Before I got my Palm Pre, I hardly understood what Twitter was.  … But that was so June 2009.

I initially joined Twitter to sing my praises of the Palm Pre, but as I’ve come to find out, it’s much more than just a sounding board.  It’s a community.  It’s a search engine.  And for many people?  Instant tech support!

After the break, read on to see how Twitter can make you a Palm Pre/Pixi expert…

Many people unwittingly learn how Twitter can play a role in their lives.  Learning about your Palm Pre or Palm Pixi is no exception.  Oftentimes a person will tweet about a problem or a question, usually just to vent frustration.  In an instant, several complete strangers will reply, offering their suggestions to resolve the problem.  This does two things:  one, it hopefully solves your problem, and two, it introduces you to a thriving, tight-knit webOS community that you can count on for everything Palm.

“But I’ve never used Twitter in my life! How do I get started? “

Everyone has to start somewhere!  That’s where you come in.  On a computer, go to http://twitter.com and create a Twitter account.  It takes literally less than 5 minutes.

Some advice: when you create your “pet name,” try and keep it short. When people respond to your tweets, they’ll have that many more characters left when they send you a message!

“I want to use Twitter on my Palm Pre/Pixi. Which apps are there?”

If you like using Twitter and have a Palm Pre or Pixi, you’re in luck.  There are currently five great Twitter apps for you to choose from… see which one best suits your needs:

1) “Tweed” by Pivotal Labs: Currently the most popular webOS Twitter app, Tweed gives  you a clean but very powerful interface.  It’s not the sexiest looking app out there, but is certainly one of the most powerful apps available, giving you the ability to do multiple card searches, direct posting of pictures (paid version), conversation view, saved searches, multiple accounts, landscape mode, shake-to-refresh searches, URL shrinking, live notifications… with few exceptions, if you name it, Tweed does it.
Full version: $1.99 for limited time. (Soon to be $3.99)

PROS:
- Tons of powerful features
- Live notifications even with app closed
- Multiple card searches
- Easy to use
- Free trial version available

CONS:
- Saved searches don’t save to Twitter, only within Tweed.
- Plain interface
- Notifications buggy from time to time for some users

2) “Twee” by Delicious Morsel: The folks at Delicious Morsel have indeed cooked up a delicious Twitter app that has been a huge hit with many users.  Sporting a sexy interface with a scrolling bottom slider, Twee is not short on powerful features, either.  It does pretty much everything that Tweed does, but does not do multiple card searches (yet). Still, it does other things that Tweed doesn’t, such as thumbnail previews of pictures so you don’t have to tap on a picture link to see it.  Some people have complained Twee can have lag issues.  Full version: $2.99

PROS:
- Beautiful interface
- Lots of extra goodies (nearby tweets, pic preview, stocktwit)
- Saved searches saved to Twitter
- Free trial version available

CONS:
- Some have reported occasional lag issues
- No multiple card searches
- Some tasks (like bookmarking) require more taps than they should

3) “Spaz” by Funkatron Productions:  Spaz is the only open-source Twitter app for the Palm Pre, and currently the only one that is FREE.  Spaz sports a very attractive face and a unique browsing experience:  your entire timeline and replies to you are shown in one window, which is nice if you don’t like switching from page to page. Spaz also supports powerful functions like multiple card searches (like Tweed) and thumbnail previews (like Twee), though it currently lacks direct photo uploading.  Some have complained of lag issues if the app is left open for a long time.
Full version: FREE (for now)

PROS:
- FREE!
- Multiple card searches
- Timelines, direct messages, and replies in same window (if desired)
- Thumbnail previews of posted pictures

CONS:
- Some have reported lag issues if open for extended periods
- No direct photo uploading (uses email app to do it)
- Accidental backswipe makes you have to log back into your account (takes no time at all, but still annoying)

4) “TinyTwitter” by Tiny Byte Software: If you feel the need for SPEED, then TinyTwitter is your app.  This app is easily the cheetah of the animal kingdom of webOS Twitter apps, with incredibly fast loading/posting times and scrolling speeds. No lag issues here! Unfortunately, TinyTwitter is fast because it packs light:  it’s just a bare-bones Twitter app without fancy features, even some basic ones according to some…  Price: $1.99

PROS:
- Fastest Twitter client for webOS
- Can be left open all day without any lag issues

CONS:
- Very bare-bones Twitter client
- No free trial available

5) “Fleet Tweet” by 8-bit development: Don’t care what other people have to say? Do you want to be the one who does all the tweeting?  Meet Fleet Tweet, a very basic FREE (read: ad-supported) Twitter client that does one thing: tweet! No loading feeds here. Curiously, this app DOES include features like direct photo uploading and buttons for exclamation marks and hashtags (#). This app is nice for those who need a tool to post frequent updates:  tweets from a convention, concert, etc. Price: FREE

PROS:
- FREE
- Direct photo uploads to Twitter

CONS:
- Ad-supported

“Okay I have a Twitter account and Twitter app on my Palm Pre/Pixi…  now what??”

