Kenneth Lo, PMP » social media

Best Free Unified Instant Messaging Desktop Programs

Kenneth Lo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:53:43 +0000

Instead of running various Instant Messaging (IM) tools that clutter up your desktop and kill your bandwidth, you can stay connected with your contacts on MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk, and other IM networks with a single tool. This blog entry aims to help you find the ultimate unified IM tool.

Trillian

Trillian is a powerful Instant Messenger that has over 400 features. It is compatible with most of the popular IM tools and social networks and shows not only the contact list, but also news, feeds and many more.

Digsby

Digsby condenses all your AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk, Facebook chat into one simple, concise list. You can also manage your emails at Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo accounts.

VoxOx

VoxOx includes every conceivable way of communication and it makes it easier. Video call, IM, fax, text messaging, email all merge into one, VoxOx promises that. However, it looks like it’s still in beta and many features are not yet available. But expect more to come and VoxOx will be in serious business.

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the three Unified IM clients (maximum score is 5).

Software	Ease Of Use	Functionality	Multiple Accounts
Trillian	4	5	Yes
Digsby	4	3	Yes
VoxOx	4	3	Yes

Best Free Twitter Applications for iPhones

Kenneth Lo — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:26:12 +0000

I was struggling to find a handy application that allowed me to tweet effectively on my sexy iPhone 3G S. After some intense research and experiments, I have come up with three of my favorite iPhone Twitter applications. This will save you hours of legwork. Send me some cookies if you insist!

Twitterific

This solid application has an gorgeous interface. It uses different color displays to distinguish the types of tweets. Twitteriffic, however, has far more than just good looks. It also supports multiple accounts, has auto refreshing and many more features that will make you fall straight in love with it. Currently I’m using Twitterific and it’s terrific!

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is on iPhone! Like the TweetDeck you may already be using on your desktops, it also features column views, multiple accounts and group arrangments. Basically it’s just the mobile version of the desktop TweetDeck. The size shrinks but not its functionality.

Twinkle

To the best of my knowledge, Twinkle is the first Twitter client that offers geolocation (location-sensitive). Twinkle will publish your location along with your tweets and in turn you can view other places where tweets come from. So communicating with people near you becomes much easier!

All of three applications are solid. If you are still not ready to commit to one application even after reading this article, simply try them all out! While only one application can run at a time (please do not get me started, Apple), these Twitter applications happily co-exist on your iPhone. Have fun tweeting!

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the Big Three (maxiumu score is 5).

Software	Ease Of Use	Functionality	Multiple Accounts
Twitterrific	5 my favorite	4	Yes
TweetDeck	4 user-friendly	3	Yes
Twinkle	4 impressive for a new app	5 Awesome for geolocation	Yes

Best Free Twitter Applications for Desktops

Kenneth Lo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:34:29 +0000

If you have been using Twitter for any amount of time, you probably have wondered whether there is a better tool to manage your tweets than the Twitter website. How about managing multiple Twitter accounts? Perhaps you find yourself constantly logging in and out of different accounts in the web browser.

There are easier ways to to manage all your tweets and accounts than using the regular Twitter website. You can easily achieve high efficiency with the help of a Twitter desktop application. Let’s examine three of the most popular Twitter desktop applications to help you determine which one would work best for you.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck enables users to split their Twitter feed into columns, creating a clear and simple overview of tweets. With TweetDeck, users can also group their friends. Other features include multiple account management, favorites, and URL shortening. However, TweetDeck does not synch with versions on other computers, so it’s frustrating that users have to do all the settings again when they switch computers.

Seesmic

It does many of the same things that other client managers do, and it works very much like TweetDeck. But Seesmic makes photo sharing easier by allowing users to drag them into a small window. I currently use Seesmic as my primary Twitter application.

Twhirl

Users can view their archive tweets in Twhirl, a feature that TweetDeck doesn’t have. Twhirl is superior to TweetDeck in that it gives users more freedom in customizing colors and themes, which will come in handy when you have tons of tweets flooding in from different accounts.

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the Big Three (maxiumu score is 5).

Software	Ease Of Use	Functionality	Multiple Accounts
TweetDeck	3 clear and simple overview	3 includes all Twitter features	Yes
Seesmic	4 same with TweetDeck	4 same with TweetDeck plus photo uploading	Yes
Twhirl	4 same with TweetDeck	4 customization and view archives	Yes