Tweply and SMS

Happy post Saint Patrick’s day.

So maybe I was optimistic (or pessimistic, depending on how you see it) about Tweply and SMS functionality.  Like other projects I’ve thrown  together I felt a need that I couldn’t find elsewhere, and then offered it to others.  Except this time it’s costing me more than I expected with people signing up for it.

I love that people find it useful, but unfortunately I’m paying much more than I expected.

So the other day I added Direct Message support.  This allows you to get your Tweply notification using Twitter as the notification method.  Make sure Twitter is sending DMs to your phone and you’re good to go.

All you have to do to make this work is delete your old Tweply watch and create a new one using your username as the alert method.

Let me know if you have any questions.  At some point down the road I’ll probably disable SMS notification all together, but I want to make sure I have the proper options in place so people can still use the service the way they want to.

Alright, I’ll blog. Leave me alone about it.

It’s a really exciting time right now. It’s South by Southwest conference/festival time! And you know as well as I do what that means! Nothing.

I get really bitter this time every year. All the professional “consultants”, “media experts”, and “freelancers” all converge in Texas to talk about awesome things. While us lame kids with corporate jobs sit in our cubes and listen to them talk about how much fun they’re having.

It’s probably just jealousy. But I also think it’s nothing more than a circle jerk. A circle jerk I’d love to go to. But unfortunately that’s not my scene and not meant to be.

On the home front, there’s plenty other stuff going on. I got to see Richard Dawkins speak the other day. That, in itself, was a mind blowing, possibly once in a lifetime experience. However, the situation around it set off nothing more than a chain reaction of events that led me to lose the person closest to me here in Omaha.

I won’t go through details, but the self-realization surrounding my relationship with her became clear and I had to make decisions. I really, really wish it could be different. But I’ll eventually move on, it’ll just take a while. It’s hard that the one special person i’ve had since I’ve moved here is now gone.

On the bright side of the week, I saw Har Mar Superstar last night. He put on an awesome show. Just really badass. It was full of new material that was great, I can’t wait for his new album. Plus I hung out with him outside for a while just chatting. Turns out he comes to Omaha a lot and really likes it here. Cool.

Hope your week was better than mine. Stay r33t.

iPhone Apps

Just as a quick information dump, with regards to real apps (not jailbreak utils for the console) here’s what I have on my iPhone so far:

Utilities:

* SBSettings
* Winterboard
* Backgrounder
* IntelliScreen
* Supreme Settings

Apps:

* Facebook
* MySpace
* Last.FM
* Pandora
* Twitterific
* Tweety
* NetNewsWire
* Colloquy
* Yelp
* Urban Spoon
* Wiki Mobile
* Shazam
* MCleaner
* Simplify Media
* Evernote
* Cydia

Games:

* iBurn
* Lightsaber
* NES Emu
* Tap Tap Revenge
* Bowl Lite
* iSteam
* Bubble Wrap
* That’s What She Said
* Zippo Lighter

And now I own an iPhone

As an avid mac enthusiast you probably just assume I’ve had an iPhone since the first version of the device was launched.  You’d be wrong.

I’ve been using a Treo650 on Sprint for many years.  Before that, the Treo600.  Before that a Treo 300.  When I started using a QWERTY phone T9 wasn’t even invented yet.

My Treos over the years have been nothing less than a faithful companion.  PalmOS has let me select from a wealth of applications, both free and paid, that help me do anything I needed.  IRC, IM, better email than a blackberry (IMAP IDLE).  I used it as a time tracker when I was a consultant.  I used it as a Twitter device.  I used it for everything.  Games, tools, utilities.  SSH, FTP, RDP and VPN are all stupid acronyms that have been taken place within my Palm-based phones.

A few too many drops casued some of the keys on my Treo650 to finally give out.  I take my mobile devices seriously so the idea of having a broken yet usable phone didn’t appeal to me.  It was time to make the jump.

Before I knew it I was on the Apple web site filling out a form.  They were getting me an AT&T account, I didn’t have to set foot in anything branded with them… it was awesome.  I finished up the form online with it finally asking me what time i’d like to be at the Apple Store, I said 11:30.  I went durring lunch and they knew who I was when walking in the door.  “Can I help you?”  “Yes, I’m here for my iPhone.”  “Oh you must be Gabe, we have everything ready for you.”

A guy then walked through verifying everything I typed in online, took my credit card, and I walked out with an activated iPhone.  Done.  It was really that easy.

I’m still getting used to the thing.  It’s not easy to type on.  But others got used to it, and so will I.  Now I just need a case for it.

Here’s my iPhone home screen:

February updates

This weekend I actually setup my music equipment for the first time since I moved here.  That’s a big step.  I verified all my hardware works, all my files are there, and now I’m ready to finish an album five years in the making.  We’ll see if I do.
It’s only February, but the spring concert season here in Omaha is getting scheduled.  Lots of tickets to purchase.  So far on my plate:

March 12: Har Mar Superstar
March 21st: Bayside (I promised @schaft)
March 25th: Ratatat
March 31st: The Faint

Tweply is actively being used, by more than myself… how about that?
mysql> SELECT count(DISTINCT username) FROM users;
+————————–+
| count(DISTINCT username) |
+————————–+
|                       11           |
+————————–+
1 row in set (0.09 sec)

I had to to go back to my SMS aggrigator service today and purchase more SMS outbound credits since the 400 I originally purchased were all used up.  But that means it’s being used, but that also means it’s not exactly financially supportible by myself.  I’ll worry about that later like any good service.  I might just use Twitter direct messages instead of SMS.  That’s free, but not as nice.