SheGeeks

Ladies and gentlemen, I am so excited right now because one of my favorite iPhone apps is coming to a desktop near you!

Atebits, developer of the popular Tweetie iPhone app, has announced the debut date of Tweetie for Mac a.k.a Bigbird! I’m hoping that it will be coming to Windows really soon, but for now let’s drool.

It seems Atebits will be taking the same slick UI of Tweetie on the iPhone and pushing it straight to the desktops of Mac users. According to the demo video of Tweetie for Mac (here), it will be one of the first desktop apps to support conversation tracking, or threaded message support, with a cool way to view conversations for messages too.

This is a really good feature and rapidly becoming a must have for any Twitter application these days. Tweetie is the first I’ve seen to this and I haven’t seen it in their iPhone app either.

“Tweetie for Mac is more than a port – in fact, it’s a complete rewrite. The new core is faster, more stable, and more extensible than its predecessor. Not only will it form the foundation of the Mac version, but also the foundation of the next generation of Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone.”

Tweetie for Mac will be released this Monday, April 20th. I’m looking forward to hearing what Mac users will think of it(and secretly wishing I had a Mac). It has a lot of cool nifty effects that really catch the eye, but also has the potential to be a hit or miss with some folks. I think you’ll either love it or hate it, especially with the way they’ve integrated threaded messaging into every conversation that happens on Twitter!

Other Features

We’re not sure what features might be missing compared to competitors, but having groups may be one of them. So be sure to stay tuned for more info on this or follow @atebits and @tweetie on Twitter.

Here are some screenshots of the great features from the demo video of Tweetie for Mac:

Drag & Drop Image Support

Direct Message Threading!

Twitter Search Integration

Questions:

• What do you think of Tweetie for Mac?
• Wish it were coming to Windows?
• Will you be giving it a test drive?
• Are you hoping it can replace your current client?

Popularity: 80% [?]

Looks pretty neat to me. This is in the works by Ryan Paul of Ars Technica. Good work Paul and I hope to see this released soon. Check out Paul’s “dents” on identi.ca for more information.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Seems Adobe AIR apps are gaining ground around the web. Popular Twitter clients such as Twhirl and Spaz are already using the AIR platform. Not good enough? WebKut (review), a screen capture application, Alert Thingy, and more recently MySocial24/7, Friendfeed clients, are also on the platform. While it’s long overdue, it’s no surprise that popular RSS reader Google Reader has been ported over to the platform too!

Available for both Mac and Windows (sorry Linux users), ReadAIR aims to bring the best of Google Reader to your desktop. Logging in and syncing the app with my account was quick and easy. The only thing ReadAIR app seems to have going for itself is a nice clean design. You can star an item, mark everything is as read, add and remove both feeds and tags, and view shared and starred items. You can also set refresh rates for every 5, 10, 20, or 30 minutes or choose to never refresh. Still, ReadAIR doesn’t compare to opening Google Reader in my browser.

Issues

If your system is running slow, expect ReadAIR to give you numerous errors. I actually had to close Firefox, which wasn’t running high, in order to use the app. The app could be more useful if it automatically started downloading my feeds instead waiting for me to click on a folder before doing it. The load times can be pretty annoying. Also, I’m still searching for the "Share" button to share an item, which sucks major bullocks. The unread count does not automatically update once you’re done (which is irritating) and as Sarah Perez points out, there are no keyboard shortcuts for ReadAIR.

The display view for ReadAIR may annoy those that are comfortable with the way Google Reader allows you to view your feeds. I’m the user that only views updated items. I don’t want to see the feed otherwise (what’s the point?). This isn’t an option in ReadAIR, you see them all, and this could pose a serious problem if you have more than 200 feeds in GReader. Another annoying quirk is that the page may not properly display. Take a look at what I mean:

Not Ready For Primetime

There’s too much that’s missing and not enough innovation being brought to the table from ReadAIR for me to recommend it. Some of the most basic features in Google Reader are no where to be found and more recent GReader additions such as notes may never make it to ReadAIR. While it’s something to keep an eye on, right now ReadAIR is a bit of a disappointment to fans of Google Reader.

Popularity: 9% [?]