It seems like there is a new twitter client released every week, mostly in the form of Adobe Air application because it is easy to deploy applications on all platform. So when I first heard that a native Mac Twitter client Tweetie will be made available by the same guys who made the popular iphone twitter client by the same name, I was anxiously waiting for it. Now that its already out for some weeks now, time for a short review.
Notable Features:
Threaded Conversations: With native Mac client comes features and styling that are unique to macs. Threaded conversation views on twitter DMs works the same way chat conversations works with ichat. This also works with individual tweets. This may seem like a standard feature for a mac app but most twitter clients (specially the popular ones) dont have this threaded conversation feature.
Search: Powerful search integration. The search result window can be separated from the application and you can get updates as new search results gets refreshed on the has tag or the search term you were looking for.
Handling Multiple accounts: Using multiple accounts in a single twitter client has always been an issue with most twitter clients. Most Clients handle it by having multiple windows or bundling accounts in a very confusing way. Tweetie does it seamlessly by stacking accounts in a way that makes it easy going back and forth from one account to another.
There is only so much innovation you can do from the client side when there is same API access available to all client developers, in that regards tweetie mac desktop client has some impressive unique features.
Pros: A native mac desktop clients that is not limited by the similar design of Adobe Air apps. Threaded conversation and multiple accounts handling seamlessly is a major plus.
Cons: With so many very impressive free twitter clients available with more or less the same features in all clients, it makes little sense to have a commercial desktop twitter client (or even ad supported for that matter).
