…and #TwitterMobile is the number one trending topic right now, but also promoted. Hmmm…

UberTwitter and Twydroid fans have taken to Twitter en masse to bemoan the bannination of their favorite clients for Twitter after the microblogging service announced the suspension in a blog post. Twitter told ComputerWorld that the apps were suspended for an alleged laundry list of violations:

“Today, we suspended several applications, including UberTwitter, Twidroyd and UberCurrent, which have violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways,” wrote Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner, in an e-mail to Computerworld. “These violations include, but aren’t limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money.”

Shaken UberMedia CEO Bill Gross has confirmed that the requested changes were immediately made, and that the company is waiting for Twitter to re-approve the apps. The accusations of tweet-altering are weighty ones if they bear out, but no specific evidence to back the claims up has yet been offered.

How do you tweet from your handset? Does the UberTwitter ban interfere with your Twitter habits?

[Image]

Twitter bans UberTwitter, other popular clients… is a post from: The Inquisitr

I remember when Friendfeed first burst upon the scene and how much I liked it. One of the things that I liked that unlike Twitter it did an automatic page refresh at a certain rate of time, a period of time that unless you were a madman like Scoble would give you plenty of time to catch up in a glance what was new.

Then one day the team behind Friendfeed got this brilliant idea to turn on what they called their real-time display. This meant that your timeline would constantly refresh every time a new post was made by anyone you followed. For those that maybe followed a hundred or less people this wasn’t too bad but the moment that you started getting over the 500 range, and especially if you made the insane choice to follow any of the big names, you were suddenly faced with a never-ending stream of information and an acute need for anti-nausea pills.

That was one of the reasons why I ended up leaving Friendfeed because I didn’t, and still don’t, see the need for a constant flood of information and the inevitable headache that comes from trying to quickly decipher what is important and what isn’t.

Well it seems that Twitter is now going to go down this road and unleash a veritable tsunami of 140 character messages. Through their User Streams API the plan is to slowly provide real-time access to our user streams to all those Twitter clients out there.

Now apparently TweetDeck is one of the client developers that Twitter is providing early access to this new API and in order to get us ready the team at TweetDeck have made an early alpha of their client using this new API available. They have also put  together a 2 minute video of what this new way of using Twitter is going to be like.

Thanks to Mark over at SiliconANGLE for the link to the video but if you’ll excuse me I need to make a trip to the drugstore to stock up on aspirin and Gravol.

Real-time Twitter streams – excuse me while I go smash my head against the wall is a post from: The Inquisitr

Here’s a rundown of some of the great new features in this release :

Facebook integration

You can now access your Facebook account as well as your Twitter account to ensure you always stay connected with your friends while mobile. Add Facebook columns, update your status, write on your walls, comment & like… all from within the app.

Video uploading

You can now share videos while on the move. The TweetDeck app allows you to send a videos to both Twitter and Facebook thanks to the built-in 12 Seconds functionality. You can take a video direct with the camera in your iPhone 3GS, or upload a video already stored on your phone. Just remember that any video uploaded will be truncated after 12 seconds to keep things simple.

Landscape compose mode

Need a bigger keyboard when composing your updates? Switch to the landscape keyboard and type away!

Trending Topics

Always be up to date with what’s hot in the Twitterverse with the new Twitter trends feature. You can now view the Twitter trending topics in the app and can quickly create a search column to track the tweets that are hitting the big time right now.

Tweets Nearby column

You will always know when your Twitter friends are close, thanks to the new Tweets Nearby column. Using the GPS in your iPhone you can view tweets from everyone within a configurable range of your current location.

Address Picker

You’ll never again have to struggle to type @replies correctly, thanks to the new address picker function. One touch will bring up a list of your most active friends. Touch the name of the friend you want to @reply to and their ID will be added to your tweet.

Save Draft

Need to make a phone call or check your email while composing an epic update? Just touch Cancel then Save to keep your message as a draft. Next time you return to the compose window your masterpiece will still be there waiting to be completed.

Open in Safari

Do you ever wish that you could open links direct in the iPhone Safari browser? Well now you can. Just open the link as normal then touch the Safari button to close TweetDeck and open the web page in you iPhone’s browser instead.

bit.ly account support

You can now add your bit.ly account details into the iPhone app just like you can in the desktop version. This allows you to ensure all links that you shorten through the iPhone TweetDeck are stored in your own bit.ly account.

