We can’t deny the fact that Twitter is growing everyday. Twitter is now attached to our everyday life. That’s why it isn’t limited just to the desktop, it’s also on everyone’s phones now. You can access it via your data connection ( use the the mobile website ), or just download a twitter client. One of the most popular smartphones, BlackBerry, also has many twitter clients. The top two are Seesmic, and UberTwitter. I wanted to add OpenBeak to the list, but it’s just horrible. Let’s have a look at the two apps and how they compete with each other in terms of various features.
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Microsoft releases an awesome Silverlight 4 Beta Client for Facebook for Windows and OS X
Back in April 2009, Microsoft had demoed a Facebook app called Silverface for Windows 7 based on Facebook’s Open Stream API. The app looked amazing and utilized new Windows 7 desktop features very well. Sadly, that app was never released to the public. Then last November, we got our hand on Fishbowl, developed by UXLabs@Microsoft. This app provided a good experience of browsing Facebook using jumplists, touch and other nice little features, but the app was slow and somewhat confusing. You knew Microsoft could do much better than that.
Well, out of the blue, Microsoft has released a Silverlight 4 Beta Client for Facebook for Windows and OS X. It looks a lot like Zune Desktop app for Windows. Compared to Fishbowl, it’s fast – really fast. The UX of these app really blows anything that competing apps can provide. Friends, profiles, photos, event, messaging – you name it. This app has it all!
New Twitter client for iPhone – epicenter IO (free promocodes available!)
epicenter IO is the latest in Twitter clients in the App Store. It provides full support for basic Twitter functionality as well Twitter Lists, new style retweets and the likes. The design of epicenter IO is very neat and puts every feature in quick reach right in the main UI. There’s also a level of customization available with drag and drop rearranging similar to what is available in the default iPhone apps. Two different themes are also included to further personalize the UI to your liking.
Fishbowl – Facebook Desktop Client optimized for Windows 7
With the announcement of Silverlight 4 on day 2 at PDC09, Silverface, a desktop application for Facebook, was demoed. Two days back, an application called Fishbowl was released by UXLabs@Microsoft. This application is a sample Facebook client that lets you update you status, scroll through your news feeds, easily browse through friends, browse and upload photos etc and is specially optimized for Windows 7.
Apps for Windows: Silverlight 3 based Twitter Client by Sobees
Sobees web is a web version of bDule – a Twitter/Facebook client for Windows with a new twist though. It’s made of Silverlight 3 and supports Silverlight out of Browser experience.
It’s a fully featured Twitter client with support for multiple accounts, RT, pictures, URL shortening and much more. The Facebook part of Sobees web isn’t functional yet, but to get a taste of how it works, you can try out bDule. Sobees web also has real-time search for OneRiot, Twitter and FriendFeed. You can set up multiple search columns by choosing your preferred layout for Sobees Web.
The interface is clean and streamlined. There’s nothing new to notice in it if you’ve used any other Twitter client like Seesmic Desktop or TweetDeck. The difference between Sobees Web and other clients is the multiple layout support. You have a wide variety of layouts to choose from, and you can even chose to run many Twitter accounts or real-time searches in them. It’s very helpful if you need to keep track of particular keywords or trends on Twitter.
Twitt’m – Another Adobe Air desktop client
Twitt’m is another new Adobe air based Twitter client in the market. It’s very lean and clean and short on features as well. That’s right, no notifications, minimize to tray, twit pic and the likes. But it’s a an early beta so it’s expected to gain more features down the line. The UI is very neat and actually impresses you. You can see your Twitter timeline, follow and unfollow people and tweet and retweet. Direct messages are missing so far.
*chirp – Best. Twitter Client. Ever.
I’ve been using various Twitter clients over the past few months ranging from Tweet Deck to Destroy Twitter. While I absolutely loved Destroy Twitter, *chirp by thirteen23 has totally blown me away! It’s the kind of application that’ll make you proud of being a Windows user and jealous if you’re not. Built on WPF (Windows Presentation Framework), *chirp gives you an experience that really surprises you from the word go. Indeed, thirteen23 know how to show the awesome potential of software. Granted, it’s low on features, like no tinypic integration or tinyurl, but what it lacks for in features, it makes up for them in the experience department. Read on for a review of this coolest Twitter client yet.