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Update All Your Social Network Statuses with HelloTxt

Feb 08 2009 Published by Adam under applications, communities

Statuses is the correct plural form of status, and you likely have more than one status (or microblog) that you update on a regular basis. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Identi.ca, etcetera. You may also now be yapping away into your webcam for regular updates on Seesmic, 12seconds.tv, or the other video-oriented networks, adding to the number of sites you need to visit, or tabs you need open in your browser. HelloTxt (HelloTxt.com) is an app I’ve been using for a year or so.

There are a number of aggregators out there, some web-based and some installed, so the concept isn’t anything new. However, I really like the simplicity and ease-of-use of the HelloTxt interface, and I’m really impressed with how quickly they add new networks and functionality to the application. I have been using it for a year or so now, and it just keeps getting better. The CEO, Fabrizio, is a bit more soft-spoken and does less self-promotion than some other network heads (he’s no Loic Le Meur); unfortunately this probably hampers the adoption of HelloTxt a bit. However, Fabrizio is incredibly responsive to support emails, and definitely in touch with end-users’ needs.

I honestly don’t use HelloTxt too much for my personal account, but I find it the most useful app for marketing outreach. As a personal application, it doesn’t allow for the back-and-forth that comes with working directly in a network – responding to others’ updates, and reading their responses to yours. However, the “Friends Status” page on HelloTxt hints that this is coming, and truthfully, it remains to be seen if any aggregator really can achive this in a single tab or window. However, for business accounts, where you may be just announcing offers and tidbits of news about your brand or product a few times a day or week, HelloTxt is perfect. Likewise, whenever I want to update all my statuses simultaneously, I use HelloTxt.

One thing that may change use of HelloTxt dramatically is the recent changes to Facebook’s API that are designed to really expand users communication through statuses in Facebook. I imagine Fabrizio and his team will be quick to integrate some changes into HelloTxt to take advantage of this.

The integration of media sources like YouTube and Flickr is great in HelloTxt is something that many other aggregators fail to accomplish. As you can see in the screen shot, I can easily add a Flickr photo from my account (or anyone’s Flickr account) into my update. Likewise, Fabrizio has support for Seesmic now, allowing you to capture your video and update all from HelloTxt. I imagine 12seconds and the other video networks will be available on HelloTxt soon as well.

Finally, HelloTxt updates aren’t restricted to the web interface; updating from email, SMS, mobile apps, and a Facebook app are are all options also.

Check out HelloTxt and let Fabrizio and his team know what you think; as I said, they listen to users and strive to meet their needs.

214No responses yet2009-02-08+16%3A56%3A33Adam

Soocial the Solution to Syncing Contacts Across Your Blackberry, Gmail, and Outlook?

Jan 04 2009 Published by Adam under applications, communities

If you have a Blackberry, and you are a Entourage user, and you use Gmail, it’s pretty much impossible to sync your contacts across those three locations. I’ve spent way too much time trying to find a way to do this. In my searching, I recently discovered Soocial. The most impressive thing about Soocial is that someone finally figured out that there is a need for this type of syncronization.

Soocial is in Beta, and there is no lack of warnings letting you know that you may lose a bunch of data by using the service. This is one of the more negative aspects of the service, I was so scared by the warnings, that I used an alternative Gmail account I have to test the service out. I didn’t have any issues though, so I’m guessing all of the warnings are mostly to cover Soocial just in case.

I set it up to sync between my Mac address book, and Gmail. Blackberry support isn’t available yet, so I couldn’t test that out, but it is coming very soon apparently. But I also don’t need that, since I sync with Gmail through GoogleSync. There is support for Outlook, but unfortunately not for Entourage. I would like to see that, as that’s my ultimate challenge. But it appears that the Soocial folks plan on adding a number of platforms to the list. Highrise is an option, and supposedly LinkedIn and several others are coming.

The online interface itself is very basic, and doesn’t support categorization, which was somewhat dissappointing, and made it difficult to scan through the hundreds of contacts I had. However, it looks like Soocial has the right idea, and just needs to dress it up a bit and add a bit more integration. It has been compared to Plaxo, which I don’t think does it justice. Plaxo seems to have alterior motives and purposes, whereas Soocial simply seems to be a tool focused on fulfilling a need that has arisen for those of us utilizing many different devices and networks for communication.

195No responses yet2009-01-04+23%3A02%3A16Adam

Create Your Own Comics with Toonlet

Dec 01 2008 Published by Adam under Portland, applications, communities, news

Ever wanted to draw your own comic, but just don’t quite have the knack for drawing? No need for those skills, put your imagination to work on toonlet. toonlet allows you to select from a multitude of characters’ torsos, arms, heads, noses, etc. You assemble characters and then put them in strips. The options might be a bit more limited then your imagination, but you can still have a lot of fun and waste a ton of time. I spent about 20-30 minutes constructing this gem:

Pretty awsome Flash application. There is, of course, a community and crowdsourcing type aspect to toonlet. You can follow other creators and I’m guessing you’ll eventually be able to communicate with them on toonlet, or at least there will be other community integration, like links to users Facebook, MySpace, Twitter profiles. There is a multitude of enhancements the toonlet folks could make to further facilitate sharing and spreading strips.

The crowdsourcing aspect is the “top strips”, which I’m guessing is driven by the number of shares and embeds that are done with a given strip. It might be cool if some of this data was transparent to the community. I’m not sure how toonlet expects to make ends meet. I assume through merchandise and maybe eventually advertising. But check it out and become the next Bill Watterson or Gary Larson.

175No responses yetCreate+Your+Own+Comics+with+Toonlet2008-12-02+05%3A32%3A02Adam

Birthday Wishes from Facebook and Adidas

Nov 19 2008 Published by Adam under communities, ecommerce

Happy Birthday to me! I don’t see enough sites taking advantage of stored birthdates to send customized messages on a birthday, but I got a few today. I got several emails from vBulletin forums I’m registered on, all the same format:

Subject: Happy Birthday from [forum name]

Hello [username],
We at [forum name] forums would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

The first one was great, but after the 3rd I wasn’t that impressed. Can’t these be customized a bit more?

Another message I got was from Facebook. Of course I heard from about 75% of my Facebook friends, with birthday wishes on my Wall etc. But Facebook itself took the time to wish me a Happy Birthday from the top of the home page.

Finally, one other noteable: Adidas sends a nice email with a 15% off coupon code every year, and they send it a week before your birthday, beating everyone else to the punch.