Tweetie 2 ($2.99) has been available since October 5. We all know about Tweetie 2’s new features, so rather than do another run through I’ll just make a few points regarding what I like and what I don’t.
The Good
- Pull down to refresh: When viewing your timeline, simply drag past the search bar and a refresh bar will appear. It’s similar to Birdfeed’s infinite scrolling, but a little bit more useful.
- Birdhouse integration: Hitting close after composing a tweet offers you the option to save, save to Birdhouse, or to don’t save your tweet at all. Now I can write drafts in Tweetie 2 and publish them from Birdhouse. The only unfortunate part is that this feature single handedly pushed Birdhouse to my second home screen.
- Nearby map: A beautiful way of viewing nearby Twitter users.
- Favorite indicator: The little star in the upper right hand corner is perfectly done.
- Trend explanations: Sometimes trends show up and I have no idea what they are, tapping the little tag icon in the bottom left corner while viewing the trend gives an explanation of the trend.
The Bad
- Multiple accounts: It’s now impossible to disable multiple accounts in Tweetie, which means that the “Accounts” button will always sit in the upper left hand corner when viewing your timeline, it’s unnecessary clutter.
- Settings: No longer in the Settings application, yet again, unnecessary clutter.
- The black navigation bar: The black bar in timeline view is a little shorter than in other apps. The icons don’t have text underneath them and therefore the bar is shorter. It isn’t a big deal, but at first glance looks strange on the iPhone’s screen.
- Single tweet view: Tweetie 2 still uses the Tweetie 1 style blue bar in single tweet view, not the new black bar. I’ve explored every bit of the application and haven’t been able to find another instance of this old style blue bar.
The Rest
Tweetie 2 is easily the best Twitter client I’ve ever used, and if nothing else, set the bar incredibly high for the competition. I’m not sure how long until other developers react to the feature set in Tweetie 2 but it will certainly make for more positive user experiences.
Loren Brichter has already detailed some of the features to look forward to. Obviously there will be bug fixes but as soon as Twitter flips the switch on new style retweets, per-tweet geotagging, and lists, Tweetie 2 will support those as well.
Previously:
10/1/09: Tweetie 2.0 is Coming Soon
Update 11/8/09: MG Siegler has written a piece for TechCrunch detailing the new features coming in Tweetie 2.1. Lists, new style retweeting, and geolocation are there along with a myriad of other features.
Update 11/30/09: Tweetie 2.1 has hit the App Store with new style retweets, geolocation, and lists. I’m loving lists and I’m really happy with the implementation of retweets.
