I was going to write a blog post tonight about this topic, but fortuitously stumbled upon this piece, which more or less summarized exactly what I was going to say. The topic is our perceptions of how we interact with technology and how they change over time. Check it out.
Archive for the 'Tech' Category
I’m not going to bother explaining what the iPad is. If you’ve been anywhere near a computer today, you’ve seen it and formed an opinion on it. My opinion, predictably, is of the OHMIGODITSTHECOOLESTTHINGEVERIHAVETOHAVEIT variety. That said, I understand that some people aren’t as enthusiastic. They ask why it’s preferable to a laptop. They say it’s essentially an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch. They question its purpose, and the purpose of tablets in general. In short, they don’t “get it.” That’s understandable, and honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. And while I’m not an expert in theories of media consumption, I have been thinking about the issues raised by the iPad and by other recent technological advances in some depth, and would like to offer my perspective.
I’m in love with Twitter and have several accounts that I update with some regularity. However, I’m still searching for that magical desktop Twitter client – the one that’s going to make Tweeting from my Mac as natural as Tweeting from my iPhone. I’m fascinated by Seesmic Look, but for the moment it’s Windows only. I’ve also tried Seesmic Desktop and TweetDeck, but despised both of them. Not only are they incredibly taxing on my system’s resources, but I also simply loathe the column view. I understand that it’s popular among many people, but it’s too much an information-dump for me. I like a clean, simple user interface.
The two desktop clients that I’ve been using with some regularity are Tweetie and Echofon. In terms of appearance and UI, Tweetie is untouchable. It’s beautiful to look at, allows easy access to multiple accounts, and just plain does the job. However, the long-awaited update – Tweetie 2 – is still in limbo. And while we’re all waiting, the thing has just fallen behind in terms of features; it still uses old-style retweets, doesn’t support lists, doesn’t support geo-location, etc. All of those things are on the Tweetie app for the iPhone, and are presumably coming soon, but the wait has been a killer.
Echofon, on the other hand, has those features, and is both simple to use and very powerful. Unfortunately, it’s interface makes multi-account use a bit of a pain. It also does sync with Echofon for the iPhone, but I don’t use that app with great regularity. Right now, Echofon is more or less my default Twitter tool on the Mac, but I can’t help but think that there is a better one out there.
So any of you out there who may be reading this, I’m looking for advice. What is the end-all be-all of Mac Twitter clients?
