TweetMic takes a “more is less” philosophy to designing the app. It is pretty easy to use — hit the giant record button and then speak slowly and clearly. Another button lets you preview your message while one more works as a pause or stop button. In order to get the most efficient upload time to the Twitter network, TweetMic works best over Wi-Fi. In fact a pop-up notice warns you if you are connected to 3G or EDGE. It is good advice to take.

How you use TwitMic can be left up to your imagination. Perhaps you have a message you feel that may come across better audibly. Or maybe that huge gripe over your favorite sports team’s poor performance is something you need to get off your chest. Go ahead and scream it into TwitMic and broadcast it to the world.

When TwitMic publishes your Tweet there is customizable introduction and link to the audio. The link came out to 25 characters, so keep that in mind when writing your introduction. If you write too much text TwitMic will cut off any excess with ellipses.

Playing audio worked good on both my desktop and iPhone version of Tweetdeck. I also tried it on Tweetie and Twitterfon and got good results — the iPhone played the audio in Quicktime with no problems. Through the TwitMic web site you can also manage your past audio tweets.

TweetMic took a brief hiatus due to the Twitpocalypse virus, but everything appears to be in working order now. If audio is a  feature you have wanted or are looking to try out in your twittering, it is worth a download.

• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Send Voice Tweets with TweetMic | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Along with being ad-free, TwitterFon Pro’s upgrades will appeal to those who take their Twitter life seriously. For example, TwitterFon Pro can manage up to four accounts.

Probably one of the biggest strengths it has over competitor Tweetie is rich text. Links jump off the screen and are easy to tap for quick access to links. For those who share links frequently, integration with bit.ly is a welcome addition that enables tracking of links through the URL shortening service. Instapaper integration is also available, which allows users to save web sites for later reading.

Twitterfon Pro runs neck and neck with Tweetie when it comes to its feature set. In fact TwitterFon Pro does more; yet some of the features are a bit counter intuitive or hard to dig out. For example, hanging up one of the four themes requires a rather convoluted series of steps (described here on the Twitterfon web site). To his credit, developer Kazuho Okui has pledged to clean it up in a future release. And the developer’s Twitter feed is frequently updated with workarounds, bug fixes, and update information.

If you are a serious Twitterer then there is much to like with TwitterFon Pro. If the occasional tweeting is enough, then you probably will do fine without the upgrade. But it doesn’t mean you won’t get jealous when you see the shiny new edition of TwitterfonPro in the App Store.

• rating: 9/10
• app_name: TwitterFon Pro

© AppCraver, 2009. | TwitterFon Pro a Worthy Upgrade | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Podcasts have been a godsend in my life. Because I can freely download and customize the kind of content I want through iTunes, I was able to cut the cord on my Sirius XM radio subscription. No matter the issue or topic, I’ve got a good collection of go-to productions that deliver every time. With my appreciation for the entertainment and knowledge that podcasts can provide, I jumped into the Tubulous Global Social Podcasting app with great excitement.

Tubulous Global Social Podcasting is a tricky idea to describe succinctly, but I’ll try my best here. This application provides a place to discover new podcasts AND share your favorites podcasts with the world as well. Like many other social networking platforms, Tubulous Global Social Podcasting requires you to create an account on your iPhone. After a few minutes, you’ll be selecting a profile picture and hanging out at the main landing page for the application. The main landing page has a list of topics (e.g. Business, Comedy, Education, Health, etc.) that house the podcasts (both audio and video), and almost everything is covered. After selecting a topic and a podcast of interest, the application automagically streams the selection to your phone. Besides the general sections, there is a personalized section (e.g. My Channels) that users can modify to their hearts content.

My Channels is the place where you can jump to your favorite channels or upload a podcast. To upload a podcast to Tubulous, you have to plug in a podcast url so the application can create a channel for it. I’m sure there has to be some great technical explanation behind why it has to be done this way, but I find entering a podcast url incredibly unintuitive. For someone like me that already has a dozen subscriptions to podcasts through iTunes, my expectation was that Tubulous Global Social Podcasting would look at what’s already on my iPhone to ask me what I’d like to share. If this is not technically feasible, there should be some type of built in podcast search functionality to mitigate the hassle of tracking down the right url.

Tubulous Global Social Podcasting is a well-made application that’s setting out to start a revolution. There are more “nice-to-have” social networking bulleted features (e.g. Twitter support, friends lists, GPS, etc.) than I can’t possibly fully detail in the confines of this review. For more details on the full set of features, check out Tubulous Global Social Podcasting application description page on the App Store.

