Compelled to write this after having had an unexpectedly good user experience with all of the above last night. The main thing is that it wasn’t each one in isolation, but the combination and how well they worked together that made it a good experience.
The fundamental elements of win…
Twitter = Air
The Twitter platform seems pretty ethereal at times, especially when trying to nail down the business model. But like air it pervades everywhere, if it’s not there we certainly miss it (though perhaps not quite as crucially :), and – this is my favourite analogy – sound cannot communicate in a vacuum. Twitter acts as the molecules in air, with sound waves emanating from one source and radiating out.
Tweetie 2 = Water
Angela Dodson: So why water?
John Constantine: It’s a universal conduit. Lubricates the transition from one plane to another.
Tweetie offers an attractive UI and experience that smoothes the process of transmitting and receiving, acting as filter, magnifying glass, and multi-channel broadcaster.
iPhone 3Gs = Fire(?)
Probably the most tenuous analogy, but I’m sticking with the theme. Services like video and Image publishing on yfrog wouldn’t exist without the technology providing the need, and kindling the ‘fire’ of development and innovation.
Combined
Recently I got a new iPhone 3Gs as warranty replacement, and while I’d tested out video in a “yep, that works” cursory fashion – I’d not yet tried to do anything useful with it.
So I found myself at the excellent Yardbird in Birmingham where DJ Vadim was playing live with his band. Wanting to share the moment but feeling just sending an image to twitpic doesn’t really cut it, I thought I’d just see if it was possible to send video attached to a tweet via tweetie 2 with its improved functionality and UI.
So…
- new tweet
- write some text
- click word count / features button
- “use camera” hmm … sounds promising, it’s not specifying ‘photo’
- record video
- “use”
- send!
Stuck the phone back in my pocket and checked back a couple minutes later to find it had posted the video to yfrog, and the message to twitter.
http://twitter.com/spacescape/status/5108928191
Now I know all this sound very simple, child’s play even – but that’s kind of the point – the ease of use of the whole thing. So many times you try to use an application or piece of technology in a way that you *think* it should work, and find yourself disappointed.
Brilliant – another glimpse of the future, and I’m liking what I see.