TweetDeck Review : For über Users Only!

A couple of weeks ago TweetDeck the famed desktop tweet application joined the mobile apps market and I've been testing it ever since. Here is how it stands up against TwitterFon, my previously preferred app.

1. TweetDeck allows you to manage multiple personalities. Yep, that's right if you have more than one twitter profile (like me, follow @uberbusy and here @martinbeauchamp) then you can tweet on the fly without logging in and out of apps. What a time saver!

2. On loading the apps, TweetDeck goes a little crazy and throws out so much information it is confusing, especially if you have a few different accounts running (you can turn some of this information off in setting). TwitterFon is more simplistic in its behaviour, mainly because mutiple accounts is not supported but at least you don't feel overwhelmed.

3. Use of colour, seriously this is important distinction between the two apps. TweetDeck uses sleek but indistinct shades of gray to communicate information. TwitterFon is far more obvious with its choice of palette. Giving a nice visual display of unread vs read tweets, it took me at least a week to see that TweetDeck does change the colour of read tweets, something that needs improving. TwitterFon wins on usability!

4. New updates, apart from colour, both apps deal with things differently here. TwitterFon lets you read from where you left off. TweetDeck starts you at the latest information first. I much prefer TwitterFon's ways here. I don't feel like I am potentially missing out on something important.

5. This only applies to TweetDeck. Syncing (columns) between your desktop and iPhone version. All very cool, as it cuts down setup time plus makes great use of desktop TweetDeck. Where columns are so important in organising and grouping information. Wow! this knocks off point 4 of must haves in my 6 features post. (edit: One minor point here, if you setup an account for syncing, don't bother if you have special characters in your email you registered to TweetDeck on, because it won't like it - thanks to @digitalandy and our very own @CalvinRobinson for pointing this out - I still ask why people have hyphens in their emails, sooo 90's ) . TweetDeck wins on functionality!

6. Ever wanted to email a Tweet? Yes! Well you'll love TweetDeck. What a great addition!

7. Internal browsers, well neither are particularly good, neither are they particularly bad. However, TwitterFon does allow you to launch Safari, which I often use. Simple functionality that TweetDeck definitely needs.