The biggest impression I’m left with is that this revolution is being started on the wrong piece of hardware and, in turn, it’s fundamentally flawed. An idea this big should have launched on a desktop-optimized website. Because the iPhone is hamstrung with mediocre battery life and the slow common denominator of the EDGE wireless network, the kind of exploration that’s encouraged with Tubulous Global Social Podcasting isn’t practical in the real world. Streaming audio and video always takes a substantial chunk out of the battery, and I suspect many other users would prefer the more efficient “download and sync” action to get content of interest, on their iPhone.

I’ve got a ton of respect for the Interlacia and what they’re trying to accomplish here, but I don’t suspect that Tubulous Global Social Podcasting catch fire with podcast enthusiasts everywhere. Keep at it guys…

• app_name: Tubulous Global Social Podcasting
• rating: 7/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Tubulous Is An Intriguing Idea…That I’m Not Sold On | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Lounge is the latest in the stream of Twitter apps designed to keep you up to date with the Twitterverse on your iPhone. Goose Apps bring some nifty features that make it worth a try — even though it is not as polished as some of the more established apps, like Twittelator Pro or Twitterfon.

Lounge uses a sliding lists interface that makes tapping through tweets pretty easy. And it is very fast to get details such as linked web sites, hash tags, and the author’s profile data. The author’s previous tweets, followers, and those following are within easy reach. The only feature that would have made skimming tweets easier would be an icon giving the number of replies.Lounge did load tweets fairly quickly — but the icons were a little slower to load than some of the other Twitter apps I have tried. With each tweet there is the option to retweet, create a link, e-mail the tweet, or open Safari. It was a bit counter intuitive to find these options, however. You have to tap on the text after opening the tweet.

If you have multiple Twitter user names then you will enjoy the easy access to the Accounts section. This brings up all the accounts you are using and makes switching between them or adding a new one easy. Lounge also offers options for scrolling through your past tweets or just browsing the entire Twitterverse.

Typing a new Tweet was fairly easy. Just tap in the space for this at the top of the screen when looking at all your tweets. Probably the biggest missing feature in Lounge is the ability to attach a photo to a tweet. Twitpic integration would round out Lounge quite well. Hopefully this functionality will be available in a future release.

In the end Lounge is easy to use and has a slick interface. With a couple of more features it could easily be among the top tier of iPhone Twitter apps.

• rating: 8/10
• app_name: Lounge

© AppCraver, 2009. | Lounge a Solid iPhone Twitter Option | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

GeoTweeter by Schmap, Inc. is one of many Twitter apps that have sprung up in the iTunes app store recently. Although GeoTweeter can be used as a basic tweet-sending app, its primary function is to add location info to your tweets. Using the iPhone’s GPS ability, GeoTweeter pinpoints your location and adds a map to your outgoing tweet. However, that’s only the beginning.

Once your location is marked on the map, GeoTweeter allows you to add all sorts of other information. You can give your location a name (which also allows you to save the location for future tweets), for one. Additionally, you can choose from dozens of different icons to mark your location on the map, ranging from a simple dot, to various emoticons (are you happy where you are? Angry? Scared?) to all sorts of icons. Show that you’re at a library, in a bar, or identify that you’re shopping at a favorite shoe store. With GeoTweeter there’s a suitable icon for just about everywhere you can possibly be.

Beyond the location map and icon, you can also add a photo to your tweet, so that followers who click the map link in your tweet will be shown a photo. If you’re bragging about how you’re at the best sports bar ever, you can therefore include not only a map to get there, but a shot of the scene as well. You can also rate your location and add notes, all of which will appear on the link in your tweet.

The downside to GeoTweeter is that it doesn’t include all the features of a “normal” Twitter app, so you can’t check on your friends’ tweets or see who’s following you. However, the features GeoTweeter does have make it worth the download, in my opinion. It might not be the way you send every tweet, but I suspect it will certainly come in handy, and you just can’t beat the price.

• app_name: GeoTweeter
• rating: 8/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | GeoTweeter: Where You Are When You’re On The Move | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Sometimes the large number of Twitter messages arriving on your iPhone can be a bit overwhelming. SimplyTweet attempts to fix that by arranging your “tweets” into a conversation-like view. It makes for a fresh, readable interface that makes scrolling through messages a breeze. However, a lack of other features keep this from being among the top tier of the other offerings available in the Apple App Store.

