Tweets and Chats

I have been spending a fair amount of time this week checking on the progress of the ash cloud over New Zealand and the earthquake tremors in Christchurch. The big questions around our house is "will she or won't she fly out on Friday night?" The New Zealand Herald and Qantas websites have had my full attention these past few days.

Every now and again, I drift onto other sites, find something interesting and post it onto my Twitter page and  Collage of Life Facebook page.  When I look back at them, I can see a snapshot of my week.  I was thinking that there might be something in it for you too....

 A snapshot, in Tweets and Chatter...
Tweeting On..

I came across a great book, 'Garden People, Valerie Finnis and The Golden Age of Gardening', here.
To this, I added my post on Gardening Style. You can check out the very chic women gardeners of yesteryear, here.
Do you have kids applying to USA colleges? Check out the insiders guide to college admissions, here.
If you love the idea of living in Paris, have a look at this book, here.
The Travel Bookshop in Notting Hill tweeted on 'The Independent's 50 Best Summer Reads', here.
I went shopping last weekend to a Midsummer Fair and came across some great finds, here.
I was glued to the BBC programme 'The Country House Revealed' the other night, check it out here.
If you read my last post, you will know that I am supporting the 1000 Schools for 1000 Girls initiative with the CCLEF, here.
Do you know where self confidence comes from? Read here.
Lastly, check out this great weekend bag, here.

Chats with Facebook friends..... 

My Facebook friends and I are having great chats about our favourite books. This week we have talked about, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and many more... you can join in, here.

Vivian wrote to recommend books from her Arts Book Club. She mentioned

'The Passion of Artemisia' and 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' both by Susan Vreeland.

You can read about both books and more, here.

A sigh of relief to see that others like my new Purple Paisley Palazzo Pants, here.

Sunflowers have been on my mind, if they are on yours as well, read here.

Going vertical in the garden was big talk at the Chelsea Flower Show? Learn how, here.

Phew!

How am I doing all this?

Via my iPad.

A delightful little invention.

Thank you Apple.

I love it so much, I bought it

a brand new travel cover.

My last little creation of the day was a few bits

and pieces to hang on my market basket.

A friend made Scrabble earrings for me

with my initials. I decided I would

enjoy them more seeing them everyday,

alongside my silver cross. 

:)

Off to check on that ash cloud again

and then pack.

Best wishes to one and all for a lovely weekend.

I will be reporting from Christchurch, New Zealand 

next week, with my iPad.

If you would like to follow me on Twitter and Facebook,

you can find links along my sidebar.

I would LOVE to have you join me!

 - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

images~me

Top 10 Useful Firefox Plugins For Twitter Lovers..

Our favorite 10 Firefox Twitter addons which you could use to tweet, reply tweets, show people what you are currently viewing, send direct messages, and much more features! Have a look at all this plugins and enjoy the freedom of using Twitter in your Firefox browser.

1. Echofon

Echofon, which is previously known as TwitterFox, is a great Firefox plug-in to be used. It adds a minute status bar icon that has notification when your buddies post tweets. Echofon allows you to access your Twitter account in just a single click and it displays the number of unread messages on the status bar. You will be able to manage multiple Twitter accounts and other trouble-free Twitter functions such as posting your own tweets, direct message and retweet.

2. Twitbin

Twitbin is a petite Firefox plug-in which appears as a sidebar. It allows you to be up to date with all of your Twitter discussions right from the sidebar of your browser. You will be able use this extension to send and receive messages to and from your buddies, view conversations, share links of website you like, and more.

3. Power Twitter

The Power Twitter offers extra functionalities to the Twitter web interface which includes an inline of all sorts of playable and viewable media, photo uploading, link expansion and shrinking, link translation to page titles, status history peeks, custom settings, and daily questions. All this could be done right on your Twitter web interface. As an added advantage, you will be able to view your Facebook status updates via this plug-in.

4. Twitkit

Twitkit functions as a Twitter sidebar for your Firefox browser. It has a 6-segment interface, which uses tabs to separate its contents. Using this Twitkit extension, you will be able to view your user timeline, the Twitter public timeline, your buddies list and latest tweets, your followers list and their latest tweets, status regarding your account, and @replies made to you.

