Tweetie – Twitter in style ?
Tweetie is a new twitter client for Mac OS X & the iPhone, provided by the folks over at atebits.com. There is both a free (ad-supported) version of the client, and a premium one, which weighs in at $19.95 . That is quite a lot just to get rid of some very discrete ads, so I personally didn’t bother.
Upon first installing the program I’ll admit that I was very impressed with the look, feel and simplicity of the thing. Most mac users will agree that installed 3rd party software can often feel clunky, out of place, and unfinished when placed alongside the clean, brushed metal approach of OS X. This is emphatically not the case with Tweetie.
Perhaps it is because it is specifically designed for Mac that its user interface is well … more Apple than Apple! Whatever the reason though, my proverbial hat comes off too the designers behind tweetie – its stunning. What is more they have been able to capture some of that mac simplicity.
I hate to quote (often dubious) testimonials, but Wired magazine didn’t get it far wrong when they said “Tweetie’s interface is so clean you would think it came straight out of Apple headquarters.”
I should probably move onto features, and at this point I dial down the excitement a few notches.
Tweetie isn’t devoid of features, but compared to competing products like tweetdeck there are some notable exceptions. There is for instance, no anti spam feature, which considering the recent findings about twitter usage is a serious blow. There is also no option to integrate other social networks, such as monitoring your friends facebook updates. Lastly, there is no functionality in tweetie for previewing or sharing videos/images…
That, for me, is a deal breaker – let me explain why:
Twitter is a simple service, and what it does, it does pretty well through the web interface of the site.
That said, the only reason to actually use a twitter client at all (unless you are on a smartphone) is if it brings new functionality to the service. This could be an antispam module, or something as simple as the ability to prioritise updates from specific users. If it doesn’t address this issue, Tweetie could become a piece of ‘eye-candy‘ software, whose sole purpose is to streamline an already lightweight process.