These are just some of the highlights from a long list of update, new features and fixes that have been built into v1.1 of the iPhone app.  You can check out the full changelog here.

v1.1 of TweetDeck for the iPhone is available in the AppStore here.

Wire: TweetDeck for iPhone – now with added Awesome is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of the big bits of news out today was the release this morning of an updated version of TweetDeck. Now I realize that this is the darling Twitter app everyone just loves to use and for the most part I can see why.

The way the columns are added for the different timelines and services is nice and easy. Each of the columns have individual options – depending on the service. For Twitter related columns the two really handy options are:

Popular

This option lets you see what popular tags and names are the most popular.

When you select the Popular button a small panel will be displayed at the bottom of the column showing the popular items.

Clicking the Popular button will close it.

Filter

I know myself there have been times where I’ve gone looking for a specific message so this is a nice feature to have. Just click on the Filter button

This will open up the Filter panel for the column which is where you can select whether you want to filter based on: text, name, source, or time. Then as you enter in the say the text to search for the list will update based on what you have typed so far.

I can really see why people really like TweetDeck but there are still some things about that irritate me to the point that TweetDeck won’t be becoming my principal Twitter client at this point.

One of the major reasons is it’s lack of spam filters which is something that I really liked about using bDule, or rather Sobees Lite as it has been renamed. Being able to filter out some of the more irritating Twitter crap (Spymaster and other such stuff) makes for a more enjoyable time using Twitter.

Along with that being a major deal breaker for me the way that TweetDeck handles notifications could do with some fine tuning. On the whole it’s not bad but what would be really nice it to be able to get notifications based on keywords, individual followers, or even if a trending topic is hitting your timeline.

Now the rest of these points are all minor but added together, regardless of how picky they might seem, are reasons why I’ll be taking a pass on TweetDeck at this point.

The big one – font size! Like come on people just how hard is it to add in the option to let us select the size of font we want to use for stuff to be displayed in. This has always been my major bitch point when it comes to Twitter clients – when are you developers gonna realize that not everyone has 20/20 vision.

New message notification – I’m sorry but using a gray scaled dot down at the bottom of the post where it basically blends into the background is a useful way to let me know that I have new messages. As well wouldn’t it kinda make sense to remove that dot from messages once some new ones have been received?

The other thing that is an irritant is having the name of the person sending the message at the bottom. I really dislike having to first scan to the bottom of the message to find out who it is from and then reading the message. Would it really be that difficult to have it at the beginning of the message where it would flow more naturally?

There are a lot of things about TweetDeck that make it a nice Twitter client to use and I can see why it is popular, however they aren’t enough to outweigh the points I have mentioned.

Maybe next time.

TweetDeck teardown is a post from: The Inquisitr

TweetDeck has become the first Twitter client to extend into teen territory with the launch of a new version that supports MySpace.

The new version of TweetDeck (not available at the time of writing, but due to launch September 9) adds MySpace support, increases Facebook support, and adds the TweetDeck Directory, a catalog of Twitter accounts worth following according to VentureBeat. The TweetDeck Directory is said to be a catalog of popular Internet topics: Music, Travel, Jobs, Sports, News, Tech, and others.

CEO and founder Ian Dodsworth told VentureBeat “I put Tweetdeck out to solve my problems with Twitter. Not to start a business, or for the greater good, but for myself.” Dodsworth went on to say that he considers TweetDeck a browser now that taps in to the best parts of the social web.

TweetDeck has taken $2.3 million over two rounds that included Beta Works and The Accelerator Group. Despite coming late to the party, TweetDeck is now the most popular, or second most popular (depending on the stats you believe) Twitter client on the market.

TweetDeck adds MySpace support is a post from: The Inquisitr

Twitter desktop application TweetDeck raised several million dollars this past July and now according to SEC filings the company has just received an additional $1.5 million towards a debt raise of $1.8 million dollars.

The new funding comes after $300K round of seed funds that came in January from New York tech investor Betaworks. Betaworks is also responsible for part of the funding in this new round of cash.

Also contributing to the new round of funding is PRO Founders Capital, Danny Rimer, Index Ventures, Ron Conway and Tag Ventures. [via PaidContent]

TweetDeck Picks Up $1.5 Million In Latest Round Of Funding is a post from: The Inquisitr

A video posted by Seesmic founder and CEO Loic LeMuer today suggests that Seesmic has acquired TweetDeck.

