easy. Right?

I don’t have any other applications like TweetDeck, or Twitter for Mac on my Mac. For the web-based tool I sometime use HootSuite, CoTweet and Twitter website.

For the next post, I think I’ll write short reviews about those applications. From a end-user perspective. There are many tools/services that offer so many features. Probably, they works for businesses, not for personal use. Some are paid service, and some are free. When it comes into a simple question: “What is the best Twitter client?”, the answer should be simple: A client that works for you. Right?

Earth Hour 2011 and Discussion at Obrolan Langsat

Last night, I was going to Obrolan Langsat and joined the discussion about Earth Hour. Yes, this is an issue, but I’m not calling myself good at this. Every month, I pay the electricity bill for my grand parents’ house — and I don’t experience a big changes on the bill every month. May be, they’re good at saving energy. :)

22032011317

22032011314

This year, Earth Hour will be held on March 26, 2011 at 8.30 – 9.30 PM local time. In Jakarta, the celebration will be focused at Gedung Balaikota (Jl. Merdeka Selatan) and Bundaran Hotel Indonesia. If you have time, see you there!

Last year, my videoblogging partner — yes, Dadio.TV is a project of two: my friend and I — created an episode about Earth Hour at National Monument in Jakarta. Here’s the video :)

TEDx Jakarta: SOMETHINK DIFFERENT! I’m going!

I went to TEDx Jakarta for the first time in July this year. And, it was because I stay in Jakarta. When I was in Jogjakarta, going to TEDx event become something that I didn’t expect. I like TED events — including its independently-organized event, this is why it has “x” in its name. I downloaded lots of videos from TED Talks. Not sure how many videos in have in my hard-drive, but until today, I feel that I got many knowledge — only by watching the talks.

In the previous TEDx Jakarta event, there were many inspiring speakers like Irfan Amalee, Irwan Ahmett, Dr. Nurul Taufiqu Rochman, Barry Likumahuwa, Ade Rai and Ridwan Kamil. After that event, I told myself that I should be going to the next TEDx event. Today, I got a confirmation letter that I got the invitation. Nice!

I’m ready to be inspired by some speakers like Adi Panuntun, Betti S. Alisjahbana, Chandra Tresnadi, René Suhardono, Anies Baswedan, and Sanggar Roda. Go to speakers’ page to find our more about them. I’m not trying to search for any details about what the speakers will present. Well, for this… I will let them surprise me — and hopefully all the audience. :)

Now, for personal reminder:

  • Venue: Pusat Perfilman Usmar Ismail (Usmar Ismail Hall) Kuningan
  • Address: Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav C. 22, Jakarta 12940
  • Time & Date: December 19th, 2010. 2 PM — 6 PM, registration opens 1 PM

Anyway, I took lots of picture during 5th TEDx Jakarta event. You can go to its photoset at Flickr. And, if you want to see the videos, you can visit TEDxJakarta video playlist. And, if you want to be TEDx Jakarta speaker, there’s a question to answer. :)

Goodbye Nokia E72!

Nokia E72No, not that I hate my E72. I lost it. Last Monday, I reached my hometown for holiday. I liked the fact that I finally got home without loosing anything. A perfect situation. :)

On the evening, I had plan to have dinner with my girl. That should be a nice dinner. But, it turned into bad situation when I realized that I didn’t have my Nokia E72 with me. That was the time when all food were on the table. I haven’t touched anything — well, not really ‘anything’, but only some peanuts. Last time I remembered was that when I was in a taxi. I called the taxi operator and worked with the guy on the phone. I even called the taxi driver and asked him to pick us again. No luck. In short: I lost my phone. Now, I only have 5800XM with me.

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A gift from Nokia Ovi, and it’s a skateboard

So, the skateboard is for me?  Thank you, Ovi!

Two weeks ago, I left some comments at Ovi blog after they had a new design for their blog. They told the readers that they had some goodies: a skateboard and five shirts. Did I want one? Sure, I did. A shirt should be just great.

Two days ago, I got an email from Niini Kokkonen (the Editor of Ovi Blog) telling that I’m the lucky person who will get the skateboard. And she told me also why I’m the lucky one. I will keep the email for myself. Thank you Niini!

Yesterday, they made an announcement. And yes, the skateboard i for me. But, it’s not mine yet since I haven’t had it in my hands. It will be shipped today or tomorrow. I’ll wait. And, yes… I feel so lucky this time. Congratulation to all other winners!

