TwitterNation: A Twitter App Review

PAUSE! This is a break from you regularly scheduled programming of online privacy. While my following post about Twitter apps may relate, I am not specifically referring to privacy below.

Twitter applications are usually considered in terms of mobile phones. However, there are apps for the computer and for the browsers on these

computers. The following will include a discussion of apps for iPhones, Android phones and other devices. Also, each of these apps require users to have a twitter account or to create one to use the app.

iPhone Apps (to be downloaded from the iTunes store):

Tweetie 2 (shown on right) is an application only available for iPod touches or iPhones. It allows one to explore all online features of Twitter, but from a phone. It shortens URLs and allows one to preview the URL when posting links to followers. It allows for the integration of multiple accounts and can filter the timeline. The app also incorporates twitLonger, providing a tool to post tweets of longer than 140 characters, hashtag definitions, for those who may be new to Twitter or those who may not know what a hashtag means, and offline mode. This application won an Apple design award in 2009.

Twittelator is solely for Apple devices. This app has a Pro and a Lite version. The Pro version comes with the feature to copy pictures to other tweets, use Song.ly to embed MP3 links, and much more. With this app, you can receive stock tweets by searching for a specific stock symbol. From these searches, users can build portfolios to keep track of recent mentions.

Birdhouse is an app for Apple devices whose sole purpose is to give users more control over writing for Twitter. It’s more of a tweet drafing app allowing someone to save tweet drafts which is beneficial for capturing ideas offline, even in airplane mode. Users can integrate and publish these drafts from multiple twitter accounts. If an error occurs, this app allows the user to back everything up by e-mail.

Android apps (to be downloaded from the Android market):

Touiter is an Android app which has a free and premium version. The premium version allows users to integrate multiple accounts and filtering. It also provides 3 different widgets to be used on the home screen. I personally have used this app and with that the free version came with at least one home widget. The premium version also shortens URLs and in the feature will include TwitLonger, the same feature in the Tweetie 2 app above.

Twicca is an Android-specific app where you can receive notifications an post statuses like the other Twitter apps. Similar to the others, geotagging, widgets, image previews, and URL shortening are also included. The difference is that you can download plug-ins with this app to upload bookmarks to twitter and configure with twitpic.

Twidroyd, (shown on right) of course by its name, is an Android-only app which includes custom

alert ringtones (“tweet tweet”), gelocation support, different widgets, auto-completion of hashtags and usernames and a live preview of media. In addition, it suggests a list of other interesting people to follow, similar to the user suggestions feature on the actual twitter website. The only difference, stated on the website, betweetn the $3.99 premium app and the free app is that the free app doesn’t have a dark pro application icon. If this is the only difference, I’d gladly take the free version anyday!

Other apps:

Lastly, there are other apps such as UnTweeps which is a web app that can be accessed by any device that has the internet. It uses twitter’s login system (API) to authenticate users and allows people to unfollow people who haven’t updated their profiles in a certain number of days. There is also a whitelist feature where you can still follow people who don’t tweet often but don’t list them on your followers list. Untweep Pro is a paid version of Untweep and it’s for people who may want to use the app more than 3 times a month or unfollow people who haven’t tweeted within the last frequent days. The user could buy an account for $1.37 for 3 days or pay a subscription of $5 per month.

Mixero is another application that is compatible with the iPhone, and several computer operating systems (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux). Mixero provides support for Facebook and Twitter.

Regarding Twitter, users can filter groups and autogenerate usernames. It allows one to preview images or watch YouTube videos within their timeline. On all versions, there is an avatars mode which lets you see your friends photos and how many of their tweets you have not read.

Seesmic (shown above) is another app that incorporates multiple platforms – Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows phones, macs, and PCs. What makes this app intriguing is that it can be used within different internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Each of these has its own specific features but they all allow you to simultaneously update statuses on multiple sites – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Buzz.

Pervasive Computing on the Go

With the application-accessible mobile phones and devices of today, there are many location-based applications. These geolocation applications report your location to others and associate locations to your location. However there can be privacy consequences associated with such applications. While some of the consequences such as when someone reports an emergency from a cell phone, the location of the mobile caller is reported to the dispatcher, imagine if this information was compromised. A negative example persists when a rental car was tracked and found speeding on 3 occasions and the driver was fined $450 by the rental company. Also the website PleaseRobMe.com (similar to one mentioned in class) takes tweets with location data attached and can be used by thieves t track when you are at home or not and rob you while you are away.

There are many applications available that play on these location-based features. Gowalla is like the popular Foursquare allowing check-ins but its partnerships with companies enable one to exchange virtual items for their real-life counterpart for free. Another, Loopt, offers freebies for things going on near your phone’s location. While there are risks, most geolocation apps allow you to set how much information is to be shared. At times, you may have to surrender privacy for the features of cool apps.

One cool app that enhances privacy protection has been made by Lookout Mobile Security. This app, Privacy Advisor, helps to ease concerns about mobile privacy by scanning each app that a person is about to download on their phones. They app then tells the owner of the mobile device what part of their private information the app can access. It is better to be safe than sorry because although it is very rare to get a virus on your smartphone or other mobile device, it can be lost or stolen, causing private data to be compromised.

Research has shown that users have an average of 31 applications on their mobile devices which can access their information. Further 19 of these apps can access their location. Surprisingly 91% of consumers are concerned about phone privacy but only 7%S are very confident that they understand what private information is being accessed by third party services on their phone.

The rise of anonymous apps has concerned researchers. With these apps, the identity of the user need not be known. For example, when walking past a coffee shop, your phone can be alerted of specials currently taking place within the shop. This is different from walking into a coffee shop and using your cell phone to pay for your food instead of paying with cash. In this sense, record of who you are and your credit card information must be kept. This anonymity is called hitchhiking because the location itself is of primary interest.

Another study took place where a group of researchers went to a location to see if there was any identity or tracking violations using an application called Bustle. The purpose of this study was to see if sensitive data could be collected in location-based applications. In the case of the app, Bustle, it collected information that could not be connected to the user so there were no tracking or identity violations. However, other research has shown that users’ levels of intrusiveness and privacy concerns are much higher for location-tracking apps than for apps that are just aware of one’s position.

People have to be aware of the risks associated with geolocation apps but I don't think they should be afraid of them because in the end, how much you share is up to you.

Photo source: The Atlantic Wire

Other sources: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/bits-pics-video-calls-from-the-top-of-the-world/?partner=rss&emc=rss

http://mmlab.snu.ac.kr/courses/2005_advanced_internet/handout/paper/40.Wireless%20location%20privacy%20protection.pdf

http://www.pcworld.com/article/192803-2/geolocation_101_how_it_works_the_apps_and_your_privacy.html

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZHV1XG4HBIKA5QE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN?articleID=228100048&pgno=1&queryText=&isPrev=

Privacy Photo Phun

The photo to the left depicts privacy in general to the average viewer. But to those who know a thing or two about technology, it also depicts computer privacy because the UPS room is a room full of servers that connect people to the internet.



For this photo, I decided to take advantage of the rule of thirds, keeping the important part of the photo on the side and not in the center while the door, which leads you into what the sign is talking about, is on the other third of the picture.





The photo on the right shows a student hard at work using the internet to complete his homework. Although this photo doesn't use the rule of thirds, I made sure to have good light quality so that you can see each thing taking place in this scene.

Honestly, these 2 photos were not as good as my first photos taken because I was using my camera phone and didn't use any special effects. Also, it was difficult to find pictures of online privacy because most people do not like others taking photos of them doing privacy-sensitive activities.