SMS

The main problem right now is the lack of SMS integration, at least for a subset of Jaiku users. It seems that customers of CDMA users in the North America are having problems receiving the activation messages required to link their mobile to their Jaiku account. GSM carriers seem to be working okay. We’ve been told that the long-term solution is a US shortcode and it will take a few weeks to make it active. In the meantime, the Jaiku are manually activating (linking) Jaiku accounts to mobile numbers.

IM

Given the potential number of updates, I think I still prefer IM integration. I use the IM+ client on my Treo 650 (though they support a wide variety of Palm, Windows, and Java-enabled phones) in lieu of SMS. It allows me to both receive updates and update my presence.

• IMified – This is a cool service all by itself, but particularly useful are the WordPress, del.icio.us, urlTea, Reminders, Todo, Notes, Google Calendar, Twitter, Jaiku, and Twitter+Jaiku widgets. I was looking today at how to create your own widgets and I have a feeling I’m going to be giving that a try sooner rather than later. The IMified guys also say the Jaiku widget will soon support notifications just like the Twitter widget.
• Anothr – Anothr is an IM bot which allows you to read RSS feeds. It will work okay for getting Jaiku updates until IMified adds notification
• WordPress Plug-in

Mobile

• Jaiku Moblet – A mojax moblet to directly interface with Jaiku through the Jaiku API.

Desktop Applications

Many of these application are still very early in development, but they show that apps are being worked on and will definitely compete in functionality with any of the Twitter apps.

Cross-platform

• Nitwit
  • Desktop application for GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X (screenshot)
  • Works accross many protocols like Twitter, Jaiku, Jabber and IRC
  • Multilanguage (french, english and more to come)
  • Extremely simple interface
• Jaiku Gadget – Gadget for Google Homepage

Mac

• JaikuGrowler -Peter Rukavina’s JaikuGrowl is an AppleScript that allows you to receive alerts from Growl whenever you or any of your Jaiku contacts emit a new “Jaiku”.
• Jaiku-Plazes Quicksilver Script – Script to let you update from Quicksilver, works with Plazes to set your location (though it isn’t required).
• Dashboard Widget
• Twaiku – Bwana took several of the Quicksilver/Growler scripts and mashed them together to create Twaiku.
• Juhu – A Mac OSX client for Jaiku

Windows

• Jay-Q – A Windows app being developed by Jeremy Brown. I think it has a lot of potential and has come a long way in just a few days.
• Sideku – A Windows Vista sidebar gadget by Patrick Jakubowski

I know there’s probably other ways to interface with Jaiku out there. If you know of another one, please leave a comment. You can also join in on the fun at the Jaiku Support channel, the Developer channel, or the Jaiku Developer site.

Not only do I support Leo’s decision to do this for the reasons he stated, but I think he’s actually done something good for a lot of people. He introduced us to Jaiku (or at least me, I think Jaiku actually pre-dates Twitter). Jaiku is similar to Twitter in the sense that it’s purpose is to post mini-updates about your life (Twitter says “What are you doing right now?”). However, it’s got a couple of cool features which, to me, make it a superset of Twitter:

Threaded conversations

Instead of the constant @Joe tweets on Twitter which are used to have a conversation (and why shouldn’t we?) on Twitter, Jaiku supports comments on individual Jaikus (updates). This makes for threaded conversations which don’t require you to “follow” the person to know the person saw your reply. Once you comment on a Jaiku, you get updates about subsequent comments via e-mail and in your contacts’ stream.

The question is, when is the feature to unsubscribe from the comments coming in case you’ve exited the conversation and don’t care about it anymore?

Importing feeds

This is quite possibly the coolest feature about Jaiku. You can add additional feeds to Jaiku such as your Flikr photo stream, your blog’s feed, your Netflix movies feed, your del.icio.us bookmarks, and even your Twitter feed. When new items are found in the feed, they are inserted into your “presence stream” which your contacts can see. Your contacts can individually subscribe and unsubscribe to your feeds.