Having watched the video three times I’m not sure whether Loic (Seesmic) and Iain Dodsworth (TweetDeck) are joking or not, but the video does clearly refer to a big announcement and acquisition. Dodsworth also says that he has a “new job” and holds up a Seesmic sticker for good measure (see picture above). The pair say the announcement will be made “tomorrow” and will create a “dominant force” according to Dodsworth.

If they’re being serious, this is a huge buy for Seesmic and will immediately place the company into the leading position in the Twitter client market. Rumor has it that Loic has been sitting on a pile of VC dollars for a long time, and with the original Seesmic video product all but closed down, it had to find a home eventually.

If true: congrats to all involved. The video of the announcement of sorts below.

Update: we’ve got emails in asking for confirmation or whether they were just taking the piss. A couple of stats: TweetDeck took an angel round of $500,000 from BetaWorks in January at an unknown valuation. Seesmic has taken $12 million over two rounds, and as noted above, rumor has it that Loic is still sitting on at least half of that money. Hard to value TweetDeck, but I’m going to suggest something around the $4-5 million mark, maybe a little less (I’d bet the January valuation was in the $1-2m range.) Given Loic and Iain talk in the video of a partnership, the deal (if it happened) may have consisted of cash and Seesmic equity.

Update 2: Loic has responded via email claiming the video was a joke, although we hear that there is some sort of announcement due tomorrow from another source. We’re thinking probably less than 50% likely at this stage, but we’ll wait to tomorrow to be sure.

Thanks to JJ Projects for the tip and video via Kosso.

TweetDeck acquired by Seesmic? is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Twitter desktop client war is charging ahead at full steam, with both Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck releasing big upgrades, and Tweetdeck offering an iPhone version for the first time.

Seesmic Desktop went first with a release candidate of version 0.3. The new version builds on Seesmic Desktop’s strong foundations by embracing service competition. Along with a strong list of URL shorteners, Seesmic now offers image uploading support for Pikchur, Posterous, TwitPic, Twitgoo & yfrog. Bit.ly support has been extended to include Bit.ly account integration, allowing users tokeep track of URL clicks. There is also a range of visual enhancements and feature improvements.

Market leader Tweetdeck isn’t sitting back and letting Seesmic Desktop grab all the attention though. The biggest change in the new version Tweetdeck is the ability to manage multiple accounts, to date Seesmic Desktop’s biggest selling point. Other features include synchronization with the iPhone client, including search queries, lists etc, improved video playback, a reply all feature, and the ability to block and report spam.

The newly released, free Tweetdeck iPhone client could be the killer difference between the two offerings. Tweetdeck on the iPhone brings the multi-column goodness of the desktop client to the iPhone, and it works so much better than other iPhone clients currently available. The visuals are rich, the feature set is all there, and you can thumb through your columns.

I’m impressed by Seesmic Desktops latest offering, particularly the move to embrace consumer choice among Twitter related services at a time other desktop clients are reducing choice. But Seesmic doesn’t have the iPhone application, and even if it did have one, they’d struggle to come close. With the syncing capability, Tweetdeck looks set to increase its marketshare on the desktop, and quickly take a huge chunk of the iPhone Twitter client market as well.

God bless competition: Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck release new features is a post from: The Inquisitr

Unlike Twitter’s page views of late, development of Twitter tools continues to head north at an unbridled pace. Even before Twitter had its Oprah moment, Twitter clients have been the most popular area for Twitter tools. Today, there is well over 50 Twitter clients, and possibly even 100 if you count iPhone apps.

Given a sea of noise, developers have two options: they either try to improve on existing ideas, or they try to innovate and bring something new to the table. New Twitter client Mixero has gone for the latter.

The problem when you try to reinvent the wheel is you have to come up with a better idea. Mixero tries awfully hard, but that’s the problem: it tries way to hard, and delivers something that is confusing, aesthetically poor, and different for the sake of it (solutions looking for problems.) It’s still in private alpha, and probably because they’re not sure if using it might cause people with certain conditions to have a fit.

Let me explain starting from the basics. Mixero is neither a single column Twitter browser, or a multi column like the popular TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop. What it is though is difficult to describe. Mixero is a center navigation bar with columns either side (see above.) On the left hand side you have your Twitter stream, and on the right you have your contacts and “channels.” Contacts can be grouped, which is a solid idea.