5. TwitterBar

The TwitterBar extension allows you to tweet your message to the Twitter web interface directly from your Firefox’s address bar. A small Twitter icon would be noticeable at the side of the address bar, and clicking on it posts your tweets. You can also check the number of characters left as you are only allowed to post up to 140 characters long in Twitter. You could also tweet a URL of your currently viewing page by just clicking on the icon. With this TwitterBar version of 2.9, you can now add new accounts and post multiple Twitter accounts.

6. Twitzer

You can now post longer messages with more than just 140 characters on your Twitter web interface by using this Twitzer plug-in for your Firefox browser. Besides, it expands TinyURL links to ensure that you click on safe links.

7. Instant Tweets

Instant Tweets is almost similar to the TweetBar extension. You can tweet from your Firefox address bar and share links of the page that is currently being viewed. Just click on the bird icon that sits on the side of your address bar to share or tweet the particular link. It also automatically displays the number of character left as you type and shortens long URLs. All you have to do is right click on images to tweet it on Twitter instantly. Additionally, the bird icon will be noticeable in blue colour if someone is following you and turns red if no one is.

8. TwittyTunes

A music lover will definitely want to share their favourite songs and tracks that they are listening to with their buddies and other followers. This could be done by using the TwittyTunes extension for Firefox. It posts websites that you often visit and videos you stream to your Twitter. You could submit any songs you specify with just one click by assigning TwittyTunes to your Firefox browser.

9. Friendbar

Friendbar is a useful application for not only Twitter but also Facebook. This Friendbar application allows you to manage both popular social networking web interfaces from one place. You can now keep in touch with your buddies from both networks with this single plug-in. It continually streams updates from both your Twitter and Facebook accounts right on the toolbar. Tweet, retweet, direct message, @message, and more from the Friendbar toolbar. It automatically generates a TinyURL of the website that you are viewing so that you could easily share the links on both the social networks.

10. Yoono

Yoono is another sidebar plug-in for Firefox. It allows you to stay connected with your buddies across a variety of instant messengers and social networking websites from one place. The Yoono sidebar supports services like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Yahoo IM, AIM and more. Yoono simplifies your way of sharing stuffs you like with all your social networks simultaneously. You will be able to discover more cool stuffs with the discovery widget that displays the related websites, videos, images, and more as you surf the internet.

Twitter for BlackBerry v1.1 Officially Released for all users...!!!

Today marks the official launch of the Twitter® for BlackBerry® smartphones v1.1 application. This version – which our helpful BlackBerry Beta Zone users have been testing over the past six weeks – includes several new and exciting features, like adding a location to your Tweets and Push @Mentions. (Please note v1.1 will become available for download in BlackBerry App World™ over the next 24 hours. If you don’t see it listed immediately, please keep checking back!)

A big shout out to everyone who participated in the beta and provided their valuable feedback! Since the release of the beta version, the Twitter app team at Research In Motion® (RIM®) has been busy working on some additional improvements in response to feedback raised during the beta.

Let’s take a look at some of the new features in more detail so you can start using them!

Tweet Location

By enabling this feature, you can pinpoint your location in a neighborhood and include it your Tweets. To try out this feature, complete the following steps:

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v1.1
2. Press the Menu key and select Options
3. Enable Add Location To Tweet and save your changes

After enabling this setting, you’ll notice a new compass icon that appears to the right of the photo icon below the Tweet box. To add your location, select this icon and your BlackBerry smartphone will determine where you are and add it to any new Tweets you submit. If you want to remove your location, simply select the icon again to disable this feature until you’re ready to use it again.

Viewing someone else’s location – if they have enabled this feature – is really easy too! All you need to do is select the location icon that appears in the bottom right corner of their tweet and a map view will open, allowing you to see where they were when they submitted that Tweet.

Other new features include Push @Mentions and #Topic Autocomplete, which were previously discussed in the Twitter v1.1 Beta post.

Refreshed Branding

We’ve made several changes to enhance the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphone experience, like updated graphics that reflect the new look of the Twitter brand and a streamlined layout of the Add Photo and Add Location icons on the Home screen.

Retweet Updates

The next time you Retweet something, it will appear in your Home timeline as ‘Retweeted by You’, to quickly alert you that your Retweet was sent successfully.

