Twitterrific 2.0

I've reviewed all kinds of apps in my time here with 148apps, and with each one I try to come to some sort of fair decision on a rating. Usually I can determine how good a game is by the richness of the gameplay or the functionality of the utility, but I am now befuddled. Since all Twitter apps pretty much do the same things, just differently, coming to some sort of coherent conclusion is quite a challenge.

First off, I'm not going to bother explaining Twitter. I'm pretty sure it was created by a mad scientist living in a lair of bluebirds and butterflies. He was lonely one day so he created Twitter. His first post was, "Is anyone out there?". The answer was "yes"... everyone was out there.

None of that was true, but you can indeed quote me on any of it.

For those of you who aren't big on the whole Twitter thing yet, you have to understand that selecting a Twitter app is a deeply personal experience. All of the Twitter apps have their own feel, even though they all do the same thing. For example, many of the Twitter power users use Tweetie because of its ease of use (and PEE, check it out... hilarious), the expert deal-finders tend to use TwitterFon because of it's... free-ness, and the people who like unicorns and happy things use Twitterena, because it's really really happy.

Twitterrific definitely isn't a newcomer onto the Twitter scene. It's original version won the 2008 Apple Design Award for best iPhone social networking app, capturing the hearts of millions for a short period of time (we Twitter users are a fickle bunch, jumping from client to client at a moments notice), but has since become a bit long in the tooth. It needed an update, and Icon Factory responded.

Twittering with Twitterrific 2.0 Posting tweets, the heart and soul of Twitter, is relatively simple, but a bit cluttered with Twitterrific 2.0. On the new tweet page (activated by hitting the text bubble icon on your user page), you are presented with your standard post area with the standard keyboard, but then there are some other icons that seem foreign to me. The icons on top are very functional, consisting of the shorten URL utility, the add picture utility, and an "add map link to Tweet" utility (Note to Iconfactory, if you try to compress text without having any text in a tweet, the app crashes. Note to users, don't try to compress non existing text). The utility that doesn't make any sense to me is the ute that lets you look at your friends posts while you type. In my mind this is a perfect place for a re-tweet function, but instead, all you can do is look. Sad face.

Reading posts on Twitter, arguably the most important aspect of the program, is the most personal part of the app. Some people like the way that different Twitter clients work, while some value ease of use. Some, the Twitterena fans in particular, value the happiness of the app over anything (don't think that I'm picking on Twitterena, I used it for the whole day yesterday and felt cleansed of all negative thought). Twitterrific definitely falls into the category of functionality and utility. The default theme presented to you is made up of darker colors, reminding me of an Apple pro app. I guess that I could change it to a lighter color scheme, but I am a Twitter Pro darnit! So the functionality of the post area (called the timeline in Twitterrific 2.0, and probably every other Twitter app) is rooted into 3 buttons. The button on the top right determines the size of the posts, (large boxes w/ big pics, small boxes w/ no pics, and regular boxes with regular pics) something that is not too common among Twitter apps. The other two button rest on the bottom of the toolbar. We shall start with the "posts about you" button that looks like a funnel. We shall also start a new paragraph... this one is getting a bit long for my taste.

Ok, much nicer. Inside the "posts about you" button (named by me, not Twitterrific), you get to choose between @ you posts, DM's, favorite Tweets, all posts made by you, and any post you mark for later viewing. The other button, marked by a big *, is activated by clicking on a post... any post, they all work. This * button brings up a menu that lets you you look at the author's info page (which looks really nice, I'll talk about it a bit later), @ author posts, the area for retweeting, a link tool, an e-mail author tool, and a way to mark posts as a favorite or just something to come back to. The author page, although a bit tough to get into, (it should be more easily available, maybe just by clicking on the name in the post page) looks amazing. It is, by far, the cleanest looking info page on any Twitter client, giving you almost all the information that one would want about someone. The only downfall, and it is of epic nature, is the inability to see who the person is following and who are their followers. This really needs to be fixed, because stalking people... er... skimming a persons friend list is a great way to meet new people with common interests.

The other stuff... very important. On the main page of the app allows you create multiple accounts on, get this, different micro-blogging sites, such as identi.ca and present.ly.Thinking about alternative micro-blogging sites while trying to become a Twitter ninja just hurts my brain, so you'll have to try them out on your own. I'm sure they all work about the same (I could be wrong, don't shoot me!). There are also a bevy of options for adding an account that I just don't need, such as which server to use and whether or not you want to use SSL. You can also customize what you want to see on your page. For those of you who hate listening, you can even turn off the post area (Timeline)! Insanity.

Back in the main page, there is a whole are for searching, which lets you search by words, screen names, and places, or you can just read all the posts that are nearby. Another great feature on the home page is a trend area, easily providing you with a lovely list of current Twitter trends. Apparently Star Trek is a big topic (I can't wait to see it... don't judge me), but so is Grey's Anatomy. I don't know what this says about the Twitter community. Some people just need to put away their promise rings.

Winding Down This is the moment you have all been waiting for. Will I, Chris Hall, SN @el_christo, use Twitterrific 2.0 as my primary Twitter client? That is tough to say. I really like Twitterrific, but the inability to easily view other people's followers bothers me. The layout is also a bit confusing due to the fact that there are so many icons to dig through. Sometimes less is more, mostly when becoming familiar with a Twitter app. I think that Twitterrific will grow on me though in the coming weeks. One cool thing, for all of you looking to maybe purchase the app, there is a free, ad-supported version available that will surely please your bank account.

One final note, to my delight, Twitterrific 2.0, much like Twitterena, happily chirps at you when there is a new tweet. I love this. You should love this too.

If you want to know my up to the minute thoughts on Twitterrific 2.0, tweet me @el_christo. Be sure to add @148apps too, we give away promo codes like its nobodies business.