Kalibata for Durian, and Pasar Minggu for Fish

I have been staying in Jakarta for almost two months now. But, I haven’t got any chance to explore this city further. Last weekend I decided to visit some areas in Jakarta with my friend Teguh. We went to Kalibata Street to have some durian and also Pasar Minggu — one of the biggest traditional market in Jakarta — to see the market at midnight.

At Kalibata, we had durian. Yay! Finally! The price was not too expensive I think. I bought two durian and shared another one durian for some kids I met there. We had three. I spent IDR 50,000. Fair enough.

I went there at around 10 PM. After that, my friend and I went to Pasar Minggu. The plan was that we want to go to Muara Baru with some people to get fresh fish. But, we’re late. We arrived at Pasar Minggu around 8 PM. We decided to have durian first, and go back to Pasar Minggu at midnight.

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Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta: First Impression

Two days ago, I gave Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta a try on my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. This application will help Nokia users to keep update with the social media services — in this case Facebook and Twitter. Of course, it’s still in beta so I should not expect too much.

The installation process was easy and I didn’t have any problems. Everything was smooth. This early preview is available on the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5530, Nokia 5800, and the Nokia X6 devices. Go to messaging.nokia.com if you want to see applications from Nokia Messenging for your device.

After having this application installed, I used it right away. When running the application for the first time, I got this welcome screen:

Home Screen

I use Twitter more than Facebook. First, I use the Twitter feature. Here’s the login sreen:

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Facebook Privacy Settings You Should Know

Sun Server Key Chain (by Subzero Blue) I’m using Facebook, and found this useful post about privacy settings. In short:

  1. Understand your friend lists
  2. Remove yourself from Facebook search results
  3. Remove yourself from Google
  4. Avoid the infamous photo tag mistake
  5. Protect your albums
  6. Avoid the post-breakup Facebook effect
  7. Control what information applications can access
  8. Make contact information private
  9. Avoid embarrassing wall posts
  10. Keep friendships private

Of course, every user has its own privacy level settings. But, I think most of them are few good points to consider. See details about each setting.

Jogja Wall Nation: Mural Competition

There will be an event in Jogjakarta called “Jogja Wall Nation” this weekend (October 14-15). It’s a mural competition. The competition will take place in Malioboro area. What makes it different is that the event will start in the evening until early in the morning. I got news that right now (when I write this post), there are already 150+ registered participants.

Jogja Wall Nation

Now, if you’re journalists, bloggers or social media users who want to come to this event, you’re all welcome. Malioboro street will be closed from around 10 PM (October 14th). If you want to know more about this event you send your questions/inquiries from its website or don’t hesitate to contact me directly. More info about this event can be found at Jogja Wall Nation official website.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Error During Start

Yesterday, on my way home to Jogja from Jakarta, my Nokia 5800 didn’t work at all. Last time I checked before boarding — it was in Soekarno Hatta airport — it worked without any issue. I just switched to “Offline” mode. Few minutes after that, I only had blank white screen with the Nokia logo. Something was wrong, and I decided to switch off my phone. I waited after I touched Jogjakarta.

When I was in the airport in Jogjakarta, I tried to switch it on hoping that it’s back to normal. It gave me the same error. Nothing I could do. Damn! When I got home, I tried to find the solution, and I used these solutions.

Your memory card is corrupted.
Firstly hard reset your device without inserting the memory card. And after hard resetting just insert back your memory card.
If still the problem persits just attach your device to your PC in Mass Storage mode and right click your memorycard and select properties and select tools and select check now..i.e. scan disk your memory card for errors… (source)

This is what I did:

  • Switch off the phone and pull out the memory card.
  • Switch on the phone without memory card. It’s back to normal now.
  • Switch it off again and insert its memory card back, and turn it off.
  • It’s working again.

I was worried that the only solution was formatting my memory card. At least, next time I get this kind of problem, I should know what I must try. Is there any other solution to solve this kind of error?

Dear Yahoo! Meme, I think…

When I heard about Yahoo! Meme and looked its website, in brief I was thinking about tumblelog. Seriuosly, I couldn’t fine any new features, compared to similar service like Tumblr (my Tumblr) or Posterous (my Posterous page). That was before I got a chance to try Yahoo! Meme.

