How to make Industrial Strength Un-Poppable Soap Bubbles using Distilled Water

I’m a bit of a tinkerer that likes to experiment with other ideas aside from Telecoms. This is self-evident from my interest in non-practical ideas such as Painted Easter Eggs, a tradition borrowed from Ukraine and Russia which I’ve adopted a hobby as noted in my blog article entitled “How to make Glow-in-the-Dark Etched Easter Eggs - Russian Tradition with a Modern Jamaican Twist makes Katy Perry Roar”.

So here comes another, this time centered on making glow-in-the-dark un-poppable Bubbles. I’ve always had a thing for Bubbles (the blowing kind, not the Cartoon!), especially making the large, un-poppable ones that are a hit with children at birthday parties or even adults at a Health Fair.

They can bounce of your hands and not burst, making them an instant attraction at your child’s next Birthday Party! Best of all, these Bubbles glow-in-the-Dark, making them even more fascinating when the Sun goes down and the UV Lamps get turned on!

But how do you make them?

In the next few lines, I’ll show you. So get your thinking cap on and a Box of Oreos and Lasco Chocolate Milk, as this is going to get Bubbly. Please note, it’ll need Distilled Water for this project, as I’m making the assumption that you’re a regular reader of the Geezam blog.

If so, that means you’ve already read my article on the Solar Desalinator as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to Make Distilled Water using a Solar Desalinator”. I’m also assuming that you’re a DIY (Do it Yourself) kinda persons and you’ve made the new version that uses the Fresnel Lens as described in my blog article entitled “How to upgrade your Solar Desalinator to a Solar Cooker and make a Solar Foundry for Vacuum Pyrolysis”.

The ingredients are fairly straightforward:

1.      1 5’ ½” PVC Pipe

2.      1 Cup Corn Syrup

3.      1 Electrical Air Pump

4.      UV Lamps

5.      Bright Neon coloured Non-Toxic Markers

6.      1 Large Stainless Steel Metal Pot

7.      1 young helpful assistant

8.      2 Bottles of Dishwashing Liquid

9.      6 Cups of Distilled Water

10.  Glass Measuring cup

11.  Gloves

12.  Glycerine

13.  Hand Blender

14.  Kitchen Stop clock

The instructions from here on out are fairly simple:

1.      Pour the 6 Cups of Water into the Large Stainless Steel Metal Pot

2.      Empty the 2 bottles of Dishwashing liquid, making sure to completely empty the bottles

3.      Cut open the Bright Neon coloured Non-Toxic Markers

4.      Remove the inkpad and cut open the plastic coating

5.      Soak them into the mixture

6.      Place the Hand Blender and start mixing

7.      Set the Kitchen Stop Clock to fifteen Minutes

8.      While mixing, pour in the Corn Syrup or Glycerine at the point where the mixer is inserted into the mixture

9.      Blend the mixture for the next fifteen minutes until the Kitchen Stop Clock alarms

10.  Let the mixture sit for about 24 hours

11.  Test the mixture by dipping the 5’ ½” PVC Pipe and manually blowing a bubble with your mouth

12.  To blow them much larger, have your young helpful Assistant connect the Electrical Air Pump to the 5’ ½” PVC Pipe in order to blow them to bigger sizes

13.  When Night comes, turn on the UV Lamps at the Party and watch the Bubbles glow with an eerie light that’s the colour of the Permanent Markers

That’s it, folks! You’ve just created super-strong un-poppable Bubbles that are cheaper than balloons at any Party.  In fact they are more fun than Balloons as they are so strong that they can bounce off anything and even better, you can go home and make them yourselves.

Best of all, the Party doesn’t stop at nights, as they glow-in-the-Dark un-poppable Bubbles provide a tantalizing After-Party Night show that’s sure to delight children of all ages and make your child’s Birthday Party that much more special!

Also, enjoy the pack of Oreos and the Chocolate Lasco Milk. They’re on the house!

