Digsby Worth Checking Out

Digsby is a neat little communications program that combines IM, email and social networking websites all in one. I’ve been using Pidgin for my IM predominantly, but the addition of Twitter to Digsby makes it an attractive alternative.

For IM, Digsby handles AIM, Yahoo, Google talk, MSN, ICQ and Jabber. It seems to have most of the basic features you’d expect from an IM client and I haven’t encountered any problems yet.

You can add Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL/AIM mail, POP or IMAP accounts. I’ve just used it with a Gmail account as a way to be alerted when there is incoming email, but I’m curious about the IMAP and POP functionality. One neat feature is the ability to send emails right from the IM window, without having to open another application or webpage.

For social networking, you can add your Facebook, Myspace or Twitter accounts. I currently just use Twitter, and Digsby provides me with updates to recent Twitter activity, and lets me update my status. If you use Facebook or Myspace, Digsby will alert you to new friend requests, messages and other activity.

With Twitter, the interface isn’t as customizable as Twhirl or Snitter, but so far has been more stable than either of those and doesn’t require AIR. Digsby’s Twitter pop-up notifications display all recent activity, placing @s first. There isn’t much customization available for the Twitter interface, but it handles the basics well.

For me the real strength of the program is having all these things tied together in one package. You can turn off pop up notifications and sound for any or all accounts if, for example, you only wanted to be alerted for emails and not Twitter, or you only wanted sound and no pop-ups.

Digsby is still in Beta and could use a few more features and options, but right now it behaves well and has been reliable. I’m impressed!

HTML-Kit Perfect Editor for Novices

Have you ever needed to design a document using HTML and didn’t feel like using the bloated Microsoft Word tools or needed something with a little more oomph than a basic text editor? If so, then HTML-Kit is probably for you.

It is available as a free download at http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

Windows Live Writer Just Got Better

WLW is my go to program for composing and publishing blog posts. I’ve written about it a few times and have been using it exclusively for posting to my blogs.

I recently switched from Blogger.com to WordPress.com and Live Writer handled the transition marvelously.

Today, thanks to a blog post over at makeuseof.com, I came across a very important link: a series of extensions for Windows Live Writer. Just visit gallery.live.com and you’ll find a whole host of awesome plugins to make WLW even better.

There are a number of extensions to integrate other web services like Flickr or Picasa into WLW, which I am taking advantage of with this post. The Picasa plugin lets you upload images to Picasa from WLW and link them in your blog post. Very cool.

There is also a “blog this” extension for Firefox that helps you blog a particular web page or article. It’s a pretty simple plugin that helps automate appropriate links when referring to a particular source.

There are currently 80 plugins available, so you’ll have to look for yourself to see them all, but if you’re a WLW user, you’re sure to find something useful.

-Jeff

Backup Firefox and Thunderbird with MozBackup

If you are one of the many people out there who use either Firefox for web surfing or Thunderbird for email, then you definitely need to be using MozBackup.

Basically, MozBackup is an easy to use tool that lets you backup profiles and settings for Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and even Netscape. It is available at http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ and is free to use.

Why do you need this program? If you have ever had a computer crash and had to re-install Windows or had to re-install Firefox for any reason, you know how big of a pain it is to re-configure all of your Firefox settings from scratch. Replacing lost bookmarks, cookies, passwords and such can be extremely time consuming.

If you’re a Thunderbird user, chances are you’ve got quite a few emails archived on your machine. Having a backup copy of all of your emails, account information and settings can be a huge lifesaver when computer troubles pop up.

I recently had a hard drive fail in my laptop and had it replaced, but there are other, less extreme problems that can pop up in which a backup can be handy. Last week I tried out Firefox 3 beta 3 and found that it caused some weird problems with my normal installation of Firefox 2. Thankfully with a quick restore from MozBackup, I was up and running again in a matter of seconds.

The layout and interface is rather plain and very functional. After starting the program, you are quickly guided by the wizard through your options. The entire process is rather self explanatory and simple. Simply choose whether you want to backup or restore, what program you want to back up from a list of available options (Firefox or Thunderbird in my case), choose which profile (if you have more than one) and then finally choose which parts of the profile you want backed up.

You can choose which individual parts of the profile you want to include in the backup such as cookies, passwords, form history and several other options.

Restoring takes only a matter of seconds, just choose which file you wish to restore from and in seconds you are up and running.

