A Look at 10 iPhone Twitter Apps

A quick summary of 10 iPhone Twitter client applications I have been trying out. I have ordered them by preference, starting with my favorite. My analysis is heavily based on how I use Twitter. I've noted what I like and dislike about each app and added a few screen shots of each.

Prices are based on the Canadian iTunes store

	Tweetie 2 Price: $2.99 Vendor: Atebits Go to the Tweetie 2 site.
What's Nice Wow, what a great product. Tweetie 2 is fast and stable like its predecessor, but offers a rich set of new features. At $2.99 it is the cheapest of the full featured Twitter client apps. Slick integration with follows back and follow cost. Refresh your timeline - "pull down" on the timeline to refresh it. Great idea> Following/Followers list management is very easy
What's Lame I can't seem to get to the Public Timeline. It replaces the old Tweetie, so it really cost me $3.99.

	SimplyTweet Price: $4.99 MotionObj Go to the SimplyTweet site.
What's Nice DM and Reply alert - This works like text messaging, so you could use SimplyTweet for texting too. Conversations - Very nice. It can be easy to lose track of conversation threads and replies, SimplyTweet can show reply threads. Bubble Tweets - I find bubbled tweets easier to read Follows back - this feature is well integrated into the product and is displayed on the user profile Nearby - You can specify the proximity of nearby tweets from 1 to 50 miles
What's Lame Follower/Following Lists - I can't seem to display these lists.

	Echofon Price: $4.99 Naan Studio Inc Go to the Echofon site.
What's Nice I'm calling this the 'people finder' - from within the tweet window, you can pull up a list of people to choose from for shout-outs. Links are auto-shortened with bit.ly. This just happens automatically once you tweet. Profile detail shows if you are following someone and if they are following you back. Following/Follower lists on profiles. My "can't live without" feature. Trends - Go to current trends through the search feature. Nearby Tweeters. Again through the search window
What's Lame The Name - EchoFon? Is Naan Studio Inc a Swedish company? because 'Echofon' sounds like the name of an Ikea product. I can't find the 'go to user' feature. But the search can be used to find people.

	BirdFeed Price: $4.99 Vendor: System Of Touch Go to the BirdFeed site.
What's Nice Bubble format and fast scrolling - I prefer the bubble format, even though it takes up more screen space. Tied into external tools - Query tweeps agaist FollowCost, DoesFollow, Overlapr - could be better integrated into the app, but still cool. Basics like ReTweets, DMs, Replies and favorites are quickly accessible and easy to find.
What's Lame No URL Shortening - It either can't do URL shortening or I don't know how to find the feature. But when I paste a URL, it violates the 140 character limit and I can't post the tweet. Profile Details - While I can look at profiles and see bio's and follower/following counts, I can't view followers/following lists. I tend to use these to follow new people.

	Twittelator Price: $4.99 StoneDesign Go to the Twittelator site.
What's Nice Horizontal aspect - You can view link web pages horizontally. Paper clip links - Links in a Tweet include a paper clip icon which can be clicked to navigate to the link. Reduces some navigation overhead. TwitPic display - thumbnails of photos are displayed in tweets. Mute - This seems contradictory to the spirit of Twitter, but sometimes, maybe I don't want to hear @Alyssa_Milano's daily minutiae. Groups and subgroups - I think these are specific to Twittelator. There are so many sites trying to provide this feature. Link shortener - j.mp
What's Lame Tweet actions menu (to retweet, reply, etc.) was slightly difficult to find. Tap above the tweet text to activate. The Windows 3.1 style shading on text makes it very hard to read. UX - This application just doesn't look that good. Might be time to hire a design and graphics expert.

	Twitterrific Price: Free (displays advertising) IconFactory Go to the Twitterrific site.
What's Nice What a slick interface - shading and colouring looks great. Feed display - I can collapse tweets to 3 different sizes Access to the public timeline, which I only use to play with the translator Translation - This works very well, especially on latin based languages. Thai, Malay not bad. Japanese? Not so good.
What's Lame It makes "chirping" sounds when you refresh your feed. This is cute, like... once. Ads. Not really intrusive, but I feel like I need to click them or they'll start charging for this app.

	TweetDeck Price: Free (Beta Version) TweetDeck Go to the TweetDeck site.
What's Nice Columns - I love columns. I generally use columns to store searches on keywords and hash tags. With TweetDeck my searches are always available, and I can quickly scan them. URL Shortening - there is a small icon of chain with 'shrinking' arrows on the tweet window to shorten URLs. Tweetdeck uses the bit.ly shortener. Location Tweeting - Not my thing, but it's there. TwitPic Photos - Take a shot, or choose one from your library. I like this feature.
What's Lame Unstable - Tweetdeck crashes on a regular basis for me. Usually when I start it up, it'll just disappear. Annoying. Column Maintenance - I have a super hard time closing columns, tapping the 'gear' in the top right corner is very challenging. This could just be me. Column update messages - I have a lot of columns and when I start Tweetdeck I get a load of intrusive messages indicating how many new tweets have been added to each column.

	Tweetie (1) Price: No longer available AteBits Go to the Tweetie site.
What's Nice Fast - Tweetie loads fast, and scrolls nicely. The line display lets you move through tweets like a rocket. My Profile - I think every Twitter app should have strong profile maintenance. Tweetie makes it easy to view your bio, followers/following lists and time-line. Nearby - You can see who's tweeting 'nearby' if you allow Tweetie to broadcast your location. Again, not my thing, but still cool. Trends and Public Timeline - I generally avoid the trending topics (mega spamage). I think being able to follow trends is an important part of Twitter and it's good that Tweetie offers this.
What's Lame Follows me? I can get to my following list, but there's something I like about knowing if someone I'm following is following me back. Tweetie doesn't have this feature.

	Twitter Pro Price: $0.99 iApp Ventures LLC Web Site?
What's Nice ummmm? Well... it has a nice icon.
What's Lame Scrolling is very jumpy - probably the most irritating feature. Can't view profiles, or add users. It costs a dollar - I can't believe this app got through testing? What is this app even called? iTwitter Pro or Twitter Pro?
	Tweeter Price: Free Takuma Mori
What's Nice Simple. It works as advertised - all you can do is tweet. That's it.
What's Lame Well, this app doesn't really do much.