Min. of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips to implement ATM Withdrawal Tax - Jamaica's Unbanked means Cashless Society coming with Digicel Mobile Money

“This levy will be chargeable on all withdrawals from deposit-taking institutions by way of electronic Banking, point of sale transactions, cheques, automated Banking machine (ABM), automated teller machine (ATM), or over the counter and Internet transfers”

Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips, commenting on the planned ATM Withdrawal Levy coming in effect on Sunday June 1^st 2014

The 2014/2015 Budget reading by Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips has not been a pleasant one. First, it appears we’re gonna get hit by a ATM (Automated Teller Machine) Withdrawal Tax or Levy as announced in “Government taxes Bank withdrawals”, published Friday April 18, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner and “Govt's plan to raise $6.7 billion”, published Friday, April 18, 2014 5:24 PM, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

The measure as announced by the horses’ mouth by the JIS (Jamaica Information Service) in “Measures Outlined to Raise $6.7 Billion for Budget”, published April 18, 2014 By Alecia Smith-Edwards, The Jamaica Information Service  is expected to provide some JA$2.25 billion to contribute to the JA$540.1 billion Budget, which breaks down as thus:

1.      JA$540.1-billion budget

2.      JA$421.2 billion in projected revenues and grants

3.      JA$118.9 billion short of their goal

To plug that gap of JA$118.9 billion, Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips is getting creative with the taxes and borrowing:

1.      JA$110 billion in International loans (read IMF, et al)

2.      JA$1.4 billion in Local Bank Loans

3.      JA$6.7 billion from new Taxes (read the ATM Withdrawal Tax, et al)

4.      JA$2.25 billion of the JA$6.7 billion from new Taxes is from the ATM Withdrawal Tax

According to Minster of Finance Dr. Peter Phillips, the Tax, to be implemented on Sunday June 1^st 2014, is structured as follows:

1.      JA$1,000 withdrawals will have to pay JA$1.00 in taxes

2.      JA$1,000,000 to JA$5,000,000 withdrawals will have to pay 0.09% in taxes

3.      JA$5,000,000 to JA$20,000,000 withdrawals will have to pay 0.075% in taxes

4.      JA$20,000,000 withdrawals will have to pay 0.05% in taxes

No surprise there, as the recently concluded CaPRI (Caribbean Policy Research Institute) study confirmed what CAC (Consumer Affairs Commission) has been saying all along based on customer complaints; Banks have been profiting from increasing Bank fees as stated in “Local Banking Fees In Keeping With Western Trends - Study”, Published Monday April 7, 2014 10:06 am, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The ATM Withdrawal Tax as it’s so called is really a Levy (but who cares right?) and extends to all forms of withdrawals, except between Accounts owned by the same persons at the same financial institution. Basically it includes:

1.      Electronic Banking

2.      POS (Point of sales) Transitions

3.      Cheques and Withdrawals at ABM, ATM or ETM

4.      Over the counter i.e. Bank, Withdrawals

5.      Internet Bank transfers

Opposition Finance Minister Shaw Upset – Tax Really only affect affluent members of CAPI

Of course, many oppose this measure, as, really, nobody likes being taxed, worse from Bank Withdrawals and even worse POS transactions. Especially as many Jamaicans already use Credit Card and play catch-up with their Debit Cards to pay off the balance before they are due each month.

Opposition Finance Minister Shaw is on the warpath, claiming that this Tax is merely the Government using the CaPRI Study to justify introducing another Tax as stated in “Shaw criticises govt's tax on withdrawal from Banks”, published Friday, April 18, 2014 9:13 AM , The Jamaica Observer . 

So too is CAPI (Citizens Action for Principle and Integrity), an activist group made up mostly of affluent returning residents, expatriates and Business people I.e. Middle class, who called the ATM Withdrawal Levy “unconscionable and oppressive” to quote the newspaper byline in the article “Tax on withdrawals 'unconscionable and oppressive', says CAPI”, published Friday, April 18, 2014 8:20 PM, The Jamaica Observer.

But the truth be told, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips, is living up to his doctorate. A study was done that confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Banks are tapping into Banking fees to make more money, raising Withdrawal fees by as much as 115% from JA$100 to JA$215 as is the case with NCB (National Commercial Bank) Withdrawals.

Thus knowing that Jamaicans are hooked to this means of getting and spending their money due to its convenience, it makes only sense to Tax what are inelastic sources of Taxable Revenue, that being the very act of spending your money. If it's good for the Goose (Banks), then it must be good for the Gander (Government of Jamaica)!

