Tweetie for Mac – Hope for OS X Fans

For quite a while, I have been looking for a decent Mac Twitter client. With so many clients based on Adobe’s AIR platform, it’s hard to find one that is native to the Mac OS X Cocoa system.

Unfortunately, Adobe AIR applications are often lacking in usability and find themselves buggy.

Therefore, any Twitter client I want to use must meet a few requirements:

It has to be a native Macintosh application. I don’t want to have to install a runtime for a single application.

The program must be exceedingly stable. I hate programs that crash.

It must have a clean, fluid interface without the clutter of most Twitter clients.

The application must have the standard Twitter features: block/unblock, follow/unfollow, user profile viewing, trend searches, and direct messaging.

I have discovered an application that I really like. It’s called Tweetie.

First for Atebits was Tweetie for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Now it has made it’s way to the Mac platform.

Tweetie for the iPhone quickly became one of the most downloaded Twitter clients in the App Store – offering excellent functionality at a low price.

Boosted by the success of Tweetie’s iPhone variant, Atebits set out to make a full featured client for the Mac OS X.

Tweetie for Mac is an excellent native Mac Twitter client. It is based on Cocoa, Apple’s native scripting workflow. Thus, it meets my first requirement.

Tweetie has yet to crash for me. I have it open nearly any time I’m at my computer (which is often) and I have yet to see a single crash or slowdown. So it meets my second requirement.

Tweetie’s user interface is impressive. It looks beautiful and is powerful but is not overdone – like some AIR applications are. It isn’t littered with buttons and useless information. On the left side there are four buttons:

-Timeline (for tweets from your friends) -Mentions (for all tweets that mention you) -Direct Messages and -Search (so you can look for trending topics)

You can also access unlisted functions with a variety of key combinations ” as detailed in the various menus. There is also a nifty blue notification icon that sits on the menu bar at the top of your screen and turns blue when new tweets arrive. This clean interface satisfies my third requirement.

The application definitely boasts a spectacular set of features. You can even drill into your conversations and see what was said by each person involved.

Tweetie even supports user profiles fully. Find out who is following you and who isn’t. You also have the option to block a person from his/her profile.

By using the search function, you can find hot topics, users, or even phrases. See who is talking about a given topic and follow or block users from this screen.

Tweetie even comes with a bookmarklet for your browser so you can quickly tweet a link to your current webpage.

As far as pictures go, Tweetie for Mac supports yFrog, TwitPic, Twitgoo, Posterous, Img.ly, and Pix.im.

Tweetie even gives users the option to shorten URLs without even opening a web browser.

If you have multiple Twitter accounts, you can use them with Tweetie. The app supports them beautifully.

This amazing feature list more than meets my fourth requirement.

Tweetie is available for free to download and use as long as you wish. This version is supported by ads. You can buy a license for $20 to remove the ads.

I have no complaints about this amazing little app. It does everything I need and more. If you are seriously looking for a Twitter client for you Mac, take a serious look at Tweetie. I think you will be impressed.