S60 Open to new features

I was all set to blog Jaiku today only to find it's in the air: Darla Mack's got an entry on the new Jaiku WidSets widget. But hey, it's Jaiku—the more the merrier.

Jaiku is a web and mobile place where you post sort of miniature, casual, in-the-moment messages. You know all those trivial must-share moments like "suddenly smell childhood summer in the air" or "best lunch ever"; the moments you don't really need to blog (and shouldn't) but you're sure have some place in the universe? Jaiku is the place for them. A lot of people might find that they've got quite enough communication with their friends and internet strangers already, but I rather like Jaiku. You can post and read your friends' posts from the Jaiku S60 mobile app. The interface is simple, and the application is blissfully nonintrusive: I was using Twitter for a while until I realized I was going crazy with constant SMS updates. But you can open the Jaiku applilcation whenever you want to take a peek at who's doing what.

It also has a bunch of nice features from the web and mobile worlds: it can grab feeds when you do other social stuff online (such as post pics on Flickr or post to your Blogger blog), and setting all of this up is incredibly easy. If you like, Jaiku will display your availability based on your phone's profile: a green light if your ringer's on, a yellow light with a note "shhh!" if you're on silent, and a red light if your phone is off. And, as you can see above, you can also add a snippet of code to display your updates on your blog (if you're feeling hardcore, I guess). All in all, they've done a great job with the features and it's still totally simple to use.

It's really built for mobile, too: I don't spend all my life in front of a computer (despite what my friends say), so really, a "light blogging" application like this should go with you. And it should be simple enough to use that you can post in twenty seconds and forget about it. Jaiku fits this bill, at least. Like all social applications, it's great if a lot of your friends are on it, and also if you've got a bunch of acquaintances there, too. Last weekend a friend posted an impromptu call for brunch, and it turned into a mass gathering with lots of new people being introduced.

Two caveats about using Jaiku on your mobile, though: you'll have to get used to recharging ye olde battery a little more frequently, and of course it uses mobile internet, so you pay for data transfer (but seriously, folks, if you're going to use internet applications on your phone, do go for a fixed-rate data service from your operator). Okay, three caveats: it's kind of addictive, too.

Anyone else? What do you use? Are you sick of social software on your mobile, or do you have to convince all your friends to sign up before you get into it yourself?