How to use Twitter on your mobile

What have Barack Obama, Stephen Fry and Pocket Gamer got in common - other than having a natty way with words and a stratospheric level of popularity, that is? Simple - we all love to Twitter.

If you’ve had your head stuck in the sand for the past few months or, y’know, you have a busy and meaningful life, you may not have picked up on this latest social-technological craze. Twitter is a service that permits you to record and share your every random thought through brief sentences submitted to an online hub.

As well as your own musings, you can connect with others and establish a network of ideas and responses to ideas that could very well lead to the invention of perpetual motion or odourless cheese. Possibly.

It’s kind of what we’ve all been doing on social networks and in emails for years, but in a condensed, snappy format. We like it.

Even better, you can vomit your every thought while out and about through your internet-enabled mobile phone. Sign up to Twitter on your computer, then follow these simple steps:

How's this for a gentle start: point your mobile browser towards http://m.twitter.com and enter your log-in details.
You’ll be presented with a simplified, low-data usage interface. Go ahead and type in what you’ve been up to, or check out other people’s recent contributions.
Scroll to the bottom and you’ll notice five options for navigating around the site. These let you view replies to your musings, look at the latest public posts or examine your own profile.
You can also use the site as it appears on your computer by clicking on the ‘Standard’ button at the bottom of the page - although this will obviously be slower, heavier on the data usage and far less wieldy.
You can also let the world know what you're up to via SMS, by going into your Twitter account on your computer, selecting 'Devices' and registering your mobile number.
Now you can send the usual updates via SMS by texting your 140 character message to +447624801423 (if you’re based in the UK).