Control your Mac with Twitter
Hi, I’m Leslie, and I’m a Twitter-holic. I admit I have a problem. I was tweeting from my phone all during a two week power outage where I live. I tweet while in the car if I’m not driving. I tweet on trains, planes, buses, from my MacBook, in waiting rooms, pretty much anywhere my phone or laptop can get a signal. Oh it isn’t all play, I also work via Twitter much of the time. Toss in the fact that I’m a total Apple junkie, and the news I could control my Mac with Twitter sent me into spasms of glee.
Prepping for controlling your Mac via Twitter:
1) Set up your Twitter account to see your phone, then get a reliable phone that will let you tweet via SMS or via a program like PocketTwit (for Windows Mobile phones) or Hahlo (for iPhones).
2) Use Automator (an Apple application) to design and set a few tasks before hand. Make these tasks into Apple Scripts. The originator of the Mac controlled by Twitter idea, Danny Hinkley from Maciverse, has a few scripts for you at his site.
3) Use Mail to generate actions based on each Apple script when the right messages or RSS feeds come in from Twitter.
Be sure to test the scripts by sending each task from your Twitter client, Twitter.com or your phone. If you did each Apple script correctly then each incoming message will trigger a script. You can set the scripts to do things like email yourself reminders, turn the Mac on and off, add iCal items, and more. I wish this had been my idea, I truly do, but must admit it never occurred to me. Hat tip to Danny for coming up with this fun use of two of my favorite things, my MacBook and Twitter.
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January 7th, 2009
Is there any information about this subject in other languages? Happy new year for everyone.