Craig Hockenberry is the man, the myth, and the legend behind the absolute best Twitter application on the Mac (he works for the Iconfactory). We would all love to see Twitterrific on the iPhone, but Craig offers up a "healthy dose of reality" regarding the iPhone SDK and backgrounding services (applications that run in the background even though the phone is running a different foreground app).
In a recent blog post, Craig attempts to explain why Apple will not be giving developers access to backgrounding services on the iPhone. He points out that in a mockup design of "Mobile Twitterrific," based on the jailbreak/community toolchain, refreshing the XML data from Twitter every 5 minutes led to a dead iPhone battery in only 4 hours.
"The heart of the problem [is] the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements," he says. "Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck."
He also reiterated what Apple said about the "Core Location" feature that Apple provided in the SDK: use it only on an "as-needed" basis. Craig said that the issue of backgrounding services may get addressed later on, but right now Apple is preventing iPhone developers from "shooting themselves in the foot." He said that it will take months before the desktop developers have gotten the mindset of an iPhone developer, and that thinking like a desktop developer will lead to bad designs.
Sunday night's talkcast was a delightful discussion, as we were joined by the personable and knowledgeable duo of Craig Hockenberry and Gedeon Maheux from Iconfactory. Ged and Craig gave us the lowdown on the history of the company, the origins of Twitterrific (it's amazing what inspiration comes to you in the shower), the coevolution of Twitter with the now-dominant Mac client, and the promise of the upcoming iPhone development explosion.
We even gave away a few copies of Frenzic to our lucky listeners, courtesy of our guests. Great questions and contributions from Brett, Christina, Dave, Cory, and last-minute contributor Erica rounded out an extra-long (1:15!) show. Download direct, listen in your browser or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes.
Join us again on Sunday night for our next live show, 10 pm ET, where we'll be reviewing Thursday's press event and the upcoming roadmap for iPhone development. Assuming that UPS gets its act together, I should be able to offer some impressions of the new MacBook Pro as well.
The shiny goodness that is the Iconfactory's Twitterrific has been officially revved to version 3.1, adding new features and bugfixes to the $14.95/ad-supported freeware Twitter client for the Mac. The new version has added 'teh snappy' to improve performance and reduce user kvetching, always an important design goal.
If you've got comments or questions about Twitterrific, or indeed any of the Iconfactory's projects or products, then you'll be happy to know about this Sunday's talkcast -- IF dudes Gedeon Maheux and Craig Hockenberry will be our special guests, live at 10 pm ET March 2nd on Talkshoe. For everyone who wants to know the secrets of icon design, iPhone development or how to make things pretty, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Register at our TalkShoe page for updates and notifications (or just follow @tuaw on Twitter!).
New features in Twitterrific v. 3.1 include:
Growl notifications are now sorted correctly and summarized
New keyboard shortcuts and action menu on tweets
Changing logins on Leopard will no longer hang
Status message updates now work correctly with Adium 1.2
Plugged memory leaks that slowed Twitterrific down over time
The gang over at Iconfactory has released a new beta of Twitterrific, the slick Mac Twitter client. The update adds some handy new features like more fine grained Growl control (it no longer takes over your entire desktop with a million notifications when you log in after a break), some new keyboard shortcuts (based on NetNewsWire) and better user control over Twitterrific's window behavior. Of course there are bugfixes, including plugging an annoying memory leak and generally improving application responsiveness (or, as the Iconfactory folks put it: "added teh snappy"). The beta is available for direct download (zip file).
Twitterific remains $14.95 if you want to remove the ads, or free to use with ads.
When the 'guilty pleasures' conversation starts late at night here at the TUAW home office (located in scenic Leominster, MA) I always raise my hand for Twitter -- a great way to keep up with friends and colleagues across the country, and watching the World Series last week with the tweets of Red Sox Nation popping up on my screen was a surprisingly compelling experience, like an erudite and very terse version of a favorite sports bar.
Of course, a good bit of credit for the popularity of Twitter with Mac users must go to Twitterrific, the Iconfactory's stellar client for Twitter. Twitterrific is so identified with the service that many confuse the bluebird icon for Twitter's official logo. Now updated to version 3, Twitterrific adds a slew of new features (and a new price). The app now displays @replies and direct messages separately and in color, includes tweet deletion and filtering, a Dock tweet count, AppleScript support, and more (full list in the bottom half of the post). All this improvement comes at a cost, however: Twitterrific is now an advertising-supported app (1 ad an hour), or pay $14.95 for an ad-free experience.
By the way, if you want to get TUAW tweets and @reply to us with tips and comments, add TUAW to your Twitter friend list and rock on.
If TUAW favorite Twitterrific isn't quite your thing TwitterPod is an interesting Twitter client from the author of a personal favorite, Spirited Away. This stand-along application design uses Core Data to store your tweets, making them available for searching, etc. Other features includes a Smart Drawer (a kind of mini web-browser), quick reply, Growl support, and more.
In general, it seems that the concept behind TwitterPod is rather different than Twitterrific. The latter seems to emphasize the ephemerality of tweetings, while the former seems to regard them as more worth saving. In any case, the Mac platform seems now to have the two best Twitter clients (check out this post from our blog buddies at downloadsquad to see how the other half lives and tweets) out there.
