Tapped into the App Store and what did I see? Twitterrific 2.1, the latest version of the grand-daddy of all iPhone (and iPod touch) Twitter clients, locked and loaded, just waiting for me!

Updates include:

• Load more button to get older tweets
• Followers and following lists in author view
• Recording, posting, and viewing videos (presumably iPhone 3GS-dependent)
• Built-in WebView now goes landscape if you want it
• Saves battery via improved location update handling
• Tap and hold menus for tweet, links, photos
• Reply and re-tweet now have tap shortcuts
• In-app email support
• Optimized for iPhone 3GS

If you’re a Twitterrific user — or you want to be — and give it a whirl, let us know how the update works for you. I’ll be testing it out for the next couple days via @reneritchie, so feel free to drop me a tweet there and help out!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App Update: Twitterrific 2.1 Twitter Client for iPhone

Boxcar [$1.99 - iTunes link] is almost more enabler than app. It only does one thing, but thus far it does it very, very well — it sends Push Notifications for Twitter @mentions and Direct Messages (DMs) that then open in either Tweetie or Twitterrific.

Setup is straight forward; you log into your account through an in-app view of Twitter’s website, and authorize Boxcar. You can select whether you want Push Notification for either @mentions, DMs, or both, and which of the aforementioned apps you want to open them in (hopefully support for more options will be forthcoming, such as Tweetdeck, Birdfeed, Twittelator Pro, etc.). You can also choose to automatically tweet them a shout out.

Like all Push-enabled apps, you can exit to the iPhone Settings to turn on or off Sounds, Alert (text boxes), and/or Badges.

That’s it. Sit back and enjoy Push Notifications so you can immediately know when anyone talks to or about you on Twitter. Even when you’re watching a movie on your iPhone. Or playing a game. Or writing an SMS. Or even taking a phone call — if anyone still does that…

In other words, it works so well, you may have to learn to better manage your Twitter interruptions.

Now the crux: is a couple of bucks a lot to pay for an app that arguably only extends the usefulness of other apps that you already paid a few bucks (or more) for? Depends on how badly you want Push Notification for Twitter, whether you’re willing to wait for full-on Twitter clients to add it themselves (however long that takes), and if you realize a couple of bucks is very little, and partly going to support the developers servers that are handling the Twitter calls and passing them on to Apple’s notification servers.

I bought it without a second thought. You’ll have to weigh the value (which is more important than cost) yourselves, and let me know what you think in the comments — or @reneritchie and I’ll get it right away via push

More pics after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Boxcar Push Notification for Tweetie and Twitterrific iPhone Twitter Clients

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Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat, or sent in questions!

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TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! Lucky #13

Twitterrific is looking to be the Alpha and Omega of iPhone Twitter clients. As it was first (before there was even an official SDK!), so it is also now the most recent — in snazzily updated 2.0 form.

So what’s changed? Nothing. And everything. Cliched, maybe, but Twitterrific was originally born from the Iconfactory’s passion for a graceful, gorgeous Twitter reading experience. But then came a host of other Twitter clients that banged the uber-functionality drums and while it seemed like every celebrity with an iPhone clung to the grandaddy goodness of Twitterrific, the unwashed tech-masses wandered elsewhere.

Well, with Twitterrific 2.0, many will wander back. It somehow manages to keep that quick, clean experience but — through UI wizardry — neatly tucks away most every power-user feature imaginable beneath the covers.

Old awesomeness remains — I’ve always loved the ability to quickly, and at any time, change from new tweet to @reply to direct message (dm) at the touch of a tab. New awesomeness is introduced — now I can also tap the “eye” icon to see the tweet I’m replying to for reference, to add another @username to the reply, etc.

Yes, in Battlestar Galactica terms, if Twitterrific 1.0 was the Cylon Centurian, Twitterrific 2.0 is the red-dressed Caprica 6. It has evolved. (And definitely has a plan).

