TweetyPop v1.1 Adds Tweet Quoting, Portrait Support, Performance Enhancements, And More
July 17, 2011
TapFactory has released the first major update to their "Twitter, Reimagined" Twitter client, TweetyPop. Launched earlier this year, the app takes a new approach to tackling all of your unread tweets. The update, which became available yesterday, adds several requested features and does a tiny bit of fine tuning.
My first mention will be portrait orientation support. Truthfully, this one doesn't matter to me one bit, however, I can see it being handy to those who use the list view on occasion. Another quick mention will be the support of nearby tweets, viewable by tapping the new button nestled between the favorite and list buttons. A few final highlights include Read It Later support, the option to activate Readability from the actions menu of the built-in web browser, and ability to view a tweet at Twitter.com by simply tapping on a tweet bubble -- non-linked text, of course.
Next, I'll move onto some tweeting changes. Expanding on the basic TwitPic support, users can now choose to use either yfrog or img.ly instead. What may excite TweetyPop users the most is the ability to quote tweets. I don't have a gripe about this feature, although, the implementation seems a bit odd to me. To quote a tweet, tap on the reply arrow of a tweet bubble and select "Reply," not "Retweet". Below the person's avatar in the top-left you'll now see a "Quote This" button.
Additional features and enhancements provided by TweetyPop v1.1 include:
• Support for OAuth authentication
• Support for variable Font size for displaying tweets. Configured in Settings
• Twitter lists are now separated into public and private lists
• New option to "Tweet this Page" from the in app browser
• Sound toggle moved to settings window
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements
So, what's the big deal about TweetyPop compared to the many other Twitter clients? Even though TweetyPop can display a user's Twitter timeline in the traditional chronological list view, the real benefit is the 3-D view option. This view offers a three-dimensional environment where your tweets are displayed in the perspective of depth in association to how long ago they were posted.
To understand the advantages, I'll run through the controls and user interface elements. The 3-D Twitterverse fills up with tweet bubbles in random locations throughout the screen, where the oldest tweets are first and largest. You may be wondering; why are the oldest tweets first? It's because the system works on the concept of elimination. You'll read the oldest tweet first, then fling it out of the screen to mark it as read. Next, you'll read another old tweet and, once again, fling it out of view. Eventually, you'll work through all of your unread tweets with no clutter left.
If you're updating from a previous version, please verify your iPad is running iOS 4.0 or later before downloading TweetyPop v1.1. TweetyPop is compatible with iPad running iOS 4.0 or later, and available in the App Store for $.99.
