I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala a few days ago. I know its a bit late, but the reason why I didn’t do it earlier was because I didn’t want to mess up my customized Ubuntu “Mac” desktop. What made me decide to do a fresh install was because my old Ubuntu partition was only 5 GB and I was already running out of space. This time, I created a bigger partition – 40 GB. Anyways, the upgrade was quick and it went smoothly. Since it was a fresh install, I had to reconfigure everything and reinstall all the programs and applications that I need. One of it was Adobe AIR which I need to run my Twitter client of choice – TweetDeck.

Installing Adobe AIR on Ubuntu can be quite tricky if you’re not quite familiar with the commands and if you’re new to Linux/Ubuntu. So for the sake of those users, I’m sharing this short step-by-step tutorial on how to install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu.

Here’s how:
1. Download the Adobe AIR installer – http://get.adobe.com/air/.

2. File name should be AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

3. Make sure you save it in the Home folder. Click on Places > Home Folder

4. Open the Terminal. Click on Applications > Accessories > Terminal.

5. Run the following command on the Terminal:

[php]chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin[/php]

6. Next run this command on the Terminal:

[php]sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin[/php]

The Adobe AIR installer will open and you can proceed with installing it. That’s it, you’ve just installed Adobe AIR on Ubuntu. You can now start installing your favorite apps. Just download the .air file and double-click on it and Adobe AIR will automatically install it.

NOTE: To avoid getting errors or having problems with the installation, make sure you’re logged in as the root user when you do the installation and/or when you save the Adobe AIR installer in the Home Folder.

Hope this short tutorial helps you install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu. If you have any questions or need further help with the installation, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or send me a message via the contact page.

To keep track of the different blog statistics here on JaypeeOnline, my analytics service of choice is Reinvigorate. I’ve been using it for about 3 years now. Aside from that I also use Clicky which I started using early this year. The first free analytics service I tried/used was Google Analytics, but I stopped using it because I didn’t like how it worked and it didn’t have certain features that I wanted/needed and thats why I moved to Reinvigorate. Recently, I started using Google Analytics again so that I have another source of data that I can use to compare with the other analytics services that I use.

Last week, the Google Analytics blog published about a new Free Google Analytics Dashboard Application called Trakkboard. Trakkboard is a free, easy to use desktop application that allows analysts to create dashboards that pull data across different Google Analytics logins and different Google Analytics profiles to display top level metrics all within the same view. Trakkboard is created by German-based company Trakken GmbH and is available in English, Spanish and German.

Screenshots:
Trakkboard Dashboard

Trakkboard Add a Widget

If you want to get your hands on Trakkboard, first you’ll have to submit your email address to get a license key. Once you have your license key, you can proceed with downloading and installing it. Once its finished installing, you’ll be asked to create a login password for Trakkboard and later on, it will ask for your license key. Next step is to provide your Google Analytics profile login details and once you’ve logged in, you can proceed with adding widgets to your dashboard. Available widgets are: Visits, Visitors, Pageviews, Medium, Source, Top/Flop Keywords, Pages/Visits, Bouncerate, TimeOnSite, All Goals, Goal 1, Goal 2, Goal 3, Goal 4 and Notes. You can also specify the timeline or timespan of the stats displayed on each widget.

Trakkboard is an Adobe AIR app so you’ll need Adobe AIR to be installed on your computer. Since this app is powered by Adobe AIR, it means that its cross-platform and you can install it on any OS (Windows, Mac or Linux).

Trakkboard is ideal for those users who manage several Google Analytics profiles because with this app, you don’t have to login/logout from each profile to check on other profiles. With Trakkboard you can access all those profiles on one single app or window. It’s simple and straightforward so Google Analytics users won’t have a hard time using this app.

Anyone here who’s using Google Analytics? What do you guys think of Trakkboard? If you had a Google Analytics account, would you use Trakkboard? What are the features you like/dislike? What additional features/options would you like to see on Trakkboard? Please share your thoughts.

While browsing the web and looking for cool stuff and apps, I came across this lifestreaming desktop app called Skimmer.

Skimmer℠ is an Adobe® AIR™ desktop application designed to streamline, beautify, and enhance the experience of participating in your most frequently used social networking activities. It improves upon your day-to-day interaction with multiple social networks, removing distractions and providing a rich experience that is particularly suited to multimedia content.

