SAMPLING TWITTER

I DO HAVE A SMARTPHONE. can I still use Twitter? Do I need an account?

YOU do not need a touch-screen mobile gadget or even an account to sample the free service.

With or without an account, it is possible to write posts and follow other Twitter users over S.M.S  text on a feature phone that has texting capability and a data plan.

Twitter has a set of S.M.S. accounts that let you perform basic actions, like following or unfollowing another Twitter user.

You can also browse posts from users with public accounts on the Twitter.com site, as long as you know the name of the account, or accounts you want to read.

Once you know the name the account name, just add it [after a slash] and the end of the twitter.com address to go to that user's page of tweets on the web.

And you can use Twitter's search page to look for account names or topic keywords. 

If you want to post and experience Twitter without having to fiddle with S.M.S codes or manually search for content - but are not up to being a public presence in the Twitterverse - you can also create a protected account instead instead of a public one.

With a protected account, you can follow other users with public accounts and add their posts to your feed.

But if people want to follow and interact with you, they must send you a request first.

[J.D.Biersdorfer]