Twitter has released their official Twitter client for the iPad and it is available now in the App Store. I’ve been using it for a week and like it a lot.

Twitter for iPad introduces some interesting user interface concepts that we’ve never seen before. These new concepts haven’t been universally welcomed, however I think they are exactly what an app like this needs. Twitter clients have always felt like a playground for developers, trying out all sorts of different ideas that they wouldn’t have tried if they were writing any other app.

The panes that slide in from the right were a little jarring at first because I had never seen an application do something like that. But, for Twitter they work perfectly. They really give you a sense of drilling down into Twitter accounts, jumping from one user to another. And, when you want to jump back out you can either swipe towards the right or tap one of the buttons along the left side.

Twitter for iPad does have some annoyances — there’s no way to close a pane or deselect a tweet to name a couple — but it’s definitely an improvement over the other Twitter clients for the iPad because honestly, they feel a little stale at this point.

And, you have to love that icon.