For once, no-one can criticize the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) for ignoring a scientific study from CaPRI that confirms and anecdotal observation by another institution, the CAC. It’s scientifically sound and logical, which is why I’ve decided to pen this article.

ATM Withdrawal Tax affects the Wealthy – 34% of Jamaicans are still unBanked

This ATM Withdrawal Levy only affects the very wealthy (read CAPI) who have large deposits of cash from which they make interest from Investment Accounts. It’s for this reason their attempt at a protest by having Jamaicans wear black as noted in “CAPI Plans Black Friday To Protest Withdrawal Tax”, published Wednesday April 23, 2014 3:22 pm, The Jamaica Gleaner and “CAPI: Wear black tomorrow against proposed ABM tax”, published Thursday, April 24, 2014, The Jamaica Observer fell short.

Hardly anyone showed up as noted in “Moderate participation in Friday’s ‘wear black day’”, published Saturday, April 26, 2014 4:57 PM, The Jamaica Observer, as Friday is TGIF (Thank God it’s Friday) and coincidentally, payday for many persons with bills to pay. To stop and display placards or even wear black was a bit much for many Jamaicans who simply use a Bank Account to receive pay or encash cheques (that’s me!!).

Many, like myself, prefer to be paid in my hand in cash, despite having a Bank Account, as I’ve been dodging Bank Fees since 2012! Worse, John Public, the average Jamaican, doesn’t dabble much in Bank Accounts as noted from the UWI Stats researched by Director of the Centre of Excellence of the Mona School of Business, Dr Maurice McNaughton presented by Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Julian Robinson that state:

1.      34% of Jamaicans above 18 years do not own Bank Accounts

2.      66% of Jamaicans above 18 years own Bank Accounts

3.      12% of Jamaicans above 18 years who own Bank Accounts have Debit Cards attached and use them actively for Transactions

4.      80% of adult Jamaicans have limited access to low-cost, efficient and user-friendly Banking Services

If true, then it means only PAYE (Pay as You Earn) as well as Investors with large sums of money that they make interest from will be affected. Worse it they are a part of the 80% with limited access to Banking facilities and then they’d mostly pull all their money all at once.

A trip to the Bank is not a pleasant thing to endure. Especially one to which they have limited access wastes a good part of the day standing in line at the ATM and in lines in the Banks, costing the PAYE Worker time and money

Just to repeat that, even the PAYE’s hardly use their Bank Accounts; as soon as the pay reaches into their Bank Accounts, it’s all spent to cover living expenses and bills. So the real targets are those people in society that make money via investment Banking usually dabbling in sums of money larger than JA$1,000,000 on average.

This is a Tax on the Rich People for whom a Bank or Investment Account is a means of making money from Government Paper, CD (Certificates of Deposits) and US Dollar Denominated Investment Accounts that may be a mixture of high-risk Stocks, Mutual Funds and Government Bonds!

Cashless Society is coming – Digicel Mobile Money will make Digicel the Bigger, Better MoneyMachine

But the real power of this measure is that it would eventually lead to all Jamaicans being forced to do all their Transactions via a Bank Account, possibly a Mobile Money Account as predicted in my blog article entitled “BOJ to regulate and approve Mobile Money Industry in Jamaica - JCCUL JCUES is the Man of Steel as GraceKennedy joins The Last Stand for a Cashless Society”, making all Financial Transactions easily traceable and thus taxable.

I suspect this coming of Mobile Money to receive and Spend Remittances may be real reason why NCB parted company with MoneyGram and began rolling out their Network for Bank on the Go iABM Machines that can read Cash.

NCB is lining up itself to directly tap into that coming market as prophesied in my blog article entitled “NCB Under Pressure cuts ties with Remittance Agent MoneyGram - NCB using innovation Edge to plan Mobile Money, Remittance and E-Commerce Triple Play Services by September 2014”.

Already many are anticipating this, with even Telecom Provider Digicel making plans to throw their hat into the Ring and launch their own Mobile Money Service as well to compete against the likes of GraceKennedy and NCB (National Commercial Bank) as stated in “Digicel To Roll Out E-Money Service In Jamaica”, Published Wednesday April 23, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner, an announcement deserving of an article in its own right.

