Sure, Twitter just launched an official iPhone client a few days ago, so you might think there’s not much room for yet-another-Twitter-client for the iPhone. But today Seesmic introduced an app that makes a pretty strong case that there is still room for competition.
That’s because Seesmic for iPhone isn’t just a Twitter app. It’s also an iPhone app. And thanks to Ping.fm integration, you can also use it to update your status on a ton of social networks including MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, Blogger, and Tumblr.
I tested the Seesmic iPhone App out. While Seesmic on the web is my current preferred method of viewing tweets on my desktop, I’m sticking with the new official Twitter App (aka Tweetie 3) on my iPhone:
Seesmic Pros:
– ITS FREE
– INTERFACE: Elegant interface (though I don’t want/need Facebook etc. support in my Twitter app)
– CLASSIC RT: It supports classic ‘RT’ retweeting
– UNLIMITED LOAD OLDER TWEETS: Supports unlimited ‘Load older…” tweets at the end of the timeline (something that the Twitter app also supports in theory but is often buggy)
– WICKED FAST when loading those older tweets (faster than Twitter app, Tweetdeck and Echofon)
– ADJUSTABLE TWEETS LOADED SETTING: I like the maximum amount of tweets loaded each time I connect.
Seesmic Cons:
– DOESN’T REMEMBER WHERE YOU LEFT OFF ON START: Does NOT remember where you left off in the timeline the next time you start the app (even if you just leave it for a minute and come back) THIS IS A CRITICAL FLAW FOR ME
– DOESN’T REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE WHEN RETURNING FROM LINK: If you are, say, 5 hours down your timeline, click on a link in a tweet to read a linked story on the web, when you return, you are returned to the top of the timeline. You must scroll down and find where you left off in the timeline. VERY ANNOYING!
– NO LANDSCAPE MODE: It’s all portrait all the time. This is especially painful when viewing websites within its embedded browser. THIS WAS ALSO A DEAL KILLER FOR ME (Twitter App & Echofon do landscape – Tweetdeck doesn’t)
– CHARACTER COUNT FLAW: Silly forwards character count when creating tweet. I want to know how many characters I have left, not how many I have typed so far. This implementation makes me do the math in my head. Just tell me how many characters I can type yet – like all the other major Twitter apps do.
– NO USER SELECTABLE FONT SIZE: My aging eyes need this!! Another deal killer for me. I note Tweetdeck also cannot adjust fonts whereas the Twitter app and Echofon can
– DOESN’T SHOW WHO RT’d TWEETS IN TIMELINE: It’s bad enough with the new RT system that you are forced to see the icon of the original tweeter and not the icon of the person you followed that retweeted it. But Seesmic doesn’t even say in the timeline which of the persons you follow retweeted it. You have to click on the tweet itself to discover that. Major Ugh!!
-DOES TOO MUCH: I don’t want all those other services supported. I just want a world class twitter client
…Dale
Oh what the heck. Since I wrote the above comment, I decided to turn it into a blog post with some expanded thoughts on the Tweetdeck and Echofon iPhone twitter app alternatives:
http://bit.ly/bxDcIb
…Dale