Is AppNet Rhino Too Bare For Your ADN Needs? Adian Packs Quite A Punch
Adian - app.net client ($4.99) by Phrygian Labs, Inc is the first paid app for App.net in the App Store. That’s right — the onslaught of ADN apps is beginning.
While ADN has been around for only a few weeks, there are about 20,000 users on the paid social network. Within this thriving community are many developers, who are now starting to see the fruits of their labor blossoming in the App Store. A little more than a week ago, the first free app was released: AppNet Rhino. And now we get the second native ADN app, but first paid option: Adian.
If you have multiple accounts on ADN (e.g., one personal and one development), you'll be glad to know that you can have all of your accounts in Adian. Simply add them in to the app individually, and switch between them from the Accounts screen.
When you use Adian, it is just what you'd expect from an ADN client, taking a similar layout to that of Twitter apps. There are four different views: Timeline, Mentions, User, and Global. My qualm with the User tab is the fact that I can only see my posts, but not my entire profile, unless I tap on my username somewhere. Only then am I able to see my profile (or any other user), sans cover image. I would prefer to see that the User tab takes you immediately to view your profile, where you can see follower and following count, and total number of updates.
Tapping on a post will give you a post detail view, where links become clickable, and you have the option to reply, repost, or send links to Instapaper or Pocket. I wish that Adian had clickable links in the timeline view, so that it would save me a tap. However, I'm sure that this will be implemented in the future.
Conversations are an integral part of ADN, and you can easily view a thread thanks to the "in reply to…" link found in the post detail screen. Tapping on this will bring up the original post, as well as all replies that it received.
Adian take cues from Tweetie, though, because users are able to swipe on a post to bring up a contextual menu for replying, reposting, or viewing a thread. To hide it, just slide the view up or down. There is also a large area that can be tapped when this menu is active, so you don't have to be precise with the button.
The best part of Adian is when you compose a new post. There is a green progress bar that will inch its way across the screen as you type, indicating how many characters you have (maximum is 256 on ADN). There are buttons for the @ and # so you can quickly add usernames and hashtags. Drafts are also supported, and you can shorten any links that you may have included.
Sounds like the norm, right? However, the defining factor of Adian that separates it from other apps so far are the built-in photo filters. It's like having your own Instagram within ADN itself! You can snap a new photo or import from your Photo Library, and apply one of nine additional filters on your photo, and even add a tilt-shift effect. You can choose the size of the photo (Full Size, Large, Medium, or Small) and where to upload it to (FireFoto or Flickr). It's great if you want to share images on ADN first.
I'm kind of disappointed that the app does not refresh itself automatically whenever you launch it, or switch views. You'll have to manually refresh with the "pull-to-refresh" at the top. There also isn't any streaming capability, but hopefully it is coming in an update. Adian is pretty quick and snappy when it comes to switching between the various views, though, so that's a bonus. Push notifications are supported in the app, as well as ambient notifications if you are still within the app.
Adian is a good ADN app for your iPhone so far, and definitely packs more features than the free AppNet Rhino. If you're in need of an ADN client and aren't in any betas, then grab this in the App Store. It's $4.99, but that shouldn't be a problem, considering that it's $50 for an account on ADN, or $100 for developers, right?