From this point you have various features you can use. If you want your replies and main stream in different columns, tough luck, but you have put them in separate windows….indeed this feature is used as a selling point. Notably the only client I can think that did something close to this was Twhirl, and that was such a popular option it was abandoned when its replacement Seesmic Desktop was launched.

Mixero, unlike a number of recently launched clients doesn’t lack for features, but you’d need a great drug supplier to work them all out. You can, in no particular order, create groups, active lists, contexts, filters and channels. I should also warn, you could also be arrested for the drugs you’ll take you work all those out. Even better, there’s an iPhone version on the way as well!

The confusing array of choices aside, there are a few nice features that other clients should adopt. “Smart preview” allows you to mouse over a photo or video link and get a preview before clicking thru. Likewise, a mouseover on a short URL offers the actual link. A sort of minimal overlay bar highlighting users could be nifty for some, and is at least visually interesting.

Some reviews are saying that it’s innovative, a great solution, and even a TweetDeck killer. It’s not, however I’ll concede that maybe for the extremely patient power user with a great supply of meth, it’s a brilliant client. For everyone else, sticking your hand in a paper shredder is far easier.

Here’s the Mixero demo video:

On meth, new Twitter client Mixero is normal is a post from: The Inquisitr

As most hardcore Twitter users know, there is a very strong third party developer community that has built up around Twitter. Name your operating system and chances are you will find a dozen good desktop clients and a complete range of web mashup. At the top of the pile of desktop clients the heavy favorite would have to be TweetDeck.

Personally I have tried it but it never really grabbed me as a solid choice for a Twitter client. While it wasn’t the deciding factor the memory consumption of TweetDeck is pretty heavy. So heavy apparently that Terry Schadron at the New York Times sent out a memo to all the newsroom folks asking them to please not use the program as it was dragging down the workstations.

Here is the memo in full (with a hat tip to @mathewi on Twitter)

Email sent to the New York Times newsroom from Terry Schwadron. —Zach Seward, Nieman Journalism Lab

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Schwadron, Terry 
Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Subject: [NYT Newsroom] To newsroom twitter users
To: 

To Newsroom Twitter users:

We are seeing a growing number of complaints from people with computer
performance problems that have been traced to TweetDeck, an
application that some have installed on Times workstations and laptops
to follow Twitter messages. Though still in beta and not officially
released, TweetDeck is indeed a handy tool for high-power Twitter
users to keep track of multiple threads simultaneously.

However, it also takes a serious bite out of the performance of many
computers, particularly older PCs.

We recommend against installing it or using it on Times computers.

Several other applications, including Twitter’s own website, will
suffice for most users. We plan to test some of the favorites against
Times workstation configurations, and make a recommendation shortly on
some that appear to be both safe and easy to use, for both casual and
power users.

If you do install TweetDeck, know that it will slow your workstation.

News Technology

Ooops.

The New York Times tells staff … “Please don’t use TweetDeck” is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Twitter application market is booming at the moment off the back of Twitter’s phenomenal growth this year. Seesmic launched Seesmic Desktop yesterday (the new Twhirl), delivering multi-account access to a multi-column client. TweetDeck is out with a new version that promises to have fixed its memory issues, and adds some extra features for good measure. Mac client Nambu is starting to get a lot of attention, and rightly so, it’s quick and offers a non-Ajax alternative. CoTweet doesn’t offer a desktop client yet, but brings CRM to Twitter, marking a significant step forward in the Twitter landscape.

This post was going to start out as a Twitter client review, but Rafe Needleman wrote the post I would have written at CNet yesterday, give or take a few things I would have covered differently (read it here.) The choice we have in Twitter clients has never been better, and yet none are perfect.

The feature problem

The differences between each client come down to features, with no client offering the lot. TweetDeck may have popularized the multi-column layout, but its feature set is also the richest on the market. This may seem like a small thing, and it’s a personal preference, but the feature I love the most on TweetDeck is TweetShrink. This one button allows you to automatically shrink a Tweet that has gone over the character limit. And yet TweetDeck doesn’t support multiple Twitter accounts and a range of other services (although it does support 12seconds and Facebook.) Seesmic Desktop rocks with multiple Twitter account support, although doesn’t support other services yet (Twhirl did, and we’re told these are coming.) Seesmic Desktop doesn’t offer the variety of additional Twitter tools TweetDeck does, although does offer image capture by webcam (a nice touch.) Nambu seems to be more a front for URL shortening and picture hosting services owned by the company that wrote it, and you’re locked in. DestroyTwitter, another smart multi-column Twitter client supports skinning, a feature the other clients simply don’t offer.

