A Tasty Pixel » Posts

Twitter Image Host for WordPress

See the new version, Twitter Image Host 2, which stores images as actual WordPress posts, for more easy customisation and management. It can be run at the same time as Twitter Image Host, for easy migration.

Keep your traffic in the family! Host Twitter images on your own site, with support for comments and trackbacks, image
resizing and thumbnailing with Lightbox.

Twitter doesn’t yet come with its own inline image support, so we tend to be limited to using image hosting services,
and linking to them with short URLs. So, services like Twitpic host the image, and we direct traffic to them in return.

Better to take advantage of that traffic, and host images on your own site. This way, viewers come to your site, instead
of someone else’s!

Posted images are displayed in your normal WordPress template, with support for comments and trackbacks, without any
setup required. Most themes should work with this, but if not, or if a different layout is required, a custom theme template
can also be provided (see ‘Creating a Template’).

Provides an HTML form for posting image content, as well as an API modelled on that of img.ly,
compatible with Tweetie (for iPhone) and any other Twitter clients that speak this protocol and offer configuration of
custom image hosting services.

Uses Twitter’s authentication and a list of authorised accounts, so you can let others use your image host too. You can even
post status updates to Twitter while submitting images.

Provides a widget and shortcode to display uploaded images. This supports filtering by Twitter account, styling with CSS,
and Lightbox/Thickbox.

DIY Twitter image hosting

Twitter doesn’t yet come with its own inline image support, so we tend to be limited to using image hosting services, and linking to them with short URLs. So, services like Tweetpic host the image, and we direct traffic to them in return.

Thinking it’s better to keep things in the family, and take better advantage of that traffic, I put together an image hosting setup of my own. Now viewers come to my own site, instead of someone else’s!

It looks like this

The setup consists of an Automator service, and some PHP smarts on the site.

Under Snow Leopard, I can right-click on an image in Finder, click ‘Send Image to Image Hosting’, type in a title, then paste the URL that’s automatically been put onto my clipboard into a tweet.

Here’s how it works – this assumes a moderate level of understanding of PHP and assorted web administration.

Textmate: ‘git diff’ in FileMerge

I found myself wanting to pick through some changes I made under a git repository recently, discarding some and adapting others. The FileMerge utility that comes with the Mac OS X Developer Tools is great for this purpose, but in TextMate, there’s currently no way to compare uncommitted changes in a git repository using FileMerge.

Now there is!

View Uncommitted Changes in FileMerge.tmCommand.zip

Double click to install it in Textmate; it appears under the ‘Git’ bundle. I suggest you then select the ‘Git’ bundle group header, and drag this command (‘View Uncommitted Changes in FileMerge‘) up to the top of the menu list on the right, so it’s accessible via Control-Shift-G, 1.

It’s based on filemerge.tmbundle.

Experiences setting up Potion Store

I wrote recently on some options I was considering for A Tasty Pixel’s store. Rather than going with a service like Kagi or eSellerate, I decided to build the store upon Potion Factory’s Potion Store, which is free and open-source — the latter being a big draw, as it means infinite customisability. Potion Factory have done a wonderful thing for the indie Mac developer community! Together with PayPal’s ‘Website Payments Standard’ service, which offers quite reasonable fees, all my needs were addressed.

So, I thought I’d follow up by writing about my experiences putting it all together.

A Tasty Pixel’s store and Talkie for Mac Premium

I’m happy to announce that the store is now open for business! We accept PayPal and all major credit cards, in four currencies.

Talkie for Mac 1.0 is now available, and can be registered to access the features of Talkie for Mac Premium:

Talk to others using the free version of Talkie for Mac
Push-to-talk calls with anyone over the Internet, coming next in Talkie for Mac 2.0

…On top of the features of the free version of Talkie for Mac, of course:

Zero-configuration operation: Start Talkie, and start talking
12 distinct channels
Configurable global hotkey to transmit while performing other tasks
Unobtrusive interface
Incoming and outgoing audio indicators
Mute facility
Talk to others using Talkie for iPhone or Talkie for Mac Premium.

Talkie for Mac is here

Talkie for Mac is here!

Note: Talkie has been retired since mid-2011. It may return at a later date. This post remains for historical purposes only.

The current features of Talkie for Mac:

Zero-configuration operation: Start Talkie, and start talking
12 distinct channels
Configurable global hotkey to transmit while performing other tasks
Unobtrusive interface
Incoming and outgoing audio indicators
Mute facility

The application can be used with Talkie for iPhone for free, as well as with the registered version of Talkie for Mac, codenamed ‘Talkie for Mac Premium’.

To talk to others using the free version of Talkie for Mac, though, Talkie for Mac Premium is $4.99 — available as soon as the store is up and running.

So, go and grab a copy of Talkie for Mac now! Then, leave a comment below and tell me what you think.

Store options for the Indie Mac Developer

With my new product, Talkie hitting the iPhone App Store, it’s time to investigate options for the selling of software for the Mac too, as Talkie will also be available shortly on Mac OS X, in both free and commercial versions.

Happily, and unfortunately, there are many, many options available for store systems, requiring varying degrees of effort to set up. In case it’s useful for kicking off others’ research, here’s what I’ve found out.

Introducing Talkie

A Tasty Pixel’s new application has hit the App Store: Talkie!

This bad boy stands out from the crowd with an engine that works not only over Bluetooth, but also over WiFi networks. Talkie will broadcast over the network so that any other iPhones running the same app — or any Macs running Talkie for Mac — will pick up the signal. No setup needed, it just works.

Should be great for uni students, or folks in large offices, and Talkie for Mac should fill the gaps for those without iPhones.

Talkie for Mac will come in a free edition, which offers two-way communication with the paid versions of Talkie, and the ‘pro’ edition which works with everything. That means you only need to buy one copy, then set your friends up with the free version to talk away.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing a little about Talkie’s guts and development, so stay tuned.