The Twit Menulet Twitter client for Mac was released today in version 7.2. The new version includes support for “native” re-tweets. And it now has global hotkeys that give you instant access to Twitter from anywhere in the MacOS. And it adds bylines, timestamps, autonavigation, stability enhancements, etc., etc! I can’t *tell* you how pleased we are with this release. Try the application at Mac Twitter HQ!
Today, @blondediva asked why people don’t use native retweets. This might not be obvious to a non-programmer, who hasn’t used the Twitter API. To those of use who use the API, it is crystal-clear: people don’t use native retweets because many clients don’t show them. Many clients don’t show them because the native retweets are in their own, separate timeline.
Each Twitter user actually has several timelines, including a “friends timeline” that shows most incoming tweets, a “mentions timeline” that shows mentions, etc. All of these timelines have to be downloaded separately and dealt with. In the case of Twit Menulet, we merge them all together into a River-of-News type format.
To me, adding another http connection/download/integration into the river event doesn’t make much sense. It is a pain, and I personally hate the native retweets. But, users want this feature, so we are working on it. It will be there in the next version. I promise.
Just caught another one of those posts on Twitter, this one about Echofon, saying, “I love this ap. I wouldn’t pay for it, though (or any Twitter client).”
I find this statement strange, and not a little annoying. The most charitable interpretation is that this person just doesn’t use Twitter that much and really doesn’t need a client. In which case, OK. The truth, though, is that this is a person who doesn’t consider any software to be a piece of craft worth paying for.
Re-read the quote. Doesn’t it sound a bit like Arfy in Catch-22, insisting that he never has to pay for “it”? The truth is that good software is hard to make, and worth paying for. How much is it worth? $500? $0.50? Probably, somewhere in between. But there is a price for software that makes sense and is also more than zero.