It’s unreasonable to expect that the creators of each Twitter client could and should offer every single imaginable feature, even beyond the constraint that for most, there’s little to no business model/ revenue from these clients (at least yet.)

But there is an army of people out there who given a platform could provide these features.

Open Twitter client

The solution to the feature problem is an open Twitter client. A Twitter platform might not be the right description, but it goes close.

This Twitter client would offer support for plugins or extensions is a similar way that Firefox does. Users could create plugins that add features to the client. For example, a plugin that added Identi.ca support to TweetDeck, TweetShrink to Seesmic Desktop, or even Flickr image uploading to Nambu. If you get the ground work right, the only limitation is the technical constraints and imagination of your users.

There may be programing issues in offering an open platform in Ajax, for example I don’t recall ever seeing an Ajax program offer plugins, although DestroyTwitter offers skins, suggesting that there is a way to bring in additional content/ services. Nambu is OS X native, so plugin support is possible.

Encouraging competition

As mentioned above, Nambu suffers from lock-in to services owned by the same people who wrote the client. The new version of TweetDeck has actually reduced the options of URL shortening. Most services only offer TwitPic for image uploading. As we increase the diversity of Twitter clients, we’re actually seeing a consolidation in the tie-ins to related services.

An open Twitter client would allow competing services to write their own plugins, giving users a true choice within the client. For example, I’d love to be able to link in to Skitch for images in my Twitter client at the push of a button or two, as opposed to the current need to upload, visit the site, grab the URL, then paste it in. There are a range of 3rd party stats sites now that would make nice value adds; TweetDeck offers Twitscoop, but imagine other services, complete with search (Tweetstats or similar sites.)

This isn’t to say that a service like TwitPic aren’t worthy (it’s a great service) but lock-in reduces competition, and reduced competition usually results in slower innovation. It’s in the communities interest for there to be a vibrant set of related tools accessible via their Twitter client.

Conclusion

The idea of an open Twitter client may to some degree be a pipe dream. We may not see it upfront, but I’d bet that a lot of the services pushed in clients like TweetDeck now aren’t offered from the goodness of the heart, but through business relationships which may or may not include money; if they don’t include money now, they likely soon will, because these 3rd party tools want users, and a button in a Twitter client can possibly deliver users by the million.

On alternative is to go open source, although that may be stretch, but likewise is not impossible.

Delivering an open Twitter client done right could end up being a selling point that defines the client in a sea of competition. Imagine a TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop with hundreds of plugins and theme options which you can pick and choose from, vs an existing client with a limited range of value adds. That’s got to be an appealing selling point, if someone is willing to take it on.

Why we need an open access Twitter client is a post from: The Inquisitr

TweetDeck v0.25 will see a few new fixes and features as well, including improvements to the program’s performance that’ll resolve some memory issues experienced in previous versions. It’ll also allow for viewing of TwitPic images within the interface and previewing of shortened URLs before you click on them. Be warned, too: There’s a flashy new yellow icon that may catch you off-guard.

The release comes right as Seesmic is unveiling its new Twhirl alternative, Seesmic Desktop — an AIR-powered application that looks curiously like TweetDeck. Seesmic Desktop introduces multiple columns with multiple group support. It also boasts the ability to manage multiple Twitter accounts and to drag-and-drop or even pop-out any columns within the window. Facebook, Digg, and Ping.FM support are all expected to be built-in eventually.

The race, it seems, is getting tighter. The stats vary depending on where you look, but most metrics services agree that TweetDeck is by far the dominant choice when it comes to third-party Twitter applications. Seesmic’s new update could give it a stronger chance at stealing some of those users away, but TweetDeck’s fast-moving, feature-adding progress certainly won’t make it easy.

TweetDeck Releases New Version; Seesmic Releases New Product is a post from: The Inquisitr

The new version of Twhirl, now known as Seesmic Desktop, was launched in San Francisco this evening and takes the good fight to popular Twitter client TweetDeck.

