Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Reviews
Tweetie for Mac OS X: TUAW Hands-on
When Tweetie for the iPhone was released late last year, many users
When it comes to desktop Twitter clients, Mac OS X has a pretty great selection (especially when compared to our Windows and Linux friends). Just off the top of my head, I can list: Nambu (which Mat reviewed last week), EventBox, TweetDeck, DestroyTwitter, Twhirl, Lounge, and of course, the original, Twitterrific. While all of these apps vary in features and interface, the trend seems to be that the more advanced apps all use Adobe AIR, rather than Cocoa. That's not necessarily a good thing.
Adobe AIR has great potential, but when it comes to something like a Twitter client, I prefer native apps that don't hog my memory (and I have 4 GB of RAM, but TweetDeck and others have total Firefox complexes). Fortunately, Tweetie for Mac is both native and feature-rich.
Check out the gallery and read on for more details.
Gallery: Tweetie for Mac OS X
The Look:
Tweetie for Mac is a really, really pretty app. The elegance of the iPhone app was refined and extended to the desktop. The dock icon and menu bar status icon aren't Iconfactory-worthy (but then, very little is), but the app itself is beautiful and sleek.
You can adjust the size of the text in tweets from 10pt to 14pt and adjust the height and width of the app with a certain amount of fluidity. Rather than having buttons on the bottom of the app, which is how many other Twitter clients work (and how Tweetie for the iPhone works), panels on the left-hand side dictate what you see.
You can access your timeline, any @messages, direct messages and search. Additionally, there is support for multiple accounts (yay!), and clicking on an account's avatar switches to that account.
Double-clicking on a tweet displays a full conversation (if one exists) and right-clicking a tweet lets you repost (re-tweet), reply, copy the link to tweet, add as a favorite, direct message or open in a browser. Switching back to the timeline after playing around in another area takes you to where you last stopped, with any new content auto-refreshed (on a 5-minute, as far as I can tell) auto-loaded and accessible by scrolling above.
Double clicking on a user's avatar takes you to their timeline and their mentions (or @replies), and also gives you the option to follow or unfollow.
The whole interface is pretty slick. To create a new tweet, either click on the tweet button at the bottom of the app, or enter ⌘N (CMD-N). You can choose what account to send a tweet from using a dropdown menu at the bottom of the tweet.
Tweetie for Mac is a really, really pretty app. The elegance of the iPhone app was refined and extended to the desktop. The dock icon and menu bar status icon aren't Iconfactory-worthy (but then, very little is), but the app itself is beautiful and sleek.
You can adjust the size of the text in tweets from 10pt to 14pt and adjust the height and width of the app with a certain amount of fluidity. Rather than having buttons on the bottom of the app, which is how many other Twitter clients work (and how Tweetie for the iPhone works), panels on the left-hand side dictate what you see.
You can access your timeline, any @messages, direct messages and search. Additionally, there is support for multiple accounts (yay!), and clicking on an account's avatar switches to that account.
Double-clicking on a tweet displays a full conversation (if one exists) and right-clicking a tweet lets you repost (re-tweet), reply, copy the link to tweet, add as a favorite, direct message or open in a browser. Switching back to the timeline after playing around in another area takes you to where you last stopped, with any new content auto-refreshed (on a 5-minute, as far as I can tell) auto-loaded and accessible by scrolling above.
Double clicking on a user's avatar takes you to their timeline and their mentions (or @replies), and also gives you the option to follow or unfollow.
The whole interface is pretty slick. To create a new tweet, either click on the tweet button at the bottom of the app, or enter ⌘N (CMD-N). You can choose what account to send a tweet from using a dropdown menu at the bottom of the tweet.
Direct messages are displayed in bubbles like in iChat, which is neat.
The menu bar icon turns blue when you you have new information in your timeline, replies tab or direct messages. Already, plenty of users are asking for Growl support. I turn Growl support off in Twitterrific, so it is really going to be depend on your individual workflow.
Advanced Features
Multiple accounts is one of the marquee features of Tweetie for the iPhone, and it is just as nice for Tweetie for the Mac. Handling multiple accounts on the desktop is generally a cumbersome process (there are exceptions) that I usually avoid -- using my iPod touch to access secondary accounts instead. Tweetie for Mac makes handling multiple accounts easy, and tweeting from various accounts easy as well. If I want to retweet something from my @film_girl stream to @theflickcast, I can do that.
In addition to multiple accounts, having the ability to search Twitter from within the app or go directly to a certain user will make TweetDeck fans happy. The ability to save searches isn't available right now (though I wouldn't be surprised to see it added in the future), so heavy TweetDeck users won't be completely appeased.
