iReview iPhone Apps

Things I LOVE about Birdfeed.

1. Interface is really clean. It’s very “iPhone”. It has your tweets vs. everyone else’s set up like a conversation. So I can see what I posted and see responses or vice versa as a conversation.
2. It remembers where I left off reading tweets. I hated scrolling down, down, down to get back to where I left off. This app remembers where you were reading and sort of bookmarks it, so you aren’t scrolling down to make sure you don’t miss any tweets!
3. Birdfeed has a wonderful menu! It shows your main timeline, your @mentions, direct messages, favorites etc in separate screens. The @mention is the nicest because it will alert you when you have been @mentioned, also it gives the number of mentions!
4. It also has a good profile viewer. You can view any user and see how many people they’re following, how many follow them and number of updates. It’s very twitter in that aspect. It also shows recent tweets and their favs.

Things

I DISTAIN about Birdfeed.

1. It’s slow. It can take up to 30 seconds or so to load my timeline. I don’t know if this is because I follow a large number of people and have a TON of updates at any given time…or if it’s simply the app being chubby. You might not think 30 seconds is a long time…but I only get 10 minute breaks at work. That 30 seconds is precious.
2. I can’t view topic trends. This is important to me for two reasons. I like seeing what everyone is talking about. I like using topic trends to find new followers. I want topic trending to be included!
3. It doesn’t have an option to look for nearby tweeters. I like going to a restaurant, tweeting that I’m there and find that someone else is nearby tweeting about the same thing…or not..but that they’re nearby! I like finding local tweetfiends like myself and this isn’t an option with Birdfeed.
4. You can’t save searches. I have topics/trends/tweeters that I like to follow anonymously. But I hate texting/typing in the information each time I want to see what’s up, without the subject knowing I’m following their feeds. It’s a stalker thing. However, saved searches are a good thing to have.
5. It’s minor, but you can’t click on profile pictures and have them displayed to a full screen from your iPhone. I can do this on Tweetie and get a nice big picture of who I’m following/stalking. hehe. I like being able to see a bigger profile picture if I so choose.

I have given Birdfeed seven full days of my attention. It has preformed ALL my tweets in the past week and I have been really happy with it. Is it worth $4.99? Maybe. It really depends on what you’re looking for. I am happy with it. But, I will most likely download Tweetie2 and see what that is all about too! My quest for the perfect Twitter app continues…

UPDATE: Since writing this BirdFeed has added a location feature. It’s pretty spiffy if you’re into the stalking thing like I am! It’s interesting to see where people are if they’re in the same city as you.

Here are some pics of what’s inside…

Overall I give it a solid 6 out of 10 for trying to be an all around everything for Twitter app.