Seesmic Desktop is a complete code rewrite, delivering a fresh user experience and feature set. Included in the new version is multiple column and single app support (with Twhirl you had separate windows.) The defining point in the release is the ability to group multiple sources into one central stream, including multiple Twitter accounts. For example, you can blend your Identi.ca and Twitter streams in the one column/ view.

The new client also gets a user interface change, with the introduction of a side bar of navigation results.

We’d tell you more but the live stream failed about 10 minutes into the presentation, not exactly a positive omen. There’s also not a full list available at the time of writing about the additional features. From the choppy video which replaced the black fail screen, there was mention of recording from webcam, multiple image upload support (not sure if this was just Twitter related), and list/ search support similar to TweetDeck.

From what I have seen, it looks like a winner and will offer strong competition to TweetDeck. The multi-account and service support is a feature I’d use, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it.

To get Seesmic Desktop, sign up at desktop.seesmic.com and Seesmic will email you a download link when the client is released. No idea yet as to when it will be available. It’s now released. Downloading now.

Update: the preview release only supports Twitter. The other negative: it’s not pretty to look at.

Seesmic Desktop (Twhirl) takes the good fight to TweetDeck is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Discovery Engine: Next-Gen Twitter Search

The updated Discovery Engine/Twitter Search returns results right on your Twitter home page — putting them where your primary stream would typically appear — rather than placing them on a separate results page.

It also adds the intriguing ability to save a search and keep a dynamic box with its results on the side of your home page. You could, for example, add in a box to always show the latest tweets mentioning your name or your company name. The Discovery Engine will also bring the recently unveiled Trends feature to the home page sidebar.

The Reality of It

This definitely seems like a positive step toward making the Twitter home page more useful. At this point, though, it seems most regular tweeters do their business from a third-party client such as Twhirl or TweetDeck, so one has to wonder how much play the new functionality will actually get. Maybe eventually, the Twitter site itself will become robust enough that new users will stay within its confines rather than seek an API-powered alternative. Maybe.

In any case, the saved search concept is a good idea that could come in quite handy. For my purposes, I hope the gang over at TweetDeck looks at integrating a similar option soon, too.

Twitter Expands and Improves Search With New ‘Discovery Engine’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Skimmer supports Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flick and Blogger, and includes the ability to view media inline, including videos, and to upload media to the same services.

The pitch reads as follows:

Skimmer is an Adobe AIR desktop application designed to streamline, beautify, and enhance the experience of participating in your most frequently used social networking activities. It improves upon your day-to-day interaction with multiple social networks, removing distractions and providing a rich experience that is particularly suited to multimedia content.

Looks are something Skimmer has in bucket loads; this is possibly one of the most beautiful looking AIR apps I’ve ever played with. But style doesn’t equate to substance, and visual porn doesn’t make it practical. The issues start from the beginning; to use Skimmer you have to register the app (why, we don’t know), and then confirm your various accounts. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t accept Facebook, despite me confirming access with Facebook itself via a popup window. Flickr did work, but only after a couple of goes. Sometime later I accidentally closed Skimmer, and upon reopening it Facebook was working…but then my Twitter stream had disappeared, despite still showing up in the account list.

In use, it doesn’t get any better. You do have a variety of views, and you can shrink Skimmer down to a smaller view similar to most Twitter apps; but when you do shrink it down, you’re limited in features. In full view, you get some tools, but no where near close to Tweetdeck or Twhirl. Videos and images are also slow to load, if they load at all (some times they didn’t for me), so it may deliver them inline, but you could have easily visited the page directly in a quarter of the time.

If you’re looking for a pretty experience and don’t care about speed or extra features, Skimmer wins. For everyone else, don’t bother, at least yet. This is a first release, and it could improve with time.

(via Kineda)

Skimmer: social management that looks pretty, but not much else is a post from: The Inquisitr

The TweetDeck 0.24 pre-release fully integrates Facebook functionality into the program in a few ways: You can monitor Facebook status updates directly within the utility, even creating a new column dedicated exclusively to those. You can also send outgoing messages to Facebook exclusively, or to Twitter and Facebook concurrently, eliminating the need for Facebook’s Twitter app (and also giving you a little more control compared to the options it had provided). Finally, you can see a Facebook user’s status, and — if he’s online — open a Facebook chat window with him right within the TweetDeck program.

