TweetComb, a Twitter App Designed for Android Tablets… Clean Interface!
by Jonathan Lonczak
Jun 14, 2011 7:12 AM –
Install
TweetComb is a Twitter client designed and created exclusively for the Android Honeycomb platform. TweetComb gives you a tablet-friendly view of your Twitter timeline, mentions, direct messages, and more.
Price: Free
Tested on: Motorola Xoom
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- A Twitter client designed for Android 3.0 with the Twitter power user in mind!
- Unique Tweetcomb Dashboard allows you to view all of your most important Twitter information in one place!
- Search feature allows you to track the impact of various events on the Twitter community!
- Direct messaging within application!
- Tweet over 140 characters with Tweetcomb and Tweetlonger integration!
- Tweetcomb allows you to create Lists within the application to track various styles of tweets!
- Supports easy switching between multiple Twitter accounts!
Cons
- No tutorial or explanatory tool tips within the application to explain some of it’s more advanced features.
- Feels a little more cluttered than competitors like Tweetcaster HD.
- No widgets.
Features:
Tweetcomb is the first Twitter application designed for Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Tweetcomb features a Dashboard, User Profile with Mentions, a Search feature, Lists, easy switching between multiple Twitter accounts, and tweet over 140 characters with TweetLonger (something that may get the developer’s access to Twitter blocked if it’s abused).
The first thing you will notice while using Tweetcomb is its unique multiple paned environment called “The Dashboard.” This interface is very similar to that of its cousin by the same developers “Newsr.” The Dashboard is a customizable home screen to the Tweetcomb interface that shows all of the information that is most relevant to you. The various options that can be included in the Dashboard are Timeline, Mentions, Direct Messages, Favorites, My Timeline, and individual searches. Each of these options can be added or removed to become a panel of your home screen. Each panel is individually scrollable and separate from the others. When your screen becomes filled with sections you can view the other hidden ones by scrolling from side to side on your Dashboard.
At any time while using the application you can select status update to send out a new tweet using Tweetcomb. By default the character limit is the Twitter norm of 140 characters. However, of you go in to the settings for Tweetcomb it has the unique option to enable longer tweets by enabling the Tweetlonger service.
The “Timeline” shows all of the tweets of the people you are following in chronological order. The “My Timeline” feature shows only the content you have tweeted in the same chronological order. I leave the “Timeline” on my Dashboard to keep up to date on new tweets and “My Timeline” I prefer to view through “Profile.”
The “Profile” section of Tweetcomb contains your Twitter account profile, your timeline, and your favorites. This area of the application allows you to track yourself and see how your feed and profile is viewable to others. I like having a separate section for this because it is useful information, but not something I would want to see on my Dashboard every hour. The Favorites section is also nice to look back on great tweets from the past. It allows you to see all of the tweets you have ever made as a favorite in the past.
The “Mentions” area is just a way to track who has tweeted about you on Twitter. As an Android Application Reviewer very rarely is my personal Twitter account mentioned but @AndroidTapp is quite often (even Twitter suggests us to users now), and this is where Tweetcomb’s excellent “Search” function comes in.
With Tweetcomb’s “Search” function you are able to search Twitter using custom search strings and save those searches to your Dashboard. For example whenever I write a review I create a search string with the app reviews name. Then whenever anyone retweets my article I am able to track it and better monitor user interest. This feature is extremely useful for anyone who wishes to truly see their own impact on the Twitter community.
The “Lists” feature allows you to create lists of Twitter users to follow. This allows you to split up all of your comedy tweets from your Android tweets; and all of your personal tweets from your business tweets while keeping them all in lists of similar content.
Finally, Tweetcomb also allows you to easily switch between multiple Twitter accounts under the menu for the application. Once you have logged in to a Twitter account it is saved in your account list. Then you can switch between any accounts on this list through the “Switch Accounts” option in the menu.
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Tweetcomb Dashboard
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Tweetcomb Tweet
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Tweetcomb Customize Dashboard
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Tweetcomb Profile
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Tweetcomb Profile Search
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Tweetcomb Lists
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Tweetcomb Search
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Tweetcomb Settings
Usefulness:
Tweetcomb is extremely useful to powerhouse Twitter users looking to use multiple Twitter accounts, utilize Twitter lists, create searches, and view them in one Honeycomb optimized environment. Tweetcomb is packed with lots of features that most basic Twitter users may not even know about. Tweetcomb also does an excellent job making all of your information available in one place using the Dashboard feature.
Some Twitter users may find that Tweetcomb is too much for them. Instead they may prefer to use a more traditional Twitter client like Tweetcaster to view status updates in classic form. Unfortunately neither Tweetcomb or Tweetcaster have a widget which is extremely disappointing; because widgets is where I get the majority of my information during daily use.
Ease of Use:
Tweetcomb is extremely easy to use if you are familiar with the basic concepts of Twitter as well as the slightly more complicated features like Lists and Searches. I would prefer to have either a help section or explanatory tool tips to assist the less knowledgeable Twitter users like myself. Having never heard of lists when I used this application for the first time, I had to Google it’s function in order to learn how to use that feature of the application.
Frequently Used:
I personally switch back and forth constantly between Tweetcaster HD and Tweetcomb. I think my personal preference at the moment would be Tweetcaster for viewing Tweets and Lists, due to it’s cleaner feeling interface. However, I find the saved search functionality of Tweetcomb to be extremely useful to track review tweeting.
Interface:
The interface to Tweetcomb is full of features and has minimalistic style which I greatly appreciate, but has no help section to the application, no widgets, and feels cluttered at times with all of the individual panes of news.
Without widgets this application drops drastically in its usability for me. Eighty-five percent of the information I consume is derived from widgets on my various phones or tablets. When I cannot use a widget for an information based application it decreases in value instantly to me. I would love to see this application come out with a widget designed for Honeycomb similar to that of Friendcaster Tab for Facebook or the CNN application. This would drastically improve the value of this application to me, since these style of widgets are in short supply in the Android Market.
Finally, the Dashboard of Tweetcomb feels a little cluttered. I love the idea of multiple panes of information in a Twitter client utilizing Honeycomb’s new API’s, but there just seems to be too much information to close together. Perhaps the sections of the Dashboard should be re-sizable or in an interface more similar to that of Tweetcaster HD, but currently I feel a bit overwhelmed when using Tweetcomb vs the simpler Tweetcaster HD.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Tablet Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Honeycomb,
Honeycomb Apps,
Motorola XOOM Apps,
Social,
Tablet,
Tweetcomb,
Tweetlonger,
Twitter,
Twitter App
Categorised in: Social
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