Yahoo! describes Yahoo! Meme as “where you share everything you find that’s interesting”. If we go to Yahoo! Meme page, Yahoo! tells us about these following details:

  • Things have to be quick, easy and simple to do
  • You should be able to share whatever kind of content you publish or find in the web
  • Your posts should get around without you having to be a part of any specific social network
  • You keep the credit for your discoveries and creations
  • You should easily find what’s drawing everyone else’s attention

I’ve been using Tumblr for few months, and when I firstly logged in to Yahoo! Meme (after got an invitation), I see nothing but similar features — like Tumblr. This is Yahoo! Meme’s dashboard when you’re ready to post/share something:

Yahoo! Meme Dashboard

Currently, it supports some post types: text, photo, video and music (audio). For non-text contents, you can directly upload (only images) or embed external contents. So, some contents should be “somewhere” on the internet first. Anyway, Yahoo! already has a video service called Yahoo! Video, but its videos can’t be inserted? Yahoo! Meme only supports YouTube and Vimeo now. What about other video sharing providers like blip.tv or Metacafe? Or, what about any video files that can be inserted using embed codes?

Now, let’s compare it to Tumblr. Tumblr offers more type of posts. And it’s so easy. We don’t need to deal with complex post customizations. For example, we post video embed codes, it will be automagically processed by Tumblr system. Neat.

Tumblr Dashboard

And, let’s not forget about various features including theme customization, custom domain, and more. I know, Yahoo! Meme is still new. They might have improvements in the future. Or, it will be closed down just like Yahoo! 360? Anyone can give me a good reason to use Yahoo! Meme?

Telkom Speedy Review (first month)

It has been a month since I started using Telkom Speedy service. So far, I have nothing but positive service. I’m an active internet user and I use internet everyday. I haven’t experienced any connection problem.

Few days after I had my internet connection, I had a phone call from Telkom Speedy representative. She asked me whether I have my internet connection working or not. She also welcomed me and said thank you for using Telkom service. I got information also if I have problem with the connection, I can call the customer support. I already know about this but I never try it until today.

Today, I got another call from them. They informed me that they’ve received my payment and asked me about their service so far. I told the guy that I don’t have problem so far. I’m not sure about the other customers in other city, but here in Jogjakarta (in my place), I have a good experience.

Anyway, I tried to pay my Speedy bill using bank transfer (from ATM), but it seemed that the system is not ready yet here in Jogjakarta. Anyone got the same experienced?

14th Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival 2009

ygf

Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival (YGF) is an annual music event in Jogjakarta. This year, it’s the 14th festival and has “EVERYWHERE” as the event theme. Anyway, this event is organized by Gayam16. There are many agenda during this event including music performance, exhibition and also workshop from July 16-18.

This event also invites musicians from some cities like Pamekasan (Madura), Tolitoli (Central Sulawesi), Solo, Jakarta and also from United Kingdom, USA, France and Japan. It’s a little bit different now. Sapto Raharjo, a gamelan music maestro, was passed away in February 2009.

The music performances will be held in Concert Hall, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta from July 16-18, 2009. And here’s the program schedule:

  • Thursday — July 16, 2009
    • Concert (8PM – 11PM)
      • Y. Pamulangan Beksa Sasmita Mardawa (Yogyakarta)
      • Kutiplak Ndang Tak (Yogyakarta)
      • KPH9 (USA and Yogyakarta)
      • Agus Bing and Prabumi Ethnic Jazz Band (Solo)
      • Stupa (Yogyakarta)
    • Exhibition (10AM – 11PM)
      • Tribute to Sapto Raharjo
  • Friday — July 17, 2009
    • Concert (8PM – 11PM)
      • Gita Rarya (Yogyakarta)
      • Kito Siopo? (Japan, UK and Yogyakarta)
      • Alex Grillo and Friends (France and Yogyakarta)
      • Singgayan (Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi)
    • Talkshow (3PM – 5PM)
      • Cultural Dialogue (at Amphitheather, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta)
    • Exhibition (10AM – 11PM)
      • Tribute to Sapto Raharjo
  • Friday — July 18, 2009
    • Concert (8PM – 11PM)
      • Youngsters Gamelan 16 (Yogyakarta)
      • Rene Lysloff and SaKAna (USA)
      • Kabud Hitam (Pamekasan, Madura)
    • Workshop (1PM – 4PM)
      • Gamelan Nowadays (at Auditorium of Lembaga Indonesia Perancis)
    • Exhibition (10AM – 11PM)
      • Tribute to Sapto Raharjo

Few days ago, I joined a discussion on other site about i-teve. I thought, I need to respond some comments there. Why? OK, someone wrote this:

wahhh parah banget nih i-teve. Niru2 youtube banget. Malu gw sama bangsa Indonesia. Bikin yang baru gitu dong, apa kek

OK. What about this:

Iya, tapi menurut gw kurang aja nih i-teve kalo konsepnya bener2 njiplak youtube. Plagiat mungkin adalah kata-kata yang tepat, atau mungkin copy cat?

