I was skeptical about the value of Twitter.  It seemed like another flash in the pan or another ‘teeny’ app, like MySpace.  I set up an account a long time ago but didn’t like the web interface and found the whole thing a waste of time.  It was right around the time that Facebook was finding the masses and I found much more value in that.

My how the tables have turned.  Now I try to Tweet at least once a day and only occasionally pay attention to my Facebook.  The difference seems to be that Facebook is social networking for your actual friends while Twitter is for the social network at large.  Chances are good that you haven’t met half of the people you ‘follow’ on Twitter but you likely have met and probably have even talked to most of your ‘friends’ on Facebook.

I’m not saying that I value strangers over my friends, it’s quite the contrary.  It’s mostly a difference in timing.  By and large the information that comes through Facebook is not time sensitive whereas the information flowing through Twitter is as-it-happens.

That brings me to TweekDeck.  As with most things on the Internet I stumbled across TweekDeck when I noticed someone’s status update in Facebook was posted from there.  Noticing the similarity between the names Twitter and TweetDeck I was intrigued.  It didn’t take long before I found out that TweekDeck is a social networking client unlike any other out there (and it’s free).

TweekDeck, first and foremost, manages your Twitter stream.  You can group different followed people, watch custom keywords, separate your direct messaging, and search for people and themes.  I have a very simple layout which involves “People” (real, live people), “Businesses” (businesses like Sears, FutureShop, Dell and EngadgetHD), Direct Messages (these are semi-private Tweets between you and someone else) and Mentions (any time a Tweet has your username in it).  The last column I have is my Facebook feed.  In version 0.30.3 of TweetDeck you can have several different types of Facebook columns but I just have the one, mass jumble of Facebook information.  The icing on the cake is that you can post updates to all of your social networks, at the same time!

Did you hear me?  At the same time.  That means I don’t have to have several browsers open and keep switching between them.  I can just have TweekDeck open and get near real-time updates from Twitter and Facebook and keep everyone updated, all on the same screen.  What has changed recently is that TweetDeck has added some strange kind of super logic into the Facebook posting so that they know when you’re updating your status or posting to your wall.  I’m guessing it has to do with the content but it is amazing.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed with all the different apps you have to manage to keep in the loop, give TweetDeck a try.  It’s also on the iPhone.  Haven’t tried it there yet but hopefully soon. (hint, hint).

I was pretty excited about upgrading to iTunes 9.  My main reasons to be excited were the updated iTunes Store and the management of the iPod Touch/iPhone pages.  Truth is that I wasn’t really expecting much from iTunes 9.  It wasn’t until I watched Steve Jobs’ keynote about the release that I learned about things like Home Sharing and Genius Mixes.  That’s when I got really excited.

Here’s the good news, especially for me: the Store and the iPod page management are all they were hyped up to be.  The Store has received a facelift that makes sense, like the toolbar at the top of the page, and things like the Top Song lists got major UI improvements.  It is such an advantage to be able to preview songs right in the list and to see all 200.  I also like the ability to add to a wishlist, post to Twitter, or gift the song again, right in the list.  Page management is as simple as it should be.  No real surprise it was just missing for a long time.  I’d still like to be able to password-protect pages so that I could keep some apps away from my kids.

The bad news is that the other two features I looked forward to have some bugs to work out.  I’ll start with Home Sharing.  It sounds like an awesome idea for anyone with more than one computer in the house.  You’re tired of having to transfer tunes from one machine to another and then having to reauthorize.  Well, Home Sharing purports to allow anyone using the same iTunes account, on the same network, to simply access the others library.  And it sort of works.  My first attempt went off without a hitch.  I enabled HS on both machines and the libraries showed up.  I could play tunes and even copy them into the other’s library (this costs you an authorized machine but I’m assuming everyone here has less than 5 machines in the house).  The second time I tried it the Home Sharing section in iTunes was completely absent.  I noticed that the other machine was asleep so I woke it up but the link didn’t reappear.  I disabled and reenabled HS on both machines and the link reappeared.  But seconds later it disappeared again.  It hasn’t worked right since.  Boo.

Genius Mixes on the other hand is an extension of the Genius Playlists which I’ve been touting since their arrival.  The Genius Playlist is, well, genius.  You’re playing a song and you’re really into the vibe so you hit the Genius icon.  Instantly a list of 25 ‘like’ songs appear in a playlist with the current song at the top.  I’ve found that these playlists are 99% right on.  I’m never disappointed with the playlist.  Genius Mixes, on the other hand, are 12 ‘endless’ playlists of supposed like artists and songs.  In theory it would work the same as the Genius Playlists.  On the surface it does, but I wasn’t 4 tracks into my mixes when really disjointed tracks started appearing.  About 10 tracks in it was clear that the mix wasn’t contained at all to like tracks.  I’ve tried it several times and been disappointed every time.  (And yes, I have updated my genius database several times since upgrading.)

So there you have it, the things I was looking forward to initially have been done well.  The things I was surprised by but looking forward to need a lot of work.  That’s too bad because normally things don’t come out of Apple until they’re really working well.  And for the Mac-lovers out there who will blame my PC, I tried this on my Macbook too – same result.  I still love iTunes, regardless of the bloat and bugs.

Well the day has finally come.  El-Steve-o has just finished announcing the specs and release details of the iPhone 3G.  I’m going to get one.  On July 11, that is.  The Canadian Apple store lists it here and it’s Where To Buy link shows Rogers and Fido as the two providers.  I think all of the sites are currently being bombarded.

Before you start flaming me with why other phones are better and that iTunes sucks you have to stop for a minute and examine the facts:

• I don’t currently have a cell phone
• I have a ton of iTunes-managed music, podcasts and video
• I need push email for my business
• I need mobile Internet access for my business

This device has all of those features in one package.  The fact that it carries a maximum price of $299 USD (for the 16GB model) makes it even sweeter.

The only question of affordability now will be the service plan.  We all know that Rogers is the only carrier currently capable of 3G, and that the 3G coverage isn’t even that great yet in Canada, but Mr. Jobs has pushed his ideal of availability to other carriers in other countries before.  Here’s hoping that he does so in Canada as well.

While Apple didn’t fully comply with my list of must haves (32GB would have allowed me to fit all of my tunes) they did run down a pretty good list of functions and added value features.  You can read about Steve’s keynote speech at WWDC08 over at Engadget.com.

Hopefully Rogers will extend their Vision network to include the Belleville area – Prince Edward County specifically.  I won’t hold my breath.