TweetDeck 0.24 will even let you pull content from one service into the other. For example, you can take a Facebook update and retweet it via Twitter. As Mashable’s Adam Ostrow points out, this raises some interesting questions over privacy, since Facebook status updates aren’t necessarily intended for public broadcast.

The TweetDeck team indicates, too, that more options are on the way.

“This is the first step in integrated Facebook into TweetDeck and there’s a huge amount more to come,” the official blog announcement says.

TweetDeck 0.24 pre-release is available here. Its creators stress, however, that it is still a beta program under testing and should only be used at one’s own risk.

As a recent Twitter and TweetDeck adopter myself (@jr_raphael — come say hello), this is certainly an intriguing new twist. The need to login to multiple social services is always a pain, and being able to keep tabs on my Facebook account while watching Twitter is a pretty convenient integration. Plus, the ability to easily pick and choose which updates go to which network (and which updates go to both) is a great addition for me.

I do agree with Adam, however, about the potential privacy implications: While in actuality, I probably wouldn’t care, I’m not sure I like the idea of someone within my limited Facebook network tweeting out something I send there when it comes to the principle of it. Of course, someone could do that anytime — this just makes it an easier click-and-go option. In the end, it’s probably just a good reminder to us all that things we send on social networks, even ones that appear to be semiprivate, should always be considered public.

Looking forward to seeing what else TweetDeck has in store for the future. So far, I’m quite pleased with it and encouraged by the forward-thinking progress its creators are showing.

TweetDeck Adds Facebook Integration is a post from: The Inquisitr

As Twitter continues to boom, so to does the market for 3rd party Twitter desktop clients. The once champ of the desktop Twitteriffic was replaced by Twhirl at the top of the popular list last year, but new comer Tweetdeck is now getting a lot of attention, and according to some reports in now the most popular Twitter desktop client.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Tweetdeck when it first launched, primarily due to its emphasis on a wide format. Tweetdeck is great if you’ve got a spare monitor to show it on, but was limited in its earlier versions by that constraint, vs Twhirl which sits neatly down the side of a monitor.

Given the recently flurry on interest in Tweetdeck, and a range of new features, I’ve taken a new look. Here’s a breakdown on each one compared. The use scenario is obviously my own, but the points will apply to others.

Layout/ Screen presence

As mentioned above, Tweetdeck is unique in offering a wide view of Twitter with dedicated columns for tweets, replies, direct messages and even more content like specific search terms.

Twhirl offers a single column layout that allows users to navigate by button, but replaces the view each time, so you can’t break them out.

The newer versions of Tweetdeck have improved view options, so you can now easily select a single column view, and scroll across to the other views.

Call: hard to split. If you’ve got the screen real estate and like seeing everything in front of you, Tweetdeck hands down. Twhirl is more compact though, so maybe slightly ahead if you’re constrained with viewing space.

Looks/ Aesthetics
Twhirl has always been an ugly application, and has only marginally improved with new releases. There is a degree of customization based on set theme, but the end result is brilliant to look at.

Tweetdeck is good looking out of the box, and head to head is easier to read and tweet. Customization includes the ability to set various colors, although unlike Twhirl is doesn’t allow for the font to be changed. If I had any criticism, it’s that the font in Tweetdeck is a little big, along with Tweet spacing, so you don’t get as many tweets in the same view as you’d get in Twhirl

Call: Tweetdeck. Visually pleasing, easier to read.

Supported features (Twitter)

Both Twhirl and Tweetdeck are now neck and neck on the supported Twitter features list after Twhirl added a range of extras in January.

Both share the ability to search Twitter and keep that search term in a list, although obviously Tweetdeck can offer it on screen next to regular tweets. Twhirl’s interface is cumbersome in comparison, with users have to go into search itself then click on the previously save search term/ list.

Both offer support for TwitPic, although Tweetdeck offers it more clearly as part of a Tweet (nice big button). Same for shortening URL’s, both offer it, but Tweetdeck presents a space where the URL requiring shortening can be placed, Twhirl requires yet another button for a pop up to obtain the same result.

Tweetdeck offers three additional Twitter related features not supported by Twhirl: a service call Tweetshrink, that allows a Tweet to be automatically shortened so it fits better, a translation button and the ability to recall recent hash tags. All are strong features and great selling points.

