Twitter Gadget is a great app for accessing Twitter, even if Twitter is blocked (like it is at my district).

Twitter Gadget is an app that you can use in iGoogle, GMail or as a stand-alone app. It is very easy to use and works well. I actually like using it in iGoogle over the Twitter home page.

It's free and the site has easy instructions and references on how to use it.

TwitterGadget in iGoogle:

TwitterGadget Stand-alone in browser:

It's a great resource and I use it even when Twitter isn't blocked.

(If you use a Palm Pre+/Pixi+ I recommend Twee as a great Twitter app for webOS)

Any other great Twitter clients that get around Twitter being blocked?

UPDATE 12-10-2010


TweetDeck and Tweetdeck's web app also work if Twitter is blocked and are both very powerful!

READ MORE - TwitterGadget - get around Twitter being blocked.

I have a Palm Pre+ smartphone running webOS on Verizon. I love it. I've been a Palm user since my Palm IIIxe I got in 2000. Then I got the T3, Lifedrive, TX, and then Centro. I got my Pre+ last February when it came out on Verizon. I've always used these devices to keep my self organized and connected. I thought I'd share how I use it in my daily life as a teacher.

While Palm and webOS don't have tens of thousands of apps like Apple and Android, they have a lot of great apps and they are very useful. Since HP purchased Palm, there are new hardware devices coming and many more apps on the way. I am able to do everything I need to do with my Pre+.

The Pre+ has 16GB of onboard storage, a 3.1 inch multi-touch screen, WiFi, Bluetooth and a slide out physical keyboard. (The Pixi is Palm's other phone and it has a slightly smaller screen and a permanent keyboard (like Blackberry)).

I use my phone all day long at work and home for multiple things. I start out in the morning checking email, reviewing my schedule and calendar. Then I check my lesson plans, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, and more throughout the day. I take notes in meetings, review presentation materials, and much more. Here are the main apps I use each day:

Calendar (built in): my calendar on my Pre+ syncs with my Google Calendar account. This way, anything I put into either my phone or on my computer is synced (effortlessly over the air). I can even add other calendars, including my wife's Google Calendar and my Outlook calendar from school.

Web Browser (built in): I use my web browser to check the news, surf the web, look up sites I want to use for school, access my bank account, and even access our school student info system, PowerTeacher. The web browser displays web pages just as if you were on a computer and then you can easily zoom in using the multi-touch screen features.

Email (built in): the email app on the Pre+ is very good. I have my home email from Optimum Online, my Gmail account, and my school Outlook account all synced to my phone. I can see all of them as one inbox, or separate. I can keep in touch with friends, family, and students anywhere. I answered a student's homework question while at the store the other evening.

ZumoDrive: Zumodrive is a file sync/storage/backup service that works great for smartphones. Your computer thinks that they Zumodrive system is another hard drive on your computer. With the smartphone, you can access all of your files and even stream music or video files from your computer onto your phone.

Twee: Twee is an excellent Twitter client. I can see my feeds, retweet with the official retweet or add my own comments, send and receive direct messages, search, and much more. I use Twitter as a part of my Personal Learning Network and especially for #edchat.

Facebook: Palm developed this app for Facebook and it is very good. I can see News, Status Updates, pictures, search and more. It's a great way to stay in touch with people while on the go.

Evernote: I use Evernote for my lesson plans, class notes, meeting notes, to clip things from the internet, and much more. The app lets me access and edit my notes (or create new ones) from anywhere. If you've never used Evernote, you really need to try it out. Evernote homepage.

Physics Reference: I teach physics, so having a comprehensive physics reference with me is very useful. It is easy to use and has all the information I need to refresh my memory, or look up information.

Weather Channel: Do I need a jacket or umbrella today?

Web Sites as Apps, using the Web Browser:

There are many web sites that I use as apps. I've save a bookmark of the site to my phone as an icon on the app screen. That makes it easier to access.

Yankees homepage - have to keep up with my team.

Google Reader - Google's mobile site for it's Reader app is very easy to use and well designed. I can check all of my feeds from here, read the entire article, star it to save it for later, and much more.

Dropbox and Sugarsync: I access the mobile sites for these two file share/sync/backup services and can access my files on my phone using DocsToGo. I've reviewed PowerPoint files and Word documents while in a waiting room, in a meeting, or sitting on the couch at home.

Google Mobile Apps - I can access pretty much all of Google's apps from my smartphone, including Docs, Maps, News, IGoogle, Calendar, Notebook, Blogger, and Tasks. I use all of these extensively and having access to them on my phone makes my life easier, organized and efficient. m.google.com on your phone.

And of course there are a ton of games and other apps to keep you busy or having fun.

Smartphones are great educational tools and with more and more students getting them, we should be using them in the classroom. If I'm using it, why can't they?

Related Articles:

Review of the Palm Pre+ and Palm Pixi+

Palm Apps for webOS for Education

Palm webOS resources:

Palm's website

PreCentral - great info, reviews, app listings and reviews, tips, and more.

What smartphone do you have and what are your favorite apps.

READ MORE - Most Used Apps on my Palm Pre+ and what I use them for

image from Precentral - http://www.precentral.net/

On Wednesday, April 28th, 2010, HP announced that they would buy Palm, the maker of webOS and the Pre/Pre+ and Pixi/Pixi+ smartphones.

