When it comes to harassing celebrities and posting every single thought that crosses your mind, it's hard to beat Twitter.
But what's the best way to use it?
It certainly isn't the Twitter website, which is sometimes slow, sometimes broken and certainly a pain to log onto whenever you want to see your friend updates or post a tweet yourself.
So we've identified twelve top Twitter tamers, from phone apps to fully-featured desktop managers, and you can get all bar one of them for free.
1.TweetDeck (OS X and Vista) Free
Built on Adobe's AIR platform, TweetDeck is incredibly powerful. You can make it single column, full screen or anything in between, and serious users will love the ability to view different groups of people in individual panels. It's the Swiss Army Knife of Twittering. Our only real niggle is that it occasionally doesn't keep up with our typing.
2. Twidget (OS X)
Free
Mac users should check out this simple and effective Dashboard widget. It's not as powerful as TweetDeck, but you still get automatic refreshing, the ability to mark tweets as favourites and automatic linking of replies, making it easier to follow conversations.
3. Twadget (Vista)
Free
There are lots of Twitter apps with ridiculous names, but Twadget takes the biscuit. It's not just a silly name, though. It's a straightforward Sidebar widget that, while it isn't pretty, gets the job done.
4. TwitterFox (Firefox)
Free
This Firefox add-on puts a little icon in your browser's status bar that tells you when any of your friends post a tweet. It also includes a text field for posting your own tweets, so you can carry on tweeting even when you're doing something else.
5. Twhirl (OS X and Windows)
Free
Another AIR-powered desktop app, Twhirl runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista and OS X. There's built-in URL shortening, multiple account support, image posting and support for additional services including Friendfeed and Jaiku.
6. Twitstat Mobile (Smartphones)
Free
If your phone has a browser, you can use Twitstat. Essentially, it's an alternative to Twitter's own disappointing mobile site, enabling quick access to common tasks such as replies, re-tweets and direct messages.
7. Twitterfon (iPhone)
Free
Designed with speed and ease of use in mind, Twitterfon makes it simple to stay on top of tweets, follow your friends' activities, see replies and stay on top of direct messages. It's definitely one to consider before spending money on another iPhone app.
8. Hahlo (iPhone)
Free
If you prefer web apps to downloaded ones, Hahlo is well worth a look. It looks gorgeous and it's easy to access your following/follower lists, your profile and, of course, the tweets themselves.
9. TwitterBerry (Blackberry)
Free
BlackBerry users are famously emailing all the time and now they can be twittering non-stop, too. Unlike some phone apps, TwitterBerry uses the data network, not SMS – which is just as well, because Twitter doesn't support SMS in the UK.
10. Pocketwit (Windows Mobile)
Free
This handy little app for Windows Mobile users supports VGA, QVGA and full-on smartphones. It also handles multiple accounts and can group tweets into 'conversation view' for easier reading. Finally, it supports URL shortening and TwitPic, and you can customise it with themes.
11. Twitterific (OS X and iPhone)
Free (with ads)
Twitterific's desktop and iPhone versions are available in two flavours: free with relatively unobtrusive ads, and paid-for, ad-free versions ($14.95/£10.89 for the desktop and £5.99 for the iPhone). As you'd expect from the Iconfactory, the interface is beautiful and the program is fast and intuitive.
12. Tweetie (iPhone)
£1.79
Why would you pay money for Tweetie when other iPhone apps are free? There are two reasons. Firstly, it does everything you could possibly want a Twitter client to do, including posting Safari URLs automatically. Secondly, it integrates with Instapaper, so you can click a link and save it to read later. Brilliant.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now read Quick fixes for 10 common Mac problems
Sign up for the free weekly TechRadar newsletter
Get tech news delivered straight to your inbox. Register for the free TechRadar newsletter and stay on top of the week's biggest stories and product releases. Sign up at http://www.techradar.com/register
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
tvvitterbug
February 20th 2010
4. Nice article!
New approaches and design strategies in 2010 have yielded some remarkable new Twitter clients. One in particular is TvvitterBug. It eloquently combines simplicity with great functionality and entertaining animations to give you the most out of your Twitter experience.
TvvitterBug 1.3 is just released and available on the App Store. This release brings together the culmination of all the features, capabilities, and functionality most sought after in an iPhone/iPod Twitter App, including:
1. All of the power you want, without the complexity you don’t.
2. Five (TvvitterBug exclusive) user-customizable Tweet Views.
3. Up to Five user accounts easily accessible from any view through a simple drag-down menu.
4. Persistent Tweets between launchings so you can view your tweets anytime.
5. Double-Tap Instant Update to easily and quickly refresh your tweet views on demand.
6. Built-in Photo capabilities to add photos directly to your tweets.
7. Built-in Translation support using any of the state-of-the-art web translation engines you choose, such as Google Translate, Yahoo Babelfish, or Promt Translator.
8. Built-in Web Access to view tweet embedded pictures and other URLs.
9. Editable User Profile, including setting a new Avatar picture.
10. Support for both “Fixed” and “Editable” Retweets – your choice.
11. Landscape support for both Views and Keyboard.
12. Automatic Language detection and display – great when you’re tweet surfing!
13. Push Notification support for Push services such as Boxcar and other compatible providers.
14. Automatic last-state restore on subsequent launchings.
15. It also supports Lists, Spam reporting, deleting tweets, follow/unfollow, favorite/unfavorite, search of Message, From, and/or To in any timeline, Search and Trends timelines.
16. The same ease-of-use and lightning fast operation as the original version.
I wouldn't say that TvvitterBug does absolutely everything one might possibly want to do from a Twitter client, but if probably does 99.9% of what most people want to do extremely well.
You can read more about TvvitterBug at http://www.tvvitterbug.com
Alert a moderator
siegea
December 6th 2009
3. Gravity for Symbian Os is quite superb
Alert a moderator
kasino72
February 20th 2009
2. Good point. I really should have mentioned that. Sorry.
Alert a moderator
jasonwryan
January 26th 2009
1. Tweetdeck, and all the other AIR clients, run on Linux as well...
Alert a moderator
Tell us what you think
You need to Log in or register to post comments