Filed under: Social Software, Web

Flickroom is an application that lets you interact with photo-sharing site Flickr from your desktop without opening a web browser. Flickroom is based on Adobe AIR, which means you need AIR to be installed in order to run the application. But it also means that Flickroom is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

The program lets you login to your Flickr account and view photos in your own photostream or those of your contacts or groups. You can also use the search feature to find images from all Flickr users, upload your own images, save images from Flickr, add comments, notes, or share images via Twitter.

I have to say, I’m not that impressed with Flickroom’s tools for discovering photos from users that aren’t your contacts. I find the Flickr web interface much easier to navigate for that activity. But Flickroom has an attractive user interface and handy tools for keeping up to date with your contacts’ activities.

Flickroom also has a few odd features like an integrated chatroom where you can communicate with other Flickroom users. But since the program is still in beta, I suppose any chance to leave feedback for the developer and other users is a good thing.

[via MakeUseOf]

Flickroom: Desktop browser for Flickr originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Web services, Google, Social Software, Beta

According to the official Google blog, 100,000 invitations to Google’s most hotly-anticipated new service, Google Wave, are going out today. Wave is being touted as a communication tool that reimagines the way email should work. When Download Squad took a look at Wave back in May, Lee explained it this way:

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You’ll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch.

So, who’s getting invited to use this next-generation communication tool? Well, it helps if you signed up early for an invitation and wrote the Wave team a message offering to give feedback. If you’re a developer who’s been using the developer preview of Wave, you might also get an invitation, and some are going out to paying customers of Google Apps.

In their blog post, the Google Wave folks stress that - if you do land an invitation - you’re not going to be playing with a finished product. Wave is still missing some crucial features, and bugs are going to be par for the course until the team starts using the feedback from these 100,000 new users to start identifying problems. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to directly invite friends to Wave, but you will be able to nominate them for invitations.

Do you have a Wave invitation yet? What do you think of the service so far?

Google Wave opens to 100,000 users today originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Web services, Social Software, Microblogging

Invitations to Brizzly, a new web-based Twitter client, have been flying around all over the place in the past few days, and I finally got a chance to try it out. Brizzly offers a lot that the standard Twitter website doesn’t, but it also introduces a couple of annoyances that ultimately led me to stick with Twitter.com.

On the plus side, Brizzly allows you to save drafts of tweets, a feature I wish Twitter.com would incorporate. Its threaded interface for direct messages is also nice, and looks a bit like a Google Talk window. If you DM a lot, Brizzly will definitely make it easier to follow your conversations. Brizzly also tells you when there are new tweets in your stream, so you’re not fruitlessly hitting refresh to read Twitter. Keyboard shortcuts are handy, too: The j and k keys scroll up and down, which Gmail and Google Reader users will be familiar with. On top of that, photos and videos are displayed inline, instead of making you click through.

Brizzly’s not all great, though. It’s unfortunately just not a very pretty website, and I don’t think I can look at it every day. I’m not saying we’re in Fugly Friday territory, but the design is weak, especially the prominent trending topics box. I also miss having my follower/following numbers and my friends’ icons in the sidebar, the way Twitter.com does it. Some people might find that useless, but I would say the same about trending topics. It’s all a matter of taste, so if Brizzly’s array of features fits your needs, and you don’t mind its appearance, you should definitely give it a shot.

Brizzly: full-featured web client for Twitter originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Web services, Yahoo!, Open Source, Social Software, web 2.0

Yahoo’s FireEagle project has long been a great (albeit under-used) service to let you share your location with other websites. Services such as Dopplr, Brightkite and many others can all update & read your location and use the service to display location-based data.

On the iPhone, there’s plenty of free applications that update FireEagle such as yofe, but what if you’re working on a desktop or laptop computer? That’s where Clarke comes in handy — a small, open-source utility for OS X that runs in your menu bar, it’ll figure out where you are based on the Wi-Fi networks around you.

In earlier versions of Clarke, the updates were based on Skyhook Wireless’ database — the same used by the original iPhone to triangulate your location — however the utility was recently updated for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and now uses the OS’ built-in Core Location system to figure out where you are when run on the newest big-cat.

A free download, developers can also grab the source code over at Github, and the application also lets you easily view nearby data from Flickr, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap and Yahoo Maps.

Clarke lets you update FireEagle from within OS X originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0, Web

Have you ever wished that there was a way to call out someone for posting a completely self-indulgent, arrogant, whiny, or self-important tweet? If so, you’re going to enjoy Tweeting Too Hard.

Tweeting Too Hard is a Digg-like user submitted voting site, where the submissions consist of tweets that readers consider to be intended to make the tweet’s author seem important. If that description isn’t clear enough for you, have a quick browse of Tweeting Too Hard’s All Time Top posts, and you’ll get the idea very quickly. Things that will get your tweet submitted to Tweeting Too Hard include random mentions of how rich you are, mentioning a book you wrote, being curiously obsessed with your good looks and discussing them, among numerous others.

