Twitter Releasing "You Both Follow" Feature

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on tommaxwellblog.com. View the original here: http://www.tommaxwellblog.com/blog/2010/8/13/twitter-releasing-you-both-follow-feature.html 

Twitter recently released a new "Who to Follow" feature which recommends people to follow based on your interests and who your followers are following. Now they are releasing a feature they began testing in June called "You Both Follow" which shows you people yourself and another Twitter user mutually follow.

To see this feature, simply visit another user's profile and see who you have in common on their sidebar. You also have the option to click "View all" and see a full list of mutual followers. It seems like quite a pointless feature in my opinion but at least nobody can complain that they don't have it, right?

My Favorite Way of Accessing Twitter from My iPhone

Over the last couple of weeks I have been looking for the best way to access Twitter from my iPhone.  There are two basic ways of accessing Twitter from an iPhone: through a mobile browser or with a Twitter application. One method that is often overlooked is notification services. A notification service is a mixture of an application and a website. My favorite notification service so far has been Boxcar.

Boxcar is great for Twitter because it can send notifications for your entire timeline. Many Twitter applications only allow notifications for @ replies and DMs. Boxcar sends notifications for every tweet as they are sent.  To some this may seen annoying, especially at night. Luckily, Boxcar allows you to set up a 'Quiet-Time.'  During the Quiet-Time your iPhone will not receive any notifications from Boxcar. In my opinion, this makes Boxcar more like a desktop Twitter client. The Boxcar application is free when you set up one service. If you want to set up an additional service like Facebook or email, then you must complete an in-app purchase. I suggest you give this a fair shot. I really enjoy it.

Download Boxcar for iOS

Posterous: A Simple Blogging Platform

Everyone now a days has a blog. A portal in which to vent your personal and professional opinions. Now in most cases, this costs money. There are cheap options out there, but if you want an easy-to-use no nonsense blogging platform, check out Posterous. Posterous is a simple blogging platform with a very simple way to upload content. When you create a Posterous account, you get a personalized email address in which to email uploads to. So you don’t have to worry about advanced online editors, just email you uploads to Posterous. This of course can be configured to auto-post to Twitter, Facebook and a plethora of other social networks. The interface is very simple, which makes it easy to viewers to view your content. Not only can you post pictures, you can post video, voice recording, MP3’s or just plain old text. The iPhone has an app called “PicPosterous” which allows on the go email uploads.

Next time you’re looking for a blogging platform, check out Posterous. It’s the easiest way to post your content online using simple email. 

Twitter

Amazon Kindle Gets Social Networking Skills

The Amazon Kindle was a revolutionary device when it was released. Then the iPad came along. Offering an e-reader in addition to a ton of other features that really gave buyers another device to consider. Now Amazon is trying to get their thunder back by introducing social networking updates that will enable Kindles to have both Twitter and Facebook support. Amazon has stated that these updates will allow users to share book passages on their various Twitter and Facebook profiles. Obviously, these aren’t the same kind of social networking capabilities that we’ve seen on some other devices, but this may be beneficial to some users out there who can make good use of these updates. These updates also allow users to lock their Kindle with a password and zoom PDF files. Amazon has said that these updates have already been sent to some Kindle users and is hoping for everyone to have these updates sometime in late May. Whether or not we’ll see this come to other e-reader such as the B&N Nook or the Sony E-Reader is yet to be known.

Follow Me on Twitter

Claim your Twitter Handle with tweetclaims.com

If you hate Twitter squatters, then check out tweetclaims.com, a free service that will notify you when a username becomes available. Twitter recognizes the fact that many users out there aren’t active users, so they’re starting to close accounts on inactive users. I reserved four usernames, and I encourage you to reserve some usernames you might want but can’t have. The service is very easy to use. You just create an account with your email address, then enter the Twitter handles you want and then submit the form online. Very easy! So check out twitterclaims.com next time you're fed up with Twitter squatters hogging your desired username.