Osfoora Makes The Jump From iOS To Mac
Osfoora was one of my favorite Twitter apps on the iPhone and iPad, at least before Tweetbot came along for iPhone and iPad. But now, Osfoora for Mac is here, and it has displaced Twitterrific for Mac as my Mac Twitter client of choice (sorry, I wasn’t a Twitter for Mac fan).
Is Osfoora for Mac worth using? Absolutely!
The overall look and feel of Osfoora is clean. It kind of reminds me of a hybrid between Twitterrific and Twitter, but done in an elegant way. The left side will have your sidebar, where the navigation is. Access multiple accounts, switch between the main timeline, mentions, messages, favorites, lists, search, and your own profile. While you can’t hide the entire sidebar, you can minimize it by dragging the right edge in, and hide all the text and just go by the icons. It still looks classy, and reminds me of Twitter, but more subtle.
The timeline views are simple, and what you would expect from a Twitter app. Images can be previewed inline, and you get a popup of the image if you click on it. If you utilize the Tweet Marker service (syncs your timeline position across all apps that support the service), you will see the marker as a red bookmark. It’s easy to see, yet doesn’t get in the way. This is great with Tweetbot on my iPhone, since it works flawlessly and I never lose my place in the timeline.
Profile views are what you’d expect, and you can even edit your own profile right from the app. There’s also a slick looking notification at the bottom of Osfoora that will notify you of any new tweets that have arrived while you are within the app. The attention to detail in the app is astounding, and I praise the developer for making such a slick experience.
Conversations are a critical part of the Twitter experience, and you can easily access them by clicking on the small speech bubble icon of a conversation tweet. Replying to a tweet will bring up a separate compose window, and you get to see what you’re replying to underneath. It’s also easy to tweet a photo from Osfoora, and even share what you’re listening to in iTunes.
While I’m not a big fan of the 3D cube icon (I would have preferred a flat icon), the badge count is especially noticeable with the light blue background and dark blue text. It makes it extremely easy to see how many new tweets I have waiting for me when I go back to the application. An option is available if you prefer to use the menu bar to be notified of new tweets.
The biggest drawback of Osfoora for Mac is the fact that it does not currently do live streams. However, unlike Twitterrific, you can change the interval at which the app automatically refreshes, which is pretty nice to have. I hope that the developer can add live streams and the pull-to-refresh function, as it currently only has a button to refresh with.
Osfoora for Mac is a breath of fresh air for Twitter clients on the Mac, and it’s always great to see apps jumping from iOS to OS X. This is a highly polished 1.0, and it can only get better from here.
To get a full description of Osfoora for Mac, make sure to check it out on the Mac App Store, priced at $4.99. Here’s the full description listed:
[gallery link="file"]Osfoora is a powerful Twitter client with a clean and intuitive user interface. You’ll enjoy a wide set of powerful features such as Muting users, Read Later, Message Conversations, Multiple Accounts, and more.
FEATURE LIST:
• Multiple accounts with multi-windows.
• TweetMarker Support: Timeline syncing of reading position between different Twitter apps.
• Inline picture thumbnails for popular services, e.g. Instapaper, Twitter, Yfrog, and more.
• Mute users.
• Mark Tweets belonging to specific users.
• Attach multiple images/videos to tweets.
• Image Services: Yfrog, TwitPic, Twitter, CloudApp, Imgly.
• Set your own custom Image Upload end point (Must follow the TwitPic API and use JSON).
• Video Services: TwitVid, Yfrog, TwitPic, CloudApp.
• Read Later (Instapaper & Read It Later) with tweet attribution.
• URL Shortening via CloudApp (Default is Twitter).
• View/Subscribe to Twitter lists.
• Access Twitter lists from user profiles (Lists they created, follow, or followed by).
• Direct Messages with conversation view.
• Search Twitter and view trends.
• Flexible Font sizes (11pt - 20pt).
• View users on Favstar, and Twitter websites.
• Notifications via Growl and Dock Icon.
• Edit your Twitter profile info.
• Resizable Sidebar.
• Robust Keyboard controls for navigation and popular tasks.
• Other features such as Blocking users, Reporting Spam.