by Russell Shaw
October 14, 2007 at 7:25 am · Filed under Twitter, Mashup
U.K.-based freelance (among other things) widget and applet developer Julian Bond (not to be confused with the famous U.S. civil rights leader) writes about Twype, a new program now in alpha that lets you post Twitter Tweets to your Skype Moods.
This “small Windows tray program,” Julian tells us, works by checking your Twitter account every five minutes and grabing the latest tweet. This gets posted to your Skype Mood.
Yes, it is Windows-only for now.
To install the program, download it from here, and then run the .exe file. The first time it runs, a pop-up dialog asks you for your Twitter ID. After you ener this info, it will start in your Windows system tray.
Julian promises to post source code “in a few days,” as well as to improve Twype’s icon and do some further design work on the Twype icon.
Work on Mac compatibility too, Julian.
by Imran Ali
September 29, 2007 at 7:23 pm · Filed under Events + Conferences, Orange, Mashup
France Telecom’s citrus-y mobile operator, Orange has just opened registration for a trio of mashup events due to take place in various European cities this coming Winter; this ‘roadshow’ comes hot on the heels of Orange’s San Francisco R&D labs successful mashup event earlier this year.
I’d like to think the timing of the registration is a canny attempt for Orange to capitalise on its flailing negotiations to carry iPhone in France - but as a former Orange employee, I know for sure that they’re not that smart…
However coincidental or accidental, Orange has cautiously been embracing the developer community and Web 2.0 culture for a number of years - in sharp contrast to the joint Apple+AT&T bitchslaps recently delivered to iPhone users.
Orange’s Pikeo and Bubbletop services, though hilarious imposters of Flickr and Netvibes, were designed from inception as vehicles to engage the developer community with Orange APIs. Though Orange’s execution has often been unimpressive - their sincerity in seeking to navigate unfamiliar territories of open development is laudible, relative to other mobile operators, though sadly unremarkable in a wider sense.
So, if you feel mobile operators are needlessly closed platforms, events such as these are your opportunity to impress upon them the value of participation…register for Orange’s London, Paris and Madrid Mashup events at the Orange Partner site…
{ Disclosure: I used to work for Orange and I am quite literally allergic to Apples! }
UPDATE: Oops…looks like BT’s collaboration with Coghead might actually be more ambitious than Orange’s mashups. BT plan to equip the Coghead authoring environment with access to core APIs such as call control, location lookups and conferencing. Wow…scriptable telephony?