Getting “plugged in” to Palm’s Twitter community is easy!  You can get help in one of two ways…

1) Tweet your question to EVERYBODY!
Just make a tweet in 140 characters or less (unless you’re Chuck Norris, in which case you can do it in 141 characters) asking your Palm Pre/Pixi related question.  Make sure you include the following words in your tweet:  ”Palm Pre” or #palmpre.  That way, anyone skimming tweets that are anything Palm-related will find your question and help you out.  Luckily for you Palm Pixi owners, just “Pixi” could be enough to get heard, since there’re not many things out there that can be confused with that word.

2) Tweet your question to someone specifically.
When you want to talk to someone in particular, use the “@” symbol before the person’s ID. For example, if you want to write me at vara411, you’d write “@vara411.” That way I’d get the question directly and we can chat.  Other than myself, you can also write @Blayze04 or @FoneFrenzy for help. They are both writers for a Palm Pre blog called PreThinking and are very friendly and knowledgeable with an eagerness to help out with all things Palm Pre/Pixi.

“Who should I follow on Twitter for Palm stuff?”

@Pre101 <- This blog’s twitter feed, of course.

@Palm <- This is Palm’s Twitter account.  Follow them for Palm news, but do not, do NOT ask them random help questions expecting a reply!  Do you know how many they get a day? Ask others for help (see above).

@PalmNewApps <- Want to know what apps are being added to the App Catalog before anyone else? Follow these guys.

@PreCentral <- If you want to be in the know of all major happenings with Palm, these guys are IT.

@vara411 <- I’m always tweeting stuff about Palm, though I tend to do it… a lot! Follow me at your own risk!

@Blayze04, @bnceo, @RyanGahl, @asmathews, @phoenixshield <- Same as above!

@palmdoc <- Always tweeting a thing or two about his Palm Pre all the way from Malaysia!

That should get you started! Best of luck and see you on Twitter!

Dan Ramirez is a physician and Palm Pre devotee. You can follow him on Twitter or read more about his adventures at his blog.

[edited to add a few more names to follow]

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your current apps, Twee and Feeds.

I am Dennis Wilkins and I started Delicious Morsel as my mobile focused application development company.

Twee was the first project I made for the webOS platform. I created it as a way to see how the platform would work. I am a lover of Javascript and so I thought webOS would be a good platform to venture into, after already doing a few iPhone apps.

Feeds was created as a test to see if I could use the Palm webOS built-in visual widgets to create a pretty and usable app. It was actually in progress for awhile but I never really started putting much time into it, until I talked to the great guys at Pivotal Labs and they said they were working on a Google Reader application, so I decided I should ramp up my production time on it, so that I could compete with theirs, seeing that their twitter app, Tweed, was first to market and it has been an uphill battle trying to get users to convert to Twee.

Is there a story behind the name ‘Delicious Morsel’?

The story behind Delicious Morsel is that I was looking for a good open domain name and I couldn’t find one. I just started thinking different types of names and I really liked Del.icio.us and Juicy Development and for some reason I kept on thinking “Delicious Morsel” which now is pretty apparent why it stuck so well. First off Delicious Monster and the fact that my friend’s subtitle on instant messenger said “Delicious Morsel, give me my bib” for a few years. I didn’t actually put any of this together for a few months until my friend logged in again and had that as his subtitle. It is a quote from Final Fantasy VII, something I never noticed while playing that game. One problem with it is that I am always having to spell it out to people and getting asked whether I make candy or cake.

What attracted you to Palm’s webOS?

This might age me a little but when I was in elementary school to high school I always had a Palm Pilot. My dad would give me all of his old handhelds, so I had the Palm Pilot, Palm V and a Palm 505. They were always fun to play with so I grew to know the brand. Palm dropped off the map and I started getting into mobile devices and when the iPhone came out I became involved in the development aspects of mobile devices. I love the iPhone but I wanted it to have competition. Android wasn’t impressive. Then this forgotten company Palm shows up at CES with the Palm Pre. The device is beautiful and runs amazingly and is, in my opinion, the only true competitor to the iPhone at this time. Reading about the SDK I new I should be able to easily create apps for it. I think Palm may have been 6 months too late for release and still slow on releasing updates but I still feel like there is a huge potential to take up some smart phone market share.

The way the Palm Pre UI looks and interacts with the user also made a huge impression on me. I think this is the key for why I think it will be successful in the mobile market. iPhone was amazing when it came out but it looks the same 2 years later. Palm’s release is just as innovative as iPhone’s was.

What made you decide to develop Twee when Palm already had two Twitter apps?

The common UI components for navigation on both the apps were lacking. I personally use Twitter. On my iPhone I needed 3 apps to switch over, which were a good stock app, Twitter app and e-mail app.. The only thing Palm had was an adequate e-mail app so I created Twee.

As for a stock app, I am debating whether it is worth making one since the one out right now, which I do not use because I dislike it, seems to have everything most people want. I personally would re-work their UI and user experience, probably tie it into Google Finance for portfolio management then call it a day. I don’t think there is a big enough market for me to spend the time doing that though.