I love this program and use it for backups on a daily basis. I have only needed the restore function twice, but in those instances it was invaluable. If you are a Firefox or Thunderbird user, this program is a must have in my opinion.

-Jeff

Twitter vs. Pownce: the Ultimate Showdown!

Apparently some people out there haven’t quite caught on to the microblogging craze, or are a bit confused about the differences between the two. Here’s a somewhat lighthearted look at the two in a no holds barred, knock down, drag out fight.

Lets get ready to rumble!

In the light blue corner, the reigning champion - Twitter.

Twitter has been around longer and has a large userbase. The number of clients, addons, extensions, related websites and methods of access is impressive. Lately though, the champ has been stumbling, suffering from extended outages and downtime.

The various clients available for Twitter, when working, are a great alternative to the web interface. My current favorites for Windows are Snitter and Twhirl, but both can be buggy at times. There are also multiple plugins for firefox available. If that’s not your cup of tea you can get at Twitter from IM or SMS. If you’re a fan of text messaging, this can be a fun way to occupy your time while riding the subway to work.

There are a large number of websites that extend Twitter’s functionality. Tweetscan lets you easily search Twitter for tweets containing certain text. Twitter Karma helps you keep track of who is following you and who you are following. Twitterpacks help you find people with the same interests as yourself. Tweetstats reports on your usages, and there are a host of other websites as well.

Reliability is an issue with Twitter, and drives people to Pownce during the downtime. Twitter officially broke up with Joyent recently, and some of the stability issues may improve. Time will tell.

In the green corner, the cagey up and comer - Pownce

Pownce has just come out of beta and has some catching up to do with regards to the number of users. A reasonable number of people have signed up, but a majority of them don’t use it much. Activity has picked up with the recent Twitter outages, but it is still far behind.

Pownce goes beyond the realm of just text and allows you to post pictures, videos, music and other files easily. Also, it’s remarkably simpler to add links just by clicking the button, compared to the usual cut and paste then tinyurl process with Twitter. Most of the videos are just youtube viral videos, but it’s a fun way to share amusing vids with friends. The ability to share photos is very cool. I threw up a picture of my dog, but there are some gifted photographers out there who frequently share some excellent material. I personally enjoy these very much. There is a lot more creative stuff being shared around on Pownce compared to the Twitter’s pure text and links.

There are a few fan created and third party applications and extensions for Pownce, but for the most part Pownce is still in the infancy stage for this category.

One cool feature in Pownce is the ability to group friends in sets. This can be useful when your friends list starts growing and you need an easy way to sort or separate them. I wish Twitter had such a feature.

Also, if you wish, Pownce has plenty of room to provide all of your other contact information like Twitter ID, Flickr, Facebook, IM, email, blog, homepage. I find this a handy way to find people on other networks. I just go to Pownce, click their profile, and presto, all the info I need. Currently Twitter just allows one link for each user.

Pownce has a nice interface for finding friends. It can easily scan your Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, GMail, Hotmail, AOLmail and Yahoo mail contacts. Twitter will only search email contacts (from the same 4).

Point by Point Comparison

Number of users/activity: Advantage Twitter, by a large margin. Pownce may slowly creep up, but Twitter has a huge head start.

Third party support, addons, and extensibility: Advantage Twitter, by a lot.

Reliability: Advantage Pownce. Twitter has been having problems lately and it’s trying people’s patience.

Accessibility: Advantage Twitter. Web, IM, Txt and local clients provide many options for getting connected.

Flexibility: Advantage Pownce. Videos, pictures, music, easy linking, and text sans the 140 character limit.

Friend Finding: Advantage Pownce. Both let you search by name, but Pownce has more options for importing from other services.

Tally

That’s 3 for Twitter and 3 for Pownce. OK, the numbers are misleading. Twitter wins, easily, if only because it’s what people are using right now.

In the end, it all boils down to what you want. If you want to share a variety of media types, you need Pownce. If you want more access options, Twitter is the way to go.

Personally, I’m still using Twitter most of the time, because that is where the action is. I also use Pownce on a daily basis and enjoy the different kinds of content that pops up there. If you into social networking and web 2.0, you should probably start using both.

Before long we’ll start seeing clients that aggregate both Pownce and Twitter, and by then there will be no reason not to enjoy the benefits of each.

-Jeff