Twitter Apps

[Knowlege Bomb]

I've been hearing about this twitter thing for a while and finally gave in and signed up for an account to see what all the hype is about. TBH I don't see the difference between it and Facebook status updates. Facebook actually offers MORE features unless there's something I'm missing.

On to the question though. When I signed up, I figured I'd go for Tweetie because it's a paid app and it has good reviews (4 stars) which are both things that would suggest it was good. After using that for a while I found Twitterfon and downloaded for free. Personally I find Twitterfon to be a more polished app. They both do about the same thing but TF just looks better.

Am I missing something here? Does Tweetie have advantages over it's free counterpart or is it just an aesthetic preference?

 

[MaxPower49]

Here is a pretty good comparison of the twitter apps. The two highest scores were twitterfon and tweetie (both got and A-). I'm new to twitter as well and I just got twitterfon since it was free and has great reviews.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ar...-the-complete-guide-to-all-23-twitter-apps/P0

 

[jediistar]

Tweetie FTW!

 

[GilGrissom]

I currently use Tweetie but I also used Twitterific and Twinkle a lot. I preferred Twinkle for a long time, but heard good things about Tweetie. TO be honest the only things its better at that I have found for me is that Tweetie loads a fraction quicker and that it has the ability to see the current 'trends' on twitter, or what people are twittering and 'hashing' about the most currently.

Tweetie and Twinkle both have location features, though they are not compatible with each other, which to me is foolish as they're both just Google Maps URLs so surely they should be able to read nearby twits from whatever client people are using.

Tweetie needs the option to change colours/themes in a future version, I thought this current version (1.3?) had it but I can't find it!!

I know Stephen Fry (one of THE BIGGEST users of Twitter) is a Tweetie fan.

 

[aok1975]

I've been hearing about this twitter thing for a while and finally gave in and signed up for an account to see what all the hype is about. TBH I don't see the difference between it and Facebook status updates. Facebook actually offers MORE features unless there's something I'm missing.

On to the question though. When I signed up, I figured I'd go for Tweetie because it's a paid app and it has good reviews (4 stars) which are both things that would suggest it was good. After using that for a while I found Twitterfon and downloaded for free. Personally I find Twitterfon to be a more polished app. They both do about the same thing but TF just looks better.

Am I missing something here? Does Tweetie have advantages over it's free counterpart or is it just an aesthetic preference?

Just because an app cost does not mean that its better than its free counterpart. For me the difference between facebook and twitter is that facebook is for finding old friends and twitter for making new ones.

 

[Ashyukun]

We covered Twitter apps back in our second Podcast, though things have changed a bit with some of them since then.

I split my own time between Tweetie and LaTwit. I much prefer Tweetie's UI when it comes to reading tweets, it's in my opinion the best by far visually, but if I know I'm going to be tweeting myself I'll fire up LaTwit since it just works better for that IMO. Basically, visually I prefer Tweetie but functionally I prefer LaTwit.

Twitterfon was our favorite of the free Twitter apps as well though- both Tweetie and LaTwit have nice features that the free ones don't- especially if you have multiple accounts to deal with, so it mainly comes down to whether you use Twitter enough to justify paying the few bucks for the extra functionality...

 

[GilGrissom]

Just because an app cost does not mean that its better than its free counterpart. For me the difference between facebook and twitter is that facebook is for finding old friends and twitter for making new ones.

Kudos. Two very good points summing this up.

 

[OneMike]

I still find twinkle to be the best

 

[anjinha]

I've been hearing about this twitter thing for a while and finally gave in and signed up for an account to see what all the hype is about. TBH I don't see the difference between it and Facebook status updates. Facebook actually offers MORE features unless there's something I'm missing.

On to the question though. When I signed up, I figured I'd go for Tweetie because it's a paid app and it has good reviews (4 stars) which are both things that would suggest it was good. After using that for a while I found Twitterfon and downloaded for free. Personally I find Twitterfon to be a more polished app. They both do about the same thing but TF just looks better.

Am I missing something here? Does Tweetie have advantages over it's free counterpart or is it just an aesthetic preference?

I prefer Twitterfon myself. I guess it depends on each person's needs.

 

[nfl46]

I use Tweetie.

 

[Four20]

I reviewed 19 of the best Twitter Apps*both free and paid) available(at the time of doing the post) here - http://www.appstoreapps.com/2009/01/14/19-twitter-iphone-apps-reviewed-compared/

I gotta say I like Twittelator the best

 

[synagence]

Twittelator Pro is now back to my #1 choice since it went v2 recently ... they rewrote it ... lot faster and cleaner now ... twitterfon is my #2

 

[t0mat0]

Gotta say Tweetie has won me over, from Twitterific which I use less and less. I'll check out Twittelator Pro, but Tweetie is pretty darn good for me (and linking with Instapaper too). The ability to easily change between twitter accounts i've found a winner.

 

[Small White Car]

I love Tweetie. It's a joy to use.

Facebook actually offers MORE features unless there's something I'm missing.

What you're missing is the 'tool for the job' reason.

Facebook = iPhone
Twitter = Shuffle

If I'm going to the gym, what am I going to take?

Put another way, I use Twitter to quickly share random thoughts with people I know (both in the real world and not) and to see what they're thinking. There is no way to do that on Facebook without maintaining the huge infrastructure that is a Facebook page. (Yeah, I could JUST use the FB message system, but who's gonna talk to someone with no other info on their page? No one will.)

So just like a Shuffle is better than an iPhone in some situations, so is Twitter more useful than FB in certain situations.

EDIT: The key to Twitter...and this is VERY IMPORTANT...is this one simple rule:

TWITTER RULE: Only follow people that say things you find interesting.

It seems obvious, but too many people fall into the trap of following celebrities just because they're famous; or following strangers just because they followed you first; or following people who you like on their blogs but who don't use Twitter for much.

Do those things and Twitter is boring. But find people who are funny and interesting and Twitter will be funny and interesting.

 

[synagence]

I find that its that first few days that make or break your twitter life ... it can be somewhat daunting

My advise is to hunt out people into hobbies and subjects you like and start conversations...

I have about 3 or 4 circles of people that i follow and am followed by that cover certain subjects, coffee, tech, photography and mac.... so i can have conversations with those people as well as following a few of the technoratie

 

[brasknucs]

Tweetie!

 

[hboon]

A plug for SimplyTweet (I'm the developer). If you find it hard to navigate or follow reply chains especially - multiple clicks/touches, difficult to read, etc. Then you will probably like SimplyTweet's conversation view.

 

[Minus Human]

Twitterfon works well for me.

 

[IrishSniper87]

Twitterfon gets the job done. It's a good interface and it's free.

 

[RRutter]

Tweetie is what I'm using and it is, in my opinion, the best.

 

[kate-willbury]

I currently use Tweetie but I also used Twitterific and Twinkle a lot. I preferred Twinkle for a long time, but heard good things about Tweetie. TO be honest the only things its better at that I have found for me is that Tweetie loads a fraction quicker and that it has the ability to see the current 'trends' on twitter, or what people are twittering and 'hashing' about the most currently.

Tweetie and Twinkle both have location features, though they are not compatible with each other, which to me is foolish as they're both just Google Maps URLs so surely they should be able to read nearby twits from whatever client people are using.

Tweetie needs the option to change colours/themes in a future version, I thought this current version (1.3?) had it but I can't find it!!

I know Stephen Fry (one of THE BIGGEST users of Twitter) is a Tweetie fan.

agreed. i use tweetie for the time being but i find the UI to be hideous compared to other free twitter apps