New language support

Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones now supports the following additional languages:

• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Polish
• Czech
• Thai

We’ve also made several changes to address feedback that we received from BlackBerry Beta Zone users reported during the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v1.1 beta. One of the issues we’ve addressed is the “Unable to Find Location” error message that appeared whenever a user attempted to submit a new tweet. We’ve also made some changes to ensure that you don’t encounter any difficulties when attempting to shorten a URL you’d like to share, or that you don’t experience delays when opening the Twitter app on your BlackBerry smartphone.

We always welcome your feedback, so please post a comment and let us know what you think about the latest version of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones!

A New Face...a New Twitter

I am taking stock at the moment.

I have gone into information overload.

There was a moment or two when I was 

ready to press the button...delete blog, delete Facebook, delete Twitter.

My fingers flew every which way over that keyboard but in the end...I couldn't.

My blogs have become like my children....they need me or rather I need them :)

I decided Facebook needed a new face...a new purpose.

Mention Twitter and you get the immediate eye roll...I just didn't get it.

Until now...I think.

Let's talk Facebook.....

I have been on Facebook a year or two, a few friends, a few pages and

more recently a few blogging friends. My frustration grew when I could no longer

find friends and the information I wanted thru all the clutter. Do I really want to know the latest

egg count from someone playing Farmville? Not really. As much as I enjoy those

friends...I think Facebook has taken the whole 'sharing' concept too far.

Enter the little 'x' that sits to the right side of a Facebook comment...it lets you hide it all.

Click...click...click and voila...gone.

No one has been deleted...they are just resting, for a while :)

I want to read. I want to know what is going on around me 

and I want to go to one place to do it.

This is where pages come in and I now have just the ones I need

to make my Facebook experience a more pleasant one. Some of

my favs...The New York Times, BBC News, Nigella Lawson, Visit London,

Financial Times, Harrods, Elle Decor, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, 

The National Trust, Royal Academy of Arts, 

Ticketmaster UK and The British Monarchy...just for fun.

 I have also noticed Facebook widgets on other blogs and thought it might be fun. 

Kerry @ A Tranquil Townhouse gave me the heads up

on how to do it and I now have a page devoted to my many blog posts.

Blogging has been simplified.

I find them, they find me...we read, we comment. Life is easy.

Now I need more...so if you have put your blog on Facebook or are

contemplating it and would like to know more...comment here

and we will find a way together.

Let's talk Twitter....

How many of you have signed up and that is about it?

How many have looked at it and that is about it?

How many of you are actively using Twitter?

How many of you do not want to go there?

I am taking baby steps here. I started yesterday.

There is still lots to learn, but it is actually kind of fun. 

Why am I surprised?

I have found the most wonderful information 

about the things I love to do.

I think I could begin to like this concept.

My Twitter profile....

Jeanne@ collageoflife

Surrey, UK

A woman enjoying expat life in England 

with a camera, four kids, one man, one dog and five blogs. 

My sanctuary starts @ Collage of Life :)

Let's Talk blogs...

What can I say? I have five.

I have thought about deleting one or two or three

but just can not bring myself to do it.

Collage of Life

Finding My Way in England

In One Place with a camera.

B-Well for Life

cashmerejeans

They all fill a need for me and for those few who

stop in and comment...I would miss them :)

If you are thinking of another...I say go for it!

 Blog, Facebook or Twitter

It's all go around here!!

How about you?

Can I help answer any questions?

A big thank you if you made it this far!!!

Jeanne xxx
****************

One last thing...this is for the questions that you may have. 

Maybe we can help each other :)

1. From Janet @ Janet's Journal
Does anyone know of a hosting/editing/collage making site?
(I would like to know too :) 


Suggestions from Laura @ Happy Homemaker
Collage site: Scrapblog & Polyvore

Photo editing: Picasa & Picnik
Photo albums/scrapbooks: Blurb
Thanks Laura!
Suggestions from Jane @ Life on Planet Baby
1. I upload my photos to Flickr and then edit them in Picnik. I save the edited versions back to Flickr.
2. I use BigHugeLabs to do my collages, mosaics and all sorts of fun. You'll have a ball playing with it.
3. I also collect photos I like by using We ♥ it, Pinterest and Vi.sualize.us. I posted about them at 
http://www.lifeonplanetbaby.com/p/blogging-tips.html if you're interested.
Thank you Jane!