Speaking of which: there’s inarguably the feature-equivalent of an arms race going on among iPhone Twitter clients, and it’s one that greatly benefits users. If the first Twitterrific was a board with a nail in it, and subsequent Twitter clients went from sword to gun, this is our first plasma cannon. And I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Note: Twitterrific 2.0 comes, as it always has, in two versions. There’s Twitterrific (Free with ad support – iTunes link) and Twitterrific Premium ($3.99 – iTunes link). I bought the original Twitterrific Premium and was startled to see Twitterrific 2.0 come to me as a free upgrade. I would easily have paid another $10 for this, much less $3.99. Donation button please?

Full gallery after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Twitterrific 2.0 Twitter Client for iPhone

Nowhereelse.fr (French language) got their eyes on the Iconfactory’s Gedeon Maheux at the Triangle Tweetup as he walked through a demonstration of the upcoming Twitterrific 2.0 Twitter client for the iPhone. Mashable sums up what we see:

So what’s new in Twitterrific 2.0? Multiple account support, filters for mentions, DMs, favorites, and marks (which are like personal favorites), trends, search by keyword, person, or location, saved searches, notes on users, retweet, conversations, custom shortcuts, the ability to follow/unfollow/block, expanded and condensed views, shrinkable text, and complete Twitter bios. Whoa, we’re out of breath just listing all that’s new, but we likey!

Twitterrific 2 should be available as soon as the App Store approval process runs its course. Let’s just hope Apple’s improved things since the last time a Twitter app tried to update…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Sneak Peek at Twitterrific 2.0 for iPhone

File this under frivolous Friday fun — or just shake your head, think less of us, and move along. Either way, if celebrities on Twitter (like Ashton and Demi) is the new black, this must be the new… flashing neon hidden away beneath a plain brown wrapper?

In any (every?) event, COED Magazine has compiled a list of 10 Ten Porn Stars Who Twitter, and a surprising number of them seem be doing so using the iPhone and Twitterrific. (No little blue bird jokes, we swear!)

Is it the trendiness? The ease of use? The multimedia (or multitouch!) functionality? Adult industry adoption is often seen as a technology bell-weather…

(Via @LeoLaporte)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Who Knew? Porn Stars Love the iPhone and Twitter Too!

Craig Hockenberry and the Icon Factory are among the earliest and most well respected iPhone developers in the community. In addition to their amazing design work and Mac and Windows software, they created the highly popular Twitterrific and Frenzic for the iPhone.

TiPb: We’ve been spending a lot of time lately discussing the App Store and what business model(s) it will evolve From launch, you took the route of having both a premium paid version of Twitterrific and a free, add-supported version. What made you settle on that idea, and how effective has it been for you?

Craig Hockenberry: The desire to have both a free and paid version of Twitterrific came from our experience on the Mac. It’s the best of both worlds for everyone: we get some funds to pay for the development of the product, and users get to choose how they want to support us.

We decided on having ads before the final details of the App Store were revealed. Since there are no demos in iTunes, the ability to have a free version for people to evaluate has been a big benefit. A lot of my fellow developers are now looking at this model.

With stories about apps being rejected or removed from the App Store, how (if at all) does this effect your planning or strategy as a developer? Is it something a developer should have to consider?

Rejections and other App Store issues are certainly a factor in planning. But it’s just one aspect of a successful product: it’s more important to focus on how an app will make customers happy or solve a problem.

That being said, I know of an app that was cancelled before it even left the drawing board. It included both podcasting and fart noises, and was actually a great app concept. I’m sad that it will never get made.

There’s still a demand for multitasking on the iPhone, which would obviously benefit apps like Twitterrific. How far will Apple’s still- pending Push-Notification service go towards satisfying this demand for you as a developer and as a user?

Asking me about a unreleased Apple technology isn’t going to get you a very interesting answer. (This stuff is still under NDA.)

