Welcome to Xhatch, Jason Dinsmore

Adam and I are so happy to announce our first full time team member on Xhatch, Jason Dinsmore. Jason, Adam’s old colleague and friend from GeoMonkey, will be joining us as our Software Engineer and is based in the Portland area. We are very excited to add a person passionate about development as Jason is, and hope he is the first of a few more. Stay tuned! Here’s a quick bio about Jason:

Jason Dinsmore, Software Engineer

Jason (@dinjas) specializes in Web Development + Programming and feels a special bond with both the JavaScript and Ruby languages.

At Xhatch, Jason collaborates closely with Adam on web-related projects. Whether writing back-end code in Ruby to support the functionality of a mobile app, manipulating the front-end DOM with jQuery, or playing a supporting role in business development activities, Jason enjoys wearing many hats and loves the fast pace and passion of the agile environment.

Recently married, Jason lives with his wife and family on a pseudo-farm in SW Washington where he finds himself surrounded by 4 dogs, 3 goats, and 3 cats… we won’t count the birds, fish, or hamster! In his free time he enjoys working around the house, playing guitar, wakeboarding, and collaborating on projects with friends just to name a few.

You can follow Jason at @dinjas on Twitter.

Pimp My Profile: Facebook Cover Template

When our Xhatch team saw the new Facebook timeline, we fell “in like” with it (get it?). The hero area, known as the “cover” was some great real estate to create something visually appealing. Sure, you can use a photo on Facebook already, but if you want to customize it a bit more, you definitely can.

I put together a quick Photoshop template for those of you who want to create a personalized Facebook Cover. Download it here.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the Facebook Cover will visually be 850×310 pixels, but the size of the image needs to be 863×315 pixels. See Firebugged image:

Also, subscribe to me on Facebook :)

Tweetbot: The Best Twitter iPhone App

I have played around with a lot of Twitter applications for the iPhone. My least favorite one is Twitter’s official iPhone app and up until recently Osfoora was my favorite. However, Tapbot’s Tweetbot is now my favorite Twitter application for the iPhone, and I believe it is the best one.

The interface is very slick and they actually created a joyful experience using sound effects to enhance the experience vs. ruining it. If you do not like it, you can mute it. However, Tweetbot has a few features that I have not seen done well in other iPhone applications:

Muting

One of the best features on Tweetbot is the mute feature. Do you ever have times when you want to mute someone you’re following because they are in a Twitter chat, watching a show or sport, or (like me sometimes) just tweets too much? Rather than unfollowing, Tweetbot has a mute feature, which you can actually set the duration you would like to mute them. Keep in mind that this only works on the iPhone app itself and you will see those tweeps in your timeline if you view on another app or the web. It is actually a feature that Twitter should implement themself.

Note: I actually did not mute Guy. This is just a screenshot ;)

Lists As Your Timeline

This is probably my favorite feature. I can browse my timeline as different lists I have. If I am not in the mood to read all tweets from the 900 or so people I follow, I can simply select a list. The nice thing is when you dismiss the app, it will default back to that list you selected.

Drafts

Like the Wren app for the Mac, Tweetbot allows you to draft up tweets versus just posting like crazy. As I use Twitter more, I realize that I do not want to just shoot off thoughts out of the blue, but instead prefer to keep it on ice for a bit. The drafts allow you to queue them up.

Notes

Who are we kidding..this is an identical copy of notes for the iPhone. However, it’s great because it’s in app. I use this feature to write responses and jot down ideas of things I want to tweet about later.

Tweetbot overall is worth the few bucks to use or at least try out. I really rely on Tweetbot when I want a lighter viewing experience on Twitter. Sometimes my timeline is a bit overwhelming and I use Tweetbot for a more intimate experience.

You can download it on the app store here.