For iOS users.  Right now you cannot download from the Apple store until they do the next javascript update.  If you want it now, set your phone to ‘developer mode‘ and then download the file.  Download NewsSnacker here.

Update 1:  The link finally showed up in the App store.  However, if you search NewsSnacker, it will not find it, but if you search twitter + news it finds it!  Odd eh?

https://apps.getpebble.com/applications/540fa3a2df71d3eb2e000021

Future plans:

• Currently I have 5 news sources; however I may add a few more.
• Offer custom twitter lists for $1.99 a year.  Basically you tell me what you want to see and I’ll code it up.
• Tap on your watch and get the first ~300 words of the story. Expand to ~900 later.
• Click ‘save to read later’.  Not sure how I will go about this yet.
• Thoughts????  Open to suggestions.

I had a quick look at the Twitter blog to see of there was any warnings of something new with the API.  Nothing jumped out at me but I did notice that something was changing from 32 bits to 64 bits.  I did not pay it much mind.  As I was debugging I finally decided to get the keys from the twitter site and manually start making some calls. The site started working again.  What the heck?  I checked my SQL statements and I was getting data from the database.  Then I looked at the last 4 digits just to see of perhaps my tokens got corrupted or something.  They do not match!  For the first 4 digits DO match!  Then it stuck me.  I quickly logged into the database and yup, just as I thought.  I had my fields set to textvar fields set to 40 charters.  Default.  Arrggg.. All this work and it was just the keys getting larger.

I changed to token fields to 64 each and everything started working again.  Well mostly again because I introduced new errors and founds some weakness in the codes that I never noticed before.  That was one afternoon shot to hell.

So if you suddenly find your twitter app is not working anymore, check you database schema, could be a quick fix and save you a few hours.

Before we go any further, this is for Android only.  I’m SURE there is a way to do it for iOS, but I gave up my iPhone once iOS7 came along.  But that is another story.

First we need to build the task.  If you are not familiar with Tasker there are a number of very good sites that can walk you through how to set up Tasker and how to create basic tasks.  I will go step by step, but will not provide a detailed explanation as to how it works.

First download and install Tasker.  Be sure to load it.

Next download and install Pebble Tasker.

Next download and install Pebble Notifier.

Now lets create a Profile and a Task.

Open up Tasker and click on the + button for a new profile

From the Popup select Event.  I normally name them ‘Holder 1->n’ Since they have no real value. However, you might want to name them after what you are going to really use it for.  So in this case, I would recommend you call it NewsSnacker News.

From the Event Popup, select UI.

From the Select UI Event Popup, select Button Widget.  What we are creating is a dummy Event. We just need something for the Pebble to point to.

You can label this anything you want.  We are done here.  Click the icon at the top left to finish this step.

The next step is to create the event.  That will be the next popup.  Click on ‘New Task’.  If you closed out the new popup window, you can manually add a task instead.

Select ‘Net’

select ‘HTTP Get’

In the following screen, we are going to make a call to the NewsSnacker site.  This works because I wrote a PHP script to get the twitter feed, format it such that it can display on the pebble and drop it into a text file.  That is the file you are going to access.

Fill out the following on the screen.

Click on the icon at the top left, and we will add another task.  Click on the ‘+’ button at the bottom center of the screen.

This time select the task ‘Alert’  Then ‘Notify’.  Fill out the following.  BTW, a good test is to add another task -> Alert -> HTML Popup or Popup.

This will display the news on your screen.  However, there is a but (at least for me) that does not display it correctly all the time.  In fact, most of the time it does not display correctly.  However, we do have a work around.  First, lets test what we have.  Lets update the Pebble.

Open Pebble Tasker.

Click on the top pull down and lets add the Task we just created.  As you can see from my screenshot, I already have a few Tasks defined.  Now you may wonder, why did we need to create the Event if we are calling tasks?  I dont know.  All I know is it does not work for me if I do not do it this way.

Once you have selected your Task, lets update the watch.  Click on the bottom left of your phone and choose ‘Set watch to default tasks’

So we are ready to go.  I took some screenshots on my watch.  Lets see if you can follow along.

So we can see it KINDA works.  I’m getting the news, its just that the notifier is not working.  However, if we then load Pebble Notifications, we can see the last notification on the phone.  In this case, the news…

And there you are.  There is still a limit as to how much text can be loaded through the notifier, but I’m hoping that in future releases, they will extend this limit a bit so that I can read all the text.

ENJOY!!!

https://dev.twitter.com/blog/api-v1-is-retired

I have two apps that died, TwittFilter and NewsSnacker.  TwittFilter is a pretty large and dense program, so I’m not sure when or if I will get around to updating it.  NewsSnacker I use almost every day.  Sigh. I will have to add OAuth to the calls.  Shame.  It was nice when you could just write a few lines in PHP and boom you have a feed.  Fun.

This extension does have its limit, if the person who is reading your message does not have this emoticon, then they only see the text version.  Still, its a cool add on.

Then I looked at the app on the iTunes dev store and though, well wait, there is a use case, be it rare. Say you are on vacation and plan on disconnecting for a week or so.  Then yea, I can see an auto reply “IF” its well controlled.   What concerns me is the possibility it will autoreply TOO much.  In other words, there is a conversation you started and suddenly you are auto replying to every new message thus spamming those that left messages before you.  Worse, if you auto reply to every mention in a tweet, that can get REALLY annoying.

Assuming these issues can be addressed, this is a pretty straight forward app.  Set and end data and time, then give it a label.  Done. Perhaps you go camping once a month, then you can simply update the preset.

I sent an email to the person who created this and I’m waiting for a reply.  I still think its a bit much to feel the need to autoreply twitter and facebook, but as long as there are strong controls to guard against spamming other people, this could be a useful app when traveling or just taking an extended break from SocMed every now and then … which I recommend.

{UPDATE}

So without further ado, the notice from Twitter:

Beginning today, Twitter will no longer grant whitelisting requests. We will continue to allow whitelisting privileges for previously approved applications; however any unanswered requests recently submitted to Twitter will not be granted whitelist access.

Twitter whitelisting was originally created as a way to allow developers to request large amounts of data through the REST API. It provided developers with an increase from 150 to 20,000 requests per hour, at a time when the API had few bulk request options and the Streaming API was not yet available.

Since then, we’ve added new, more efficient tools for developers, including lookups, ID lists, authentication and the Streaming API. Instead of whitelisting, developers can use these tools to create applications and integrate with the Twitter platform.

As always, we are committed to fostering an ecosystem that delivers value to Twitter users. Access to Twitter APIs scales as an application grows its userbase.  With authentication, an application can make 350 GET requests on a user’s behalf every hour. This means that for every user of your service, you can request their timelines, followers, friends, lists and saved searches up to 350 times per hour. Actions such as Tweeting, Favoriting, Retweeting and Following do not count towards this 350 limit. Using authentication on every request is recommended, so that you are not affected by other developers who share an IP address with you.

We also want to acknowledge that there are going to be some things that developers want to do that just aren’t supported by the platform. Rather than granting additional privileges to accommodate those requests, we encourage developers to focus on what’s possible within the rich variety of integration options already provided. Developers interested in elevated access to the Twitter stream for the purpose of research or analytics can contact our partner Gnip for more information.

As always, we are here to answer questions, and help you build
applications and services that offer value to users.

Ryan

—
Ryan Sarver
@rsarver

(first draft – still needs edit) In late 2010, A man named Mohamed Bouazizi, running a small fruit stand in Tunisia set himself on fire as both a protest and a desperate cry against the brutish and tyrannical regime of Ben Ali and the total lose of what little dignity and hope he had to support his family after a police officer basically attacked him and his little fruit stand.  Although successful in bringing economic growth to the country, only a small percentage of those connected to the state enjoyed the fruits of this economic growth.  People living in the outlying areas were still poor, repressed and basically abused by the state and their collaborators.  In previous years and small event like this would have gone unnoticed.  But with the expansion of access to the internet, Tunisian blogs, mostly outside the country, the population was beginning to learn more and more just how corrupt their government was.  The WIKILeaks release of US diplomatic evaluations that seemed to corroborate this point of view only further inflamed the population.

Protest began to popup all over the country and although there was plenty of hacking attacks on both pro and anti government sites, and a number of bloggers and even a rapper was arrested; at no time (as far as I know) were the internet taken down, social media sites blocked and cell phone service taken down as seen in the Iranian protest.  Although the normal pattern of controlling the media, blaming outside influences, violent repression and vague promises were executed, this time the regime was simply too hated, too corrupt to withstand the ever growing number of those dissatisfied with the government.  After 28 days, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the nation.

All of the events in Tunisia were followed by people all over the world. Especially those in Egypt who have been living under there own autocratic state controlled by Hosni Mubarak for the last 30 years.  As with Iran and with Tunisia and other states, the people began to communicate with each other through social networks like Twitter and Facebook about what the people can do if united and perhaps that same revolution can take place in Egypt.

When Wael Ghonim started his Facebook page to bring light to Khalid Sayid’s beating and death; people started to add images and videos to this Facebook page coming to 1/2 million followers. Soon people used this page and others to organize protests… and people started to show up.  Taking pictures and video’s; the word spread further.

Soon bloggers and socmed users were calling for protest and strikes against Mubarak.   As fast as Tunisia erupted, Egypt was faster.  The word spread and people were congregating next to the Nile river in an area called Freedom Square.  The Mubarak administration has also watched what happened in Iran and Tunisia and initially blocked certain website just as in Iran, but people got around it user proxies, just like Iran.  After this did not work, he took it a step further and shut down all web traffic and mobile traffic.

Access to Twitter and Facebook was blocked.   In 24 hours it was announced on the Google Blog, the search giant has teamed up with the incoming SayNow team and Twitter to create a simple speak-to-tweet service for people currently engulfed in the turmoil in Egypt.  From the Google post..

It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.

As the protests continued the typical recipe that all dictators seem to follow was concocted.  They started to send thugs to repress the protesters, arrested those that were speaking out.. Through the state controlled press the blamed outside agitators and then made veiled promises to reform. However, the protesters would stand for nothing expect the resignation of Mubarak.  Under internal and international pressure, he finally reopened the internet nodes and stopped blocking mobile devices. Finally an announcement was made that he would give a speech and ‘demands will be met.’  During his speech; instead of stepping down he still insisted he would stay in power and offered more reforms.

There was first a wave of disbelieve, then disappointment, then full on outrage.  All of this was picked up by the global news organizations which has set up camp with live feeds and thousands of tweets and facebook messages racing through the social network reinforcing that only his abstention of power would satisfy the crowds.  In less then 24 hours; he resigned and left the Presentational Palace.

As amazing as it is that this non violent protest worked, was the speed.  18 days total.  Less then 24 hours from the reading of his speech where he stated he would not leave office, to getting on a plane. The speed and depth of social media as well as main media monitoring of this network has made the normal path of divide and conquer less and less effective. What was interesting is that only about 20% of the Egyptian population has internet access at home and 40% have cell phones so communications were not stopped by cutting off access to internet, but instead inflamed the population even more.by cutting off internet and cell phone, that actually drove more people to the streets and the square to find out what was going on

Although we did not see a successful change of power in Iran, we have seen it in Egypt; and we have seen many other autocratic countries moving very quickly to address (or appear to address) the needs of their people out of fear of another lightly fast revolt powered by social media.

At the time of this writing, about 2,000 demonstrators clash with police in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in the third consecutive day of anti-government protests. Riot police in Algiers dispersed thousands of people who had defied a government ban to demand that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika step down. President Mahmoud Abbas will immediately ask Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to appoint a new cabinet. And in Iran, where we started this article, reports from Iran say several opposition activists have been arrested and international broadcasters are being jammed. The moves come after the opposition called for a march in Tehran next week in support of the protests in Egypt.

As much as it seems that the ‘tools’ of social media was the foundation of the revolutions we have been talking about, and seem to be coming, its not the service of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Google but instead the change of thinking that these tools have helped evolve.  By allowing people to exchange ideas and information, social media tools have given people a sense of community and strength through the social network.  Once ideas have been shared and a sense of mission has been formed, blocking access to social media only angers people more and let them know that the authorities are afraid.

The story of the network revolution is not over and perhaps by March I may have another update, but right now, with the last 3 revolutions we have seen, its clear that social media is more then just a tool to allow people to communicate but instead a way for community to form and ideas to not only be exchanged, but solidify as a call of action.  The next 2 months should be interesting.

When a state wants a certain message to be provided to its population; it normally instructs to top down communication media; the newspapers, television and radio stations, to reflect that view. With networked communications, this control does not exist.  As such, the only other option is to try to hunt down and intimidate those major nodes within the network or shut the network down altogether.

In the case of Iranian election protests of mid 2009; we saw the first beginnings of Social Media as a tool used by the population and opposition of the state to try to affect change in that state.  After the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, discussion on the illegality of the election began to spread around Iran and the world on various blogs and minor publications.  Soon these turned to protests online which lead to protest in the streets.  The Iranian government did as one would expect, instruct the state controlled media outlets to dismiss the protests as outside agitators and criminals, arrest those they believe to be the leaders of the protests and cut off the phones lines of any supporters.  But they did not cut off  access to social media via the internet and text message. The protest continued to grow and become more organized.  Sometimes nicknamed the Twitter Revolution, because of the protesters reliance on mobile phones and Twitter to communicate; and also the first time a major government realized that social network communications are a very real threat to their ability to maintain control over their population.

Once the authorities realized the threat of networked communications; they started to shut it down, first blocking web sites and email.  However Iran is a highly computer literate country with plenty of hackers in conjunction with hackers and coders from around the world working to counter these measures including attached Mahmoud web site through DDoS attacks.  At one point the only reliable traffic was through Twitter and cell phone.  So important was this traffic that the US ask Twitter not to perform a service upgrade during the protests.  Many bloggers, myself included, would rebroadcast IP proxies to allow the Iranians to get around the website blockade. I even created a small php script that will perform 3 separate Twitter searches and remove the duplicates to help people filter through the deluge of Twitter messages that were generated around the crisis. Its basically a game of cat and mouse between the computer and socmed community and Iran.

In the end, the Iranian regime was successful in quelling the uprising through a combination of shutting down universities, blocking web sites, and blocking cell phone service in conjunction with more conventional tactics of misinformation, force, promises of investigations, and counter rallies.  But is not where the story ends..

End Part 1.  Read Part II here.