Like many iPod Touch users, I paid the ten bucks to upgrade to 3.0 almost entirely for the Push Notifications feature. Sure, copy and paste is nice, and the hotspot auto-login feature seemed appealing, but Push Notifications sold me. I waited for the day it came out, and as soon as I was updated, upgraded, and 3.0 ready, I headed straight to the App Store to grab all of those Push Notification ready apps. But there weren't any (except for Tap Tap Revolution... really?). Slowly, apps started to roll out with Push Notifications. The big one for me was BeeJive IM. But what I really wanted was Twitter. But strangely, there have been no Twitter apps with Push, and no RSS apps with that feature either. IM+ offers twitter push support, but ONLY direct messages. That's useless to me. So I believed a workaround was impossible until some iPhone Devs step up their game. Until today.
I have been scouring the web for a way to get Growl Notifications on my iPod Touch. I've seen countless posts on GrIp, but that's definitely not what I was looking for. I wanted a way to see posts from my MacBook directly on my iPod. I found something to keep me busy: a Twitter notification option (technically it's a style). So I created a twitter account "growl_mac_nwp" and my Growl updates tweeted successfully. But still, I was stuck with no way to view these as Push Notifications. Until today.
Now, I will admit that I'm not a Twitter addict. I barely use it, save for viewing my Growl notifications when away from the computer. But after a few cups of coffee and an intense searching session, I came up with this workaround.
1. Twitter notifications for Growl
2. Use FriendFeed to subscribe to my growl_mac_nwp feed. (Add as friend, and then to Personal/Favorites)
3. Send FriendFeed notifications to IM (Google Chat is the only one supported)
4. Use BeeJive or IM+ to access your Google Chat account, and turn on Push.
5. In the Growl PrefPane Twitter Notification settings, hit the Preview button
6. When your push alert comes through, add the sender's email address as Twitter Alert.
7. Enjoy your Push Notifications for Growl and Twitter.
You will need to confirm all the requests on Twitter and Google Chat, so sign-in to both service and be ready for confirmations.
Tip: create a new Google Chat/Gmail account to receive the notifications, unless you want to get alerts while you're checking email or trying to chat on GChat. I use MailPlane with Growl notifications, which creates duplicate alerts. Alternatively, you can change the MailPlane default style so the Growl alerts don't tweet.
This is pretty much a workaround at best. The notification that pops up will start with Twitter Alert for the IM screenname, then show @6 [twitter user name] and then your tweet. It's not pretty.
My only other complaint is that when I'm sitting in front of my MacBook, I want to see regular Growl notifications on my screen. I'd like to find a way to change the default Growl notification style when my screensaver kicks in, or when my monitor goes to sleep. I have a workaround for that in mind, but since my family members aren't into letting me lab-rat their MacBooks, I can't really test it. My idea is to use the Growl network notification feature to share Growl alerts with another Mac, if you have a server for example. Then, that Mac would display the notifications as Twitter, send the notification, and through the services, arrive nicely on my iPod Touch.
Let me know if anyone has a better way to do this, to make the alerts cleaner, or to allow me to see notifications on both my Touch and my MacBook simultaneously.
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