Filed under: Business, Shareware

qStatus is a reasonable-looking piece of shareware. It lets you update your Twitter and Facebook status from the comfort of your desktop, via an interface which is far too elaborate for my tastes. It's all Aero Glass and slick and smooth, but I guess most people like that sort of thing.

To be fair, I haven't tried it, and for all I know, it may be great or horrible (tell me in the comments?). I'm not reviewing the application here; I'm examining its business model. First of all, it's shareware but that's no big news. It offers two registration paths, though:

Pay $2.95 per annum. That seems like a bit of a rip-off. I mean, the price tag is cheap (though appropriate for such a simple tool), but what's up with the yearly "subscription?" Do people really go for that? Most likely, there will be far better tools within a year. I feel that this pricing does the product more harm than good, really. Who likes to feel as though they need to pay over and over again for a small desktop application (as opposed to a Web service)? Just sell it as it is. I don't foresee Total Commander switching to a "subscription model" any time soon. (Also, see the "$4.95" next to the button there. qStatus is actually on sale at $2.95 per year!)

Tweet 15 times with #qStatus and get it for free. Now, that is actually intriguing. You can tweet whatever you like, just be sure that you include the #qStatus tag in your tweet, and make sure to do it 15 times. A quick Twitter search shows that some people are actually going for this (and I have heard of the app, which must mean something).

This seems like a great way to generate buzz for your application or service. I know of a service that gives free music for tweets (I will cover it in the coming few days), but this is the first time I have seen it applied to a shareware application. My guess is that if the developer created a simple tool to track these tweets and automatically issue licenses, he could probably make more money off of that tool than off of qStatus itself.qStatus licensing model might be more interesting than the app itself originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Twitter - Facebook - Business - Download Squad - Total Commander

Filed under: Blogging, Social Software If you use a lot of social networking sites, and different groups of your friends are scattered across all of them, it might be time to start a lifestream. AmpliFeeder is an open source platform that pulls in everything you share on other social sites and displays it in one convenient location. It works with tons of sites, including Twitter, Delicious, Upcoming, Last.fm and Facebook. AmpliFeeder also has a handful of themes to choose from, and supports custom themes using XHTML and CSS. There are no hosted accounts, so you'll have to find a place to put it, but it's extremely easy to set up, once installed. Check out the video walkthrough on the documentation page for a step-by-step guide to getting AmpliFeeder up and running. If you need a solid, easy-to-use lifestreaming platform, this might be worth a look.AmpliFeeder: open source lifestreaming originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 May 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

There’s been a proliferation of photo sharing apps tied to Twitter, including TwitPic, Twitxr (review), and Yfrog (review), giving users a vast amount of choice when it comes to image sharing on the popular micro-blogging service. But TwitPic seems to have emerged as the leader of the pack. The service took the top spot on our list of the most popular Twitter applications according to Compete and was in the top ten of Twitter clients according to TwitStat. Compete pegs TwitPic to have had close to 1.6 million unique visitors in February, and its traffic doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

TwitStat says TwitPic is now the sixth most popular app used by Twitter clients, rising from being the tenth most popular app when we wrote about TwitStat’s rankings in mid-February. And TwitPic was even used to break news of the plane crash on the Hudson River. Two more competitors to TwitPic have emerged. TweetPhoto and Pixim are both photo sharing applications attempting to challenge its dominance, so we took a closer look. Pixim uses OAuth to integrate with Twitter (so you don’t have to give out your username and password) and lets you adjust privacy settings on sharing pictures, tag friends in uploaded pictures, view stats on how many people and who has seen you pictures and see your friend’s pictures on the site. Pixim is similar to TwitPic in many ways but the latter incorporates a geotagging tool and mobile support, which Pixim doesn’t have on its site. While Pixim is planning to release their API soon, TwitPic has the advantage of already being built into most popular Twitter clients, and users who are interested in photo sharing have a familiarity with TwitPic. TweetPhoto, who plans to launch later this month, also lets you use OAuth to integrate your Twitter account. You are then able to send pics through your mobile phone or upload pics via the site. Like TwitPic, TweetPhoto lets users comment on pictures on-site and tag photos. TweetPhoto will also feature integration with Facebook Connect, which is pretty cool, and something both TwitPic and Pixim lack. Like Pixim, TweetPhoto plans to release its own API, but might confront the same issue with TwitPic’s dominance. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

This guest post is written by Narendra Rocherolle, who was the co-founder of Webshots, a company that he and his partners sold to Excite@Home in 1999 and then again to CNET Networks in 2004.  Now as a partner at 83 Degrees, he has been working on several products including 30 Boxes, fbExchange (sold to TMP), and most recently Power Twitter.

