Aside to TweetStack which we reviewed previously, I thought I’d review both Tweetie and Twitterfon Pro separately. However, I am currently stuck between using both amazing Twitter clients for the iPhone and iPod touch, and I thought I’d share my views thru this app vs app review. Read on to find out more!
Tweetie was one of the first paid Twitter client that I had the opportunity to try out. It comes with a very clean, polished interface and is one of the most competent Twitter clients available to date. I have a strong feeling Twitterific 2 made it to the public all thanks to the pressure of this app by one-man-show Loren Brichter.
I previously tried Twitterfon when it was free and there’s no Pro version to boot. It was one of the best free Twitter clients available at that time. However, when the Pro version came, with features like themes and multiple accounts support, I was somehow sold.
Let’s start with the user interface. If Twitter is what you’ll be doing the whole day, then you’ll most likely want something that is pleasant to the eyes and not forgetting ease of use! Both clients have its good points and bad points. For a start, if you follow a lot of people on Twitter, then you’ll probably want to be reading all their updates (e.g. quickly scroll through) everytime you start the app. Upon launching Twitterfon, you’ll see a list of previous tweets – the app saves this between sessions, so if you happen to be out of coverage, you could still go about by browsing thru the old tweets. Contravening with Twitterfon, Tweetie does not store tweets between sessions, so the app launches almost immediately and will start connecting to Twitter and download your list of tweets. Also, Tweetie doesn’t try to load up all your unread tweets, so when you reach the bottom of the list, simple tap to load more. Which one do you prefer? I personally prefer Twitterfon in this sense as I wake up every morning to more than two hundred tweets waiting.
Theme support seems to be the theme for both apps, each with its built-in set of different themes to suit different tastes. I personally like mine to be dark, and am glad to see that both clients do offer the black colored theme. Tweetie’s themes are more towards look and feel instead of Twitterfon’s color-only themes. By default, Tweetie defaults to an interface that mimics the SMS application on the iPhone (read: chat bubbles). You can change to the other two dark and simple theme thru the Settings app. On the other hand, Twitterfon Pro supports up to four different color themes – plain, original twitterfon, silver and black. For Twitterfon, the theme is chosen upon creating an account in the client. If you changed your mind later and decide to try out the other themes, it could be a little bit confusing. Navigate back to the main screen with all your configured accounts, tap on the Edit button. Here’s where the confusing part comes, you’ll see a delete icon appearing, but if you tap somewhere in the middle of the list, you’ll be tranferred to the setup screen. Confusing at first, but once you done it a few times, you’ll get the hang of it. Note that in Twitterfon, themes are tied to each user account that you configured, so there’s no one-place-sets-it-all like Tweetie.
What about features? Most notably, both clients implement Twitter features like replies, direct messages, favorites and trends completely. Other advanced features like nearby users and in-app browsing are also available in both clients. One difference I noted while using both clients is the way direct messages are implemented. Tweetie lets you see both direct messages that you have sent and received a reply, while Twitterfon only shows those with replies. Twitterfon excels in this department – you get to track the conversation while Tweetie categorised them as inbox and sent, so you’ll have to switch between tabs to catch on the conversation. Another major difference between both apps is the implementation of a Public Timeline, where you get to catch on what is being discussed in Twitter. Tweetie implements this, while Twitterfon does not. I don’t use this feature much, so no complaints.
I’d also like to mention about creating new tweets. Both clients are comparable in this department, you can attach a photo to your tweets – Tweetie lets you decide between using the services of yFrog, TwitPic or MobyPicture while Twitterfon goes with TwitPic only. Here’s another notable difference among the two: when composing a message, it can sometimes be very difficult to type a friend’s Twitter username – Twitterfon lets you pick from a list of people that you follow and will append the username into the tweet accordingly. Laziness has its benefits.
In this review, I’ve mentioned a lot about the differences in both apps. Since both app implements Twitter features (almost) completely, I guess I’ll leave it to you to decide on which suits you better, depending on your Twitter usage pattern. As mentioned early in this review, I am currently stuck between using both clients and are quite happy with the setup. Tweetie would be most suitable for those of you who check Twitter occassionally and don’t mind missing out on some of the tweets from people that you follow. Twitterfon, on the other hand is for those hardcore enough to be checking each and every tweet possible. After all, the reason we have Twitter is to find out about things and people that we are interested in.
Tweetie is available from the iTunes Store for only $2.99 each. Currently, there’s no lite or ad-supported version.
Twitterfon comes in two flavours, normal and Pro edition. Pro edition is a little more costly at $4.99, but it comes with support for multiple accounts, themes, a landscape keyboard, integration to instapaper and bit.ly as well as being ad free.
Tweetie – Rating: 4.9/5.0 Taps
Twitterfon Pro – Rating: 4.9/5.0 Taps
App Data
App Name: Tweetie v1.3.1 | Developer: atebits LLC | Purchase via: iTunes App Store @ $2.99 | Released: Nov 11, 2008 | Reviewed on: iPod touch v2.2.1
App Name: Twitterfon Pro v1.5.1 | Developer: Kazuho Okui | Purchase via: iTunes App Store @ $4.99 | Released: May 28, 2009 | Reviewed on: iPod touch v2.2.1