Users’ votes for the worst-offending tweets with Back Pats. At the time of this writing, the top three Tweeting Too Hard submissions are:

1979 Back Pats: OMG i was saying how i couldn’t afford the gas to fly daddy’s jet to the riviera this summer, and this barista totally rolled her eyes at me

1761 Back Pats: fan belt light came on in the 911 so now I’m driving the Cayenne Turbo S - the backup, backup car. Trying not to think about the Tesla…

1651 Back Pats: it makes me sad, the more I have success the more people don’t like me….

While it’s certainly easy to game a system like this, the entertainment value is high no matter what.

Tweeting Too Hard has a commenting system, so you can discuss the unique charm of your favorite tweet with other users. Maybe surprisingly, the level of conversation seems fairly high at the moment, though if Tweeting Too Hard gains some serious traction and popularity, it can pretty much be expected that the comments will suffer from YouTube syndrome.

It seems like a site like this is purpose-built to catch celebrities showing their asses, and so far there’s at least one in the top 5 — can you guess who it is? How long before the All Time Top list reads like the cover of a tabloid?

Publicly ridicule arrogant jackasses with Tweeting Too Hard originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, iPhone, web 2.0, Mobile, Web, Android, Microblogging

Continue reading Location-game showdown: Gowalla vs Foursquare

Location-game showdown: Gowalla vs Foursquare originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Developer, Social Software, Microblogging

I know there are a lot of third-party apps and services built on Twitter, but I had no idea how many until I heard about Oneforty. Oneforty is a Twitter app store that currently lists a staggering 1,300+ apps. These include everything from Twitter clients to third-party services that add additional features to Twitter using the API. Oneforty is in private beta right now, but you can request an invitation to get a look at the goods.

You currently can’t buy apps from Oneforty itself, but you can click through to the iTunes App Store or the site of each individual application. Apparently, plans are in the works to sell the apps directly from the Oneforty website. The site is sorted by category and ranked by popularity, making it easier to find the apps you’re looking for. I’m not sure developers are going to be wild about Oneforty: considering the business challenges iPhone developers face because there’s a central clearinghouse for all apps, I’m sure they’re hoping Oneforty attracts some competitors.

[via TechCrunch]

Oneforty: an app store for Twitter originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple, Social Software, iPhone

For American iPhone users, today is a pretty big day. AT&T customers should now have MMS (also commonly known as picture messaging) on their iPhones. Update your carrier settings by clicking on your phone in iTunes and going to “Check for Update.” Then, to make sure MMS has been enabled for you, go to Settings -> Messages. You should see an option to turn MMS on. Now, whenever you’re sending a text message, you’ll see a camera icon you can tap to attach a photo.

Other smartphone users have mocked the iPhone’s lack of MMS, pointing out that the feature has been almost universally available for years, even on old flip phones. It’s not as if the iPhone is making a big leap forward today: it’s just catching up. This is probably less Apple’s fault than AT&T’s, though. International iPhone users have had MMS for a while now, and AT&T delayed rolling it out because the necessary infrastructure wasn’t ready. This is a big win for iPhone users, but it’s also a bitter reminder that AT&T is still their only choice of carrier in the US.

MMS finally arrives on the iPhone for AT&T customers originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Social Software, Mobile

As a user of the location-based social game Foursquare, I’m not sure how I missed this one: thanks to a new round of funding, Foursquare is expanding to new cities and making some dramatic improvements to its website. One of the more obvious changes is the new domain name: foursquare.com. Previously, the service was running on playfoursquare.com. The site is now easier to navigate and much more stable.

Meanwhile, Foursquare is planning to add new cities using crowdsourced location info, rather than seeding the game with locations from a third-party database. A BlackBerry app is in the works, too, following the success of Foursquare’s very slick Android app. Some common gripes about the game are also being resolved, so expect fewer crashes, fewer duplicate locations, and less gaming of the leaderboard.

Foursquare retools its website, buys Foursquare.com originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Web services, Social Software, web 2.0, Web, Microblogging

Last week the folks at Tumblr hinted that some changes were coming for the platform, and the first signs of that are emerging with a huge update to how users can customise the look and feel of their Tumblogs.

For the less-technical minded there’s now support for customised fonts, and images in themes that can be edited directly within Tumblr’s Customise window and if you’re a code-minded user, then the new options for Booleans will definitely come in handy, Having built a fair few Tumblr themes myself over the last few years, there’s new options are some great additions to my favourite blogging platform.

As an aside, just last week competitor Posterous rolled out support for Tumblr’s theme syntax. If you’re using a Tumblr theme on Posterous, it might be a wise idea to check that the theme isn’t using any of these new options as they won’t work when ported to Posterous.

Tumblr rolls out even more theming options originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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