TwitterPod is a free download from Drift Diary12 (there is another, slightly newer build, with some wacky Quartz Composer effects, but the page is all in Japanese).
The Iconfactory has announced Twitterrific 2.1 beta, a meaty upgrade to their sexy Twitter client that brings quite a few new features and fixes. At the top of the list is support for Growl (don't forget to adjust your Growl settings in System Preferences, not Twitterrific), as well support for multiple Twitter accounts (bust the top of the window in my screenshot), which means Twitterrific no longer shares Safari's keychain item for Twitter; it's using its own Keychain entries now. Also in the What's New text file included with the download (which I highly recommend perusing if you snag a copy) is AppleScript support, NetNewsWire integration (for tweeting headlines you're reading), drag and drop support for creating links to tweets in other applications, a slew of manually edit-able power user preferences (explained in the Read Me) and much more.
This is a great update, especially for the power Twitter users in the crowd. I've been running and tinkering with it while drafting this post and haven't run into any problems, and logging into multiple accounts works like a charm. The original Twitterrific 2.0 version is still of course available for download from The Iconfactory, but the 2.1 beta, as far as I know, can only be grabbed from the Twitterrific account's announcement here.
The Iconfactory has announced a new public beta of Twitterrific 2.0, their killer Twitter client. Glen Wosley got a sneak peek last Friday just before the public beta was announced, and this 2.0 beta v6 update addresses a number of issues with the new version as well as dealing with Twitter's own growing pains, as well as hints at the possibility of future Growl support. As with the previous version, we echo The Iconfactory and highly recommend reading through the What's New file to learn about the changes, but the gist of the story is that this version adds Quit/Configure buttons to Twitterrific's startup screen (the one you see while its downloading the first batch of tweets), and it also adds some logging and fixes for the network issues everyone is experiencing due to Twitter's exploding popularity. The end of this What's New file is also where the company hints at Growl support in a future version, though it merely states they're reading the SDK (Software Development Kit) for now.
To grab a copy of this latest beta, hit up the announcement tweet from the Twitterrific Twitter account.
Well that didn't take long - Glen Wolsey caught a private beta sneak peek at Twitterrific 2.0 just two days ago, and now The Iconfactory has announced a public beta, not surprisingly, via their Twiterrific Twitter account. This new version includes a veritable landslide of new features, and in addition to the ones we've already mentioned, here are some highlights of the new goodies (though we highly recommend reading the What's New readme included in the download):
Twitterrific can now update your iChat/Adium/Skype status using your last tweet. Select the "Update chat status" preference in the configuration panel and the status in all running chat applications will be updated (though note that AIM/iChat apparently only allow a total of 44 characters, including spaces, for available statuses. Away messages don't seem to have this limit though)
The main window snaps to the edge of the screen
Tweets can be marked as a favorite by clicking on the tweet's heart icon
Added Cmd-2 to send a response to the author of the selected tweet
Added Cmd-D to send a direct message to the author of the selected tweet
The text of the tweet is no longer truncated. The size of the tweet view adapts to the length of the tweet
and much, much more!
The Iconfactory hasn't updated their official Twitter product page yet, so be sure to pick up the new download from this tweet. A few of us have been using the beta since we heard about it Friday night (thanks again Glenn!), and I can personally say this is a stellar update to what is now quite possibly the best darn Twitter client out there.
It's an understatement to say that we TUAW bloggers have caught the Twitter bug, as many of us have personal accounts in addition to our main TUAW twitterings. With our latest web 2.0 obsession live and kicking, Glenn Wolsey just made our day by posting some sneak peek screenshots of a Twitterrific 2.0 beta (what, Iconfactory: no TUAW private beta love?). There are apparently over 25 new features and changes in this major upgrade to The Iconfactory's slick and sexy client, and I can personally say I'm the most excited for the option to have names and tweets both in-line (pictured). I'm not quite so hip on the decision to leave the username on its own line though; why not simply bump the tweet up next to their name like most IM clients? This would save a lot of space by compacting updates and leaving room for more tweets.
Personal UI design requests aside, head over to Glenn's post for details and screenshots on some other big changes, including an expandable text entry area and the ability to chose between a few update sounds. If you're just as excited as we are to get your hands on Twitterrific 2.0, stay tuned here or follow their Twitter account for the news of when it drops.
It would seem that I am not the only Mac geek that enjoys Twitter, at least if one judges from the number of Twitter specific applications that are being developed.
The latest Twitter app is Twitterrific from the good folks at the Iconfactory. It is a very small app that lives in the menubar and alerts you to other people's posts to Twitter. It also allows you to post to Twitter right from the app itself. Not seen in the screenshot to the right is Twitterrific's list of your friends recent Twitterings.
Craig Hockenberry is the man, the myth, and the legend behind the absolute best Twitter application on the Mac (he works for the Iconfactory). We would all love to see Twitterrific on the iPhone, but Craig offers up a "healthy dose of reality" regarding the iPhone SDK and backgrounding services (applications that run in the background even though the phone is running a different foreground app).
Sunday night's 
The shiny goodness that is the Iconfactory's 
The gang over at Iconfactory has released a new beta of 
When the 'guilty pleasures' conversation starts late at night here at the TUAW home office (located in scenic 
The Iconfactory has 
It would seem that I am not the only Mac geek that enjoys Twitter, at least if one judges from the number of Twitter specific applications that are being developed.