What Skimmer is trying to do is create an integrated social web experience for the user and enable the user to interact with multiple social networking sites from one application or interface. Right now, Skimmer provides access to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Blogger.

Screenshots:

Feed Mode (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger)

Flickr Mode

Flickr Sets

Flickr Slideshow

YouTube Mode

YouTube Videos

YouTube Fullscreen Video

Twitter Options

Skimmer notifies the user of updates via a pop-up window on the lower right corner of the screen like the one seen in the screenshot below:

The Skimmer stream has 3 modes – Feed mode, Flickr mode and YouTube mode which can be viewed in 3 different layouts.

The Feed mode displays all updates from different accounts grouped together or sorted according to the account it belongs to, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Blogger. You can view update options by clicking on the + sign found on the right side (the + sign shows up when you hover your mouse on the right portion of the tweet). Updates are color coded and each account is assigned a different color – Facebook – dark blue; Twitter – light blue; Flickr – pink; YouTube – red and Blogger – orange.

Although Skimmer has Twitter, Facebook and Blogger capabilities, its features are obviously more geared towards Flickr and YouTube with its different viewer modes and other extra features. On Flickr mode, you can click on a photo from your Flickr set or one of your contact’s Flickr sets and it will display a larger version of the image and from there, you’ll be able to see the photo’s title, date uploaded, tags and number of comments. You also have the option to post a comment, view a larger version of the image or watch the whole set in a slideshow presentation. On YouTube mode, its basically the same as Flickr mode where it will let you watch videos on fullscreen. I wasn’t able to try out all the features for YouTube mode because I couldn’t login to my YouTube account via Skimmer. Its giving me an authentication error. Btw, you can also upload photos to Flickr and videos to YouTube via Skimmer’s built-in media uploader found on the lower left corner. (See screenshots below)

If you want to use Twitter, you can access and view your friend’s tweets from the Feed mode. From there, you’ll have the option to visit the persons profile, reply, send a direct message or retweet. (See Twitter Options screenshot)

Facebook features are quite limited. Skimmer updates you when your friend change their status, upload photos or when they get tagged in a photo. If you click on an added photo update, you’ll see the photo that was uploaded, name of the album and the option to view the photo on Facebook via your web browser.

Skimmer’s UI (user interface) is absolutely gorgeous. The only problem with Skimmer is that its a bit of a resource hog and eats up more memory than TweetDeck. Since Skimmer is an Adobe AIR application, it means you can install it on either a Mac, PC or Ubuntu/Linux powered computer. I installed it on both my Windows and Ubuntu partitions and they both run smoothly although its a bit sluggish at times and I’ve encountered a few minor bugs like there are occasions when Twitter updates don’t show up. These are minor bugs that you can bear with and ignore as Skimmer is still in beta.

Overall, Skimmer is a cool app that has a gorgeous user interface. Unfortunately, its a resource hog and I’d only recommend it if you’re more into Flickr and YouTube but at the same time would like to have access to Twitter and/or Facebook. If you’re like me and you’re more active on Twitter and Facebook, then you’re better off with TweetDeck.

NOTE: If you’re concerned with your online privacy and personal data, make sure you read Skimmer’s Privacy Policy before you download and install it on your computer.

Based on the screenshots and the stuff I shared with you, what do you guys think of Skimmer? Would you be interested in using it? For those of you who have tried it or are currently using it, whats your experience with Skimmer? Did you like it or did you uninstall it right away? What other options/features would you like to be added to Skimmer? Please share your thoughts via the comment section. Thank you!

I learned so many new things at WordCamp: Las Vegas, not only about WordPress and not only from the speakers but also from the other attendees.

Honestly, I barely used Twitter before WordCamp and used it only to network and publish my recent blog posts using TwitterFeed. At WordCamp I can safely say that almost everybody in the room were busy tweeting. People were using their laptops or mobile devices to tweet about what was happening at the event or something that the current speaker was talking about. I noticed that several people were using some sort of desktop application for Twitter, which I later found out to be TweetDeck. I know it isn’t new for some of you but it was for me and I’m glad I found out about it coz it made me fall in love with Twitter again.

What is TweetDeck?

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.

What makes it different from other Twitter desktop clients like Twitteriffic, Twhirl, Snitter, and AlertThingy? TweetDeck can display more than one column of information at a time. As a default, TweetDeck displays three columns – All Friends, Replies and Direct Messages but you can add more columns Search and Groups (maximum of 10 columns). Aside from that you can move any column left or right, you can also filter any column according to text, username, source or timeframe. If you follow a lot of people on Twitter, TweetDeck’s ability to create Groups and sort/filter the content is a very useful tool. To make changes to any Group or to add/remove members, just click on the Group name.