One of my favorite features of Tweetie for Mac is the universal Tweet shortcut. I've mapped mine to ⌘T (CMD-T) so that I can quickly tweet no matter what app is currently in focus. I've also mapped hiding Tweetie to Shift-Command-T, so that I can hide the app when it isn't in use. This helps me be more productive. TweetDeck is nice, but I always get the feeling that I'm spending all my time staring at Twitter, instead of you know, working.
For fans of user groups, Tweetie doesn't have any implementation the way Nambu and TweetDeck do. I've been clamoring for user groups in Twitter for over a year, and while it would be nice to see an implementation in Tweetie, I'd actually rather see the implementation in Twitter itself first.
You can choose what URL shortening and what photo-appending service you want to use with Tweetie. There's also a nice Tweetie-bookmarklet available here.
Final Thoughts:
The separate window approach for tweet creation isn't going to appeal to all users. It doesn't bother me, but I can see plenty of people preferring the attached-window approach of Twitterrific. Likewise, although there are keyboard shortcuts to reply and re-post tweets, access other areas of the interface and whatnot, I hadn't found an easy way to hit the "send" button on a tweet without using the mouse until other people began mentioning the CMD-Return shortcut today.
Overall, I'm really pleased with Tweetie for the Mac. After using it for the better part of the weekend and playing with version 1.0 this morning, this is really shaping up to be a great app.
Tweetie for Mac is $14.95 US (introductory price through May 2, 2009) for an ad-free version; an ad-supported version is free (similar to Twitterrific's pricing option). Tweetie requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Intel or PPC) and is available now.
The menu bar icon turns blue when you you have new information in your timeline, replies tab or direct messages. Already, plenty of users are asking for Growl support. I turn Growl support off in Twitterrific, so it is really going to be depend on your individual workflow.
Advanced Features
Multiple accounts is one of the marquee features of Tweetie for the iPhone, and it is just as nice for Tweetie for the Mac. Handling multiple accounts on the desktop is generally a cumbersome process (there are exceptions) that I usually avoid -- using my iPod touch to access secondary accounts instead. Tweetie for Mac makes handling multiple accounts easy, and tweeting from various accounts easy as well. If I want to retweet something from my @film_girl stream to @theflickcast, I can do that.
In addition to multiple accounts, having the ability to search Twitter from within the app or go directly to a certain user will make TweetDeck fans happy. The ability to save searches isn't available right now (though I wouldn't be surprised to see it added in the future), so heavy TweetDeck users won't be completely appeased.
One of my favorite features of Tweetie for Mac is the universal Tweet shortcut. I've mapped mine to ⌘T (CMD-T) so that I can quickly tweet no matter what app is currently in focus. I've also mapped hiding Tweetie to Shift-Command-T, so that I can hide the app when it isn't in use. This helps me be more productive. TweetDeck is nice, but I always get the feeling that I'm spending all my time staring at Twitter, instead of you know, working.
For fans of user groups, Tweetie doesn't have any implementation the way Nambu and TweetDeck do. I've been clamoring for user groups in Twitter for over a year, and while it would be nice to see an implementation in Tweetie, I'd actually rather see the implementation in Twitter itself first.
You can choose what URL shortening and what photo-appending service you want to use with Tweetie. There's also a nice Tweetie-bookmarklet available here.
Final Thoughts:
The separate window approach for tweet creation isn't going to appeal to all users. It doesn't bother me, but I can see plenty of people preferring the attached-window approach of Twitterrific. Likewise, although there are keyboard shortcuts to reply and re-post tweets, access other areas of the interface and whatnot, I hadn't found an easy way to hit the "send" button on a tweet without using the mouse until other people began mentioning the CMD-Return shortcut today.
Overall, I'm really pleased with Tweetie for the Mac. After using it for the better part of the weekend and playing with version 1.0 this morning, this is really shaping up to be a great app.
Tweetie for Mac is $14.95 US (introductory price through May 2, 2009) for an ad-free version; an ad-supported version is free (similar to Twitterrific's pricing option). Tweetie requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Intel or PPC) and is available now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Tony said 2:56PM on 4-20-2009
I've downloaded and installed. I've been using TweetDeck for a while, and have also tried the Seesmic Desktop beta. Some thoughts:
* Tweetie needs Growl notifications. (I think they're planning on that feature...)
* I really miss the Facebook integration that TweetDeck has. Sometimes I want a Tweet to also be my FB status update. TweetDeck makes it simple. Then again, TweetDeck doesn't support multiple accounts...otherwise I'd stick with it.
* Overall I'm liking Tweetie for Mac. Can't wait for added functionality. The devs say they have a ton of things in the pipeline...
* When I first went to add my 2nd account, it wouldn't validate. Kept getting an authentication error. Emailed support, they got back FAST. Turns out it's an issue on Twitter's end. The fix was weird, but worked: try to add your account with the @ symbol in front of your username. You'll get an error that you can't use your email address to log in. Remove the @ symbol and try again. Viola! Worked for me...
