MetroTwit - the best Twitter Client for Windows?

While I am waiting upon my new Mac mini to arrive along with my new display, keyboard and mouse, I have had an empty desk so I decided that I would dig out my old Dell Optiplex GX620 USFF Pentium 4 machine to use for some basic Windows tasks.

Now - I have been suprised by the sheer speed of this machine so I have been using it on a daily basis as my primary (and only) desktop, but as I was used to OS X, I had no choice but to use the default Twitter web application as there is no "Twitter for Windows" application.

I have never really been a fan of TweetDeck (before and after Twitter took over) so I decided to hop onto Google, and do my research.

While stuck in a Google search loop, I finally found MetroTwit. It looked amazing, and so I hit the download button on the MetroTwit website.

Once installed, you will be greeted with a Metro UI-themed window - as expected. What can I say? It looks amazing, and is very quick when posting/loading tweets. The application lets you change the UI style and background colors. The default scheme is black text on white with blue highlights, but I like the white on black with blue highlights...if you understand what I mean.

The application boasts many user-customizable settings as well as pop-up notifications.

The only real con I could say is the minimum window width. I prefer the single column Twitter clients like Twitter for Mac which maintain a thin profile. This is why I don't like TweetDeck. While it does have width limitation, you can still manage columns so it doesn't take up all of your screen.

I can't recommend this application any more. It's quick, completely free, looks amazing, and so customizable.

Try it out at www.metrotwit.com.

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What's in My Dock? February 2012 Edition

In this video, I let you see what I have in my dock and the applications that I use day-to-day. This includes Photoshop, iMovie, iTunes and Pages, plus and a whole lot more. Enjoy!

New Social Network on the Scene, KENEKTED

Two Kenekted developers discussing a project at a recent code-a-thon at Kenekted.

Most of us use our Facebook accounts as a sort of scrapbook. We post pictures of our families, our pets, we share with our friends what we're watching on TV. But while Facebook is a great place to share with your friends what's going on in your life, it's become a bit crowded with Fan Pages, Games, and Targeted advertisements.

Facebook's platform is so crowded because it requires ad revenue to survive. By sharing status updates, posting on your friend's walls, "Liking" games and pages, you are painting a portrait of yourself for advertisers to target you based on your interests and lifestyle.

Now enters Kenekted (the phonetic spelling of connected). A couple of things you'll notice about Kenekted right away: 

1. It has no advertisements. Kenekted's creator, Jeff Peak (@pjeffpeak on twitter) has promised that there will never be any targeted advertising on the site. This means that your information will never be used by third-parties for profit. 
2. There are no games or other applications. This provides a clean platform for you to share with the people in your life. As well as meet new people..something that is almost impossible to do on larger more well-known sites.
3. It is fully integrated with the accounts you already have; you can post to Facebook and Twitter from Kenekted and vice versa. However if you post to Facebook from Kenekted, Facebook still collects and stores the information you post.

Kenekted has all of the features you're already acustomed to, like photo tagging and @mentions. So with all of this at hand, it's no wonder that Kenekted is positioned perfectly to become a major contender in the social network landscape.

You can create your account at Kenekted.com try it out, and if you like it, you can help this small Midwestern Tech Startup gain popularity by spreading the word around using the networks you already use. And if you don't like it, you can "delete your account and Kenekted will have absolutely no record of you ever having signed up at all" - from the Kenekted Privacy Policy. 

We live in an interesting time. Companies will rise and fall and with Facebook about to release it's IPO and make a quick $10,000,000,000 (ten billion bucks) why not help out the little guy. Small business is after all what changes the world.

Peace,
MidwestTech

Twitter gets a new look

Just a year ago, Twitter got a major redesign promising a  "faster, richer" experience, and today, they have done it again. The new site providies "a faster, simpler way to stay close to everything you care about".

Save & Close

As you can see, Twitter has definately added some spice to this new layout adopting a new beautiful, yet unique user experience.

The main aim of the redesign is to change the way people read their tweets and mentions as well as providing a beautiful new design to advertisers.

In previous Twitter designs, the sidebar has always been located on the right-hand side of the page, but it looks like Twitter wanted to change things up a bit by moving it to the left. Personally, I prefer it on the right as the (average) reader tends to read from the left to the right of the screen but I will easily adjust to this change.

#NewTwitter also comes with updates for iOS and Android devices. You must install the new Mobile app on your phone in order to get the redesigned website on your desktop.

Do you like the change? Do you think the design is too "overkill"?

You can read more about the Twitter redesign here.

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How to Tweet Using Siri on the iPhone 4S

Siri is one of the best features of the iPhone 4S but its main drawback is its lack of third party application support. Luckily, a new workaround allows you to Tweet from the iPhone 4S using Siri. In order to do this you must:

1. Create a contact named "Twitter"

2. Make the contact phone number 40404

3. Open Siri and say "send text to Twitter"....and then your tweet

YouTube