According to reports today, it would appear there is a clear and obvious way for any third party Twitter app you have allowed to tweet on your account can actually change your profile information.

Your name, location and URL could be changed by an app using three simple ‘command tweets’. I am sure Twitter will tidy this up pretty quickly but till then you really should go check the apps that have this access to your account.

From your Twitter home page:

1. Go to “Settings” tab.
2. Click on “Connections”.
3. Displayed will be all the third party Twitter apps with access to your account, when you approved them and the type of access each app has (ie: read only, read and write).
4. If there any apps you are not familiar with or no longer use you can remove your permission for an app to have access to your account by clicking the “Revoke Access” link.

If you see any evidence of account tampering please do let us know @Twtr_Gator (once you have told Twitter @safety @support of course.)

Technorati Tags: twitter apps, twitter how to, twitter security

The iPad is the latest techno craze that is taking over the world and everyone that is anyone is getting an iPad to change their life.  These same people tend to have a hunger for Twitter and it was inevitable that these two passions would blend and mend into one great app.  If you are looking to use Twitter on the iPad one of the following apps will be for you.

1. TwitePad- This great little app allows you to create multiple accounts and use multiple columns.  Almost all of your favorite Twitter functions are here and for Twitter on the iPad it doesn’t get much better than the original!

2. Twitterrific for iPad- Every possible thing that you love about Twitter is available on this great app for Twitter on the iPad.  This app even makes the interface much larger so you can see and tweet with ease.

3. TweetDeck for iPad- You can do so much with this app (multiple columns, multiple account support, reply, retweet, DM and favorite from a tweet, follow or unfollow Twitter users, just to name a few) that it is hard to turn down.

4. Osfoora HD- Finally, and frankly my fave right now is Osfoora HD. With Instapaper intergration this is the Twitter app for me as I spend way to much time clicking through links from Twitter finding useful and not so useful sites to come back to later!

All of these Twitter iPad apps are available for under $2 and you will be able to tweet from your iPad at any time.

Do you Twitter on the iPad? Which app do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below or tweet me @Twtr_Gator

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, twitter apps, twitter clients, twitter mobile, twitter on the ipad

For new users of Twitter it is sometimes difficult to learn how to post photos on Twitter because it is not a readily available option.  This is not like some websites that place a very obvious and easy to use button on the screen stating “How to Post Photos on Twitter”.  Instead you must go through a very complex process with the help of an app called Twitpic.

To use Twitpic to post photos on Twitter you must log into the Twitpic website with your Twitter ID.  To post pictures to Twitter straight from your phone, you will then use a special email address created by the website that should be kept to yourself for privacy’s sake. Now, instead of sending a text message (SMS) to Twitter you send a picture message (MMS) to Twitpic to get the photo posted. All you have to do to add a caption to this photo is put it in your email subject line and you are all ready to go.

It sounds more complicated than it actually is to learn how to post photos on Twitter, but once you get started it is an easy breeze. Of course if you have an iPhone or other wonderful type of smart phone… there’s an app for that!

To post photos from your computer you simply fill in Twitpic’s “upload and post a photo” page select the image you want to share on Twitter and hit the upload button. Easy right?

The photo is then added to your Twitpic page and a post is generated automatically to your feed on Twitter.

I’ll be giving some more hints and tips for using Twitpic in the very near future, in the meantime let me know which picture services you use to post pictures to Twitter in the comments below or catch up with me on Twitter @Twtr_Gator

Technorati Tags: how to post photos to twitter, how to use twitter, post photos to twitter from your phone, twitpic, twitter how to

GeoTweeter takes the already common practice of using Twitter to inform your friends of your current location, but adds one hugely significant feature…
It actually shows them how to get to you!

How often do you see folks using Twitter to invite their friends out for a coffee?
Normally with a tweet something like “I’m at Costa! Come join me!”.
But which Costa do they mean?
The one on the High Street or that new one by.. hang on, where’s that other one again?
Now you got to go through Google Maps looking for a costa coffee shop and writing down the address.
Worst still you are going to have to rely on archaic technology and use your phone to actually call your friend to check you’re heading to the right place.

GeoTweeter will take away all of those extra steps for you by pulling all the information needed to meet up with some one into one, simple Twitter iPhone application.
When you want to have invite your friends to join you for a night on the town (or for whatever other reason you may want to broadcast your exact location via Twitter), you just open GeoTweeter and blast out your tweet.
GeoTweet will create a schmap.me map pointing at your current GPS location (or any other location you choose) then and add the URL of the map onto the end of your tweet.

These maps are viewable from just about any browser, with special optimizations for BlackBerry, Nokia, Palm, Sony Ericsson, and of course the iPhone.
On some of these platforms, tapping the address on the page will automatically launch the handset’s built-in mapping software, allowing you to navigate to the location without copy and paste or the so out dated, pen and paper.

