Schiller answering questions on Twitter

Last week, we reported that Apple's Phil Schiller has gotten a verified account on Twitter, and since then, his popularity on the short form social networking service has apparently skyrocketed. Rather than just retreat to the shadows, he's stepping up into the limelight, sharing insights and answering questions of all kinds from Apple fans. It's pretty awesome, actually -- he's sharing everything from his favorite apps to why you have to put in your iTunes password every time you install a new app (for security's sake -- Apple wants your approval for every piece of software on your machine). It's cool to see a senior member of Apple not named Jobs getting so hands-on with Apple's customers.

TechCrunch has a few other tidbits from Schiller's tweets so far: the @appleincnews account that seems real on Twitter actually isn't, but the @itunes accounts are completely official. And he hasn't yet tried Reeder for Mac, but he is a fan of the iOS version.

All in all, it seems like Schiller is really "getting" Twitter -- he's declined to share his Game Center name, so he still wants some privacy, but he is using the service as it's meant to be used, reaching out directly to customers en masse. You never know -- maybe a good word from Schiller to Jobs might get us a verified account for Steve himself.