When Lance Armstrong sat down with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit last November, he had been twittering for about 10 days and was jokingly asking that “shoe guy” to send some followers his way.  Now four months later, even Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media and the guy who helped get Lance into Twitter, has been surprised by how much @lancearmstrong has taken to the platform: twittering and twitpic’n about training, races, travel, family, food, movies, and his mission to grow the fight against cancer. For those of you interested in more than 140 characters, Lance took some time out to discuss his new habit. Q: You started using Twitter back in November.  You are now closing in on 300,000 followers and you tweet more times per day than most people brush their teeth.  Can you point to a couple of factors that have resonated with you making Twitter part of your daily routine? Lance Armstrong: Well, 140 characters fits my personality well. I’m not much for small talk so 140 gets me that. I see long drawn out emails and I delete them. It also brings a certain transparency to my life that others may have never seen or realized. Lastly, it works great for talking about the thing I care about the most (behind my family) and that’s fighting cancer. Twitter builds grassroots movements quicker than anything I’ve ever seen. Q: Can you give an example of something that you were about to tweet but did NOT? Lance Armstrong: I try to keep it positive. There are plenty of times I felt like crushing someone for what they say or did but I avoid it. There’s plenty of negativity on the web as is so they don’t need me adding to it. Try to be careful with pics of my kids/family for obvious security reasons. Other than that, it’s basically an open book. I also will not tweet anything that someone asks me to. It’s my page so therefore I dictate what goes there. They want to tweet it then tweet from their page. It has to be 100% authentic. Q: One thing your critics can not argue with is your success as an extraordinary marketer and personal brand manager.  This may sound silly but I’ve heard you described as a “natural” when it comes to Twitter.  Can you talk about how you approach building “you” as a brand? Lance Armstrong: Um, hell, I have no idea. Again, I think people are smart. They know when they see something real. I talk about what’s happening “now” and it’s always the real scoop. I’ve been around too long to BS people.

Q: The theft of your time trial bike recently created huge buzz in the twitterverse.  Was there an awareness by you (and Trek) that the theft was an incredible marketing opportunity? Lance Armstrong: They (Trek) were devastated. They thought I would be livid and while I was pretty seriously pissed, I told them to chill. The story was on the front page off cnn.com, espn, etc. Hell, it was on perez hilton. For a week or so it was the most talked about bike on planet earth. Bummer to get it ripped off but it was not bad for them. They make bikes as easily as you and I go for a walk. Still, you gotta be pretty dumb to steal a “one of a kind” bike. Q: Have you had any issues or push-back from your Twitter usage (e.g. friends telling you to put the blackberry away! Or moments when you catch yourself thinking you should be twittering something when in fact you should just be experiencing it)? Lance Armstrong: Nah, again it’s short and I type fast. Most tweets I send people don’t even notice. Q: Your Twitter stream depicts a relentless schedule that sounds downright exhausting.   Are you traveling/doing more this year than you have in past seasons leading up to the Tour de France? Lance Armstrong: Most definitely. Again, a great thing about the service is that people (fans, journalists, my fellow competitors) realize my life is quite different than theirs. Between my kids, my foundation, travel, training, and racing, it’s a big life. Q: Finally, for the readers out there making the pilgrimage to Austin for SxSW Interactive, would you name 3 restaurants they don’t want to miss? Lance Armstrong: Chuy’s, East Side Cafe, and the Salt Lick. There’s also Uchi, Hula Hut, Eddie V’s, and Fonda San Miguel.

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Filed under: Internet, Text, Blogging, Social Software, web 2.0, Lists Not using a desktop Twitter client? Maybe you're quite happy to use the Twitter site to post updates and monitor those you follow. Just because you do doesn't mean you don't have access to more powerful interface options than the bare minimum Twitter provides.Grab some Userscripts, and use your browser give your Twiter / Home some handy new features! I've gathered eight of my favorites - feel free to share yours in the comments! Troy's Twitter Script - provides several additional functions, like short URL expansion, inline media viewing, and nested replies. Also adds a search box (for those of us who can't use the real deal just yet), retweet link, and an @mentions link to see who's been talking about you.Continue reading Eight great Userscripts for Twitter usersEight great Userscripts for Twitter users originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Social Software, Web If you've ever wished you could scroll through your Twitter messages and star your favorites for reference as if you were using Google Reader, then TwitteReader might be for you. This web app is basically a Google Reader clone, except instead of managing general RSS feeds, it manages your Twitter account.When you type in your username and password, you'll see a list of the latest tweets from the people you follow on Twitter. You can scroll through messages using the familiar j/k shortcuts and you can refresh the list by hitting "r." You can star items, and post replies to any message directly from the reader.You could accomplish something quite similar by taking an RSS feed from Twitter and adding it to Google Reader. But then you wouldn't be able to reply to messages. TwitteReader is licensed under a GNU license, and the developer has provided tools that let you run it yourself from any web server.[via WebWare]TwitteReader is like Google Reader for Twitter originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0, Web No matter how much you love Twitter, sometimes 140 characters isn't enough to express complex thoughts. That's one reason you see people posting links on Twitter to blogs and other web sites where you can find additional information. A while back we covered TinyPaste, a service that sort of lets you cheat at Twitter by creating a long string of text or links to photos or videos and creating a short URL that you can use to publicize the link on Twitter.Now the makers of TinyPaste are back with a new service that lets you create an instant chat room, complete with a short URL that you can use to promote the chatroom on Twitter or other sites. TinyChat is about as simple as a build your own web chat page could be. You just click a button to create a room and then enter the room or copy the link to share with others. That's pretty much all there is to it.You can save a log of the chat as a text file, email it, or post it online. And you can even embed a TinyChat room on your web site. There aren't a ton of advanced features. You can't upload files to a chat room, for example. But TinyChat has the basics covered. There are a few emoticons and you can perform basic actions with the "/me" command.Create temporary chat rooms with tiny URLs with TinyChat originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments