Tweeterism » Reviews of Twitter Clients

Reviews of Tweetie: A New Twitter Desktop Client for Mac

tweeterism — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:44:07 +0000

As you may have heard, there’s a new Twitter desktop client in town and its name is Tweetie. Formely an iPhone Twitter app, it was released today as Tweetie for Mac. It’s a feature-rich native client, not something built using Adobe AIR (like most other popular Twitter clients).

I’ll link out to some of the in-depth reviews I’ve read about Tweetie for Mac.

Tweetie for Mac: Better Web Worker Soluton?:

So what do I really think of Tweetie, in the end? The design snob in me wants to love it, declare my devotion to it, and never look at another Twitter client ever again, but the pragmatic web worker in me can’t justify using it for more than casual purposes.

If you’re only following a few people, and you use Twitter for personal rather than professional purposes, then by all means, get Tweetie. But if, like me, you care more about what’s under the hood than the bodywork, stick with Nambu for now.

Is Tweetie For Mac Right For You?:

Tweetie’s approach to saved searches is drastically different from the rest — you’ll either love it or hate it. Instead of adding a new column to your Twitter view, saving a search (select Window -> Open in a New Window from the menu bar) detaches the search term in a new window. Sure, you could position it wherever you’d like, but the new windows for saved searches defeat the purpose of Tweetie’s single column approach.

Hands-On: Tweetie for Mac Shakes Up Twitterverse:

Developed by AteBits, Tweetie’s interface is so clean you would think it came straight out of Apple headquarters. The best part about the app is it separates your feeds based on their type: Timeline, @ replies and direct messages. A bonus is the ability to add multiple accounts, which you can switch back and forth between by simply clicking on an account icon. Also, by clicking on the icon of a magnifying glass, you can perform a quick Twitter search.

We can’t applaud AteBits enough for Tweetie’s design. The message bubbles are reminiscent of iChat, the Mac’s friendly instant-messaging client.

Tweetie for Mac OS X: TUAW Hands-on:

One of my favorite features of Tweetie for Mac is the universal Tweet shortcut. I’ve mapped mine to (CMD-T) so that I can quickly tweet no matter what app is currently in focus. I’ve also mapped hiding Tweetie to Shift-Command-T, so that I can hide the app when it isn’t in use. This helps me be more productive. TweetDeck is nice, but I always get the feeling that I’m spending all my time staring at Twitter, instead of you know, working.

First Look: Tweetie for Mac

Loren Brichter, the developer behind atebits, has not yet warmed up to the popular custom groups feature that other clients like TweetDeck employ. As to whether groups will arrive eventually in Tweetie, Brichter only says that “’Maybe’ is the best answer I can give right now.

Still, this is not exactly a great solution for users who want to filter the users they already follow into, say, one group for news organizations and another for notable users who tweet about a specific topic or industry without having to maintain more than one account.

Tweetie For Mac: A Powerful, Native Twitter Client For The Masses:

And while the app doesn’t offer a true columned UI, it does offer a compromise: Tweetie allows users to break search queries into their own windows, which I actually prefer to having one giant unwieldily window taking up my screen. That said, a few of the navigation options are a little awkward, and the application will feel foreign for the first few days that you use it, especially if you’re coming from a multi-column client like TweetDeck.

Tweetie isn’t for everyone, but I suspect its mix of power and simplicity will appeal to quite a few people, particularly those who find other Twitter clients intimidating.

Tweetree: A Better Way to View Your Twitter Stream

tweeterism — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:55:27 +0000

There are many ways to use Twitter. You can use the standard web interface or a desktop Twitter client like twhirl or tweetdeck. And then there is another way, web interfaces which add an extra layer of features not found on the default Twitter site.

Tweetree is one of them. You log into Tweetree just like you would at Twitter.com and use Twitter from there. What are the benefits using Tweetree, you might ask?

Indented Messages. You can get a better context of what’s going on because you see the posts people are replying to.

Long URLS. Don’t like not knowing where a short URL points to? Tweetree lengthens the url and displays the full url so you’ll never have to click on a link without knowing where you leads to.

Streaming media. Twitpic, youtube videos and other content providers like Qik are all streamed directly on the same page. Which means you won’t even have to click to go check out that video on Youtube. You can view it immediately after reading the tweet.

Now if they could add the option of managing multiple Twitter accounts, Tweetree could be even better. But at the moment, its a great way to use Twitter so try it if you haven’t already!

SpreadTweet: Use this Sneaky Twitter Client at Work

tweeterism — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:49:51 +0000

Find it difficult to use Twitter at work because you’re afraid you’ll be discovered by your superiors or co-workers? SpreadTweet is something you’ll want to check out. This Adobe AIR Twitter client looks like Excel: nobody will suspect that you’re firing a tweet to your friend or favorite celeb while juggling your deadlines.