Notification

TweetDeck notifies you of recently received tweets/updates that shows up on the upper right corner of your screen.

Status Indicator

TweetDeck indicates the last time tweets were received and also displays the Twitter server status.

Tweet Window

By default, the tweet window is displayed on top of TweetDeck but can be easily moved to the bottom via the settings page. TweetDeck’s tweet window includes a link shortening tool powered by bit.ly, lets you share pictures using TwitPic and also includes TweetShrink, a service that shortens tweets to help you make the 140 character limit.

Additional Features

• Catch up with overnight global twitterings as TweetDeck stores all updates whilst running
• Continual status updates of TweetDeck and Twitter
• Resize TweetDeck as either an unobtrusive column, full screen or anything in between
• Especially useful running full screen on a separate monitor
• Filter tweets using the tweet text, username, source or timeframe
• Auto updates from the Twitter API

Aside from these features, you can also customize TweetDeck and some of its functionality via the settings.

TweetDeck Settings

As with most applications or software, some people will like it and some won’t. Others won’t like the fact that it occupies too much space because it has more than one column. Another thing to consider about TweetDeck is that it uses up quite a lot of the computer’s resources so this can be a turn-off for some users. But then, with all the functionality and features that it offers, I’m sure many Twitter users like me would like it and use it.

TweetDeck is available for Mac OS X and Windows XP & Vista. TweetDeck requires Adobe AIR runtime to be installed first. Download the TweetDeck AIR file.

Btw, I just installed Ubuntu on my laptop and I was also able to install TweetDeck on it. If you’re interested to know how I did that, I’ll be writing a post about that later so make sure subscribe to my RSS feed so you won’t miss it.

Do you currently use any Twitter desktop client like Twitteriffic, Twhirl, Snitter? Do you know of any other Twitter desktop clients? What do you think of TweetDeck? What are the features that you like/dislike from TweetDeck? Would you consider using TweetDeck as your Twitter desktop client?

AirPress is a desktop blogging client created by Romain Referrer and Jean-Francois Comeau and is based on Adobe AIR or Adobe Integrated Runtime. It’s kinda like Windows Live Writer but with lesser features.

With AirPress, you don’t need a FTP client to upload photos, audio or video files and you can do video blogging straight up without a webcam capture software and best of all, you can do all of it offline in your computer. Just save the post and publish it later when you’re connected to the Internet.

Aside from its basic features of posting text, photos, audio (mp3), video (flv), webcam streaming (direct from AirPress) and webcam snapshot, it also has several features that it gets from Adobe AIR.

Adobe AIR features used:

• Custom/animated windows
• Embedded database for offline read/creation of posts
• Detection offline/online
• File I/O API for saving FLV webcam videos record
• ActionScript/JavaScript Script bridging to interact with the text editor made in HTML/javascript.
• Drag and Drop Support for the media (pictures, sounds, videos, flash animations) you want to insert in your post.
• Network communication with the blogs via XML-RPC

Screenshots:

Main menu

Import blog

View/Edit posts

Add post

Text editor

Insert audio

Record video

My Take:
AirPress has a beautiful user interface, its easy to install and user-friendly. It’s still in beta and is a bit buggy but it looks very promising. One of the things I like about it is being able to add and edit posts offline which is useful especially if you have a poor or limited Internet connection.

However, AirPress doesn’t work for me. I’m sticking to the regular way of blogging via the WordPress dashboard. I’m not into WYSIWYG editors and AirPress still lacks some essential options for inserting tags or optional excerpts. If you’re into video blogging or your blog posts are simple and doesn’t require much tags and other stuff, then you should definitely try out AirPress. One feature or option that I’d like to see added to AirPress is the option to choose between a Visual and Code editor like in WordPress.

Aside from WordPress the only blog platform that AirPress supports right now is DotClear. If they can add more platforms like Blogger or TypePad, I’m sure more people would use it.

NOTE: AirPress requires Adobe Adobe Integrated Runtime Beta 1 version to be installed before you can use AirPress. You can download Adobe AIR Beta 1 here.

Have you tried AirPress? What are the things you like and/or dislike about it? If you could add more features what would it be? Share your thoughts.