The question is: does he — who gave comments above — already understand what i-teve and YouTube are? But, thank you for your comments… :)

Related: my other posts about i-teve.

White House’s The Official Photostream

When I heard about White House Photostream page from Yan Arief Twitter status, I visited it right away. No waiting. I’m an Indonesian, and I love seeing the topic like this — related to my own country — but, it’s not easy to find. Do we have great pictures of our President, or Istana Negara? Anyone?

I like seeing what happen in the White House. Not from political perspective. I just like it. If I have to choose some, here are some photos I like.

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P021809PS-0069

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Douglas Bowman’s Farewell Post

I like reading Douglas Bowman’s farewell post. He left Google after three years. Here’s a paragraph:

Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.

Other comment about this farewell post:

This is, I believe, why Google’s products (many of which are great and innovative–I remain a devoted Gmail fan, for example) will always fall short of achieving the emotional connection that people feel to an iPhone. There’s no one with real power there who has a good sense of what makes a product beautiful or when it feels “electric.” You can’t quantify that sort of thing through study or harness collective brainpower to coerce it–someone just has to know it when they see it. (source)

Follow and follow back on Twitter

On Twitter, I have some personal preferences about who I follow. When someone follows me, I usually do not follow them back directly for some reasons, mostly it’s because of spammy users. If someone starts following me, I usually check his/her profile first. I tried not to follow people back without reading about their profile (and their updates).

I will not follow other Twitter users back mainly because of these two reasons:

  • I do not know them. The word “know” here is not about I have met them in real life. I look up their profile. If they have no profile, website/blog URL, or short biography. I will not follow them. I might block them.
  • They follow many people, but have less follower and updates, e.g. Following 800+ users, less than 10 followers, and the first update is few minutes ago?

Usually, I block them right away. Anyway, I follow other people not because I want them to follow me back.

Indonesia: A band from Russia

indonesia_band_logo

If you think that Indonesia is only being used as a country name, it’s not. There is a Russian band named Indonesia also. (Hat tip: fisto). Since its website is not in English, MySpace described it as:

Indonesia – band was founded in St-Petersburg in autumn 2007.The musicians’ main aim is to play high-quality rock-music including original arrangements and perfect melodies. There is a strong accent on expert combining of classical western rock and modern progressive sound elements. After the months of the rehearsals and recording demo sound-track “Pretty Colours” Indonesia regularly performs in numerous clubs of St.-Petersburg and Moskow. Mad dynamics and drive distinguishs each Indonesia set, that immediately helps the band to find their own fans. (source)

More about this band can be found at Last.fm, MySpace, and also its official site. When I surfed its MySpace, I saw that there’s a Dream Theater fans club. What’s interesting about this fans club is its logo — well, I’m not sure whether it’s the official logo or not.

twibble Desktop Application

Twibble Logo

I’m installing twibble on my mobile device and so far, it works great. I use this as a primary application to upload photos from my Twitter account.

Today, I tried twibble for desktop application. Anyway, I’m having TweetDeck and TwitterFox (for Mozilla Firefox and Flock). Well, I use TwitterFox most of the time. I don’t know, I just like TweetDeck being installed, as an application to learn about interface design. :)

If you have TweetDeck installed, you can install twibble for desktop application since both are using Adobe AIR technology. Compared to TweetDeck, I think TweetDeck is much better. BUT, I like these twibble (for desktop) features:

  • Multiple Twitter accounts — if you manage multiple account. I do.
  • Location awareness — it understands GPS position sent from twitter mobile.
  • Easy to post pictures/photos.
  • twitter search
  • identi.ca support

When I firstly installed, I was a little bit lost about the menu and interface. For example, on the configuration screen, I could not see the “Go” or “Save” links/button. Well, it’s there, using a small green arrow icon.

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