Tweetdeck though doesn’t support multiple Twitter account. Not a huge issue for most people, but if you run more than one account and use Twhirl to monitor them, you’ll miss the feature in Tweetdeck.

Call: Tweetdeck, but mostly because the features on Tweetdeck are easier to get at. I didn’t even realize Twhirl had Twitpic support until I went looking for it after noticing it on Tweetdeck.

Supported services (not Twitter related)

With its wide canvas offering plenty of space, you’d expect Tweetdeck to excel in external service support, but it doesn’t. Twhirl offers support for Identi.ca, Laconi.ca, FriendFeed and Seesmic, be it with a separate open window required for each. By comparison, TweetDeck offers support for 12seconds, although does offer both StockTwits and TwitScoop feeds (primarily one way Twitter data.)

Twhirl also has built in support for Ping.fm. A small feature perhaps, but one that allows users to broadcast their Tweets to a range of other services not supported directly by Twhirl itself.

Call: Twhirl hands down.

Miscellaneous

Tweetdeck doesn’t have an archive button that I can see, so there’s no easy one button to hit to bring up the previous tweets you’ve made. If you use Twitter a fair bit, sometimes you do need to see what you’ve sent when people reply at different times; for example, it’s not uncommon to see someone replying to a Tweet I’ve sent hours after I’ve sent it.

Tweetdeck doesn’t have built in throttling for a Twitter API, and even while writing this post, I was quickly running out of API requests (Tweetdeck actually displays how many you have left, and when your next reset is due). The default settings were also fairly high on Tweetdeck, so it can catch you out.

Tweetdeck also has an all or nothing on audio alerts, where as Twhirl can be set up to only play audio when you receive an @reply or DM. Having the audio on in Tweetdeck is annoying (it plays every refresh) and yet having it for DMs and @replies for me is a vital function, because I’m not constantly looking at the client, and will often only look when something comes in.

Overall
I’ve been running Tweetdeck on my laptop for a week, and Twhirl as usual on my desktop so I could fairly compare the two.

I love Twhirl (despite its looks), have all the time in the world for Loic Lemeur and Seesmic (Twhirl’s owners), but on the balance I’d say that today Tweetdeck is the better Twitter client.

The emphasis is key: If you’re looking for a client that allows you to follow and interact with multiple services, or even multiple Twitter accounts, Twhirl wins hands down. If you’re looking for a pure Twitter client that’s easy to read, use, and gives you a better view of a single Twitter account, it’s Tweetdeck.

I’m torn between switching though. I don’t use FriendFeed and Seesmic on Twhirl, and yet I do have more than one Twitter account. I love having Ping.fm support in Twhirl as it allows me to publish Tweets on Facebook, Plurk and other services, which often results in new conversations there. The audio on Tweetdeck isn’t good, and yet it’s so easy to read, easy to use. I might try switching for a short while and see how I go, and in the mean time try another way of getting Tweets onto Facebook (there is an app that does this for memory).

Tweetdeck vs Twhirl: It’s a very hard call is a post from: The Inquisitr

For the last six months Tweetdeck and 12seconds have been working together supporting each others efforts which enabled Tweetdeck to view 12seconds created video messages directly from Tweetdeck. Luckily enough I was able to play with an early test release late last night of the version that will be available today that now lets you record 12seconds video right from Tweetdeck itself.

Besides being a natural evolution for Tweetdeck this is a big gain for 12second users. As well 12seconds is in the process of updating the functionality of their API so that any third party developer will be able to create recording functionality for 12seconds video accounts. Developers will be able to request a key from 12seconds to gain access to the API which they will be opening up over the next two week.

By the look of the Tweetdeck site they haven’t updated with the new version information yet so keep checking back and keep those webcams warmed up.

Tweetdeck and 12seconds team up once more is a post from: The Inquisitr

Twitter desktop application tool TweetDeck is in the process of finalizing an angel round of up to $500,000, according to AllThingD.

The application has become popular with some Twitter users due to its breaking out of Twitter streams and customization tools. I’ve never been a huge fan because it requires so much screen space, but I understand the appeal.

Having said that though, I tend to side with Om Malik: this sort of money for a desktop app that could be easily replicated and with no clear revenue stream does seem a little crazy. Still, congrats to developer Iain Dodsworth.

The funding comes from Betaworks.

TweetDeck Takes Angel Round Up To $500,000 is a post from: The Inquisitr