First of the random ideas for Over The Air hacks – a Twitter client for Windows Mobile.
When posting a tweet, the key is speed. I don’t want to wait to launch an app, I don’t want lots of features. I just want something to take my message and post it.
When reading tweets, I don’t mind waiting (e.g. for the list to be gathered).
And on mobile, I don’t really want regular notifications or polling. Following over a hundred people, I’d either hose my phone battery by constantly getting updates, or I’d miss most updates anyway. I just need to be able to see a list of updates when I want.
I went for a Today screen widget for posting, written in C++ to keep it quick and lightweight.
And if you click on the twitter logo, it launches your default browser at the mobile Twitter site http://m.twitter.com/. The best of both worlds 🙂
Download a copy here
To set your username and password, go to the Options dialog for “Twit Today” from the Today screen control panel applet.
Update: There has been some confusion in the comments… this is a ‘Today screen‘ plugin – which means it is for the Today screen that you get on touchscreen devices. It is not a ‘Home screen’ plugin (which are meant for devices without a touchscreen). Apologies to the people whose time I wasted by being unclear!
Update 2: The current version is 1.6 (version is shown in the settings screen where you enter your username and password). If you have an older version than this, please download it again.
Tags: mobile, overtheair, twitter, twittoday, windows mobile, windowsmobile
I’m assuming this uses the phone’s internet connection? Would be useful to have an option to use SMS when not connected (obviously the setup screen would need to have an option for the Twitter phone number in your area). Data plans in some countries (I’m in New Zealand) are still stupidly expensive.
@Grant – An SMS option is an interesting idea… I’ll look into it, thanks.
@Parsley – I’ve heard of this before – if you look back through the comments it has been mentioned by a couple of people. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that it is something I can fix, sorry. (It is an OS bug on some phone models, that affects keyboard entry for any Today screen plugin – some phone models have updated firmware releases available that fix the bug)
WOW, this is a fantastic app. I have added it to my site ( http://www.1800pocketpc.com/2009/06/16/twittoday-15-post-twitter-tweets-from-windows-mobile-today-screen.html ) I am sure all windows mobile Twitter users will find it very usefull
[…] poi Slick, simile a Fring, TwitToday (necessario per i twitter-addict ) e Web Viewer (espansione del browser). heyos_ad_user = 8808; […]
[…] TwitToday – Een plugin voor je opstartscherm van Windows Mobile. Met deze app kun je vanaf je Today Screen meteen Tweeten op Twitter. […]
Any options for windows mobile Smartphone???
@Manuel – Not that I know of.
Nice app. But, i have black today screen wallpaper, and i can’t see letters when i’m typing….
@vbahun – That’s very strange… I also have black Today Screen wallpaper on two of my Windows Mobile phones, but it works fine for me on them both. When the item is selected, it should show the text box in your theme’s default active item colour (for me, white).
[…] TwitToday […]
Hi, apologies in advance if this question has already been asked, but I’m using an O2 Orbit, running on the custom “Artemis Touch” rom. It’s a touchscreen device, but my “Today” Screen includes the time and phone information, as well as a small section on today’s schedule. I’ve tried installing the CAB to the device, but TwitToday doesn’t come up. Does this custom rom mean TwitToday is not going to work?
Thanks!
Woody
@Woody – I don’t know, sorry. Without seeing it for myself, it’s hard to say.
I just found this and it is fabulous! Just exactly what I wanted – for the same reasons you explain. Entry on the go, reading when I’m ready. Works fine on my Treo Pro. Thank you!
Doesnt seem to work on HTC Diamond with HTC TouchFlo 3D enabled
@Ian F – This is a Today Screen plugin.
I’ve never tried an HTC Diamond, but isn’t the point of TouchFlo3D that it replaces the normal Windows Mobile interface… including the Today Screen? So I wouldn’t expect a Today Screen plugin to work without a Today Screen to plug in to 🙂
I’d like to create tweets while offline, have them queue for future delivery, then when an internet connection is detected, deliver them. I don’t have a data plan (living in Vietnam) and only have internet when connected to my laptop via USB. The point of this is to get ideas I’ve collected through the day onto my blog at the end of the day.
On that note, I wouldn’t want the app to constantly try to open a data connection by default. Therefore I would need to be able to connect manually.
Can this do it? Any thoughts on an app that can?
Ta.
[…] Twitter for Windows Mobile […]
@Stephen – Interesting idea. If you don’t need it to be sent to twitter, you could use something like https://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=245
I installed Twit Today after reading how convenient it is (not having to open & run the whole program or go on the web).