Twitlet Bookmarklet: A Really Fast Way to Post to Twitter

tweeterism — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:16:04 +0000

Twitlet may just be one of the fastest ways to send out tweets. It’s a javascript bookmarklet you can click to open a pop-up box to type in your messages. It’s faster than clicking to twitter.com or opening up your favorite twitter client. But as a speed tool it faces stiff competition from some other Firefox clients like TwitterFox (update with two clicks from status bar) and TwitterBar, which alows you to post to Twitter from Firefox’s address bar itself (very easy and quick).

If you’re already using either one, Twitlet might not be necessary but still its a novelty item. It’s easy to use and its appeal comes mainly from its strict minimalism. Note that your username and password are stored on it so this isn’t that advisable for shared computers.

TwitterMail: How to Update Twitter Using Email

tweeterism — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:26:38 +0000

If you’re bored of the usual Twitter clients and ways to update Twitter, you can try writing a tweet via email. Twittermail allows you to post to twitter by sending an email to an address they give you when you sign up for an account. Not only that, you can send a message with ‘friends’ or ‘f’ as the subject line to get the last 20 posts from all your friends. TwitterMail also allows you to schedule your posts by adding something like ‘+4 hours’ to your email subject line.

A nifty tool to use if you work in a place which blocks twitter.com or when you want to update Twitter sneakily while checking your work mail inbox. You won’t get caught using Twittermail!

Twhirl 0.9 is Released, Offers More Useful Features

tweeterism — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:50:16 +0000

While it still doesn’t offer the ability to group friends yet (coming soon), the new twhirl release (0.9) is terrific. It’s a great Twitter client for many reasons, as Loic Le Meur excitedly points out in his blog post. Here are the new features:

Spellchecker (currently English only, can be deactivated in settings if you use Twhirl in other languages)
your Twitter @replies will display even if you are mentioned in the middle of a tweet
don’t miss anyone quoting your name
share all your updates to all your favorite social software via Ping.fm support: Twhirl now posts to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more
follow any topic in near-realtime: searching for a term or a brand and then activating it as a saved search it will bring all future mentions of it into your timeline
record a video and post it straight to Twitter, then get your Seesmic video replies and follow the video conversation
get new Seesmic replies and videos in realtime thanks to XMPP support
support for bit.ly url shortnener with stats and history
support for direct messages and favorites on laconi.ca/identi.ca

There’s much better integration with Seesmic, as you can tell. But even if you’re not a seesmic user, there are some features here that really improve on usability. Spellchecking is a great addition as it helps to highlight and correct mispelled words. The new Twitter replies function uses Twitter search, which means that you won’t miss any messages at all as long as your @username is included in the twitter (something Tweetdeck offered).

For the broadcasters, the ability to directly post via Ping.fm and other services is a great way to simultaneously update your statuses on several social networks. I’m using twhirl and would recommend it. Eagerly looking forward to the groups feature, hope it doesn’t take too long to arrive!

You can download the new twhirl here.

Friendbar Review: Streaming Your Twitter Friend Updates

tweeterism — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:23:59 +0000

Friendbar is a Firefox toolbar addon that displays a stream of text and photo updates from your Twitter and Facebook friends. After installing it and logging in, you’ll only see your Twitter friend updates but you can reply or retweet them using the toolbar. It also helps to create a tiny URL for the webpage you are viewing, if you’re interested in sending out some tweets.

It operates like a news ticker, displaying updates constantly. However, instead of slow scrolling motion, updates are changed through a fast swooshing motion, which can be very distracting when you have a lot of friends or people who update rapidly. A different choice of update change animations would be great.

The toolbar also comes with a search box for Google or Twitter search. This is pretty much redundant since firefox already offers a search box for this. The settings are quite basic for a new toolbar and it is missing the option to play a sound when you recieve a reply or direct message, which would help a lot in differentiating between those and other updates.

While you can scroll left and right through updates by clicking on the arrows at either end, a pause or ‘time-out’ option would be very useful indeed, especially when you need to concentrate but don’t want to hide the toolbar yet.

All in all if you don’t mind installing another toolbar (not something th appeals to everyone), Friendbar might be something you’ll enjoy. I especially think its very good in two scenarios: 1)when you follow too many people (more manageable) and 2)when you practically live in your firefox browser the whole day. Still, give it a try if you’re adventurous. I’m sure the developers will iterate and improve the toolbar soon enough.

If you’ve got any questions about the toolbar, send a message to @friendbar.