Twitter side:
One of the best things about the Brizzly Twitter interface is the trends. Sure, it pulls the trends like every other service out there. But you’ll have to admit that half the time you have no idea what some of those trends are, right? Happens to me all the time. Brizzly allows you to put an explanation to a trend or amend a current explanation. Love it.

The twitter interface also does some neat things, like show you image uploads right in the tweet rather than having to click away to see the image. You can make groups, which are essentially like the newly released Twitter Lists.

Facebook Side:
This side doesn’t really have anything new. It’s pretty much the full Facebook interface right there with your news feed, your wall, and your information. Still it’s nice to have that. You can reply to comments written on your wall or posts, etc.

For lovers of service consolidators out there, Brizzly is an obvious thing to try. Check it out and let me know what you think.

UPDATED: I’ve got 10 Brizzly invite codes. Leave a comment to get yours.

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Multiple accounts
Refresh by pulling down at the top of Tweets list
Translate Tweets
Save Tweets as drafts
Swipe across a Tweet for options (a la Email App)
Repost links from Tweets
Post link to specific Tweets
and lots more

The only drawback I’ve found is that I can’t create groups as I can in TweekDeck to organize all the Tweets I have to read throughout the day. The app is incredibly fluid and everything moves like butter. They’ve packed so many features that it makes it the king of Twitter clients and worth the $1.99. The only beef I have with it is that they’ve released it as a new app and you have to pay yet again even if you’re an original Tweetie owner.

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I looked at my last month’s usage and I was able to go down to 545 SMS (sent + received). From there I set my next goal to be under 300. This current billing period, which ends on the 22nd, I have used 176. So I have a 3 weeks for no more than 124 SMS which will be hard. Still, this is a significant improvement on the previous month in which I was already at about 300+ at this point.

How am I doing it? Social Networking. As it is I only use about 45 minutes of talk time for a whole month. Most of my communication is done via Facebook, Twitter, AIM, and (soon) Skype. Most of my friends are on at least one of the mentioned social networks. The only reason I haven’t been able to completely eliminate SMS is because most of these social networks don’t support Push Notifications on the iPhone and I’m unable to completely rely on them.

As you may already know, AT&T recently announced that they’ll allow apps on the iPhone to use voice over IP on the 3G network. What does this translate to? Use Skype (or other apps) to make your calls from anywhere, without using your minutes. The only thing that will keep me from using it all the time is the fact that Skype does not yet support Push Notifications. Imagine getting a notification for a call and it’s from Skype. You can talk all day long and it doesn’t affect your minutes at all.

In fact, since I’m only using about 45 minutes of talk time, why would I even need a voice or SMS plan? all I need is the data plan. In fact phone companies may begin to move towards a data plan model rather than minutes-per-month/SMS model.

The hard part about trying out this experiment is getting all your friends and family to contact you using these Social Networks. If all else fails I usually recommend emailing me, since I’ve always got my iPhone on me it’s as good as SMS.

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The first thing you’ll need to do is install Adobe Air. After that you’re ready for the fun part. Here’s a list of applications I’ve been using.

1. Kuler Desktop
This is pretty much a must for all web developers and designers, as well as all color aficionados. This application will let you see any color and its relating colors, complementary colors, and so much more. It’s basically color theory all in one place. Not only that, the application has an accompanying website that is out of this world.

2. TweeDeck
If you’re an avid Twitter user, TweetDeck is for you. It allows you to group the people you follow in specific groups so that your updates aren’t all bunched up together. Even better, they have an iPhone app that syncs directly with the desktop AIR application, so that all your groups stay up to date. Pretty sweet.
This one is also geared a bit towards web developers. It connects to your Google Analytics and gives you all of your stats. It’s pretty handy and the interface is solid.

3. DestroyFlickr
This is an amazing way to view your flickr photos. It’s got a fluid UI that allows you to see photos with dark backgrounds. It also let’s you see your contacts’ photos all in one place. Check this one out.

4. Live Quotes
Keep track of stocks, compare companies, see highs and lows, open and close values, and more. Not bad at all.

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The redesign now emphasizes their topic search even more. It’s simply the biggest thing on the page. The sign-in form is now a simple and attractive pop-down box and I love it. I’m a big fan of pop-out boxes and modal windows when used properly.

As of now the home page is the only thing I’ve noticed they’ve changed. Have you noticed any other changes?

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It’s basic, but the interface is super clean, and adding multiple analytics reports and feeds is super easy. The app is $1.99, which may not be worth it for people who have already shelled out several dollars for other statistics apps, but still if you’re in the market for a simple one, Ego is the one.

Click on the image for a larger preview.

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The experiment I’m running has several sides to it. For one, you have to be on all the major social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter primarily). But secondly, and this is the hardest part, you have to make people get used to contacting you through these mediums.

The Tools You’ll Need
AIM: This is the most efficient app I’ve found to be able to communicate with friends without using SMS thanks to AIM’s push notifications. The app keeps me logged in for 24hrs which is great for friends who work in offices and have AIM on their computers. They’re able to get an immediate answer from me since the push notifications make new IMs act like SMSs.

Twitter: There are countless twitter clients for the iPhone (and others) out there that will do the job. The only problem is that there aren’t any clients that I know of that use the push notifications. This does create a problem for being able to respond immediately. This problem will for sure be solved soon enough. I definitely have my favorites in this category, but I would suggest using a light app for quick load times like TwitterFon. TweetDeck takes a little longer to load, but has way more functionality.

Facebook: This is a no-brainer considering everyone and their mom is on it (literally). On my previous post I detailed Facebook for iPhone’s upcoming update and its impending addition of push notifications. Once that goes through SMS will effectively seize to matter.

It really amazes me at how ridiculous and late to the game big corporations can be. They should be begging us to buy SMS plans. Join me in this experiment and free yourself of redundant plans. You’ll save at least $10 a month.

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One of the cooler features is how it lists the top trends along the bar on the top, sort of like a navigation bar. Clicking on them automatically opens up a new search for that hash tag. You can also click on hashed terms directly on people’s tweets and generate a whole new search for it. It’s a really neat idea, and it makes Twitter much more interactive. This is also a great way to keep up with hot upcoming trends, like the conflict in Iran, the new iPhone coming out, you name it.

Follow me on Twitter @gjunkie.

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Followers
Accounts with 0 followers: 29.4%
Accounts with 1 to 9 followers: 50.9%
Accounts with 10 or more followers: 19.7%

Followings
Accounts following 0 people: 24.4%
Accounts following 1 to 9 people: 43.4%
Accounts following 10 or more people: 32.2%

Tweets
Accounts with 0 Tweets: 37.1%
Accounts with 1 to 9 Tweets: 41.0%
Accounts with more 10 or more Tweets: 21.9%

This is actually pretty interesting. In my opinion, people are using Twitter as a news source rather than as a two-way conversation.

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This video is absolutely hilarious. This German film is called Downfall. Quite good. It’s about the last days of Hitler in his bunker before he took his own life. Watch this and amaze yourself.

Original Article

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