If you are an avid dog owner, you’ve probably been waiting for a program that allows your dog to tweet on the Twitter platform. Well, it looks like an iPhone application could be the answer to your dreams.

Bowlingual, an iPhone application that translates your dog’s barks into the english language, is set to be released in August of this year. And if Japan’s sales are any indication, the application should be a huge hit amongst dog owners and Twitter users alike.

After barking into the iPhone’s built in microphone, the application determines what the dog says and displays it on the iPhone screen. The application makes it extremely easy to send updates to Twitter through simply the press of a button.

Perhaps the best part is that you can add a personal message before sending the tweet to Twitter, which is similar to the retweet button-organic retweet debates with message additions. Rest assured, you can customize your tweets before sending them to the platform.

While I do not personally have a dog, I could forsee this application being a huge hit amongst dog owners, especially if the program adds additional features (and possibly implements a game-like function similar to Foursquare). Also, it is unknown how much the application will cost at the moment.

What are your thoughts on the application? Will you be purchasing it and/or using it upon its’ release?

(Picture and Story via CrunchGear)

While some individuals are reporting that Twitter’s growth has stalled, a recent study shows that Twitter is still growing at a fairly significant rate.

Just this past month, there were about 40 million tweets sent per day. 40 million tweets per day equates to a grand total of 1.2 billion tweets sent in January 2010.

In comparison with late 2008, Twitter’s total tweets per month has blown through the roof. According to the graph, the last month and year that 200,000,000 or fewer tweets were sent was back in March 2009.

You can check out one of the advanced studies here.

Assuming that the results from their studies are accurate, this has to be encouraging for Twitter users. While the service did not track the number of active users, the total number of tweets is crucial to determining if the service is expanding as a whole.

The consistent month-to-month growth in 2009 (in terms of total tweets, excluding two months) is also worth noting, as it shows a general exponential growth shape. Twitter’s total traffic is well worth monitoring over the next few months to see if the total tweet count will continue to expand rapidly.

What are your thoughts on these findings? Do you believe that Twitter will continue to grow from a tweet count perspective?

(Graph and Information via Pingdom)

(Photo Credit: kevinzhengili)

I came across an interesting article this morning via the USA TODAY asking whether Twitter was a spiritual experience.

In the linked article, Frederic A. Brussat raises 25 reasons why Twitter indeed is a spiritual experience. After taking a read of his points, it seems that he took some time to develop his ideas and craft his language carefully to describe them.

There are many things in life that people would consider to be “spiritual experiences”—including baseball games, music concerts and the like. But can we really consider a social networking website to be a spiritual experience? Brussat certainly raises points for us all to consider.

Take a read of his article and vote in the poll below. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

(Photo Credit: redteam)

Are you active on the Twitter website? Believe it or not, you are part of a minority on the platform. Only 17% of Twitter’s 75 million users have tweeted within the last month.

While Twitter is still growing at an extremely high rate, the rate of signups has dipped in the past month (7.8 million/month to 6.2 million/month).

Computer World is reporting that in early 2007, over 70% of the registered Twitter accounts were active. Obviously, 17% is not an impressive statistic, even considering how much the website has grown over the past year.

Despite all of the inactivity reported in the news story, an interesting tidbit was shared at the end of the article: if new users stick around the website at least for a week, the odds that the user will engage more with the site increase greatly.

Obviously, these numbers should open most users’ eyes. Twitter needs to find a way to engage their users when they start up with the website from the get-go. Many people that I’ve spoken with that are not on the website “don’t get Twitter”.

What are your thoughts on these statistics? Do you have any ideas in terms of how Twitter can improve their service or increase their engagement with their users?

(Photo Credit: Robyn Gallagher)

Don’t be surprised if you start seeing some walking noises showing up in your Twitter stream, because Rambler Shoes has brought every step you take—literally—to Twitter.

A sensor in the shoe allows every step a person takes in the shoe to be picked up and tweeted out on Twitter. In addition, the sensor can pick up the intensity of the step and alternates wording and periods to denote when someone is moving.

Bluetooth technology is implemented into the shoes that allow the sensors to communicate with a mobile phone or device.

A Twitter account is already set up for the shoes. You can follow Rambler Shoes on Twitter here.

How someone even got the idea to create a Twitter sneaker is beyond me, and if people invest their money into the product, we could see even more noise on the website. Would you ever pick up a pair of these sneakers to give them a shot?

(Picture via POPKALAB)

An interesting report was released yesterday by Opera Software saying that while Twitter did grow their user base across the world in 2009, they experienced a negative growth rate in the United States.

The “State of the Mobile Web” report for January 2010 reflected back on December 2009 as well as the entire past year. The report found that Facebook and Twitter indeed did grow their user bases the fastest in 2009 on a global level.

However, in the United States, Twitter experienced a negative growth rate in 2009 (users), while both Facebook and MySpace saw impressive gains. Facebook did particularly well, growing 194% in 2009.

Obviously, Twitter users located in the United States cannot be too happy with the results that are presented in the report. However, they should be encouraged with the impressive gains that Twitter made in the United Kingdom. Twitter experienced a 595% growth rate in the United Kingdom last year.