Look and feel

I really like the layout and design of the whole site. Despite capacity problems immediately following Leo’s announcement, it has recovered nicely and feels very snappy.

That being said, there are still a few things I don’t like about Jaiku (though I’m very confident these things will be addressed):

Contacts

While you do get e-mails when someone adds you as a contact, there’s no real way to know who’s following your updates. Twitter has a whole page which lists who is following you as well as who your friends are.

Mobile

The whole power of Twitter is the SMS and Instant Messenger interface (AIM and Google Talk). You get updates from your contacts, you can add friends, you can send direct messages to them, and you can remove (or just stop following) them.

I haven’t even been able to activate my mobile with Jaiku. The message says it’s been sent but I never received it. The Jaiku team says a US shortcode is coming very soon, it’s hung up in some red tape with the carrier.

There is a mobile version of Jaiku which runs on various Nokia phones, but that doesn’t help me either. I’m hopeful for the Java Mobile version of the application, but I’ve had trouble running Java applications on my Treo.

API

It’s interesting that Jaiku released their developer API ahead of schedule this weekend. I’m not sure if it’s due to the sudden interest in Jaiku or if they just felt it was ready early. In any case, Twitter has a huge headstart in this area in terms of the number of applications and services already under development. I hope Jaiku catches up quickly.

The Bottom Line

For the time being I will continue to use Twitter while I’m mobile and even when at home if I want my Twitter friends to see an update. However, I will point someone to Jaiku if I want them to see a whole picture of my online “presence”.

Maybe it’s fallout from SXSW last week since everyone was talking about it there… or maybe it’s something bigger. A meme. Yeah, that’s it.

I dunno.. no one can explain the appeal of Twitter. Everyone says, “that’s stupid” when they first hear about it but most everyone comes around eventually to finding something compelling about it.

Go watch Twittervision and see for yourself.

What am I going to do now?!

I discovered several weeks back that doing a vanity searched revealed a) I produce a podcast and b) a link to my last.fm profile. I found this out because a vendor I was meeting with (to potentially purchase their product) had done his homework and started asking me about the podcast. The podcast isn’t so bad because it’s tech-related, but I still don’t want my current employer to connect the two. I wouldn’t want them to worry I’m going to say anything I shouldn’t. Not only that, but my employer doesn’t need a list of music I listen to. I want to share my music with my friends, not with my employer.

I’ve heard too many stories of things people said online (myspace, blog, forum, mailing list, etc) coming back to haunt them. Granted, I’m not all that controversial of a guy, but it still makes me nervous. What if I said I disliked something Google did and they offered me a job tomorrow? Ooops!

A couple of years back, I stupidly used my work e-mail address in a mailing list posting. The e-mail had my full name as well. That mailing was archived on the web by at least 12 different sites and all of them were indexed by Google. Shortly after they were indexed by Google, my boss was doing searches about the company and came up with my mailing list posting. He thought it would be funny to play it off as if I was in trouble for posting the message (which was work related). He’s got quite a sense of humor, but who’s to if my next boss will?

Slightly related topic, but not really. Twitter. I don’t know what to say about it other than Leo Laporte does twitter so why not? I set up my twitter feed up on my the sidebar, but I haven’t found a way to put it on my Vox blog yet. Maybe it’s not even possible.

I’ve actually taken some time off work to head down to my parent’s place just north of San Antonio and give my dad a hand with moving his business from one location to another. We’re talking 30+ pieces of large equipment such as backhoes and Bobcats to be moved about a mile and a half. Should be fun.. takes me back to the days of the Tonka Trucks.

Actually I’m lying, that’s just the story I told my wife. What I’m really doing is going down to SXSW which is happening in Austin during the same time. I mean, Austin is only 45 minutes from my parent’s place. Why not?

I’ll just keeep telling myself that..