So this is what happened to Twitter today, causing trouble the world over. To lighten your mood, post-Twitterpocalypse…

The social media world is in a state of disarray as Twitter remains down and out – by my own reckoning it’s been unobtainable for almost an hour. Surely the longest time in its history? Even in the dark days of 2007?

Either due to their link up or the thousands and thousands of users flocking to it from Twitter, Facebook too has been struggling. They, however, appear to be handling the problems much better. Normal service was resumed in less than 20 minutes for myself, though it does remain unstable to say the least.

Twitter does not know what is wrong, as they freely admit on their status blog, but the top two trending topics were “Tweets Created” and “Twitter Zombies” – I assume referring to the random new Twitter accounts following people (I had six in less than two minutes this morning”) and the random Tweets some accounts are producing (only one of those for me and I found it amusing).

Someone, it seems, has decided to attack and disable Twitter. One commenter on Mashable.com did, however, point out that the DEFCON hackers convention took place in Vegas only recently…

50,000+ Apps available!

Apple iPhone 3G

That’s what gets screamed at you when you consider an iPhone or even after you’ve bought one and you are wondering what to do with it. It’s a genuine claim – but how many of them are of any use at all?

Let’s take games out of the equation. If you like games, you can spend your own time digging through them for the ones you like. Instead we’ll focus on the social networking, entertainment and news apps to start with. Which are the good ones, the ones that will actually help you? It can be hard to tell and when you’re asked to spend as much as £5.99 in some cases then you need to know.

I have avoided paying for too many apps just yet, so here’s my top 7 FREE iPhone apps for helping you be more productive and informed.

1) Evernote

This is a brilliant app that keeps you in touch with all the notes you’ll ever make. Install the app on your iPhone and the software on your various laptops and PCs and they stay in sync, permanently. So no matter what you use or where you are, you’re up to date. So what is it really?

Evernote allows you to keep ‘notes’ – whether written in, full web pages, snippets of web pages, PDF files, images..as much as you can think of, you can store them through Evernote. The clever thing is that it is fully searchable. Evernote will search within any file – INCLUDING images.

Give it a try. It’ll really keep you organised on the move.

2) ESPN ScoreCenter

For the sports fans this is an absolute must. ESPN ScoreCenter does what it says on the tin. Gives you sports scores for a wide range of sports. There are many like it, of course, but here’s why I prefer this one over the rest. Firstly, it’s ESPN – you can’t go wrong. Secondly you can save your favourite sports, tournaments and even teams so you never have to look around. And finally, the interface is just beautiful. Nothing wasted, it just works.

I love it.

3) Urbanspoon

There are mixed reviews for this but I don’t know why. The app itself is excellent. It’s content is only as good as its users though – in other words, don’t be lazy, if you know a good restaurant, add it to Urbanspoon!

Yes, it’ll find places to eat based on where you are, providing address, phone number, email, website, map and reviews. What more do you need? You can also use it to find by the type of food you like. Mexican restaurant in Camden? Urbanspoon will tell you where, how much and how to get there – assuming someone has entered it into the database of course…

Ok, it’s not infallible – but it’s the best one I can find and it works all over the world. Best results in the UK and US from what I can work out so far in testing.

4) IM+ Lite

For a free app this is pretty powerful. Combine your MSN/Windows Live, AIM,  MySpaceIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber, Twitter and GoogleTalk accounts into one and take it with you wherever you go. IM+ Lite is immense.

It’s simple to use, you can see who is signed in on what chat client and it even includes smileys. Happy days for chat addicts!

Oh, you can also get the paid for version (£5.99) which also includes Skype and Facebook.

5) Shazam

You’re in a pub or club. A tune comes on and you love it. But the name of it escapes you. None of your mates can think of it either and it’s SO good you want to download it. How? Shazam.

Shazam will listen, search and report back with the song title, artist and iTunes download link. It’s never been wrong in my experience either. Nuff said? I think so.