Palm, the company that actually launched and popularized early smartphones with it's Treo line, had struggled for many years and then was buoyed up by the release of it's new operating system, webOS. webOS is well liked and critically acclaimed, being described as the most elegant, user friendly, smartphone OS out there. It's synergy system keeps users always up-to-date and in sync with other services. It is also the only one that does true multitasking. In spite of webOS's initial excitement, Palm was unable to capitalize on that and sales of their new smartphones have not been as good as they thought and the company has been struggling. Enter HP.

HP, one of the largest technology companies in the world and a major computer manufacturer, is planning on keeping webOS and most of Palm's team and run them as a separate business unit. They are planning to scale webOS across multiple platforms, and in interviews have discussed a webOS powered tablet and slate. HP's global scale and financial strength combined with Palm's webOS will allow HP to "participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device market."

So, what does this have to do with education? One, Palm's webOS is a great platform and easy to use. HP can expand the market of webOS further into education. HP is talking about new devices like tablets and slates which will be great for the education market. This also means more competition in the market place which benefits consumers by lowering prices. webOS is extremely easy to develop apps for. Most high school computer science students (and many other students) already know web languages, which is what webOS is based on. This means that students could develop their own apps for educational purposes. With HP backing webOS, we will also see more and more developers creating apps for it. Palm has great support for developers also. HP and Palm have some very talented developers and engineers and the combination of both should lead to some very innovative products in the future.

Palm and webOS already have a lot of great apps for education and more are available all the time. webOS is easy to use, powerful, has a great web browser, supports Flash, has thousands of apps, supports 3D graphics, has true multitasking, and is easy to develop for.

HP and Palm have always been good towards education and I don't see that changing. HP already is involved with education through partnerships, discounts on products, and resources for students and educators. HP has their Teacher Experience Exchange which has lesson plans, resources, discussions, and more for educators. HP also offers free online technology training for educators. Palm has the Palm Foundation which provides financial and product-donation assistance to high-quality, effective non-profit organization. Palm also encourages developers to create educational applications.

In short, I feel that HP's purchase of Palm will lead to many good things for education - a great operating system on new devices with great potential and use in education.

READ MORE - HP buys Palm - What could that mean for education?

I just read an interesting feature on eWeek's website, 10 Features We Want to See in iPhone OS 4.0. They argue that while the iPhone is a great device, it is missing a few things. What really got my attention was that Palm's webOS on the Pre and Pixi have 6 of them and will have a 7th shortly (and has 2 that are very close to what they are looking for). Here's the list and which one's webOS has.

1. Multi-tasking - webOS has this. In fact, the slideshow has a Palm Pre as the picture for this slide.

2. Gaming integration - while webOS doesn't have a formal game system integrated, there are many excellent games, including 3D games, and developers have ported games from other systems into webOS.

3. Flash support in the browser - webOS 1.4 has support for this and Adobe will be releasing Flash for webOS in the next month or so. Apple says it is a security risk, but thousands of web sites use Flash so not having it limits the usefulness of the iPhone for web browsing.

4. User control - users can delete pre-installed apps (I've already deleted a couple). There is plenty of user control and customization available in webOS. The iPhone does not give you much control.

5. Improved File Management - neither system has a true file manager on the device, but there is a homebrew file manager for webOS. There is talk of a full file manager coming. webOS also allows you to use your Pre/Pixi as a USB drive, so any computer can act as a file manager for it.

6. Improved mail - the built in mail client for webOS is much better than the iPhone's, and there are some other mail clients available for webOS.

7. Built-in Social Networking - Palm has an official Facebook app that comes installed on the phones, and there are other social networking apps available for Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.

8. Power Scheduling - webOS makes it very easy to turn Wifi, Bluetooth, or even your cellular radio off. There are also ways to schedule the radios to be on or off based on time of day. The newest release of webOS (v 1.4) has better automatic power management also.

9. iBooks - webOS does have some eReaders for it, but nothing like the one being developed for the iPad. Apple wins this one.

10. An improved App Store - webOS's App Catalog is easy to navigate and search, has different ways of browsing, and you can browse through the whole thing via the online App Gallery. Plus, Palm allows developers to offer home brew apps and apps via a web page instead of through the official App Catalog. All of these can be easy searched at PreCentral's App Gallery. Apple does have more apps for the iPhone (140K), but webOS has only been out since June 2009, and more apps are released every day. Yes, I would love to have some of the apps that are on the iPhone, but I love the webOS user interface and functions. And, most of what I do is online anyway.

Summary:

webOS has: 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10

webOS will have shortly: 3

webOS has a version of/kind of has: 2, 5

In conclusion, Palm's webOS has many great features that even the iPhone lacks. Palm just released webOS 1.4 last week. I can't wait to see what webOS 2.0 will have! Palm's webOS is a great platform that is easy to use, has a great user interface, great apps and functionality, and is easy to develop for. Look for more webOS devices in the future.

More information on webOS and Palm Pre and Palm Pixi

http://www.palm.com/us/

http://www.precentral.net/

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/review-palm-pre-and-pixi.html

Palm's webOS and Pre and Pixi are great for teachers and students too! Check out the article below for more on this. (and there have been many new apps since that article was written).

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2009/12/palm-apps-for-education.html

READ MORE - An analysis of Palm webOS vs. iPhone