Tzah 2.0

Following my previous review about Twibble mobile application, I was asked to try out TwitterMobile. The application is produced by Tricast Solutions from UK and is written in J2ME so it should work on many mobile phones in the market. However, currently it works only on Sony-Ericsson and Nokia S60 240*320 devices. Lucky for me, I have a Nokia 6210 Navigator phone which have the right screen size, so I could try the application.

Unlike Twibble, installation process is easy and user friendly. The user selects his phone type, enter his email and phone number and press the download button. Next, the user receives a special SMS message with a link to download the client. Pressing the link open-up the a mobile download page with a link to download the actual client. BTW, the mobile page seems to recognize the mobile model, but it turns out that’s due to the link. Meaning, the mobile site does NOT recognize the device’s user agent. This might cause problems for users who didn’t put the right model at the beginning of the process. It also means that Tricast could have saved 2-3 clicks till the actual download, but, it’s not a biggy.

Download completed, it’s time to test the application. If I had to describe the application user-experience in one word, it will  have to be – Wow! The GUI is beautiful, just like Tricast say in their site. Using TWUIK reach media engine, the application flows elegantly between tweets and application options. The menu is not your conventional left-button-opens-a-doll-menu, but rather, a cool, mac-like graphic choices. Great job there Tricast!

However, this is where the complements stop and the complains begin; and there’re quite a few of them. First of all, the user is not given a choice to save his password locally. More secured? maybe, but it’s annoying to type my 10-characters password. Next, the phone’s security manager prompt the user many times for web access approval. This is because the application is not signed-in with a certificate. Oh well, I could live with that (still, the GUI make up for it).

We’re not done though. Unlike Twibble, Twitter Mobile doesn’t have the option to open a link inside a tweet. But wait, there’s more! if you want to tweet, you can but there’s no option to attach a picture! How lame is that?! I mean, the main point (at least for me) for having a mobile twitter application, is to tweet about an interesting event and add a picture to it. That in itself was enough to persuade me to stick with Twibble, but it’s not over here.  Want to check your @replies or your @direct-messages? Sorry. You have to pay 1.99£ for that. Yes, you heard me. A fee for a free service. No way,  José.

The bottom line is that the application gets an A+ on the cool factor but fails in usability. Perhaps Tricast is using the client to demonstrate its TWUIK technology, I don’t know. I do know that if they hope to make serious money from the application itself, they will have to enable picture attachment, URL linking and most importantly, free basic services in twitter.

As an avid Twitter user, I’m hooked to the service. I use it mainly to learn abut interesting news as they happen but also to learn what my friends are doing. Twitter 140-only-words strength is somewhat a limitation when you want to capture your friends’ status. That’s where services like twitpic helps a lot. A picture is worth a thousand words and with Twitter, about  7.14 tweets! So, the best way  to convey your personal experience is by adding a pic link to your tweet, and preferably, as close as possible to the time of happening.

That’s where mobile twitter applications comes into play. I recently installed Mobile Twibble application on Nokia 6210 Navigator and used it to update my status. Here’re my thoughts:

Installation is not easy to the un-experienced mobile user. The user has to go to a general installation page on http://m.twibble.de. The page provides downloads to a dedicated BlackBerry application or a general J2ME application. The page is filled with semi-professional terms like jar and MIDP2 which are confusing to the novice user. Twibble would be best to recognize the device by its user agent header and provide step by step instructions on its web site.

Another issue with the application is that there are actually two J2ME versions. Signed and unsigned. A phone without the proper certificates will fail the signed version, leaving the user confused. True, Twibble works best with signed application permissions (we’ll get to that later), but again, proper instructions with images on the web site would clarify the troubled user.

Once installed, the application is very intuitive to use. the Navigation keys switch the view from your friends tweets to replies, Direct messages and customized searches that the user can configure. Still, if you follow more than 100 users , it’s not easy keeping track with limited size screen.

Tweeting, on the other hand, is very easy. with one key short cut, the user sees the update page where he can set his status. The application also enables the user to add a picture from his saved images. However, for un-signed applications, finding the right image is difficult.

First thing the user has to do is to find the folder where the images are stored. On my phone, it’s located in the somewhat enigmatic folder name E:/Images/100_2009/. Another problem is that usually, the images  themselves have un-friendly names like 20090721_004.jpg which makes it difficult selecting the right image. The application does provide the user with the option to view all images as thumbnails, but, un-signed application requires permission from the user before opening each image. This is quite an annoyance. However, since we’re tweeting live events, most likely the image the user wish to attach will be the amongst the last images taken.

I wish Twibble would build a native Symbian plug-in that will add an option to tweet a picture directly from the native gallery application.

In summary, once passing the installation hurdle, it’s easy to tweet your on-line events and attach pictures, especially if you installed the signed version.

Skype has made a huge move this week announcing Skype for business. Organizations that have IP-PBX systems can connect it to Skype using SIP. The service, which is currently in beta, has two major benefits to businesses. First, it allows Skype users to connect to the organization using their account. The second, it enables the organizations to make PSTN calls using SkypeOut and saves money.

This is a great day for the VoIP industry. Once Skype users decide to use their account to make a call to an organization, rather than make a regular phone call, the trend towards an all-IP networks would gain more momentum. Furthermore, coupling Skype for business with the use of twitter for direct contact with customers, this service demonstrate the strength that the web/IP has to offer for organizations.

Another reason to celebrate is that Skype, that uses its own standards for signaling and media, has finally integrates with the SIP standard which make them more interoperable. However, it seems that for now, the integration has limited the service functionality to mere calls. That means no presence information, file sharing, text chatting and other great features which only VoIP (we should think of a new name) can deliver. If this remains true, people might start wondering why they should invest their time and energy with a new service that provides them the same functionality they had so far. I truly hope that Skype will enhance the service or otherwise, this entire experiment might cause damage to our industry.

Finally, there’s another aspect that we in the VoIP industry should ponder about. Individuals, as well as organizations, have abundant ways to get in touch with. We have PSTN numbers, emails, twitter, Skype, Windows Messenger, Yahoo messenger, GoogleTalk, and the list goes on and on. What we need is one URI which will map to the specific communication channels of the user. Another service is a global golden page for all those channels. Let’s say I’m looking for John Smith. the service will provide me its URI which in turn, upon sending IM or calling it, will map the request to John’s favorite channel. There’s much more to discuss about this so I’ll leave it to a future post.