6) TV Guide

One for the UK based (or those with Sky access) only I’m afraid. TV Guide.co.uk is just that. A super comprehensive TV guide for all UK digital terrestrial, satellite and cable channels. What I like about this one is that it is accurate and in depth.

It is based on a Now & Next interface, but tap a channel and you get the full day, with a brief synopsis of each programme on. You couldn’t ask for more. From BBC One through Sky Sports to The Adult Channel. Get it!

And finally…because you have to have SOME fun (and it’s topical)…

7) Terminator Salvation (Lite)

I love the Terminator franchise and to get to play this for free is just fun. Download it yourself and blast some cyborgs away. It is only the Lite version, yes, but it might give you a taste for the full paid for version – £2.99 at your nearest iTunes Store.

What are your favourite free (or paid for if you like) apps that make your life easier? I’m dying to build up a decent set on my iPhone.

Facebook. Google. Apple.

Names already linked with the purchase of Twitter. Microsoft has probably been mooted at some point too.

But the question is – who would be better off buying it?

Who will buy Twitter?

Twitter is a wonderful thing but it is not a business. It is currently unprofitable and I have yet to hear a good enough method of turning that around. Advertising is, of course, the most obvious and would suggest that the best suitor to Twitter is advertising king

Perhaps the question is, then, who needs Twitter more, not who can do more for Twitter.

Google grasps the free and open landscape of the internet, to which Twitter is an integral part. Google’s many fingers are everywhere and it seems unlikely that owning Twitter would enhance their position much. But when did that ever stop them? They bought Blogger and haven’t changed it much. It just rolls on the same as it ever did. It’s done nothing for Google itself though, really.

The same cannot be said for Facebook, Apple or even Microsoft.

Facebook has adopted a Twitter-esque interface in its latest design but I find it hard to understand how they would benefit from Twitter, technically or commercially. Facebook can’t even make itself profitable. Integration could only really mean replacing their current status update model with the Twitter feed. Unless you have any ideas?

Which leaves Apple and Microsoft. Apple is traditionally a hardware company. One of the best. Its online forays, however, have been disappointing at best and completely ignored at worst. Could Twitter, then, give it not so much a new lease of life online as signal its official entrance?

Apple can certainly afford it. Twitter turned down a $500 million cash and share offer from Facebook based on the fact they couldn’t decide how much Facebook stock was worth. A cash-only offer from Apple is a very real possibility, however. And likely to be significantly more than the original $500m offer too.

The iPhone has many Twitter apps, such as Tweetie, which are a nice litte earner for Apple. But the company doesn’t need to OWN Twitter to benefit from it in that sense. This article explains the benefits to Apple better than I could (and credit for sparking this off in my head must go to the author too!).

So finally – Microsoft. To my mind, Microsoft have been strangely silent on the social media front outside of their own endeavours. And their own endeavours, such as Windows Live, have been met with a mixed reaction. While I use Live Messenger, I do not like anything else to do with it. And even Live Messenger is a bloated piece of software, even if it is almost Google-esque in its useability.

The idea that Microsoft would branch out into the wider, freer world is almost unthinkable. It wouldn’t be the first time the company has surprised us though and if they did emerge as a possible suitor to Twitter I wouldn’t be surprised.

Though I may be horrified…

But which one of these would make Twitter profitable? And how? Outside of Google and its advertising model, I’m at a loss.

I’d love to hear your ideas.

Red Dwarf - bigger than Jesus on Twitter trending topics

The 9th series of Brit comedy show Red Dwarf, starring Craig Charles and Chris Barrie, aired on Dave (UK TV channel) tonight. The result?

#RedDwarf hit the number one spot on Twitter trending topics, beating Happy Easter, Happy Good Friday, Hannah Montana and…Jesus.

A remarkable achievement given it IS Good Friday and Easter! I am happy to say I played my part in that.

If you haven’t seen #RedDwarf, then I can recommend the first six series to you. YouTube it. You won’t be disappointed. Stay away from series 7 and 8, however.

Incidentally, the jury is still out on the quality of series 9…