Our Verdict
To say I useTwitterbegrudgingly is n’t quite right . When I first fall in the microblogging table service in February 2007 , I was n’t impressed and did n’t puzzle around . I came back to the table service in earnest a pair years later on , and it ’s become a daily go - to place for me . I apply it professionally and in person , and so do many of the folks I follow . It ’s full of quips and silliness , but also great selective information and sixth sense . So it ’s fair to say that I ’ve come to love Twitter , the service .
But I finger far less warm towards Twitter , the company , which has started making life-time much more difficult for the third - party developer whose apps work with the Robert William Service . That ’s a disgrace , because I ’ve repeatedly been impressed by the innovation and design that characterise the sound Twitter clients , and the society ’s military action put the development of such apps in risk .
Of course , this is a review of the excellent newTweetbot for Mac(Mac App Store link ) , not a review of Twitter ’s business practices . But I bring up the latter here because one of the effects of Twitter ’s new developer restrictions — specifically , the finite limit point on how many drug user a have Twitter client can support — is that developer Tapbots ischarging more for the new app than to begin with be after . Specifically , Tweetbot for Mac will cost you $ 20 , at a prison term when many standardized apps can be found for $ 10 or less . Which means that for many reader , the question is n’t just whether Tweetbot is secure , but whether it ’s deserving the price .
My answer: Yes.
It ’s no secret that I get it on Tweetbot for iPhone ( ) and for iPad ( ) . Before the app come to the Mac , I longed for it , mostly because Tweetbot for iOS shaped how I expend Twitter . I love the rap - and - hold crosscut , the wanton seafaring , and the tight integration with a slew of service for saving content , station photograph , and more .
The key question , of course of instruction , is how well Tweetbot ’s iOS - inspired actions and interface mathematical function to the Mac . The app mostly make that leap in smart path . A good object lesson is that the rap - and - hold action in iOS becomes right - cluck ( or Control+click ) on the Mac : Right - tap a drug user ’s name or avatar to get options to mute , follow / unfollow , send a private substance , wangle listing rank , or report for spam . Right - cluck on a tweet to copy a link to it , copy its text , e-mail it , render it , catch it in Favstar , and more . Right - sink in on a link within a tweet to write a post about the inter-group communication , send it to the read - later service of your choice , open up it in your default web web browser , and so on .
Tweetbot ’s iOS gestures also make the leap to the Mac . Sure , you may double - sink in a tweet ( or iron out the right - pointer key fruit when the tweet is selected ) to view the conversation circumvent that message , but if you ’re using a trackpad , you may instead expend a two - digit swipe to the rightfield , flat over the tweet , to get to the same view . It feel just ripe .
As on the iPad , Tweetbot on the Mac uses a left - paw navigation bar to put up quick accession to your honorable mention , direct messages , favorites , lookup , profile , lists , retweets , and silent configurations . likewise , if you have multiple accounts configured , a tap on your current account ’s avatar shows you a list of all accounts ; tap one to switch to it .
you’re able to configure all sorts of mount , include which event you ’d like notifications for ( sodding with Notification Center integration ) , which read - it - later overhaul to expend , your link shortener of choice , your preferent photo- and video - upload services , and — perhaps good of all — your favourite timeline - sync service . I ’ve long relied on the excellent Tweet Marker servicing to keep my place between Twitter apps and gadget , and Tweetbot supports Tweet Marker . But now that I ’m using Tweetbot on all my devices , I ’m using — and enjoying — its iCloud integration instead , mainly because its iCloud synchronize tracks not just my current reading position in the main timeline , but also the read / unread status of my direct message , where I left off in my citation timeline , and even my mute preferences . It ’s great .
When composing a message , you may clack your own embodiment to choose to send the content from another of your chirrup accounts alternatively . Other frame niceties admit the capability to confiscate effigy , to append your locating , and to save bare posts as conscription .
There are a few way in which Tweetbot for Mac differ from the iOS interpretation , and those just so happen to be the few areas where I sense the Mac interpretation suffers : multiple window and multiple - account management .
Obviously , multiple windows is n’t a feature film the iOS variant need to make out with — or could even support — but on the Mac , Tweetbot get you produce columns , which are separate timelines attached to your main timeline window , or standalone window contain separate timeline . The carrying out of this approach is a piece clunky : For exemplar , if I want a separate window with replies to @Macworld , I need to first navigate from my own account to @Macworld ’s , then click the mentions button , and then click the paraphernalia image and prefer the program line to engender a new window . But now I have two windows showing the same affair ; I then postulate to switch the original windowpane back to my own accounting . ( Alternatively , I can sail to the Macworld account and then right - click the mentions push and pick out Open In New Window . This at least keeps the original windowpane on the main Macworld timeline . )
birth to manually flip the original windowpane back to where it was is a bit of a scuffle , but the large issuance for me here is that the fresh created newspaper column or windowpane lacks navigation elements — you ca n’t shift to mentions or direct messages or anything else . To alter the view in the secondary windowpane or column , I want to close down it and then recreate it with the trust view . This might make common sense if you ’re viewing two timelines for the same write up , but for viewing timeline from multiple accounting , I ’d rather be able to view two side - by - side standard windows , each with its own navigation controls . Tweetbot ca n’t quite do that yet .
There ’s also more study to be done when it number to keyboard shortcut . Tweetbot has many , but it lacks a few necessities . For exemplar , I ’d love a fast fashion to shift between accounts , especially given the limit I just draft with multiple windows and columns . A global keyboard shortcut to launch the app , or to toggle its visibility , would be nice , too . ( Some of myMacworldcolleagues also care the app could run without a Dock image , but — though I encounter the freakish golem / duck gently disturbing — I like it there . )
I ’m thrilled that Tweetbot has made the leap to the Mac ; despite a duet complaints , I reckon it ’s just a fantastic app . All of my Twitter phthisis now give out through Tweetbot customer , and that suits me just o.k. . Tweetbot is the Twitter app I ’ve long wanted on my Mac , and it does n’t disappoint .
