Hot on heels of the series of Mac twitter client reviews, I’m up with my two twitter apps Lounge and Twangle. Both these apps are still in early beta, so keep your ultimate judgement for later.
Lounge for Mac
My first thought when using Lounge for Mac “Finally a twitter client that looks like it was built for OSX!”. It may be still in beta but so far runs pretty good. Lounge has a nice easy to follow interface and uses some color as well as icons to show you of what you’re clicking on.
Lounge does not have a lot of customizing features as of yet. The viewing area is larger than a “HUD”, but smaller than the larger interfaces of EventBox and Nambu. It’s easy to read but not overbearing nor does it hog your screen real estate. The buttons on the left allow you to view your Friend timeline, mentions, my DMs, I can search the twitter web, as well as save those searches permanently in the sidebar. I can also view my followers or those following me directly from this app, which I think is great. You can even save searches in the left hand column for quick and easy access again later.
There’s not much outward functionality in Lounge to show off in screenshots
Lounge also has Multiple Account support. If you have more than one Twitter account you can easily switch between accounts with just one push of a button. The advantage that Nambu has with Multiple Accounts, is that your twitter searches are not tied to any account. This way a twitter search for ‘free beer’ will show up in either account.
Lounge for iPhone
Now although I know this is a Mac twitter client review, the one thing that will really set Lounge apart from the other clients is its iPhone app ($1.99). Why is this so special? Because Lounge will allow for synchronizing between the desktop and the iPhone. This will allow you to have the same custom searches and let you pick up right where you left off on your desktop. You could also sync your Lounge clients across desktops. The sync is not working just yet, but devs are counting on that to be the USP of the client. [Milind: Going off track for a bit, I’d like to add that my experience with the Lounge iPhone app has been totally horrible. It doesn’t cache any of your tweets making the entire interface slow and unusable]
The Baddies
Overall, the interface is slow, some flaws here and there, but I believe they will all be fixed by the time this becomes a final release. For instance, you still cannot edit or delete an account once added. It takes several seconds to open up the profile info (while providing no visual cue as to something is happening), which is much too long for a “Quick Info” box.
Second, is that several features are missing. It doesn’t have url shortening features, or Twitpic support. There’s also no conversations view for checking out tweet conversations. But, Beta release remember? The developers have warned that there are some major bits missing, so with enough feedback and time…
For what it’s worth
Overall, Lounge doesn’t offer any huge breakthrough features, but it does show off the rudimentary features with a slick interface that some will definitely have a taste for. It could use a bit of flair in its interface though.
So far Lounge for Mac is free as a beta, with no listed price for when its ready for the market. The current beta does expire in July, so you will have plenty of time to get to know the app.
Twangle: The Twitter Wrangler
If you’re a long time Twitterrific user, you will love what Twangle has done to the user interface. The developer (or author, as he likes to call himself) seems to be influenced by Twitterrific on the Mac, and Tweetie on the iPhone. In his opinion, this is Tweetie for the Mac (although, we all know that isn’t true).
That’s as short it will go however
Twangle is a very simple client, with a minimalistic interface. In fact, I’d better call it a ‘miniaturized’ interface. Everything about the app is small, from the buttons, to scroll bars, to the window borders. However, unlike Twitterrific, this one can actually be used as your main twitter client.
Basic functions like Replies and Messages are tabs at the top. Using the jump lists from any tweet, you can view the user info, @reply, direct message, or even unfollow that user.
Not that pretty, nor functional
Customising your Twangling
Digging into the preferences, there’s two very interesting preferences. One is entering your general interests. I couldn’t find the Trends feature enabled, but I assume this is in place for when it does arrive in future. Another one, which again seems to be the author filling in the void, is choosing a random follower. This will be very useful for giving out some promo codes to the @smokingapples followers!
Straight out the developer’s head
Twangle has also got support for themes, although I doubt they’re customizable like Bluebird. One good thing about these themes is that they actually change the entire window rather than just the tweet list.
Beta beta beta
The app is definitely in an early beta and constantly evolving in its user interface. The search feature doesn’t work, and the author has moved the new tweet field as a button on the tab bar. Some of the screenshots on the features page also don’t match up to what you actually get.
Twangle is free in beta, but the dev seems to be (jokingly) pleading for your $10. It’s a good client if you’re in the market for an extremely minimalistic twitter application. For the rest of you though, I think there’s far too many exciting feature rich twitter clients out there for you to settle for something like this.
So far we’ve covered Bluebird and Canary, Eventbox and Nambu, Tweetie, and now, Lounge and Twangle. Don’t worry, there’s even more to come.
I guess I gotta tweet a lot more!!
