2TwitMe - a Twitter client for Palm OS

by Volker Weber

Jan Lauer called me yesterday and told me about 2TwitMe. Since I don't have a PalmOS configured with Internet access, I was looking for somebody to test it. SvenR took a thorough look at the program and told me all about it. Installation is a breeze. Copy one application .prc and two libraries to the device and off you go. On the first start it tells you where to enter your credentials and you are all set. 2TwitMe lets you work with three different accounts at a time.

The app supports the most basic Twitter functions like reading your stream, reply, retweet, fav and direct message. You can view a combined stream or filter by account. 2TwitMe lets you add a picture, either from the library or directly from the camera and post it to TwitPict. At least it claims it can, but it failed in this test.

Looks like a promising app. There is still a ton of features to add like follow/unfollow, view user timeline or avatar pictures. It definitely needs to look nicer and deserves a decent icon. I also find the font too small.


Screenshot SvenR

The developer wants 5 EUR or $7 to make this dialog go away and to stop adding the program name in front of the tweet. The dialog is quite aggressive, so testing this app is no fun at all. Kudos to Sven for sitting through the full test cycle. Maybe the developer should encourage people to use the client and tag the messages on the Twitter stream as coming from "from 2TwitMe" rather than "from API"

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Comments

Isn't it great, that it is so easy to get in touch with those little developers?

I am serious.

Mariano Kamp, 2009-09-17

Ah, PalmOS....

Talk me back to the sweet days when a handheld OS could only run one program at a time.

Craig Wiseman, 2009-09-17

I would love to use my treo - if the company would allow to access my emails with it. So I have to use a BlackBerry 8700, which is not really better.

Carmen Richert, 2009-09-17

@Carmen ... Having been a Blackberry Bold user for 11 months now...

You are absolutely correct. PalmOS is visually outdated and technically archaic, but it was designed to work in a 'human' way (kind of Apple-ly?).

That's why I have high hopes for the WebOS devices (Palm Pre & Pixi). I think they've brought that approach to a visually & techinically superior platform.

Craig Wiseman, 2009-09-17

@Craig, one program at a time, you mean the iPhone?

Mariano Kamp, 2009-09-17

Mariano, the iPhone runs > 1 app at a time. And is just as productive as my old PalmOS machine. Multitasking is overrated :-)

Ben Poole, 2009-09-17

Did I imply or did you infer?

Craig Wiseman, 2009-09-17

I'm guessing the developer is not using the OAuth method to authenticate. They have stopped allowing the API naming if you aren't using OAuth.. well it's been Grandfathered.

Twitter API fun..

Bryan McDade, 2009-09-17

Ben, the UI forces the user to always close the foreground app before opening another. But yes, sure, from a technical point of view many programs are running at a time. I was just trying to be funny. Part of iPhone's beauty is its simplicity. It can be used by old grandmas as well as the young and hipp.

The mental model is just so much easier when only one app is running at a time and background apps are not really allowed. It means that when the user clicks on something, what happens on the screen (a change, an error, whatever) is very likely a consequence of the user's action.
It gets much more complicated when services run in the background and want the user's attention.

Craig, on Tuesday I was demonstrating an iPhone vs. an Android phone to some friends and one commented that the single-app-at-a-time restriction was already there on the Palm ;-)

Mariano Kamp, 2009-09-17

@vowe - I hope that this is the proper forum to ask:

How did SvenR get that screenshot? I have a Treo 755p and have wanted, for the longest time, some method to get screenshots and/or show my screen during a presentation. I envy the Blackberry users in that respect. However, I do love my PalmOS device, and continually weigh moving to Sprint so that I can have a Pre.

Thanks.

Gregg Eldred, 2009-09-18

I used ScreenShot from LinkeSoft – a tiny tool to capture my Treo's screens.

You can use it without licensing for testing purposes (but it will place a line with the link to the vendor's homepage on every screenshot) or purchase it for USD 15 (when I licensed it years ago, this was a remarkable low price for any software, but that was long before Apples iPhone and the AppStore).

Sven Richert, 2009-09-18

@Craig Wiseman:

Oh, the Bold 9000 and the Curve 8900 are much nicer and feature richer than the vintage 8700.

There are still two very important features which are unmatched by any other smartphone: The phone quality is outstandig and the battery last a whole working week.

Carmen Richert, 2009-09-18

@Craig Wiseman:
Oh, the Bold 9000 and the Curve 8900 are much nicer and feature richer than the vintage 8700.
There are still two very important features on the Treo which are unmatched by any other smartphone: The phone quality is outstandig and the battery last a whole working week.

(Können Sie den ersten Eintrag und diese Zeile löschen?)

Carmen Richert, 2009-09-18

@Carmen Richert - I'm sorry if I was unclear in my admiration of the Treo. The Bold is a nice device, but I there are many 'small' things I miss from PalmOS.


(Ich denke, die Antwort ist "Nein".)

Craig Wiseman, 2009-09-18

Sven, this is one more remarkable thing where the iPhone changed the world. Before that even small apps on mobile devices cost actual money (and likely will again in the future), but 15 USD today for an app would make it unsellable.

Mariano Kamp, 2009-09-19

@Mariano Kamp.

I cannot agree more.

Sven Richert, 2009-09-19

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