So what’s new?

• More reliable: Completely re-written from scratch to use the latest Twitter API.
• Easier to set up: Just install, enable the plugin, and enter your Twitter username. You no longer need to search for your numeric Twitter ID.
• New options: You can now change the update interval, and choose to ignore all Twitter replies - i.e. messages beginning with @
• Automatic update notifications: Twessenger 2.0 will automatically notify you when new versions are available!

Download: Twessenger 2.0

So I’ve finally decided to start working on an update - Twessenger 2.0, so to speak. Since there have been major changes to the Twitter API since the last version was released, I’ve decided to simply start afresh and rewrite Twessenger from the ground up. It’ll be more robust, more user-friendly (no need to hunt for your Twitter ID anymore, for example), and it’ll have some new features that people have been asking for.

No promises, but I should have a download link ready this weekend. :)

If you’re still hesitant, watch this screencast by Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner, in which he introduces some of the major new features; you’re bound to be impressed.

If I had to pick my favorite feature, it would have to be the revamped address bar (check out the screencast to see it in action), but I also like the integrated add-on manager, and pause/resume support in the new download manager.

Vista users - install the Glasser extension to enable the Aero Glass effect on the browser chrome. Now you’ve got a browser that fits in much better, visually, with the rest of the system. :)

The most significant bit of news - my brother officially got engaged on May 25th in California! I took a week off from work to fly there and spend some time with the family. He will be moving there in August to start a post-doc at Stanford, and his fiancé works at IBM in San Jose, so it works out perfectly for them. The marriage is scheduled for December 25th in India, and I’ll be making a trip back there after nearly 5 years!

Work has been keeping me busy. In fact, I hear that June happens to be one of the craziest months every year for our team. We’ve been working on a major re-architecture of our application during the last couple of months, and we’re now just days away from wrapping it up and pushing it into production. I’ve also been spending quite a bit of time on the trading floor and learning more about the business side.

Apart from that, the fun goes on during weekends. It didn’t take 10 months of living in NYC for me to realize that it’s easily one of the best cities to be in, but now I simply can’t be convinced to believe anything else!

I’m playing around with a few ideas that might help me to keep more frequent updates coming in the future; let’s see how that works out. Hoping it doesn’t have to come down to another flu next time. :)

The latest WebKit nightly successfully passes the Acid3 test with a score of 100/100. I was truly impressed by the series of progress updates on the WebKit blog as the developers feverishly worked on squashing the last handful of bugs.

So what’s the landscape looking like in the rest of browser-land?

• An internal build of Opera also passed the test today, but it’s not yet available to the public. Kudos to the Opera devs on a job well done!
• Firefox (Gecko) should be next in line, but don’t expect to see the changes in the upcoming 3.0 release. Too bad.
• And Internet Explorer 8? I wouldn’t keep my hopes up…

The X1 is an impressive device, featuring a big, clear WVGA (480×800) display, a speedy 520MHz ARM11 processor, a 3.2MP camera, GPS, WiFi, a rather slick-looking “arc” slider keyboard, and what appears to be a custom, touch-friendly UI on top of WM 6.1. A big step up from my HTC Wizard (T-Mobile MDA), to say the least!

But what really caught my eye is the fact that the X1 will support UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA data on the 850/1700/1900/2100MHz bands. That’s right - the 1700MHz band is on the list, which means the X1 should blaze through on T-Mobile’s upcoming U.S. 3G network when it’s enabled this year.

No word on pricing yet, but I’m hoping that carrier subsidies will make this thing reasonably affordable, and that T-Mobile will grab this as soon as it lands. This could very well be my long-awaited step up from the Wizard. :)

It’s not the car you idolized as a kid.
It never made your bedroom wall, or high school locker.
And there were no 1/18th scale models of it on your shelf.

Because it didn’t exist.

The Audi R8 - Revise your list of dream cars.

Consider that list revised! Move over, Ferraris, Lambos, and Porsches; we have a new winner. In fact, I feel a sudden, strong urge to save up $100K, just so that I can get my hands on one of these some day.

A car this stunning deserves an equally impressive ad campaign, and Audi’s promo site for the R8 doesn’t disappoint. Their “Dimension R8″ sequence is quite simply the best ad for a car I have ever come across — the music, the matrix-esque camera angles, and the lighting and scenery just set your pulse racing. Don’t miss it!

We stayed at the Villas del Mar beach resort in Loiza, where we had an entire condo all to ourselves. For the next six days, there was everything from relaxing on the warm beaches and swimming in the ocean to visiting the spectacular El Morro fort, driving through the rainforest, shopping and dining in charming Old San Juan, beachside camping on the gorgeous island of Culebra, and of course, plenty of partying and drunken revelry. ;)

I recently migrated all my photo galleries over to Picasa Web Albums, and I’ve uploaded plenty of pics from the PR trip as well. Check ‘em out.

So naturally, I’ve been closely following all the little tidbits of news that have been trickling in about the sequel, The Dark Knight, which is scheduled to hit the big screen in July next year.

This evening, Batman fans in a few select cities across the country (including NYC, of course) were in for a real treat - a six minute long prologue, introducing the Joker, filmed in glorious 70mm IMAX sweetness. And let me tell you - it was badass.

If you didn’t get a chance to catch this first look, don’t worry. It’s supposed to play again at every IMAX screening of the new Will Smith movie, I Am Legend, starting next week. The clip is probably already on YouTube by now (or will be), but trust me - you really have to watch it on the massive 80-foot-tall screen to experience the full effect.

Damn, it’s going to be a long and difficult wait until July!

When it really comes down to it, can any OS vendor claim to have a product that’s 100% stable and reliable? Of course not. The bottom line is…