Review of Twitter applications used on Blackberry Storm

This review was a long time coming. I have been able to use with varying degrees of success the following Twitter applications: ÜberTwitter, SocialScope (which is still in private beta), TweetCaster, and Viigo - Twitter Integration

I thought long and hard last night about the way I was going to approach this review without being long winded. So I have decided to give a brief (very brief) introduction of the Twitter application followed by a Pro's and Con's and then an overall rating from 1 to 5 with 5 being "I can't live without."

These are my opinions and do not reflect nor are they authorized by the respective companies I am reviewing. They are my OPINIONS! If you have something to add, reply to this post.

So, without further ado (in no particular order)....

SocialScope

Even though this application is in private beta, I was one of the first ones to request a stab at the beta version. I liked it because you can check both your Tweets and Facebook at the same time and it has large buttons (great for use on the Storm) and the application is easy to use. I have successfully used multiple Twitter accounts on SocialScope, albeit, on device reset, it maintains the last account I logged into.

PROS

Browser Integration - "Send to SocialScope" is great in the menu when you are surfing a site and want to post it either to Twitter, Facebook or both.

Visual indicators both inside the application and when running in the background to alert you to new Tweets or Facebook updates.

Easily select @ and Direct Messages from menu at top of application.

Ability to link Tweep to Blackberry Contact.

Menu features easy reply, reply all, DM, ReTweet and favorite.

Refresh is fast.

Settings menu extensive.

CONS

No ability to send location

Automatically starts with boot up and unable to exit program, only close.

Not a true multiple Twitter account application

STILL in private beta

Large 798.7 KB download

Only allows you to INSERT picture or url not add from phone

Notification settings are confusing because they don't seem to behave the way I select them.

Cannot set timeline refresh rate

OVERALL RATING: 3.5


ÜberTwitter

ÜberTwitter is a simple, easy to use Twitter application that has all the basic necessities to Tweet yYOUR way. Although there are no menu icons, the menu is full of standard Twitter commands.

PROS

Visual notification alert on home screen

Ability to update Google Talk status

Options to use built in GPS, Add location to every tweet, always add location to all pics/vids, and update Twitter profile location

Ability to change fonts and size on both timeline and new tweets

Ability to use smaller avator images to assist in loading timeline

Timeline Refresh Delay settings

Ability to merge @replies and DMs into timeline

Move to background on close option

Small download size of 278.6 KB

CONS

No browser integration

No ability to add picture from phone or SD card

Multiple Twitter accounts not available

OVERALL RATING: 4.0


TweetCaster

The newest application that I have tried. It has a clean interface and supports multiple Twitter accounts.

PROS

Multiple Twitter Accounts

Ability to take picture or attach picture

Small icon bar at the top that makes navigation easier

Can locate via GPS any Twitter users in a determined radius (I am sure the other people have to have TweetCaster installed as well)

CONS

No ability to send location via GPS (it pops up a box for you to manually enter a location)

No browser integration

1006.3 KB Download Size

Slow on refresh

NO auto refresh timeline. You must manually hit the refresh button

No settings for any customization

When switching accounts, the program completely reloads the timeline (I don't know if this is to keep the app running faster)

Status bar goes from Request Queued -> Reading Response -> Request OK. This happens everytime that you update or refresh

No ability to automatically DM someone. Just "New Direct Message" which makes you type in the recipient as well as your message (I tried it by highlighting the tweet and also by viewing the tweet)

No icon for switching accounts in the toolbar at the top

OVERALL RATING: 3.75 (would have been less if it didn't have multiple Twitter accounts ability)


Viigo Twitter Integration

I am not going to list pros and cons for this because it is not worth the time to review. I didn't like the fact that you couldn't set an alert on the Twitter accounts, although I could for the news feeds. Viigo takes up alot of memory anyways, so the number of Tweets I receive is numerous.

The only part of Viigo Twitter Integration is the ability to send a news feed to Twitter from the feed.

That is all I am going to say about Viigo. They are great for RSS feeds..... that's it!

Remember that these are all in Betas, whether public or private. So the issues that I have with these products may be fixed in later versions. I am at a cross roads with what Twitter application I will use. Currently I have ÜberTwitter, TweetCaster and SocialScope. It's killing my memory (on the phone) but each one brings something to the table. Ultimately, I may go exclusively with TweetCaster for the sole reason of managing multiple Twitter accounts with me losing some functionality that ÜberTwitter and SocialScope bring.

Hopefully down the line, a Twitter Application will incorporate what most of the CONs mentioned in the various apps.

I hope that you all got something out of this review. Please comment below if I missed something or I overlooked a command.

Happy Tweeting! As always, if you are not following me on Twitter yet,

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