Did you find it difficult to develop with the Mojo SDK or did you find it simple to get started with?

The SDK was extremely easy to start with, but you hit a wall pretty quickly into development when you want to start doing stuff like storing data. Data doesn’t always belong in a database and doing asynchronous database calls should be a sin. I personally have some hang ups about the SDK’s power and lack of good documentation, but for building simple apps, it works great.

Given the recent JWZ debacle, how have your interactions with Palm been?

To be honest, I had to do everything he did, I had to jump through same “hoops” but to me it was not a big deal. I distribute my code via the homebrew gallery anyways because I know Palm wants me to continue to develop for their platform. I think JWZ may have over reacted and I personally find him to be a little be on the whiny side. I don’t mean to offend him, but I went through the same things with Apple and you would assume you’d have to go through the same issues with any company that is distributing your product. Distribution isn’t an easy business. Palm has however left me out in the dark a few times and even back in August gave me a 09/09/09 release date. It’s October now and my users are extremely anxious to buy my products. I am glad they are and I want them to have the product and not be mad at me for something I expected to happen 4 weeks ago. I had pulled a beta for Twee a month ago because I expected it to be on the Catalog within a week and got a ton of negative feedback for doing that.

I take it then that Twee has been well received by the Palm Pre community?

Twee has been extremely well received. I know Pivotal will argue this, but on PreCentral my app was rated the best Twitter client with 75% of the votes. [ed: Twee vs. Tweed]  That poll did happen to omit Spaz.

What new features will be arriving when Twee hits the App Catalog and how will it be priced?

In comparison to the last public beta, Twee will include the ability to view followers/following of a user. It also allows you to do notifications for mentions and direct messages. It has WhatTheTrend integration. I also just submitted another update of Twee to Palm with landscape mode and photo posting, without the need of email, but I am not sure if that will be approved before the AppCatalog adding paid apps. It will be $2.99 with free updates for life.

What more can you tell us about the forthcoming RSS reader Feeds?

This app will come in 3 tiers. A free version that only does stand-alone feeds, no Google Integration. A normal version that does Google Reader integration and a little while after a pro version with notifications and offline reading. The pricing isn’t set but will probably be $1.99 and $4.99 for the pro version.
Feeds has been fun to develop. The beta users have really been giving me excellent feedback, just like they did with Twee. It has been awesome.

What’s next for Delicious Morsel?  You mentioned a stock app above, is there anything else you’re thinking about?

I started writing a game a few months ago, I might finish that up. I also have a Location tracker, like a few out there already, that I wrote in July, which I code named Prevent, that has been running on a few peoples’ phones. I just haven’t had the time to do all the server upkeep, even though it shouldn’t be that hard. I do plan on doing some more iPhone development since the stuff that I’ve done for DM is actually really terrible and the good apps I’ve done have all been consulting work, so I don’t show them off. If my webOS apps take off, I want to work on my Social Evolution platform that I have been writing for a year and a half.

I start many projects and never finish them. I am slowly changing that though.

Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.

It was my pleasure. Remember to visit deliciousmorsel.com and check out any new updates to my projects.

Tweed

Tweed, developed by Pivotal labs, is one of the two original Twitter applications available in the App Catalog today. To change to different views, click on a drop-down menu in the upper right.  Tweed currently does not support seeing mentions and your normal feed simultaneously.  When clicking on a tweet a pop-up menu gives you options to mark as favorite, @reply, Retweet, and mark the tweet.  In addition, it calls out any URLs, @names or #topics in the tweet.  Tweed supports multiple simultaneous accounts in different cards.

Reviews: Tweed on PreCentral, Tweed at WebOS App Review

Spaz

Spaz, the other Twitter client available at launch, is a dark-themed client from Funkatron Productions.  Spaz merges your @mentions in with your regular timeline.  Spaz does not appear to let you check trends without backing out to the beginning screen of the application.  In addition to supporting Twitter, Spaz supports Identi.ca and Laconica and there is a desktop version available.

Reviews: Spaz on PreCentral, Spaz at WebOS App Review

Twee

Twee by Delicious Morsel is currently in beta.  Although beta, Twee is quite polished.  Twee supports a unique menu bar along the bottom of the screen.  Another unique feature is the ability to search for nearby tweets, using the GPS location service.  The last two features on the command bar are Twiturly and Stocktwits, which may be of interest to some.  Clicking on a tweet brings up a detail page where links can be clicked and tweets can be replied to or retweeted.  There is currently no support for clicking URLs in the timeline view. You can sign up for the beta at the Delicious Morsel Web site linked above.

Review: Twee on PreCentral

Sending Pictures

All three clients support sending pictures.  Currently, the only method available to send photos involves attaching the picture to an e-mail, so you must have e-mail set up on your Pre.  The three clients support a varying number of different twitter picture services, with Tweed allowing custom services.  In addition to an e-mail account you must have set up an account with the picture service you wish to use.  E-mails sent to the services will be turned into tweets and posted automatically for you.

Reviews

In addition to the reviews linked above check out this Tweed and Flickr article at PreCentral.