I love the fact you can also store your regular locations for quick use later, helps hugely if you are inviting people down the local for a “quick” drink regularly.

For added fun or to entice your freinds to join you, you can also include a photo of your current location.

You will still need another Twitter application on your iPhone for general use.
But this makes perfect sense. After all, you don’t always want to be broadcasting your location with every tweet, so you won’t be using GeoTweeter every time anyway.

One thing to watch out for with GeoTweeter is there is no character counter to let you know how many characters you can use before you run out of Tweet space.

Remember; The URL takes up 23 of your 140 characters and the input box will not let you go past the limit (set at 117), but it would handy to have a visual counter for the sake of planning ahead.

Schmap have used all their ingenuity to increase the use of and build upon their Schmap.me service,
GeoTweeter is a genuinely useful service that doesn’t seem tacked on at all.

This is exactly the kind of awesome Twitter iPhone app I love most, yes it’s fun to use, but more importantly it really does an awesome job of helping you connect and interact with other people.
Well done Schmap!

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, twitter apps, twitter how to, twitter iphone

Did you see my post on How To Get Twitter Updates Via SMS Messages?

The launch of Twe2 (site that provides the Twitter mobile service) is great news on it’s own for anybody that wants to keep up to date with all their tweets whilst they are away from a computer.

However, today I want to show you how I use the search function of Twe2 to get seriously helpful SMS updates via Twitter. Most of you have probably seen services advertised that offer to send SMS updates of various infomation (like football scores, train delays, weather reports ect…) to your phone for a nice tidy fee. Using the Twe2 search feature and some very helpful folk who have set up Twitter bots to provide a Twitter stream of this kind of infomation, we can now receive these updates to our mobile phones absolutely free of charge.

Right, here’s the how to;

First your going to need the username of the Twitter bot that is Tweeting the updates you are interested in. You can find a long list of these here. There are loads more you just need to find them via a twitter search or good old google. Next enter the username into the search box on your Twe2 alerts page. Hit the add search term button.

Done! It is that easy. With the example above the search Twe2 will now send me updates about any delays on the London Midlands Train network.

Can’t find a Twitter bot to send you tweets for the infomation you want?

Then you have a couple of choices.

One, just head over to the awesome new Twitter How To Group and ask the community if anybody knows the username of a Twitter bot that tweets the updates you are looking for.

Two, build your own. Really a simple RSS feed is all you need to get started but there are a couple of things to watch out for. For those that are interested I will get a post up very soon that looks at putting an auto tweeting info bot together, this way you will always be able to get not only tweets of the infomation you are interested in but also SMS messsages.

PLEASE HELP YOUR FELLOW TWEEPS!

Please post in the comments below the username and type of infomation tweeted of any Twitter bots that you follow or have found. If we get enough unique suggestions I will write up a post of the list to help others find the information they are looking for.

Technorati Tags: how I use twitter on my phone, how to use twitter for free SMS alerts, twitter via mobile phone

Yesterday I got great news! A couple of clever developers have figured out how to get SMS messages from your Twitter to your mobile phone even if you are outside of America.

Recently my beloved iphone was stolen and until my new smart phone arrives I have been unable to keep in touch with Twitter whilst on the move. I knew of a service to get tweets via SMS in America, but I am based in the UK and have been yearning for a way to get a simular service available in Europe.

Twe2 now makes this possible. Best of all is the cost of each message you receive, not a single penny! Yep Twe2 is a completely free service which is financed by way of putting a small advert at the end of each message. I have been using the service for two days now and I can honestly say the ad does not bother me at all.

The current features have enabled me to set the number of messages I receive so no need to worry about be flooded with messages. Select either or both of my @replies or/and DM’s to be delivered to my phone. Another great feature I love is being able to get Twitter search results sent to me. This is a fantastic way to keep updated with a live event while I am away from my desk ( I will show you how to get all sorts of events tweeted to you via Twe2 in a future post. ), or monitor what other tweeps are tweetin about at times when I only have access to my phone.

With a long and growing list of countries Twe2 is available in, there will surely be enough users to warrent the expansion and addition of new features.

The countries that can access the Twe2 service at this time are;

Australia
Austria
Azerbaidjan Bahrain
Bangladesh Belarus
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
China
Croatia
Egypt
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Pakistan
Poland
Romania
Russian Federation
Serbia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States and Canada

So what do you think to this service? Do you know of an alternative Twitter solution for how to get Twitter updates to your non smart mobile phone? Let me know in the comments form below.

Technorati Tags: how I use twitter on my phone, how to get twitter as SMS messages, twitter via mobile phone