Good move by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips, as he’s set the stage for a Cashless Society by 2017, which by the way is also an IMF (International Monetary Fund) recommendation to increase Tax revenues. Now all he has to do is to get more Jamaicans to use Bank Accounts for all their transactions by implementing a Cashless System, such as Mobile Money as a mandatory means of doing transactions and outlawing Cash Transactions with heavy fines. 

How to use the Andy App Player to play Android Apps on PC or Laptop

If you’ve read my article on the BlueStacks App Player entitled “How to use the BlueStacks App Player to play Android Apps on PC or Laptop - Bluestacks App Player is The Great Gatsby for Android”, then you’d have realized it has a curious limitation. BlueStacks App Player runs a lot like an Emulator and is nothing like Google Android on your smartphone as it doesn’t support multi-touch on touchscreens as well as Remote Desktop Access.

Enter Andy, the full software that can fully emulate the Google Android experience on your PC or Laptop as explained in “Use Andy to emulate Android on your Desktop”, published April 25, 2014 10:11 AM PDT by Rick Broida, CNET News. 

Albeit I’m not a fan of Google Android, for those of you wondering what the Google Android Operating System looks like on a Tablet, you can use this emulator to basically get a feel for a Tablet Environment. Not to mention remotely control your computer from your Google Android smartphones as the picture below clearly suggests.

Andy’s Developers are a pair based in California led by CEO Yossi Fishler with Eyal Fishler, his brother doing most of the programming according to their Andy About page. This clever program not only allows for a non-Android user to simulate an Android Tablet or Smartphone and run Android apps, but also can act as offline storage for your smartphone apps, should you run out of storage space on your SD Card on your smartphone.

Its remote control feature allows you to use your smartphone as a remote control for the Desktop Environment, provided that both your Laptop or PC and your smartphone are connected over the same Wi-Fi connection. This and many other features set it apart from the other competitors, even the free BlueStacks App Player.

Simulations are always best before committing to buying an Android Tablet or smartphone and eventually cracking the Screen, for which I have a solution anyway as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to Repair a Broken Screen on a Smartphone or Tablet”.

Learning to clean your Tablet is also another handy lesson that you’ll need to care for your Tablet as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to make your own Cleaning Fluid and Cleaning Tips for your Smartphone or Tablet”, pun unintended.

So too is learning how to Backup the contents of your Blackberry to be placed on their new home on an Apple iPhone, Apple iPad or Google Android smartphone or Tablet as stated in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to transfer Phone Contacts and Data from your Blackberry to your Apple iPhone or Google Android smartphone or Tablet”.

How to install and use Andy – Android and Windows Live-OS swappable Project looks more possible

First, you need to download Andy, which might take awhile, as the app is 344 Mb large. Then follow the simple steps in this pictorial guide that follows.

Here’s the steps, very much akin to the installation of the BlueStacks App Player:

1.      Download Andy, which will take awhile

2.      Install Andy, which will also take awhile

3.      Sign into Andy using your Google Account

4.      Sign into 1ClickSync Service using your Google Account to allow for synchronization between your PC or Laptop and your Google Android smartphone

5.      Download and install the Andy Remote Control APK file on your smartphone to allow you to remotely control your Desktop from your smartphone

At this point you should be able to see the Android Tablet interface and be able to use the controls to change form portrait to landscape mode. If you have a touchscreen Laptop or Desktop PC screen, you can interact more directly via multi-touch gestures, which Andy supports.

Andy is a great step-up from the BlueStacks App Player, especially as it throws in Remote Desktop Access as an added bonus. Android users should be thrilled that Andy has come to their rescue. Even more interesting is that the software programming behind Andy can also be expanded to create a Live-OS environment that allows you to run and switch between Google Android and Windows OS.

This is similar to what the US$599 Asus Transformer Duet TD300 could have achieved were it allowed to live as I’d predicted in my blog article entitled “Microsoft and Google kill US$599 Asus Transformer Duet TD300 - One Love Kickstarter Project for Developers and Hardware Modders to Breathe life into The Art of the Steal”.

Here’s the link:

Andy

Andy Remote Control APK file

Facebook launches FB Newswire with Verified News from Storyful - Facebook's a bonafide Social Media Newspaper coming soon to a Oculus Rift Smartglasses near you

Facebook has now introduced a News service via a Facebook Page and Twitter Feed for official News from News Services around the world that’ll make Journalists very happy called FB Newswire as described in the article “Facebook cozies up to journalists with FB Newswire”, published April 24, 2014 9:12 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News and “Facebook Launches FB Newswire To Try To Be A Journalist’s Best Friend”, published April 24th 2014 by Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch.

