Twitpic Photo/Video Loader Review

Just as they say "Don't judge a book by its cover" so they should also say "Don't judge an app by its iTunes Reviews." Sadly, this app has gotten some bad scores, but I'm here to set the record straight.

Twitpic Photo/Video Loader does exactly what it says on the tin. In fact, with yFrog and Plixi support, it does a bit more. While the user interface is a bit clunky (I've seen worse), it works just fine at doing what it's supposed to.

To begin, as with any Twitter app, you'll need to add an account. You can add multiple videos, but not upload to multiple sites at once. Once you're logged in, go ahead and snap a photo, take a video, or select either from your library - it will compress and upload your media swiftly. I'm not being sarcastic, it was quite quick over wifi - obviously your mileage may vary, especially if using 3G. The url will automatically be pasted into the status field; all you need to do is add your text and tweet away!

Like I said earlier, the UI is a bit clunky. The status message field is entirely too small for any reasonable message to be seen - this should seriously be fixed, it's very annoying. The only other problem I'd say is that the button to send your tweet is labelled 'Upload' - which can be confusing considering you've already 'Uploaded' your pic or video - so perhaps changing that to "tweet" or some-such would confuse people less.

I seriously think most of the complaints on the App Store were of people simply confused by the UI, although some also seemed to be having actual upload issues. I didn't, and found no problems uploading a video: http://twitter.com/ChantelleJoytwt/statuses/48776269877346304

There is the option to view your timeline from within the App, but I'm sure you already have a preferred method to read your friends' tweets, and will likely only use this to ensure your upload was successful. I do not suggest using this as your main Twitter app; however, until the official Twitter version gets video uploading, this a good one to have.

The only other drawback you might find is that this app does cost $0.99 - keep in mind there are a couple of other 'Free' TwitVid uploading apps out there, so given this one's slight issues, you may want to try those out first. However, I have no doubt that Twitpic Photo/Video Upload is much more feature rich and useful, it just needs a makeover.