Twitter and Jaiku aren't build to handle the new world of photos, audio and video

Yeah, sorry. I just can’t take any more.

I can’t tell you how annoying it is to be reading Twitter and Jaiku messages from people brandishing top-of-the-line handsets as they walk around Mobile World Congress.

Whilst the content is fine, the experience is utterly shit.

Let’s be clear: It’s crap. Utterly, utterly rubbish.

Take, for example, Mr Whatley, dedicated mobile genius. He’s at Mobile World Congress with Spinvox busy networking and documenting the goings-on.

I’ve been reading his Jaiku feed. I replied to a post. Before long, there was a little conversation going between me, James and a few others. Conversation turned to weather.

I don’t want to read about it.

I want to SEE it.

I don’t want to go and see a QIK video either. I want it there, in my hand and on my browser. Integrated and working right-away. I don’t want a tinyURL to it. I don’t want Jaiku posting one shitty small picture per day from my Flickr feed either.

Text is over. It’s old. So old. Multimedia, please.

EVERYONE on my Twitter/Jaiku/Whatsit list has a top quality mobile handset with at least 3 megapixels on the camera. Yet these mediums — Twitter and Jaiku in particular, are nothing short of appalling when it comes to anything other than text.

Case in point: Mr Whatley posted a comment on Jaiku saying “I’ll have my flickr photos uploaded later tonight.”

At that point I thought ‘that’s it, I’ve had it waiting for Twitter and Jaiku to innovate’.

The fact that one of the most mobilised chaps on the planet is actually ‘GOING HOME’ (or to the hotel) to upload his Flickr photos highlights just how shit and how broken Twitter & Jaiku really are. There are, I suspect, a wealth of photos on his N95 that have been sitting there for almost 10 hours. When he uploads them, I will definitely have a look. But it’s hardly the same. It’s dull compared to real-time multimedia.

I want to see the pictures and video in-line as he posts his commentary. I ALSO want audio. Real time streamed audio.

The experience with the existing Twitterku is suffering heavily. I think we’ve done text. Now, photos and video please. I’m disappointed that I’m having to even write this text. What the hell are Jaiku and Twitter doing? You can’t just vomit out a platform and let it sit there. Text was great, it’s done now. What’s next? Photos, audio and video. It’s quite fascinating seeing the users of these platforms evolving their requirements — like watching a growing kid trying to fit into last year’s school jumper.

The old model of knocking up a service, launching it and adding slight updates doesn’t work. Not in this fast moving environment — and not when the users themselves are having to resort to publishing stupid notes like ‘I’m using QIK please have a look’ or commenting ‘This is a funny picture [click to view the 1.2mb picture on Flickr’ (an experience no one should be subjected to on a small Nokia browser).

Palringo does audio, text and pictures right now. Published in-line as you experience it. Yes, the Palringo interface isn’t quite, er, usable for the majority yet. But when they update the UI, and provided they do a good job of it, could everyone please PLEASE PLEASE stop using Twitter and Jaiku and use Palringo?