Apparently the people working at Facebook are connected to the Unity Consciousness, as Facebook has answered by prayers, mere days after introducing the Nearby Friends Feature for its growing Facebook Mobile users base as pointed out in my blog article entitled “Facebook launches Nearby Friends feature - WhatsApp VoIP and Oculus Rift VR Wearable Computing Takes flight as FB look towards the Future in the Year of the Horse”.

In true Facebook style, the News of their partnership with Storyful officially broke on Facebook Newsroom page on Thursday April 24^th 2014 as stated in “Announcing FB Newswire, Powered by Storyful”, published April 24, 2014 By Andy Mitchell, Director, News and Global Media Partnerships, Facebook Newsroom.

Facebook’s gambit against Twitter – Become a bonafide Social Media Newspaper

If you’re a News buff like yours truly, you’d have noticed that Facebook and Twitter are a great source of News, especially Facebook as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Pew Research posits 3 in 10 get their News via Facebook as Paper set to go live”. So Facebook Newswire is a boon to journalists, as it now means that they have access to the official verified Facebook pages of the various official News sources as aggregated and verified by Storyful.

Storyful, now currently owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp who purchased the company for a tidy sum of £15 million pounds back in December 2013 as stated in "News Corp buys Storyful for £15m", published Friday 20 December 2013 14.38 GMT by Jason Deans, The UK Guardian is quite a partner for Facebook to have. 

The Dublin, Ireland Social News aggregator was founded in 2010 and based on who you believe, does a fairly decent job of making sure News that passes through its editorial room is accurate and concise. This is as especially as their partnership with Facebook call on them to present it both on Facebook's page and a Twitter Page as well.

Now that Twitter has come out with a new look that look like Facebook as pointed out in my blog article entitled “How to Download Twitter user Pictures as Twitter makes Facebook Timeline changes”, it look like Facebook is trying to be as quick on the draw with News deliver as Twitter. In fact, FB Newswire also has a twitter Feed, @FBNewswire if you on Twitter right now!

Twitter is where I get most of my official News from Sources all around the World, specifically in Tech. I also get News from Facebook, but to manage them all, I use a SMM (Social Media Management) program called Hootsuite as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Social Media Management Tools help you to manage your Social Networks all at once”.

Facebook is hoping that by including verification of the News instead of just you following several News sources a la carte, it'll offer a service that Journalists can't resist. This as unlike News sources posted on Twitter, Facebook Newswire's News will all be verified News, thanks to Storyful.

And yes, all that verified News will be available via Facebook Newswire's very own Twitter Feed and Facebook Page. This effectively makes Facebook a source of News, if not a bonafide Social Media Newspaper.

Won’t be too long now before the Oculus Rift VR (Virtual Reality) head-gear becomes refashioned into wearable smartglasses with the News delivered by a synched Facebook Smartwatch as predicted in my blog article entitled “Facebook buys Oculus Rift for US$2 billion - Facebook Social Virtual Reality Future as Smartwatches and smartglasses herald the death of the smartphone in 2015”.

Here’s the link(s):

Facebook Newswire Twitter Feed

Facebook Newswire Facebook Page

How to Download Twitter user Pictures as Twitter makes Facebook Timeline changes

“Green eye” people still love my Photo “pon” Facebook? Now “unnu” see it on Twitter and wanna download it? I don’t “wrong” you; “is me tek it” or arranged into a Collage and posted it using Picture Collage Maker Pro, Collages of course being original works of art, even if the pictures are borrowed from someone else’s Facebook or Twitter Profile

But aside from the fancy software for making Collages, how does one bulk download Pictures from Twitter from your own Profile or someone else’s? “One one cocoa full basket” is a bit too long; I need something that’s faster than opening one page one at a time.

In my Geezam blog article entitled “How to download Photo Albums and Videos from your Personal and your Friend’s Profile on Facebook” I listed software options that make it easier for you downloaders to ….ahem…. “mek a borrows” of someone else’s pictures on Facebook, even downloading the very last Picture.