There was a folder created but I can’t find it or open/run it. I am not very technical but is able install and run a program after installation.
I have a Samsung Omnia i910 with Winodws Mobile 6.1 What could be wrong or it doesn’t work on the Omnia?
Please help. 🙂
Thanks Dale, I’m going to give that a shot.
Of course it sounds like I need to then manually transfer my collected thoughts into WordPress, whereas with Twitter they automatically get collected into my Lifestream, which publishes to my blog every day.
I’ll also take a look at your blade wiki to see what solutions it can offer me.
Thanks again.
@Skppriya – It’s a Today screen plugin, rather than a stand-alone product, so you don’t really run it. To set it up, go to:
Start -> Settings -> Today -> Items -> bLADE TwitToday -> Options
Hope that helps
D
That’s exactly what I did. 🙁 There is no bLADE TwitToday in my Items. I had downloaded Skyfire & that showed up automatically in my items which I selected to appear on my Today screen. What else could be wrong?
Thank you for the prompt reply on my initial post. 🙂
@skppriya – Ah, sorry about that.
A few ideas:
– did you install it to main memory (not a storage card or microdrive)?
– did you try resetting/rebooting after installing?
– do you have a standard Today screen? (Not one of the new HTC skins, or a third-party custom today screen)
– do you have a touchscreen phone?
I reinstalled it by storing it to the main memory this time. Rebooted the phone & sure enough, the bLADE Twit Today showed upon on my Today screen. The Omnia has main & 8G storage memory. I do prefer to use storage rather than main.
Anyway of fixing this?
Thank you again for the help & prompt replies 🙂
@Skppriya – The plugin can work from SD card. The problem is often due to speed.
A Today screen plugin comes in two parts:
1) An entry in your phone’s Windows registry – which contains the name, and the location of:
2) A DLL file containing the plugin code
Windows Mobile will have a bunch of these windows registry entries, for all the different Today Screen items you have. When the phone boots, it goes through the list in the Registry, loading the DLL for each one. If it can’t find the DLL file at the location in the registry, it assumes it is not available, and kicks it out – so you don’t see it in your list in the Settings -> Today Screen -> Items.
It seems that for many people’s phones, it doesn’t go back and re-check this again – it does it at boot/start time, and that’s it. If you update the Registry to include a new Today Screen plugin, or change a setting, it won’t get noticed until the next time the Registry is checked at the next reboot/restart.
The problem is for people with slower and/or cheaper and/or larger memory cards. These have to complete initialisation before their file system is available to the operating system. So when the OS rattles through it’s list in the Registry at bootup, it tries to look for a DLL file on the memory card, and gets a return code of not-found.
It doesn’t matter that the file becomes available very soon afterwards, as the SD card finishes init – the OS looked for the DLL, didn’t find it, and booted it out of the list. And won’t try again until the next reboot/restart, when the problem will typically re-occur.
So how can we “fix” this? A faster SD card is the most obvious approach.
But to my mind, it is somewhat unnecessary. I don’t think much would be gained by moving the TwitToday DLL to an SD card. Because it is tiny. Really, really small. I created larger files on my phone memory in the browser cache by looking at this webpage.
So the saving you would make by installing TwitToday to your SD card is negligble. Certainly not enough to warrant me recommending you buy a faster/smaller memory card!
I hope that helps.
Kind regards
D
I’m not so technical , so I think I’ll stick with the main memory. Looking back at it, the file extremely tiny.
Is there a way to see what I’m typing? I do see the letters entered but the whole tweet cannot be seen unless I select/highlight. Maybe even change the font color?
Just a thought, otherwise, love the fact that it’s so damn convenient! Just one click away. 🙂
Thank you for creating such a clever & convenient plugin. 🙂
@skppriya – RE: colour problem – That’s very strange… what colours do you have for your foreground and background on your Today screen? What colours are my plugin using?
I have dark blue on the background w/ yellow fonts. The TwitToday bar is higlighted in white and text is black when I’m typing. I did change the background to something lighter – pic of light blue sky & ocean with black foreground/font color. The text is still invisible unless highlighted. :-/
+1 for not visible. Its black on black. I can see the text if I select it. Colors are black and white. Everthing else is readable (ex the messages plugin). After I select and deselect it it appears as I would expect, a while input field with black characters. (selected it is green with white)
I’m using a Diamond with WM 6.5 rom
Also, the keyboard only appears the first time I click on the input. After that there is no way to get the keyboard back without cliking on something else. not a huge problem, but I can’t see what I typed, and if I make a mistake then I have to basically restart in order to enter. (or hit backspace on the whole thing) there should be a sip thingy in the bottom.
