Video: Economist “Did you know?”

It’s amazing how much technology has changed, is changing, and will continue to change our social behavior. But rather than sit here and bore you with an essay of a blog post, we’ll simply show you this video:

Tweetie for Mac OS X

Atebits, the software developer company that makes perhaps the most popular paid twitter iPhone app, has just released a Mac OS X desktop client. The full-featured OS X client is free and supported by ads. However, users who want an ad-free experience can purchase a license for $19.95. Atebits is putting forth an introductory price of $14.95.

As a Twitter and Tweetie iPhone user myself, I immediately downloaded the OS X desktop client. It’s fast, easy to use, and has many helpful keyboard shortcuts. A manual should be released by Atebits soon.

Want to see it in action? Click play below:

Visit the official website for more information: http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/

Twitter Craze

Twitter, for those of you who don’t know, is a micro-blogging service that allows you to write short, 140-character updates that answer the question, “What are you doing?” The service, however, has evolved into an expanding and undefinable living being because of the vast amount of people and companies that use it.

People use twitter to update their friends on what they’re doing. Companies use it to announce new products and updates. Others post links to interesting online articles and blogs.

With so many people on twitter, some have even been able to ask questions and “search” for specific things and get instant results like a search engine, but with real people.

Many argue that, as twitter becomes more popular, it will replace other online profile services such as Facebook. While I don’t personally believe this, I do think that twitter will gain more popularity especially as more people have access to smartphones and mobile internet. As a matter of fact, I’d argue that the concept of twitter works best when combined with a smartphone like the iPhone.

Anyway, here are two YouTube videos that describe twitter.

This video can be found right on twitter’s website and basically explains the concept in general:

This short cartoon video satirically criticizes twitter junkies, of which there are surprisingly many… possibly even including myself:

Skype for the iPhone

Hi, my name is Amr and I’m the manager of the Egyptian office of zuuMedia. I’ll be contributing most of the Apple related entries. To kick off my first post, here’s a quick review of Skype for the iPhone.

The official Skype client for Apple’s iPhone was released over a week ago. I’ve been using it since the first day it came out and have to say I absolutely love it. However, this is not to say it’s flawfless. More about that in a bit.

Primarily, Skype for the iPhone is by far superior to the other 3rd party iPhone Apps. Not only does it retain some of the visual and audio elements of its desktop counterpart, but it’s also quick and responsive. The iPhone app has 5 tabs for contacts, IM Chats, calls, history, and profile. The call tab allows you to call numbers from your main phonebook contact list while the Skype contact tab shows you your Skype friends along with their profile picture.

Clicking any of your Skype contacts will allow you to call, send an IM, or view more profile info.

The Chat feature is not too unlike the interfaces of other IM clients. Conversations are all shown in a list and clicking on a conversation will open it up for you to exchange text. New conversations will light up a blue dot and be placed in a sub tab called New IMs.

It should be noted that you can have group chats but only if you’re invited by someone on a computer. In other words, you can’t start a group chat from the iPhone Skype client.

The Call tab displays a big dialing pad not too unlike the normal iPhone 3G pad. Given that you have Skype credit, you can dial any landline or mobile phone around the world. The initial dialing and ringing sounds come out of the iPhone main speaker but once the call is routed and connected, all phone sounds come out of the phone ear piece. This is a HUGE and fundamental feature – for me anyway – that was not available on any Windows Mobile phone I’ve ever used with Skype. This feature makes Skype calls feel just as natural as regular calls.

Calling quality is on par with normal calls. I have not experienced any delays or poor quality except on high bandwidth consumption WiFi hot spots. On my home WiFi in Cairo, Skype calls from my iPhone to my bestfriend in the US sound just as great as normal phone calls.

It should be noted, however, that you cannot make or receive calls on 3G. This feature (the only iPhone Skype feature, really) has been explicitly blocked by Skype due to Apple and AT&T’s terms and conditions. You can get around this if you jailbreak, of course.

You CAN have IM chats over 3G without having to jailbreak.

The History tab keeps a record of your incoming, outgoing, and missed calls.

The Profile tab allows you to set your online status as well as change your picture and mood message. Additionally, it displays your Skype credit, Skype-in number(s) and voicemail expiration date.

A crucial feature missing from this release is checking voicemail. There is no way to listen to your voicemail from the iPhone Skype client.

There is also no way to send and/or receive files. However, even if this feature was added it would probably be limited to pictures since the iPhone lacks a file browser in the true sense of the word.

Another drawback, though not actually Skype’s fault, is lack of multitasking support. If you click the Home button, you quit Skype and thus can’t receive phonecalls or IMs. While the iPhone OS 3.0 may offer push notifications for new IMs, as evidenced by icon badge numbers, I can’t see how this would work for calls.

Regardless, having the official Skype app on my iPhone makes keeping in touch with friends around the world much easier, given that you have WiFi. Even on 3G, the Skype IM feature has proven itself to be quite valuable.

Good job, Skype. Hopefully Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 and the next version of Skype will solve some of these issues and create an even better and more productive/useful mobile platform.

Here are a few screenshots of Skype in action: