Twitter’s secret skill: Is it really an advertising goldmine?

The average Twitterer sees so many tweets in a single day that you’d be forgiven for naturally thinking that advertising on the platform is akin to shouting into a hurricane. But guess what: shout loud enough, and you’ll be heard…

Twitter’s inability to generate money from advertising blighted much of its first few years – the media writ-large laughed at it for not being able to capitalise on its huge user base. Things may be different now that the promoted tweets business model is in place, but did you know it’s not just Twitter that can benefit from retail-centric tweets?

A joint survey by Twitter and research firm Compete has uncovered the virtues in tweets from retail firms. The 75 day study looked at the habits of 7,800 Twitter users, interspersing tweets from 665 different retailers.

Rise of the Twitter monkey

That huge user group was divvied up into three camps: those who’d get routinely exposed to retail tweets, those that wouldn’t, and a sort of control group designed to just use Twitter like your average norm.

The results? Anyone who saw more than 12 tweets from a retailer’s account was 33 per cent more likely to thumb together the cash and buy something online. Which is a pretty sizeable percentage.

Just another reason why you shouldn’t underestimate the role of your company’s Twitter monkey. But remember: it’s all too easy to make a mistake like this.

Source: Twitter & Compete

View the original article here

Wait, a Timer like no other: Probably the Best iPhone Timer – No, Really

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom – Let’s face it: the Stock iPhone Timer is quite limited and does not offer the greatest user experience ever. Many have tried to fill the gap but the App Store is filled with half-hearted, quickly (badly?) coded, and often downright ugly alternatives. As its name implies, Wait, a Timer like no other 1.0, a freemium app, was just released to address the issue. Ease of use, gorgeous design and speed are at the heart of Wait, and it shows.

Wait, a Timer like no other offers multiple timers (limited to 2 in the free version and unlimited in Wait+ In App Purchase). It is extremely simple to set: you enter the overall duration (in Countdown mode) on the keypad or the end time (in Clock/Alarm mode), you press the run button and that’s it really (there is even an auto-start mode so even the second step isn’t necessary).

The idea here is to have a new timer up and running as quickly as possible, with the least amount of steps, because that’s how usually things need to be when you need a timer.

Need to cook pastas for 10 minutes and their sauce for 5 minutes? Just set 2 timers on Countdown mode (and a 3rd one to remind you to start warming up the sauce 5 minutes after you started the pastas maybe?).
Want to avoid a parking ticket? Have Wait and its Clock mode reminding you to go back to your car by 2pm.
Need to do 3 sets of 1 minute push-ups with a 30 seconds interval between each set? The countdown mode has a repeat with interval functionality to help you do just that (available with the Wait In App Purchase).

Feature Highlights:
* Background notifications: alarms will go off even if Wait is in the background or closed
* Overall progress of all running timers displayed at all times on the left of the screen
* Colour progress: the colour of the timers’ display changes with the timer’s progress (it goes from green at the beginning to bright red at the end)
* Gestures: swipe up and down to swap timers, swipe right to reveal timers’ list, swipe left to access per timer settings
* Gorgeous design and animations
* Additional functions: long press on the various buttons with 3 dots to access additional functions
* Flash Alarm when you keep the app open (although this doesn’t work when the app is in the background due to iOS restrictions)

And did we mention that Wait, a Timer like no other looks really good?

Language Support:
English, Chinese, French, Italian

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPhone 3GS/4/4S/5, iPod touch (3rd/4th/5th gen), and iPad
* Requires iOS 5.0 or later
* This app is optimized for iPhone 5
* 12.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Wait, a Timer like no other 1.0 is free with some limitations (2 timers maximum, 4 default alarm sounds, no per-timer settings, no repeat functionalities). A Tier 2 ($1.99 USD) In App Purchase, Wait+ will fully unlock the app. The app is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category.

Gilles Guillemin is a french developer based in Milton Keynes near London in the UK and he operates under his one-man-operation called FlexStuff Ltd (Polar Dawn being his brand name used in the AppStore). Gilles has been working as a consultant and front-end developer for nearly 18 years (CD-ROMs back in the days, then Flash/Flex for more than 10 years and finally mobile development on iOS and Android. Copyright (c) 2012 FlexStuff Limited. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

View the original article here

Wait, a Timer like no other: Probably the Best iPhone Timer – No, Really

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom – Let’s face it: the Stock iPhone Timer is quite limited and does not offer the greatest user experience ever. Many have tried to fill the gap but the App Store is filled with half-hearted, quickly (badly?) coded, and often downright ugly alternatives. As its name implies, Wait, a Timer like no other 1.0, a freemium app, was just released to address the issue. Ease of use, gorgeous design and speed are at the heart of Wait, and it shows.

Wait, a Timer like no other offers multiple timers (limited to 2 in the free version and unlimited in Wait+ In App Purchase). It is extremely simple to set: you enter the overall duration (in Countdown mode) on the keypad or the end time (in Clock/Alarm mode), you press the run button and that’s it really (there is even an auto-start mode so even the second step isn’t necessary).

The idea here is to have a new timer up and running as quickly as possible, with the least amount of steps, because that’s how usually things need to be when you need a timer.

Need to cook pastas for 10 minutes and their sauce for 5 minutes? Just set 2 timers on Countdown mode (and a 3rd one to remind you to start warming up the sauce 5 minutes after you started the pastas maybe?).
Want to avoid a parking ticket? Have Wait and its Clock mode reminding you to go back to your car by 2pm.
Need to do 3 sets of 1 minute push-ups with a 30 seconds interval between each set? The countdown mode has a repeat with interval functionality to help you do just that (available with the Wait In App Purchase).

Feature Highlights:
* Background notifications: alarms will go off even if Wait is in the background or closed
* Overall progress of all running timers displayed at all times on the left of the screen
* Colour progress: the colour of the timers’ display changes with the timer’s progress (it goes from green at the beginning to bright red at the end)
* Gestures: swipe up and down to swap timers, swipe right to reveal timers’ list, swipe left to access per timer settings
* Gorgeous design and animations
* Additional functions: long press on the various buttons with 3 dots to access additional functions
* Flash Alarm when you keep the app open (although this doesn’t work when the app is in the background due to iOS restrictions)

And did we mention that Wait, a Timer like no other looks really good?

Language Support:
English, Chinese, French, Italian

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPhone 3GS/4/4S/5, iPod touch (3rd/4th/5th gen), and iPad
* Requires iOS 5.0 or later
* This app is optimized for iPhone 5
* 12.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Wait, a Timer like no other 1.0 is free with some limitations (2 timers maximum, 4 default alarm sounds, no per-timer settings, no repeat functionalities). A Tier 2 ($1.99 USD) In App Purchase, Wait+ will fully unlock the app. The app is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category.

Gilles Guillemin is a french developer based in Milton Keynes near London in the UK and he operates under his one-man-operation called FlexStuff Ltd (Polar Dawn being his brand name used in the AppStore). Gilles has been working as a consultant and front-end developer for nearly 18 years (CD-ROMs back in the days, then Flash/Flex for more than 10 years and finally mobile development on iOS and Android. Copyright (c) 2012 FlexStuff Limited. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

View the original article here