If you’ve been looking for an interesting new Mac app to check out, try Twitter for Mac (Free). It’s got a fresh and very different design, and it might be the kind of Mac App design we’ll be seeing more of once OS X Lion comes around.
Twitter for Mac was supposed to be released as Tweetie 2 for Mac in the days before third party Tweetie developer Loren Brichter became first party developer Loren Brichter of Twitter, and buyers of the MacHeist Nano Bundle 2 (from a whiiile back) were supposed to get an exclusive sneak peek at the beta before everybody else did.
Unfortunately, Tweetie 2 for Mac and the sneak peek never really happened (though Nano Bundle 2 buyers did get “secret options“), but we can probably put all that behind us now that Twitter for Mac is finally here.
First of all, the app now updates in real-time … or refreshes so fast that it feels like it. If Twitter for Mac is to be seen as the successor to Tweetie, that’s a pretty big (and welcome) change. The other changes…well, they’re interesting.
What I can say is that Twitter is going to take a little while to get used to. The side bar is basically the top bar, and that’s how you’re going to drag the app around. The various tabs of the app — tweets, mentions, etc. — can be clicked on, selected with [Cmd + a number from one to six], or simply scrolled through with a three-finger swipe from your trackpad. The app also supports three-finger horzontal swipes (two-finger on a magic mouse) to go backwards, forwards, or launch a link in your browser. The app tends to reward exploring and playing, but it also doesn’t feel quite as “natural” as all the best iOS apps do.
One example of this is the changes in the way you tweet. You can still Cmd + N to bring up a new tweet, but standard buttons for URL shortening or adding media are simply gone. Instead, you can now drag-and-drop pictures into a tweet (you still get to select the picture service in Preferences), and links will simply auto-shorten themselves as you publish them (no choice is given here). I don’t mind the drag-and-drop support because I’m used to that in other apps, but I’m not really a fan of how all the control over my links is taken away within the app. I’d like the power to decide whether to provide a complete or shortened link.
I can probably get over that, though (or Twitter could address it in an update *hint hint*), because, provided that this new toy doesn’t take up too many of my system resources, I find myself growing rather fond of Twitter for Mac. It’s an extremely shiny little app with a very playful and daringly different interface that’s simply a lot of fun to explore and use.
That being said, I definitely wouldn’t mind a manual, just to make sure I’m not missing out on any little goodies.
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