Reply
cynyc said 7:04PM on 4-20-2009
Thanks for the tip on how to add multiple accounts! Worked for me.
diskgrinder said 5:50PM on 4-21-2009
try tweetsync for FB
Tony said 1:55PM on 4-22-2009
@diskgrinder - TweetSync is ok, but seems too limiting to me. From the description it can:
- Syncing your tweets with your Facebook when you include a
certain keyword in the tweet
- Syncing ALL tweets with Facebook
- Syncing ALL tweets unless a keyword in included in the tweet
The problem is, I only want to sync a tweet every now and then, and would rather not take up any of my 140 chars with an extra keyword. With TweetDeck, it's just a tick box. Either post it to FB or don't. That's what I'd like to see added to Tweetie.
RazorD said 2:57PM on 4-20-2009
Can you change how often it checks twitter?
Reply
stevengreen said 3:01PM on 4-20-2009
i use eventbox it rocks :)
Reply
James said 7:58AM on 4-21-2009
I keep trying every Twitter app out there, but I keep ending up back at EventBox as well.
Jay Barcelo said 3:11PM on 4-20-2009
There is an issue with the Search, not fully functional. No Saved Searches, and the content disappear when click back to the main window and click back again to the search window... not good.
Waiting for update that important feature.
Reply
Jason said 3:21PM on 4-20-2009
You can break that search window on to its own window so it doesn't close when you go back to main window. While in your search, go to the Window menu and Open In New Window.
Jay Barcelo said 5:33PM on 4-20-2009
Hi Jason, That's not the problem. The problem is if you for click the Search window, type something and then the results appear, after that if you go back to the main window and then click the search back the last results disappears, even the keyword entered clears. In other words Tweetie does not retain the last information entered on the search window, this is a must fix for people that use Search/Monitor trends a lot like me.
Cheese Rations said 3:10PM on 4-20-2009
Command-T for new Tweets? How do you get by in Firefox? Not much of a tabs user? Don't use Firefox?
Reply
Christina Warren said 3:21PM on 4-20-2009
I seriously am a dumbass. It didn't even occur to me. Changing to something less used now.
*smacks forehead*
Cheese Rations said 3:24PM on 4-20-2009
Ha! It was a great thought, though! Command-T is definitely convenient, but not so much for web browser. I thought you somehow lived without tabs or something. *gasp!*
cSchug said 3:29PM on 4-20-2009
Obviously you wouldn't be focused on Firefox if you're trying to use Tweetie. CMD T isn't a system wide shortcut.
Cheese Rations said 3:36PM on 4-20-2009
@cSchug: Obviously you haven't used Tweetie for Mac. The whole point of the "Global Hot Keys" feature that allowed her to define this shortcut is so that you can easily tweet *without* having Tweetie focused.
What would be the point of hot key otherwise? What you're suggesting is equivalent to setting up a hot key for the "Return/Enter" key.
jonathan said 7:54AM on 4-21-2009
also doesnt work for us photoshop users. cmd-t is the transform tool...which i use way too often.
Tim said 11:53PM on 4-23-2009
Anyone have any ideas for a good global hotkey? I liked CMD-Shift-T, but that's open last tab in Firefox, and I'd like to keep that.
trevors said 3:11PM on 4-20-2009
I tested it out as well an the only thing that it is missing for me is a better notification system. Growl or the window popping up or something, otherwise a great app!
Reply
rTwelve said 3:15PM on 4-20-2009
I downloaded the free version and looked around. It's nice but the lack of Growl is killing me. I'll be using Pwitter until a Growl-version comes out, and then I'll give it another shot.
That $15-$20 price is just asking for piracy. I was happy to give @atebits $3 like the iPhone version, but $15+ is far too much for what is almost the same functionality as many free Twitter apps.
Reply
TjL said 3:52PM on 4-20-2009
> That $15-$20 price is just asking for piracy. I was happy to give @atebits $3 like the iPhone version, but $15+ is far too much for what is almost the same functionality as many free Twitter apps.
"Asking for Piracy"?
There's a FREE (ad-supported) VERSION. Are you really that cheap that you would use a pirated version?
iPhone app pricing has made everyone stupid. You can't live on $3 apps, and I absolutely deny you to show me a free Mac client that looks or works as well as Tweetie does. Which ones, specifically, are you referring to?
Mac/iPhone users have to give up being so [expletive deleted] absurd about software pricing, or we're going to end up with a bunch of free crap that someone whipped together over a weekend that "does what they need". See, as proof, almost every software program on Linux.
Calculate the number of hours that you expect to use Twitter over the next 3 months and divide that by 15. You're not willing to pay that much for a slick, easy to use program by a responsive Mac developer? And you're not willing to use the ad-supported version?
And that doesn't seem ridiculous to you?