New TweetDeck: more mainstream, less flexible

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

The TweetDeck desktop client has seen a major overhaul, with a move away from Adobe Air and a whole new approach to accounts and feeds. It’s all very snazzy, with a blue theme and some very welcome touches: I’ve long loved Tweetlist’s highlighted usernames and links, so they’re very welcome here, and tweet boxes that scale dynamically to the length of the tweet are long overdue. That’s the positives covered.

On to the not-so-positives. The tweet box now pops up and steals the focus until you close it. A small change, you might think, but I regularly half-write tweets while I keep reading those of others, then react as I go. Sometimes I leave a tweet for ten minutes to decide whether it should really be sent (it usually shouldn’t). This prevents that, and it’s totally unnecessary. You also can’t send a tweet using Enter, and if you think you can go to Settings and change that, you can’t – it’s been pared back to the idiot-proof basics.

(more…)

Deck.ly: the TweetDeck update that breaks Twitter

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Twitter. Some people love it, some people don’t see the point. Others, like me, don’t see the point, make a song and dance about deleting their account, then sheepishly create a new one months later and admit that everyone else was right. Not my problem, Twitter must have got better in the interim.

But I think we can all agree that Twitter’s appeal lies in its short and sweet format. The 140-character limit is what makes “following” someone so appealing: it keeps things snappy, streamlined and often surprisingly creative. Even the most interesting Twitter user will post tweets that aren’t for you; the key is that every tweet is short and sweet and as easily skippable as any other.

At least it was, until a light bulb pinged on above the head of some bright spark at TweetDeck. Yes, its new deck.ly feature lets you keep typing beyond that 140th character. Instead of a warning red – you’re droning on… – you get an encouraging green: keep typing, you really are fascinating! (more…)

Android App of the Week: TweetDeck

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

TweetDeck’s arrival on Android has been somewhat belated. After all, it’s the most popular desktop client around, and it’s been available on iOS since June 2009. It’s my desktop client of choice, too, so I’ve been particularly keen to try out the mobile version. Better late than never, I guess.

It certainly looks like TweetDeck. The familiar shades-of-grey theme is evident here, and the mobile app borrows the column-driven format of the desktop version. Three are initially included – your main feed, your mentions and your direct messages – but more can be added, with your favourites, lists or searches available.

It’s obvious that plenty of thought has gone into the UI, too. Navigation is as simple as swiping between columns, and each is refreshed by clicking on its name at the top of the window. Click on a tweet to find options for replying, retweeting and more, and select the user to load up a full profile. (more…)

Exactly how many people can you really follow on Twitter?

Friday, June 12th, 2009

I’m sure I can’t be alone in having a passionate love/hate relationship with Twitter. I steered clear of it for a long time, believing it to be a timesink and unwelcome distraction to my already communication-filled life. And now that I have joined the throng – as has PC Pro via @pc_pro – I haven’t really moved away from that point of view.

The problem is that the stream of information moves so fast. Even using the quite impressive TweetDeck, I find it impossible to keep track of the endless streams of communications happening. And the thing is, it’s not that I don’t want to hear what the likes of Jack Schofield at The Guardian have to say, but, well, he says so much! As do the numerous other friends, colleagues, influencers and publications that I follow. (more…)

20 good and 20 bad things about Twitter

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

PC Pro’s great Twitter adventure is barely a fortnight old (sign up for our Twitter feed here) but already we’ve found a great number of things that both amaze and annoy us about the micro-blogging site.

Here, in no particular order, are things we like, and can’t stand, about Twitter. Ideas suggested by others on the PC Pro Twitter feed and elsewhere are duly credited in brackets.

(more…)