I will make the observation that Apple is still getting its own push service (MobileMe) in order, so we’re all waiting to see how this will pan out. It’s not a simple problem from a developer’s point-of-view.

Now that Twitter seems to have solved their up-time issues, what could they surface or add to their platform to make apps like Twitterrific even more useful or powerful?

There are a lot of things that could make Twitter more useful: http://bit.ly/9L0A

One thing I see a need for is the ability to “jump into” existing threads of conversation amongst a group of users. This has been hard to do until recently because replies didn’t contain accurate links to original tweet. That has improved recently (thanks to Twitter implementing one of my suggestions.) But there could still be a lot done in that area to make the user experiences better.

You’ve now developed for the iPhone during three distinct phases: pre-SDK, post-SDK under NDA, and now SDK post-NDA. Any particular insights you gained from that range of experience, and what steps would you like to see Apple take next?

Everything led up to the “SDK post-NDA” phase. It’s what I wanted all along: developers can now freely exchange information about what we’re working on. When something doesn’t work right, others can help.

I think Apple is fully aware of this need: the recent launch of devforums.apple.com is an excellent example of how they’re actively working to help developers come up to speed with this new platform.

The only thing that I’d like to see from Apple at this point is a detailed list of what is and is not allowed in the App Store. This lack of information regarding acceptance limits innovation from developers: it’s too risky.

If there were absolutely no limitations on the SDK, what app would you never consider developing yourself, but still love to see on the iPhone?

I’d love to see a native version of Lotus Notes with excellent calendar support.

Seems like a strange request, I know.

But my wife uses a BlackBerry because she needs this functionality. If it was available on the iPhone she could buy her own and stop borrowing mine all the time

Profound thanks to Craig Hockenberry for taking the time to share his insights on the iPhone.

Furbo.org is his personal blog, iconfactory.com is his company’s website, and both Twitterriffic (read our review) Free and Premium and Frenzic (read our Forum review) are available via the iPhone iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Interview: Craig Hockenberry on Free vs. Paid, Twitter To-Dos, and Why He Wants Lotus Notes for the iPhone

Back before my iPhone was torn from me (sniffle) for the Round Robin, Twitteriffic was (and will be again) my mobile Twitter client of choice. Since TiPb has also been looking into App development and iPhone UI lately, this all added up to make Craig Hockenberry’s post today on furbo.org especially interesting. Hockenberry talks about the importance of making choices in development, about what features to add and what to leave out, and perhaps most importantly to us, in variety of different approaches:

There will always be more than one way to solve a problem: a developer’s personal preferences will inevitably seep into the implementation. Having many choices for a Twitter client means that developers don’t need to create a “one size fits all” solution. In essence, users get to choose a developer whose preferences match their own.

If you’re at all interested in a behind-the-curtains peak into what makes a good app great, be sure to read the whole article.

Also, let us know if you’re currently using Twitterrific, if what he mentions was already obvious to you, or if you’re using another Twitter client, what you’re using and why you prefer it?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Hockenberry on Choices and Designing Twitteriffic

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, oh how I love thee. Now I can really love thee with Twitterrific for the iPhone! If you are a fan of the very popular microblogging service Twitter, you are in for a rare treat with Twitterrific for iPhone from The Icon Factory! This application comes in two flavors: a free version with a very unobtrusive banner at the top or a paid version for $10 with no banner advertising and an extra theme.

The Basics 

You have to create a Twitter account before using Twitterrific. Once you have an account, you login with your Twitter username and password. After that, it’s off to the races!

You have a list of “tweets” from people you follow listed on the main screen. You can scroll though this list with a flick of your finger. The bottom of the screen has four simple icons:

• Refresh
• Post
• Info
• Settings

Refresh simply refreshes the screen to see any new tweets. The post icon opens up a box with the standard keyboard for you to enter a tweet with 140 characters or less. The screen has a counter to let you know how many you have left. Twitter also gives you the ability to “direct message” one of your friends on Twitter. To do this in Twitterific, simply tap the post icon in the box again and the post will change to a direct message post. Tap the icon one more time and you get a reply post (it changes to reflect the last post you have selected for a reply. Want to reply to someone else, select another post).

Pictures, Locations and Browsing, Oh-My!

When you are creating a post, Twitterific also gives you some additional options. For example, you can tell Twitterrific your location and it will update the Location field in your Twitter profile with where you are right now. The will use the GPS functionality in the iPhone 3G or My Location with the iPhone 2G.

You can also take a picture and attach it to your Twitter post. How? With TwitPic of course! TwitPic is a free service that lets you post pictures via Twitter. It works on the same premise as TinyURL. The “tiny URL” is added to your post. You can then view the picture buy clicking on the link in the Twitter post.

But wait, what if you are on your iPhone and you tap on a link? The thought in your mind right now is that the link will open in Safari, right? OH NO! Instead, Twitterific has built in a mini-browser using WebKit you so never leave the application! You can zoom and everything just like mobile Safari. Truly awesome.

Settings

The settings in Twitterrific are the basics. You can turn sounds on/off use screen names, show hints and even enable left-handed controls. What I think is another truly innovative feature is that Icon Factory have added a JavaScript bookmark for you to post links directly from Safari to Twitterrific! That is really going the extra mile for a 1.0 product. The only downside to this is that it requires some manual editing once installed, but hey, anything for Twitter…

Conclusion

I can’t say enough about this app. If you use Twitter, this is an absolute no-brainer. Icon Factory has some followers from their popular desktop version of Twitterific and I am sure they will be picking up more fans with the iPhone/iPod Touch iterations. The simplicity of the layout, options and ingenuity with pictures and locations really makes me want to shout from the rooftops use this application. What? You have not downloaded it already?

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 5
• Navigation: 5
• Features: 5
• Reliability: 4
• Overall: 4.75

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Every Twitter feature you could want!
• Looks good
• Intuitive
• Mini browser saves time

Cons:

• Performance can be a little sluggish. I am sure this will improve with time.
• Crashed once while using it. Again, will be addressed in a future release.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Twitterrific

The iPhone SDK will not allow 3rd party apps to multitask or run background services. We’ve previously covered both initial developer Twitter-rage at this, and pundit counter-points. We’ve also covered Craig Hockenberry before — the man who (perhaps poetically) develops Twitterrific for the Mac and jailbroken iPhones, and is now bringing it to the SDK.

Hockenberry, via his furbo.org blog, shares his experience on iPhone development and his views on the multitasking (non-?) issue.

To be blunt, I’ve never seen so many experts without a fricken’ clue. If you haven’t written code using the jailbreak tool chain, your opinions on the iPhone SDK, based entirely on what you see in a simulator, just aren’t relevant. You might as well be explaining the nuances of brain surgery.

Wha-wha-wha-what? Please, allow Mr. Hockenberry to continue:

Twitterrific on the iPhone could definitely make use of a background process to gather new tweets. In fact, a prototype version of the software did just that. And it was a huge design failure: after doing XML queries every 5 minutes, the phone’s battery was almost dead after 4 hours. In fact, the first thing I said after giving Gruber this test version was “don’t use auto-refresh.”

Hockenberry goes on to discuss the power demand problem of the radios, both EDGE and Wi-Fi, and the danger of even well-intentioned developers getting individually reasonable but collectively overwhelming access to background services. He does, however, expect that in a future release Apple may include some method of notifying network apps that the radios are being used (for example, by MobileMail Touch), and allowing brief TCP/IP connections during that period. Bottom-line, at the OS’s discretion, not the individual apps’.

Sound reasonable? Sound crazy? Should Apple give unfettered access to everyone immediately an trust users to sort through it themselves? Or should Apple be as strict as possible from the get-go? What do you think?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Multitask-Masters: Brain Surgeon Stat!