Twitter for Mac is a slick, fast new update to Tweetie
The long awaited Tweetie 2 for Mac has finally launched, with a new name: it's now Twitter for Mac. When Twitter bought Tweetie, they announced that developer Loren Brichter would be turning the iPhone version into an official Twitter for iPhone, but the Mac version of Tweetie wasn't getting Twitter branding — and effective became a hobby for Loren.
Twitter has an official blog post explaining how they reached the decision to release an official Twitter app for Mac, and it has to do with the October “Hack Week” they gave their employees to work on new projects. Loren spent that week polishing up his idea for Tweetie 2, and the Twitter brass loved it so much that it was anointed an official Twitter client.
As for the app itself, it's incredibly fast and quite gorgeous. The UI has gotten a facelift, but Twitter for Mac retains Tweetie's familiar navigation sidebar. The app now supports Twitter's streaming API for real-time tweets (you can turn this off from the File menu if you find it too distracting), as well as lists and new-style retweets. Trending topics are (thankfully) not front and center, but you can still find them behind the search icon in the sidebar. Also, the all-important “delete tweet” option which was glaringly missing from Tweetie has been added to Twitter for Mac.
Twitter for Mac's new eye candy is as important as its updated features. The black sidebar has been made slightly translucent, which some will love and others will turn off immediately. Photos from Twitter-supported services like Twitpic and Yfrog now load up in a nice white-framed lightbox. Individual tweets are now draggable to the Finder as text clippings or to Mail as fully-formatted tweets, with icons and all.
Although some things about Twitter for Mac will take getting used to — the lack of a title bar, for example — it should be a fairly smooth transition for Tweetie users, and it should feel quite familiar to anyone who's tried Twitter for iPad.
You can download Twitter for Mac for free from the new Mac App Store.
Gallery: Twitter for Mac
Twitter for Mac is a slick, fast new update to Tweetie
Fuente: Download Squad
