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Marshall at Read/Write Web posted Seesmic Transcends Comparisons With Twitter where he discusses both products after conversations held at DEMO. While they products share a common idea at the core, Marshall does a great job of relating how they are both alike and different and I’m not talking just the fact that Seesmic is video and Twitter is text.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, DEMO, Seesmic

T-Mobile has, for yet some unknown reason, decided to blog access to Twitter. My guess? All those people with unlimited text using the crap out of their bandwidth. Biz from Twitter confirms via this comment

Hey folks. T-Mobile has definitely turned us off without notification. At Twitter we make great effort to be in compliance with all the carrier “playbooks.” We’re still trying to find out why T-Mobile has taken this action—as soon as we find out, we’ll let you know.

I guess T-Mobile has never gone up against the Blogosphere before. If they truly are trying to block the service long term and not just to work out some sort of deal with Twitter then they are about the feel the full weight of the kind of negative press only bloggers can provide. T-Mobile is not only doing something entirely shitty (blocking a number simply because it’s not a partner) but they are also dropping the ball in terms of communicating what’s going on. They didn’t notify the guys over at Twitter about why they were being dropped and one blogger got this pathetic response:

T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of service, to which you agreed at activation, indicate “… some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions (such as international, 900, or 976 calls) at our discretion.” Therefore, T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation.

You can read the full email exchange here.

This should be interesting.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, T-Mobile

Writer’s Write is covering the Writers’ Strike via Twitter. These are the same folks who publish Bloggers Blog and have been doing a great job of using Twitter to communicate with members and I imagine gain new readers. I love the idea of using Twitter to follow a story. This is not as “important” socially as the California Wildfires story but the impact it could have on Hollywood may end up costing more than 500 Million dollars! Not to mention a lot of people starved for entertainment, which could mean more people turning to the Internets for a bit. Though shows will likely continue well into Feb sweeps before we really start seeing the effects of the strike.

Follow the story via Twitter: Writer’s Write Writers’ Strike

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, Writers’ Strike, Writer’s Write

Great story on a very good use for Twitter. Twitter members are able send updates from the area real time, as well as other news outlets etc. Followers can then track the story and get updates nearly instantly! Very clever use of the Twitter service! This is a perfect example of how a broadcast system that makes it easy to push one message to many users can be truly useful.

h/t: Nicki

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, California, Fires

Twitter on NPR - Show Description:

Once there was slow talk and silence. Then came letters - delivered by horse or sailing ship, months in coming, deep in thought. Then came the telegraph, telephone, cell-phone, e-mail, Palm Pilot, Blackberry, texting, instant messaging, and now — Twitter.

Non-stop, instant communication from anywhere, all the time. Hyper-connectivity, always present, in a non-stop global mind-share of twittering micro-thoughts. “Hungry!” “Love duck.” “Doing dishes.” “Off to bed.”

We’re pushing deeper into the seamless cyber-mind. Are we happy now?

This hour On Point: Twitter, and the hyper-connected culture.

Have a listen.

via Scoble, who I wish would update his design. Even after switching to WP his site still looks like a shite Radio/Userland blog.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, Twitter News

Habitual users of a new, free communications service called Twitter would disagree. For anyone unfamiliar with the latest trends in technology, “Twitterers� send and receive short messages, called “tweets,� on Twitter’s Web site, with instant messaging software, or with mobile phones. Unlike most text messages, tweets — usually in answer to Twitter’s prompt, “What are you doing?� — are routed among networks of friends. Strangers, called “followers,� can also choose to receive the tweets of people they find interesting.

Read the full story.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, Twitter News

Simon over at Advertising Age wrote Web 2.0? Not So Fast — Say Hello to Web 1.9 (If That) and mainly extols the reasons why Twitter isn’t an example of Web 2.0. I’m not a huge fan of all the crazy labels and hype around stuff. Hell, I’m still one of the people who like to call blogs “web pages”, you know, like we used to.

Like any form of communication (chat, email, cell phones, etc.) you are going to get the noise with the signal. You think the banter of teenage girls on their cellphones is worthy of the powerful technology that the cell phone represents? Or me calling my wife asking “what do you think we should do for dinner”. Every tool will have it’s good uses and it’s bad uses. It’s not the tools fault.

via Debra via Twitter

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks

Can someone pose as you on Twitter? With a very simple trick, yes they can.

Both Twitter and Jott authenticate users by their phone number. Twitter does this by validating users based upon the source of SMS messages sent to the phone number 40404 (US), and Jott does this by trusting the incoming Caller ID when someone calls 877-568-848. From a security perspective this means the following:

* Anyone who knows your phone number can update your Twitter page by spoofing a SMS message, i.e. post a Twitter entry as you.
* Anyone who knows your phone number can spoof his or her caller ID to send a Jott message as you.

Read Twitter and Jott Vulnerable to SMS and Caller ID Spoofing by Nitesh Dhanjani for the full details. Needless to say I hope they are able to fix this. I don’t know much about the SMS world but hopefully they’ll be able to block these fake sender services. The problem is new ones will fill up all the time. Does this mean Twitter and similar services need another layer of authentication? I know a lot of people on Twitter publish their cell phone numbers on their web sites so this could get ugly kinda quick like.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, Twitter Spoofing

Great interview with Evan. I saw him on a panel at SxSW this year and he was pretty quiet. Seems like a pretty reserved guy. One part of the interview was of special interest to TwitterHacks.com as they talk about the use of “Twitter” in the name of products and urls. Looks like I might make sense to get approval to use the name like this, though I doubt it’s an issue I still like playing by the rules.

At any rate, check it out.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, Evan Williams, Jason Calacanis, Calacanis Cast

MSNBC is covering Twitter this week with Twitter: Is Brevity The Next Big Thing? I don’t know how long it’ll last but it sure feels like Twitter is the next big thing for 2007. It keeps gaining momentum and I’m very curious to see if it can sustain it and more important what the business model will end up being.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Hacks, MSNBC