Can we really draw any conclusions from these numbers? It’s clear that Twitter is doing well in the United Kingdom and Facebook is doing well in the United States, but as other social networking sites enter the fold in 2010 and beyond, it will be interesting to see where the numbers shift. As social networking as a whole continues to expand and change our daily lives, firmer conclusions can likely be set in future years.

What are your thoughts on the report?

Thanks to TechCrunch for providing the report. A copy of the report can be accessed here.

(Photo Credit: Penn Olson)

Everyone now has access to Twitter Local Trends, a feature that was rolled out by Twitter last week on a limited basis. Check the website—you should now have access to the feature.

The Twitter Blog makes it clear that trending topics on a city and state level could be very relevant to any Twitter user. In addition, the website plans on rolling out even more features within this feature—locations, languages and data—in the near future.

This is an exciting step for the Twitter platform. Seeing the popularity of the trending topics, local trends will undoubtedly provide an outlet for people to discover what is new around their location.

In addition, it could provide a good service for breaking news or important service announcements. While local trends should be subject to many of the criticisms that national trends get (false news stories and reports, etc.), it should still act as a useful feature for most.

And with geolocation really beginning to emerge on services like FourSquare and Yelp, local trends couldn’t have come at a better time.

What are your thoughts on local trends? Have you taken advantage of the new feature yet?

(Photo Credit: Sound Communication)

If you haven’t seen a tweet about the viral video “Pants On The Ground” lately, then you’re missing out. Days after the American Idol hopeful Larry Platt auditioned his song, his audition is still being searched like crazy on Twitter.

Platt, a 63-year-old well past the age limit of 28 for American Idol auditions, said that he was happy with the way American Idol portrayed him in the Atlanta audition episode.

The story behind the song? He started singing it spontaneously after he saw a man out on the street, with his pants slipping below his waist.

Simon Cowell’s words were encouraging at the end of Platt’s audition:

“I don’t think this will be the last we hear about you. I have a feeling about you, Larry.”

Larry’s audition, which now has more than 1,500,000 views on YouTube, has undoubtedly gathered a wide amount of attention from around the world. It seems that every year, there happens to be one audition that is simply unforgettable or amazing—and we certainly had one this season.

In case you have not seen the video yet, here it is. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

(Photo Credit: TV Scoop)

Jalen Rose, a former NBA star and current ESPN analyst, recently wrote a post for Mashable discussing 5 reasons why every sports fan should be on social media. His first point in his article: social media gives every fan a voice. But how exactly does a sport fan go about finding his/her own voice in social media?

Here are a few ways that sports fans can find their own voice on Twitter.

1. Affiliate with a team, or go independent, through use of hashtags.

First, you need to determine if you are going to tweet your favorite teams or go independent. While most sports fans naturally gravitate towards tweeting their favorite teams, there is nothing wrong with going independent (and you can accomplish different things if you do, which will be explained later on).

Make sure that you tag your tweets with the team the tweet applies to. Try not to overdo it on hashtags—two should be enough to make sure your tweets are read. It’s important to tag your tweets with team hashtags so they can be easily found in search. While hashtags don’t necessarily designate fanhood, it makes it clear what team your tweet is referring to.

If you go independent and tweet a variety of teams, that is fine as well.

2. Consider providing value.

There are plenty of sports fans on Twitter that produce tweets that don’t necessarily benefit anyone. Tweets such as “Yeahhhhhhhhhhh #(teamname) are alright, if you’re watching the game. But realize that many people on Twitter are probably not watching your game, and they may not know what you are referring to.

There’s nothing wrong with live tweeting games, but at least make it clear what you’re referring to and provide some context within your updates.

3. Provide a resource.

If you’re an independent sports fan on Twitter, the opportunity is there to provide a resource for your followers. Are you obsessed with stats? Tweet a bunch of interesting stats about a variety of sports. What about breaking sports news or commentary? Tweet a wide variety of this material.

There are plenty of sports fans out there on Twitter, but good sports resources are rare. If you are interested in a specific sport or specific interesting content, share it with your followers!

4. Consider setting up a separate Twitter account for sports tweets.

The last thing you want to do is alienate your followers who may not be as excited about sports as you are. So take some time and set up a separate Twitter account for your sports tweets, if you plan on updating sports-wise in high volume. You’ll save your personal profile from being unfollowed in the event you tweet too much sports—especially if you’re a sports fan and tweet on behalf of a few teams, you definitely want to consider this option.

Do you tweet sports? Let me know your comments and any other tips in the comments section.

(Photo Credit: Gregory Elementary School)

Jurors in Florida may be disallowed to use certain forms of communication during time spent in court. According to The Jacksonville Observer, the Florida Supreme Court will determine whether use of electronic devices should be permitted.

The two biggest issues with access to electronic devices is that jurors may use the tools to access background information on their court case or share information that should be kept within the court.

The Joint Committee states:

“Many individuals called for jury service, especially younger jurors, have grown up with the Internet. These potential jurors may consider constant communication through cell phones, Blackberries, and other devices to be a normal part of everyday life.”

While no formal date has been set to review this issue, it is sure to raise questions around the country regarding use of electronic devices and social networks, such as Twitter, during jury duty. The issue has been already been raised in other states including Michigan, California and Connecticut.

Do you believe that social media and electronic devices should be allowed in the courtroom?

(Photo Credit: Steakpinball | Flickr)