@skppriya or @GS:
If you could email me a copy of an image that results in a theme with the problem you describe, I will try and recreate the problem. That would make it easier for me to try and fix it.
Kind regards
D (email[at]dalelane.co.uk)
Hi Dale.
Love the app. light functional, spot on.
my only problem is it distorts my background picture and slides the part of the image behind the tweet bar to the right?
any way to fix this?
@Tom – Interesting – not seen this before. I’m not 100% sure what you mean – would you be able to send me a screenshot, please?
Hi!
Great little app.
If you’re still developing this, three requests!
1) An option to disable (make inactive) the icon link to twitter that appears on the today screen, I don’t use it and accidently hit it sometimes.
2) The “OK” text is too big, even in your own screenshots, the font size is too large for the button. Ideally make the button wider to make it easier to press anyway?
3) I occasionally get an error code “200” (or similar) when trying to sumbit, retrying a few times seems to get it going again.
@Mish – Thanks for the comments. I’m not actively working on the code, but I’ve added these to my to-do list for the next time I get a quiet evening 🙂
[…] Twitter for Windows Mobile by dale lane […]
[…] TwitToday – Egy Today plugin, amellyel a Twitterre tudsz publikálni. […]
hey dale, i use a HTC touch diamond and i checked off the thing on the today screen settings but i go back to today screen and its still the same. infact, anything i check off doenst really do anything to the today screen. it only shows calendar and time. even when theyre not checked off. wtf is going on?
Thanks for the great app, installed with out issue. When posting my tweets I keep getting a 401 error code – failed to send tweet? Any ideas? Many thanks
Please disregard last message, I’m just being a numpty! Put wrong username in! Doh!
Cant get it to work on my samsung omnia 1
Is there no today plug ins for facebook on wm6
Does the Omnia have a Today screen? I’ve not played with one myself, but I vaguely remember hearing that Samsung added their own today screen instead.
As for facebook plugins…. no idea, sorry.
Just installed the app on a HTC P3300 with WM6 professional in its main memory. Just copy the .cab onto your phone and run it. Very easy!
It works perfectly except for one small thing, unfocusing the Twit Today. Once the cursor is in Twit Today I can’t unfocus by tapping outside the application. The only way is to activate another application.
I do understand that the onscreen keyboard is also outside Twit Today. So it may not be solved, but it’s a possible suggestion for improvement.
I really like this app. Keep up the good work.
Greets, Bart, the Netherlands
i use a HTC touch diamond and i checked off the thing on the today screen settings but i go back to today screen and its still the same. infact, anything i check off doenst really do anything to the today screen.
Downloaded on recommendation from PC Mag Feb 2010 online issue. Works great, even with the hideous ATT Edge network
If I click in the area, the text box pops open and I see what I am typing. Otherwise, it stays as a shadow over my background pic.
I did have problems in the beginning, but when I went into the settings, I found where I could put in my user name & pw for Twitter. Sent out a test tweet and voila!
Thanks so much for keeping this free. There are so few (advertised anyway) apps for Windows smart phones.
<3 ya!
[…] Twitter for Windows Mobile […]
Dale – first let me start by saying how awesome this is for you to have done. I am impressed with how light and simple it is, but yet how USEFUL it is in design! I was looking for this very thing…. unfortunately, for Facebook though…. So I did my research and found how to have Twitter update FB status, but that is certainly not always foolproof. FB doesn’t always update status, and that stinks for someone like me who doesn’t use Twitter as much as the rest of the world does. Is there a way to develop a program using FB API’s that update FB instead of Twitter?
The only other thing missing from this would be an option to insert GPS links like PockeTwit does, but that’s getting ahead of myself – would love to see this as a Facebook status updater more than anything!!! Again, thank you so much for your work on this, I use it on my Second Today screen on my awesome HTC TouchPro2, and LOVE it!
GarciaM25, quarterUltra – Thank you both very much for the kind comments – much appreciated! 🙂
GarciaM25 – I’ve looked at the Facebook API docs before, but found them pretty obtuse… I really couldn’t see how I’d start. Probably just me being dense, but at any rate, it was enough to put me off pursuing it any further at the time, sorry.
[…] (free), TwitToday (free), Tinytwitter (free) e SPB Mobile Shell […]
[…] TwitToday é um pequeno aplicativo que permite postar mensagens e enviá-las de imediato para a sua conta do […]