Overview
For Twitterholics out there who feel
the need —
the need to tweet from their iPhone, there are numerous offerings available. There is one, however, that is raising the bar for Twitter clients (of all varieties) that brings the Twitter experience to your iPhone in a sleek, compact package. From
Stone Design comes
Twittelator Pro ($4.99USD). With Twittelator Pro, provided you are connected to the Internet, you can now tweet from anywhere. From the commuter train. From your favorite bookstore or diner. You can even tweet while you're driving. Not that I've ever done that before.
(Stop looking at me like that.)
Twittelator Pro brings all that you would expect from a Twitter client straight to your iPhone, and even outperforms some Twitter applications built for your desktop.
Features
Multiple Personalitweets
Twittelator Pro offers a feature that I wish I saw in more Twitter desktop clients. This app allows you to set up multiple accounts. Now you might be wondering why anyone would have more than one Twitter account, but I actually manage two, at present. While the professional in me can be found writing up TwitReviews, offering TwitAdvice, and giving podcasting tips on
@ITStudios, there is the other account —
@TeeMonster — where I swim in snark-infested waters and share why I think
Aliens: The Director's Cut is better than the theatrical release, why the ending of
Battlestar Galactica worked for me, and when my next episode of
MicroBrewed will be going live. I tend to float effortlessly from client to client on my desktop, but switching accounts on the iPhone was clumsy. I would have to log out of one client and then launch another, or access a client's Preferences and log in that way. Twittelator Pro allows you to input as many accounts as you like, and with only a few taps you are working under the profile of your choice.
It’s just Like Being There!
It looks and feels like Twitter. Avatars are present. Profiles are easily accessed with a single tap. (More on that later.) Various viewing options (Friends, @Replies, DMs) are all available in a toolbar underneath the main interface. Twittelator Pro offers all the options (and more) you would find in a desktop client. When composing a tweet or an @Reply, additional options include GoogleMaps to give your current location and TwitPic to send photos from your phone to your network. Another bonus of desktop Twitter clients (such as TweetDeck, Twhirl, Destroy Twitter, et. al.) that Twittelator Pro offers is the ability to retrieve tweets automatically, unlike other iPhone-Twitter clients that offer only "Manual Refresh" options. Twittelator Pro also features access to Twitter Search, a Nearby search for locally-based users, Trends search, Favorites...
So far, it is as if you have never left your desktop client of choice.
A New Angle on Tweeting
Once you have purchased and installed Twittelator Pro, enter the "Compose Tweet" mode and then turn your iPhone to one side. Doesn’t matter which side you turn to, go on and see what happens. Oh, and make sure you have a good grip on your iPhone when you do.
Pretty cool, huh? Built directly into the interface, you can now compose tweets with a Landscape Oriented Keypad, making tweet composition that much easier.
And How Would You Like Your Tweet?
In either Portrait or Landscape, you can change the tweet from a Reply to a Private Message by tapping on the user name in the lower left corner of the tweet field. In the main interface, you simply tap on a user name and you can access the following options:
- Reply
- Send a Private Tweet (DM)
- Retweet
- Email Tweet
- Copy Tweet (and then paste it in to a new tweet with Twittelator’s Paste feature)
- Favorite a tweet
- Copy a link
Instead of cutting corners and limiting your choices as many iPhone-Twitter clients tend to do, Twittelator Pro offers the same options (and even a few more) of the most popular desktop clients.
Breakdown
The Good:
With all the great features that Twittelator Pro has to offer, the main reason I find it the best Twitter client for the iPhone out there can be summed up here. First, the application hits all the visual and interactive perks you would expect and need in a Twitter client, and in an iPhone app. The interface is deliciously ingenious and intuitive. For example, if you want to track a conversation, simply touch the speech bubble to the right of a tweet. This pulls up all previous tweets related to the original tweet people were replying to. When you see a tweet with a thumbnail of a photograph, tap the featured image and you immediately jump to TwitPic. If you tap a tweet's avatar once, you view the details of that user, or other users featured in the tweet. Once in the user details, a single tap of the avatar brings up a more detailed version of their profile picture. The paper clip (signifying an attached URL) opens included links. Twittelator's interface is like listening to George Gershwin's
Rhapsody in Blue: It just flows.
Another reason Twittelator Pro is the "must have" Twitter client for your iPhone is Subgroups, a powerful attribute similar to one of Twitter's most popular desktop clients, TweetDeck. With Subgroups (found under “More” in Twittelator's options), you can now organize followers into custom groups. After you tap the Subgroups option, you either tap the “Add Subgroup” icon (the plus sign) to create a new group, or tap on the “Edit” option (the blue-white icon) of a pre-existing group to add to it. Simply scroll through your network and add the people you wish.
The Bad
This may seem like a real nit-picky detail, but the way I am notified on new tweets could use a tweak. Just a little one. This application blows me over so hard that I'm a little surprised this got overlooked. If you offer me a choice in interface themes, I’d like a choice of audio notifications, too. (The nostalgic aspect of me misses the Twitterific chirp.)
And that's really my only hang up with Twittelator Pro, the app I refer to as "the TweetDeck of mobile Twitter". The more I play with it, the more love it. For the investment, you cannot beat it. you can always give Twittelator a test spin with the Lite version, but you should take a look at what
features are available between the Lite version and the Pro version. My recommendation is cut to the chase and pick up Pro. It is money well spent on iTunes, and time well spent in getting to know this application.
Verdict
Twittelator Pro is not a good Twitter client for the iPhone. Twittelator Pro is a good Twitter client,
period. I rank it right up there with the Adobe AIR-powered powerhouses of TweetDeck and Twhirl, and recommend without hesitation or reservation this application to any iPhone user connected to Twitter. If you are already suffering a Twitaddiction, I hate to be the enabler here but this is not going to help you curtail, in any way, your fix for followers. You will have to rely on your own sound judgment and etiquette to make certain you are not tweeting within mixed company and appearing like some rude tech geek immersed in their iPhone. Their shiny, sleek iPhone. Their powerful, Twitter-configured, beautiful, sexy iPhone...
My prrrrrreciousssss….
I'm sorry, what were you saying?