So after several months of searching, dear reader, I’ve located a gem or at least a series of gems in the form of Google Chrome Extensions, Apps or Downloadable Programs that help to do the above crime of stealing works of photographic art.

And I shall reveal the fruits of my labour….but not before I tell you why you’ll want to download Twitter Photos: the Organic Engagement of Twitter followers is phenomenal. You see, on Twitter, very few who are on Twitter actually Tweet, suggesting that the few that do are dedicated users and followers of Twitter due its minimalistic approach to Messaging.

Based on Stats by Twitter analyst Twopcharts in the Wall Street Journal, 44% the 974 million Twitterati have never Tweeted as pointed out in the article “Silent birds: 44 percent of Twitter users have never Tweeted”, published April 11, 2014 by Christian Brazil Bautista, DigitalTrends  and “Report: 44% of Twitter Accounts Have Never Sent a Tweet”, published Apr 11, 2014 8:00 am ET By Yoree Koh, Wall Street Journal.

They're considered active users in Twitter metrics, once they log in once a month, which is why their engagement Stats suggest that they have 200 million Active users back in April 2013 as stated in “Twitter surpasses 200M active monthly users”, published December 18, 2012 7:37 AM PST by Jonathan Skillings, CNET News and  “WhatsApp CEO: We're Bigger than Twitter's 200M users”, published April 16, 2013 8:26 AM PDT by Roger Cheng, CNET News. According to the stats from Twopcharts, it's really a lot less.

Blame it on the lackluster interface, which hearkens back to a time when everything was SMS (Short Messaging Service) or Text Messages, not IM (Instant Messaging) where you have oodles of space to say what's on your mind. Truth be told, Twitter needs to launch a new design and new products, such as VoIP Calling over Wi-Fi and 3G, otherwise they face losing a lot of members to rival Mobile Social Media such as Facebook owned WhatsApp.

And that’s exactly what Twitter has done…..

Twitter New Clothes – Facebook’s Timeline Profile look good on you, Twitter

But back to my hunt for a picture stealing Bulk downloader for Twitter! I’ve been looking for something equivalent to that for Twitter but with much difficulty, as it seems most software focus on downloading pictures from Websites, not Social Media, software in itself an article in its own right.

Why my interest in Twitter all of a Sudden?

Well, they’ve been making some weird changes that are making them look more and more like Facebook as stated in “Twitter starts rolling out Facebook-like user profile redesign”, published April 8, 2014 By Mike Flacy, DigitalTrends. The first being announced since Tuesday April 8^th 2014 officially on Twitter’s Blog as stated in “Coming soon: a whole new you, in your Twitter profile”, published Tuesday, April 8, 2014 By David Bellona (@davidbellona), Designer [11:53 UTC], Twitter Blog.

Read up folks; the emphasis is on Photos, with more capabilities now enabled in Twitter aside from just Quad-posted Tagging Photos as I’d pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “Twitter add Photo-Tagging and uploading Multiple Photos as Mobile Social Media Evolves”.

Of course, new features are in the works, which amusingly sound a lot like the offerings on Hootsuite or any of those other SMM (Social Media Management) tool’s I’ve listed in my Geezam blog article entitled “Social Media Management Tools help you to manage your Social Networks all at once”.

First off the bat, your Best Tweets, based either on your choice of Tweets or just Traffic Stats, will be a lot bigger. Ok, that sounds great. You can now Pin Your Tweets, a feature which sounds like it was plagiarized from Pinterest, not Facebook.

Visitors are now treated to your tweet at all times as it makes sure visitors to your Twitter page see your best side at all times. Filtering of Tweets is now possible, again a Hootsuite or SMM Software feature. The options are a little easier but less granular than SMM software though, which I really like:

• Tweets
• Tweets with photos/videos
• Tweets and replies

This will make handling Twitter a lot easier, as it's a little difficult switch between the various sections of Twitter as it is now, since the content and your Followers replies are all jumbled up in one long “Me” Twitter Feed. Still disappointed there's no improved Twitter Integration with Facebook, but making Twitter look more like Facebook is a great start!

