Seesmic for Windows, Blackberry Review and Interview with Loic Le Meur
In the last week, Seesmic released three new apps to much Internet fanfare: a native app for Windows (Seesmic for Windows), an app for Blackberry (Seesmic for Blackberry), and Seesmic for Android (guess the OS). As a self-proclaimed evangelist for the company’s software, I leaped at the opportunity to use the new Twitter tools. Unfortunately, we don’t have an Android phone handy but we did put the other two through the gauntlet.
First up, Seesmic for Windows. This app is slick and easy on the eyes, full-equipped with all one would expect, and a little more. The layout is simple: a main column on the left where one can select other columns to view. Attached to the main column are a few tabs, “All,” “Accounts,” and “Userlists.” Besides the ability to view lists and the normal twitter-feeds, the app brings Twitter lists from the web to the desktop and places them under a separate Userlists tab. In other words, it’s a page set aside for lists alone. This way, Seesmic users can view all their lists side-by-side without clutter from the other streams. Besides these features, there is little that separates the app from its AIR-based offering. One thing that’s missing is Facebook support which could turn off users of its AIR-based app. Finally, one wonders the “why” of this release. The app doesn’t offer much more (and sometimes less) than its AIR and web-based apps do. As for performance, the app did seem a little sluggish loading columns, but given that it is a preview-release (at the time of this post, version number 0.5.1), that’s to be expected.
Next, Seesmic for Blackberry. I am a longtime Blackberry user who has heavily used most of the Twitter apps available for the platform and I was excited to use Seesmic for Blackberry. I even attempted to ditch my main Twitter app, SocialScope, for two days in order to get a feel for the program. I made it 7 hours.
In this review, I used a Blackberry 9700 running OS 5.0.330.
First the good: Seesmic for Blackberry is fast, allowing for quick transition between menus. The app also integrates Lists and to the best of my knowledge is the only Twitter app for Blackberry to do so. The app also uses Twitter’s new geolocation API, saves searches, shortens URLs, and sends pictures. Finally, for those Tweeting on the go,the app introduces something I wish all Twitter apps would have: a color-overlay indicating when I am getting near my character limit. For example, the more characters I use, the more red the text over my characters becomes. Oh, by the way, did I mention that unlike Ubertwitter, Seesmic for Blackberry is ad-free? Sweet.
However, this Seesmic app is definitely the black-sheep of its more functional, more attractive Seesmic siblings. The UI takes a page out of Ubertwitter’s book, utilizing the menu key for the organization of things like @replies and DMs, and while it’s usable, it is also uninspired and dull. Furthermore, unlike almost every other Twitter app for the smartphone, Seesmic for Blackberry doesn’t use vital keyboard shortcuts like “T” for top of page or “B” for bottom of page. Instead, users are given these options in the menu. Also, the app brings with it tiny text with no setting for changing the font. While this fits more text onto the screen, given the Blackberry’s relatively small screen, this could negatively impact far-sighted users. Finally, the app is only available for Blackberry users running OS 4.6+, cutting out legacy users.
Both Seesmic for Windows and Seesmic for Blackberry are worthy additions to the Twitter app space. While neither offers all the features I desire (SocialScope has tabs for categorization and auto-reveals short urls), Seesmic is known for listening to its users and will implement changes in due time.
We also interviewed Loic Le Meur founder of Seesmic during the Microsoft Underground PDC 2009 event check it out below:
