Ondrej Holzman The long-awaited Tweetbot for Mac has finally arrived in the Mac App Store. Much more than the application itself, which we already knew from previous test versions, however, the price at which Tapbots offers its first Mac application surprised us. But let's get straight.
Tapbots originally focused on iOS only. However, after the huge success with the Twitter client Tweetbot, which first took iPhones and then iPads by storm, Paul Haddad and Mark Jardine decided to port their most popular robotic application to the Mac as well. Tweetbot for Mac was speculated for a long time until finally the developers themselves confirmed everything and in July released the first alpha version. It showed Tweetbot for Mac in all its glory, so it was only a matter of time before Tapbots perfected their "Mac" first and sent it to the Mac App Store.
The development went smoothly, first several alpha versions were released, then it went into the beta testing stage, but at that moment Twitter intervened with its new and very restrictive conditions for third-party clients. Tapbots first had to because of them download alpha version and finally after the insistence of users beta version is out, but without the possibility of adding new accounts.
As part of the new regulations, the number of access tokens has been greatly limited, which means that only a limited number of users will be able to use Tweetbot for Mac (as well as other third-party clients). And this is the main reason why the price of Tweetbot for Mac is so high - 20 dollars or 16 euros. “We only have a limited amount of tokens that dictate how many people can use Tweetbot for Mac,” explains on Haddad's blog. "Once we exhaust this limit provided by Twitter, we will no longer be able to sell our app." Fortunately, the limit for the Mac app is separate from the iOS version of Tweetbot, but it is still a number less than 200 thousand.
Tapbots thus had to put an unusually high amount on the Twitter client for two reasons - firstly, to ensure that only those who will actually use it (and not waste tokens unnecessarily) buy Tweetbot for Mac, and also so that they can support the application even after it sells out all tokens. Haddad admits the high price was the only option. "We spent a year developing this app and this is the only way to get back the money invested and continue supporting the app in the future."
So the $20 price tag definitely has a reason for Tweetbot for Mac, even if a lot of users won't like it. However, they shouldn't complain to Tapbots, but to Twitter, which is doing everything to cut third-party clients. We can only hope that he will not continue this endeavor. Losing Tweetbot would be a big shame.
Familiar robotic mechanisms from iOS
In simple terms, we could say that Tapbots took the iOS version of Tweetbot and ported it for Mac. Both versions are extremely similar, which was also the intention of the developers. They wanted Mac users to not have to get used to any new interface, but to immediately know where to click and where to look.
Of course, the development of Tweetbot for Mac was not so simple. Designer Mark Jardine admits that developing for Mac is much more difficult than for iOS, especially since an application can have different proportions on each Mac, unlike iPhones and iPads. Nevertheless, Jardine wanted to transfer the already gained experience from the iOS versions to the Mac, which he certainly succeeded in doing.
That's why Tweetbot, as we know it from iOS, is waiting for us on Mac. We have already discussed the application as such in more detail at introducing the alpha version, so we will now focus only on certain parts of Tweetbot.
In the final version, which landed in the Mac App Store, there were no radical changes, but we can still find some nice new features in it. Let's start with the window for creating a new tweet - this now offers a preview of the post or conversation you're responding to, so you can no longer so-called lose the thread when writing.
The keyboard shortcuts have been significantly improved, they are now more logical and also take into account established habits. To discover them, just look at the top menu. Tweetbot for Mac 1.0 also has iCloud synchronization, but the TweetMarker service remains in the settings. There are also notifications that are integrated into the Notification Center in OS X Mountain Lion and can notify you of a new mention, message, retweet, star or follower. If you're a fan of Tweetdeck, Tweetbot also offers multiple columns to open with different content. The individual columns can then be easily moved and grouped using the lower "handle".
And I must also not forget to mention that a new icon has finally emerged from the egg that symbolized the test version of Tweetbot. As expected, the egg hatched into a blue bird with a megaphone instead of a beak, which forms the iOS version's icon.
Risk or profit?
Surely most of you are wondering whether it is worth investing the same money in the Twitter client as, for example, in the entire operating system (Mountain Lion). That is, assuming that you are not one of those users who already rejected Tweetbot for Mac because of the high cost. However, if you are wondering about the latest Tweetbot, then I can assure you with a calm heart that it is one of the best apps of its kind for Mac.
Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to invest if you're already using Tweetbot on iOS to your satisfaction, whether on iPhone or iPad, because I personally see a big advantage in being able to have the same features I'm used to on all devices. If you already have your favorite Mac client, then it will probably be hard to justify the $20. However, I'm very curious to see how the third-party Twitter client scene will evolve in the coming months. For example, Echofon has announced the end of all its desktop applications due to new regulations, the official Twitter client is getting closer to the coffin every day and the question is how others will react. But Tweetbot will obviously want to stick around, so it may very well happen that before long it will be one of the few available alternatives.
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"the official Twitter client is getting closer to the coffin every day" Why should it?
Zero support from Twitter, I don't know if it supports all functions (although maybe some update brought it), but above all there is an obvious effort of Twitter to get as many users as possible to the website. I wouldn't be surprised if Twitter even killed the app over time, even if that would be the definitive end of Twitter clients.
I don't understand people who pay CZK 400 for a tweet manager. Is the online version not enough for you? It's a no-brainer, go for a bike ride or a walk.
iCloud sync please... bought :)
iCloud sync please... bought :)
I don't understand the process of Twitter in general, they created a platform for which other developers want and develop client applications and then they limit them like this because they don't want it... They cough up their own client app as much as possible... Well, then I wonder when Twitter will finally have it negative effects... In a little while, Apple and its integration into iOS and OSX will start to be limited :D and they will definitely cut a branch under themselves. Anyway, despite the above, even though Tweetbot for OS X is even nicer (I don't like the iOS version), at this price, I'm not entirely sure that it's worth it. At this price and the limitation of 200,000 users, this is a revenue of 80MKč, which I would say is enough for the handful of developers, and there certainly aren't many of them in the background of this application, to live quietly for a few years without any further activity. Another thing is that I'm not exactly a power-tweeter to necessarily have super-advanced Tweet management, I feel like there are people out there (users of anything other than Twitter Offic and Twitter Web or OS integration) who live only by following Twitter without they did nothing else for days. So I don't have time to follow Twitter and I don't mind missing a few messages. So I would say that for this price it really is complete nonsense, but basically I have nothing against it. Who wants to buy.