First impressions: Tweetie for Mac OS X
5:40 am, April 20th, 2009, Craig Grannell
The Mac’s not exactly drowning in great Twitter clients, and especially not in multi-account ones. (EventBox kinda rocks as a social networks aggregation tool, but it supports only one Twitter account.) Oddly, the App Store has a whole bunch of such apps, the best of which is Tweetie.
Occasionally, cut-down versions of apps make their way from the desktop to mobile, but Tweetie’s taken the opposite journey, starting out on iPhone and arriving on the desktop a few hours ago.
First impressions are that the competition has just been largely obliterated in one fell swoop (or at least given a severely tweaked nose). Tweetie’s UI is mostly gorgeous, the app is utterly stable, and it’s also very usable. There are some issues relating to the interface: the inability to scroll via page up/down (although Space/Command+Space does the same job), overly large icons to the left, the too-small ‘new tweet’ button and the entire lack of a refresh button. Also, there aren’t any saved searches at present. However, despite these shortcomings (which, for me, are niggles rather than deal-breakers), it still to my mind betters the likes of Blogo and Twitterific, and is likely to take up a permanent place in my Applications folder.
Check the app out for yourself via the unlimited, ad-supported demo, available from atebits. You can also register for $14.95 until May 4, whereupon the price goes up by five bucks.
Cult of Mac Twitter feeds
For those who’d like to follow Cult of Mac and its contributors on Twitter, check out the following feeds:
- Cult of Mac updates: @cultofmac
- Leander: @lkahney
- Me (Craig): @craiggrannell and @iphonetiny (for mini iPhone app reviews)
- Lonnie: @lonnielazar
- Pete: @morepete
Posted by Craig Grannell in News, Reviews | Comment on this article
Studies have shown it takes several minutes to recover your full attention on a project once one look away towards new email. How much worse is this when it comes to even newer modes of e-communication?
ged, on April 20th, 2009 at 6:54 am
What studies? Don’t other ones say that you should take a break every 50 min, and and that instant messaging increases productivity etc etc. ?
Matthew Kerr, on April 20th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Maybe I’m just getting old (28), but I don’t get the whole twitter phenomena. I don’t want hundreds of 2-line blurbs, I would much rather read one well-written, coherent article/e-mail/whatever. It’s like eating tapas instead of a meal (a lot more work and never quite as filling).
Scott, on April 20th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
@Scott: like any communication, you have to exercise proper judgment when choosing what to let in, and what to let out.
Eric, on April 21st, 2009 at 7:13 am
Like the look and feel of the tweetie interface for personal accounts. For me as an industry professional in marketing/PR, Tweetdeck still wins because I see multiple searches, my accounts, replies, and dm’s all on the same screen without having to switch between different tabs.
Andrew Kippen, on April 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am