You can scope out the following Web Profiles that got an early pre-taste of what's to come, which, Facebook style, is coming whether you like it or not, as mentioned on Twitter’s Blog :

• Film stars @zacefron and @channingtatum
• French TV host @nikosaliagas
• Australian Football League @AFL
• First Lady Michelle Obama @flotus
• Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter @gilbertogil
• Boxer @FloydMayweather
• TV star @kerrywashington
• Musicians @JohnLegend and band @weezer

Finally Real-time Notifications – Twitter steps up to Facebook’s Messenger World

So where’s the improvement to notifications? Twitter has apparently gotten the memo from the members of the Twitterati such as myself that regularly complain via @Twitter; they’ve thrown that in too along with keeping-up-with-Facebook's-timeline changes. Twitter will soon be launching a Web-based Notification System as stated in “Twitter to launch pop-up notifications for the Web”, published April 10, 2014 By Mike Flacy, DigitalTrends.

Again, this was mentioned on their as stated in “Stay connected with notifications on Twitter.com”, published Thursday, April 10, 2014 by Michael Ducker (@miradu) [20:03 UTC], Twitter blog and is an improvement on Twitter sending me email and me having to read notifications of Favourites, ReTweets and Replies to my Tweets in my Gmail Email Account, something that’s a real chore and time-waster to open an extra web-page.

This makes interactions on Twitter more real-time, the main difficulty some people have with Twitter. Unless you have a smartphone with the mobile Twitter App, knowing when someone just Favourites, ReTweets and Replies to my Tweets isn't immediately obvious.

Some of us, such as myself, still have slow computers and even slower Internet, so the Twitter feed doesn’t immediately update. Hence again the reason why I've been using Hootsuite!! The controls to customize your Tweets are a bit basic and hearken to Google Alerts as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Alerts Diamond in the Rough coming to Google+ to deliver Technology News”. 

Hopefully, they’ll add Customized Alerts and Time related Alerts and even the ability to track when someone else Tweets, a sort of Google Alerts for those Twitter stalkers …er…… I mean followers….among us. Somewhat disappointed Twitter hasn’t addressed their lackluster Search Engine to allow you to search with greater precision like Facebook’s Open Graph.

Twitter hasn’t even addressed the issue of Twitter spamming and even Bot Accounts as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “61% of all Traffic on the Internet is generated by bots”, which if the Stats in my article is correct, may even be as much as 50% of those of us who do regularly use Twitter…. assuming they’re human, of course.

Twitter’s PhotoGrabber – Twitter Image Downloader makes it a snap to grab the Last 200

So back to this picture downloading thing! With all this focus on pictures and the Organic Engagement thanks to the dedicated 56% that actually actively Tweet daily, it’s great to know that finally a way exists to download Twitter photos.

The program is called Twitter Image Downloader and it’s as easy as Tweeting itself. Developed by the Developers at CodeBetweentheLines in response to Twitter’s removal of the Photo Grid option as pointed out in “Download all photos a Twitter user has posted”, published January 3, 2013 by Martin Brinkmann, Ghacks, Twitter Image Downloader empowers you with the ability to download Photos in bulk.

If you have a longing for the Photo Grid, you can re-enable the option again once you download one of three Apps or Extensions in Google Chrome Webstore on a Google Chrome Browser:

• ShowPics
• Loupe Collage
• Please bring back Photo Grid View

The advantage of Twitter Image Downloader is that it grabs everything on the target Twitter user account, once you’re logged into Twitter, working much like PhotoGrabber. Please note a few caveats; you’ll have to download Microsoft .NET 3.5 and Microsoft .NET 4.0 in order for the program to work.

Also, it’s a bit slow and not so quick on the draw, requiring that you have a little patience and wait until the pictures populate while it downloads them for the target account. Even more annoying is its 200 image limit; cracking beyond that limitation should be forthcoming in another update of CodeBetweentheLines API (Application Interface) for Twitter Image Downloader.

Still, it works a lot like PhotoGrabber, which is why I love it to bits. Folks, now would be a good time to get active again on Twitter if you’ve not logged in for awhile. Getting the smartphone app isn’t too bad either, be it to post Collages made with Picture Collage Maker Pro or steal…ahem….I mean “mek a borrows” of someone’s Twitter Pictures using Twitter Image Downloader to fit Twitter’s new Groove.

Here’s the links:

Picture Collage Maker Pro

ShowPics

Loupe Collage

Please bring back Photo Grid View

Microsoft .NET 3.5

Twitter Image Downloader

Microsoft .NET 4.0