Aug
2009

ShrinkURL for iPhone

Paul Carmody, @macjasp on Twitter, has created an iPhone App called ShrinkURL, (Site, iTunes) which can shorten url’s using the tinyurl.com service.

When posting links on Twitter nearly everyone uses a link shortening service in order to cram as much as they can into the 140 character limit, for example my quick review of TomTom for iPhone is 56 characters long (https://www.g4shallow.co.uk/2009/08/17/tomtom-for-iphone/) but using tinyurl this is shortened to 25 characters http://tinyurl.com/n39zom

In the images shown below I have copied the URL http://www.macjasp.com/2009/08/shrinkurl-for-iphone.html from Safari

Then launched ShrinkURL

and voilà the shortened url is copied back to the iPhone clipboard. For me this is extremely useful in order to shorten links ready to paste into Tweetie.

You can also type a URL in the application itself and click on the go button which will then shorten the URL and copy that to your clipboard. If you have non-url text in your clipboard when you open ShrinkURL you will see the following error so links that don’t work are not created 😉

Of course some people will have personal preferences on which shortening service they use such as bit.ly, is.gd etc so a user selectable preference would be an added bonus, something that the developer has stated will be coming in a future update.

Nice one Paul, a useful application that I can see me using often (especially when it has bit.ly support ;))

Mar
2009

Pixelmator

I was looking for an alternative to Photoshop as it’s too expensive for what I need it for. Gimp comes highly recommended but a friend on Twitter (@purplelime) raves about Pixelmator so I downloaded a trial and was blown away by how cool it looks and it’s features. There was a competition to win a license on FruitBytes but since I was unsuccessful I bought my own license 🙂

Pixelmator

Just need to locate some tutorials (what sites do people suggest?) so that I can get the best out of it. I plan on using it to create banners for a new website I will be managing – more on that to come.

Feb
2009

Hmm, Twitter updates

I use the excellent Twitter Tools in order to get my Tweets from Twitter. One of the options is to post a new blog post with my daily tweets.

picture-2

At first I thought this was a great idea but today when I look at my blog I now think it looks horrible. So as of now I have disabled this feature, though might reintroduce it – 😉 who knows!

Feb
2009

Twitter Updates for 2009-02-23

  • @purplelime I like it! in reply to purplelime #
  • @tomacintosh me too. Macbook Pro 15″. Going to wait until next update I reckon. in reply to tomacintosh #
  • Managed to push it back on. Seems solid but better get it glued in place. #
  • Aww man. Silence switch just fell off iPhone. #
  • Get your 25 seconds of fame with Tweetube for Mac OS X http://tinyurl.com/d3kp7o (via @TUAW) tempted? I’m not 😉 in reply to TUAW #
  • @purplelime Cool, that’s the one I have ordered. Will post pics when it arrives. Want a chat one when available but not sure which yet 🙂 in reply to purplelime #
  • Is hoping Everton will beat the Mags.  #
  • @purplelime Always a bonus when you discover money you were not expecting sitting in your account 🙂 in reply to purplelime #
  • Think I will use iNove WordPress theme for my blog. Now linked to my profile. #
  • Going to sit down and watch last night’s match of the day in peace and quiet! Well apart from @tweetdeck chirp 😉 #
  • @tomacintosh I removed them on one theme but the license states they must be left in tact, shame as I liked the theme. in reply to tomacintosh #
  • Finding a good WordPress theme is a lot harder than I expected. Sponsored links, ie links to sites other than the creator seem to be common. #
  • Morning, trying out different wordpress themes for my new site. #
Feb
2009

Twitter Updates for 2009-02-22

  • 0-0 That will do me! Quite a few draws today. #
  • @macjasp_ Yeah might be a good idea, surprised it still has any green on it 😮 in reply to macjasp_ #
  • @safclyndz Have they let you in yet? Nice padded seats whilst you wait for kick off once you get inside 🙂 in reply to safclyndz #
  • Watching Villa v Chelsea, Anelka just scored. #
  • @macjasp_ Do it! 😉 in reply to macjasp_ #
  • @Flyeboy Let’s just say I am not holding my breath – good luck though! 🙂 #
  • Morning peeps. My turn for a lie in, yet I lie here awake. That is what happens when I go to bed too early. #