Who hates twitter these day? Its simple, easy to use, clean and not complicated like Facebook.Twitter, to make things easier for their “tweelpes’ gave its native app for, virtually, all devices – from iOS to Nokia S40 (remember the days we used to find which series our Nokia is?). It sure is a clean app. No hassles, nothing complicated and most of all, its FREE. It was most people’s best choice irrespective of the platform.
So why do people even buy the paid app then? Like tweetbot? Its not even $0.99 for iOS. Its $2.99. Why would you even buy it? I read few reviews and decided try the iOS app. Oh boy! That was the day the native twitter app was forgotten. After using, you realise how much twitter has avoided in their app.! Its classical. iOS app is different. Lets skip it for now.
Now to OS X. Though Mountain Lion has got this built-in Twitter feature, you surely require an app to see your timeline. It is much more easier. Frankly, I use built-in twitter in OS X rarely. I use either Twitter app or tweet through Alfred (Using Powerpack!). Something NC also helps. These are the best free (excluding the power pack!) apps for twitter. Then why to purchase $19.99 for a Twitter App? Thats crazy pricing.
Twitter to Blame?
Tapbots never intended to charge you that much. I am sure they wouldn’t even have thought of this crazy pricing when they got in developing. It was twitter who made it so.
You see, when twitter came up with their 1.1 version of API, they had restrictions on the ‘Tokens’. What are these Tokens? Say, you download an app. To have it linked to your account you need to use this token. Its the token that links the app to your account.
Twitter has said that new apps would get only 100K tokens. The existing apps that has more than 100K would get another 100K. Simple – Limiting the users of 3rd party apps.
What has that got to do with pricing – Economics! Infinite supply is now limited! 100,000 for the entire world through an app. Means, the person (say 100,001) who buys the app and tries to connect, just won’t get through. His purchase is gone waste, unless a person who already bought the app and NEVER connected his account. Remember, even if you just link your account and never use the app, you still use their token! You need to revoke access to free your toke (Have we you revoked twitter access?). Until then it means even an idle account is counted.
So they have to sell to only 100,000 customers. You obviously incur funds to develop and keep your support for those customers who bought the app. You need to update it for which you surely require cash. So you need to price it accordingly. So they came up with this $19.99 app.
Its upto you to decide who to blame.
Worth the price?
Though the price is justified, do we – as buyers – get the benefits out of this app? With $19.99 you buy like lots of app on App Store. At this price, you can even buy some great games, few even are priced below it. Read my review below –
User Interface
Been using the iOS app? Then you must surely feel at home with slight adjustments. You have the timeline, mentions, messages, favourites, search, profile, list, retweets and mute filters. These are exact ones like the iOS app, just that we had only 5 ‘dock’ in iOS, here its all. I have attached few screenshots depicting each feature.
One thing that is noteworthy is multiple Window. You can open tabs for each feature. The noteworthy this is, its can either be floated alone or attached with the entire app. I very much like this. I have a column for retweets and timeline! So its kinda easy to follow also.
It also sits on your menu bar and going blue when you have unread tweets.
Other features are you can add multiple timelines, have notification centre support, sync with iCloud to your iPad or iPhones.
Basically, all features from your iOS app is ported to Mac, but in a better way.
Verdict: The King of Twitter Apps!
The best twitter for OS X out there. It just blows away the Twitter app. But, as explained above, it comes with a price. A huge price. For me, It took lot of thinking to buy this app. But, its the best click and purchase I ever made. Being a twitter fan, and tapbot fan, I don’t mind paying developers that much to own this app. It just rocks. Kudos to entire team! Buy & support the team if you.