SimplyTweet does one thing very well — conversation view. It looks very similar to the iPhone’s interface for text messages, with its green thought bubbles making it easy to track who is saying what. The left-hand side of the screen has the icon identifying who sent the Twitter message while the right side is filled with the conversation bubbles. A large button is on the far, right side of the bubble for tapping if there is a link within the tweet. This fires up the embedded browser so you do not have to worry about closing SimplyTweet and opening Safari. The same button also is used for replying to a conversation. This is a one-size-fits all solutiaon that may not work for everyone. In other apps you only have to tap once to get either of these options. The only advantage is that this button is much easier to tap because of its size.

SimplyTweet also lacks some of the deeper features available in the similarly priced Twittelator Pro. There is no ability to create groups, review your tweets, and viewing a profile requires a very carefully aimed tap of the feed icon. It also crashed twice during my testing – an issue that can hopefully be fixed with a future update.

SimplyTweet is a good start, but could use some additional features to compete with other offerings. Especially since there are free apps, such as Twitterfon or paid apps such as Twittelator Pro, that have additional features to make them a stronger choice overall.

• app_name: SimplyTweet
• rating: 7/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | SimplyTweet Shows Promise as Twitter App | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Tweetie is one of the easiest twitter apps to navigate, standing out with a clean, simple interface. The app opens right to the current twitters, as opposed to Tweetion, which opens to the trends. You can scroll smoothly with no fear of accidentally deleting the people you follow. The tweets load quickly, and post as soon as I submit them.

The white background of Tweetie’s screen means text is easy-on-the-eye to read. You can switch to view the conversations in chat bubbles if you prefer, and you have the option of a landscape keyboard. The font size can also be increased so you can pretend that you do not need your reading glasses.

Tweetie offers everything you need to tweet regularly. You can post, repost, search for users with their twitter ids, upload pictures, link to StockTwits and manage your favorites. There is an auto-shrink function for links. You can integrate with Instapaper. Like most recent twitter apps for the iPhone, Tweetie is location-aware. I rarely use the trend or nearby functions, so I do not mind that they are on a secondary page. Like Twittelator Pro, you can use Tweetie for multiple twitter accounts.

Any inconveniences with Tweetie are negligible. The only minor problem I noticed is that web links do not work on the current twitters page; you have to click on the individual tweet before you can activate the link.

Tweetie is my new favorite twitter app on my iPhone. I plan to ditch Twitterific and Tweetion and use Tweetie exclusively.

• app_name: Tweetie
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Tweetie is the Only Twitter Client You Need | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Tweetion is more sophisticated than some of its free predecessors. Like Twinkle, Tweetion is location aware and allows you to see posts from other tweeters in your area. You can choose a radius of as little as one mile or up to a thousand miles. You can search tweets for common trends in posting themes.

Other Tweetion features include changing your Twitter profile photo, adding/deleting friends, browsing through archived tweets, sending Twitpic photos along with your tweets and my favorite: updating your Facebook status. If, like me, you spend too much time on social networking apps, you’ll appreciate this one-click update feature.

There are a few cons to this new Twitter app. Tweetion is a tad slow, and it crashed almost every time I used it. With sophistication comes complexity. There are too many screens to navigate through, which made me miss Twitterific’s simple interface. The help section is also difficult to navigate; again, too many pages.

There is a rate limit of 100 requests per hour, but this should be sufficient for most casual tweeters. Because you can add and delete friends with just one touch to the screen, when scrolling through my friends, I accidentally deleted a few of them. Sorry about that, guys.

If you like to update both Twitter and Facebook frequently, that alone may be a reason for you to choose Tweetion over other iPhone Twitter apps. If you want to expand your use of Twitter, the ability to browse local tweets for trends ands friends is appealing. If you want to keep your time spent social networking in check, consider sticking with a simpler app like Twitterific.

• app_name: Tweetion
• rating: 6/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Tweetion App Updates Twitter and Facebook | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Twittelator Pro offers an incredible amount of features all in one Twitter app. If you are looking for one application to handle all your twittering needs it would be hard to go wrong with this app. Yet a few glitches keep it from being the “perfect 10″ that it is capable of. 

The User Interface is probably going to attract some and turn off others. I found better designs in some of the free apps I tried. The good news is if you don’t like what you see there is some freedom to customize the color scheme. The bad news is no matter what you select, when firing up the app the original dark purple border scheme appears for a few seconds before switching to the customized color you selected. A bit annoying, and hopefully a bug that can be fixed in a future update.

The strengths of Twittelator Pro lie in the functions that are not available elsewhere. Including a feature that  Apple’s engineers have yet to deliver on the iPhone — copy and paste. Yes, that’s right, by tapping and holding on the screen you can copy the text from one tweet and then past it into another. Once you have selected text, then press a small glue bottle icon on the right-hand side of the screen to insert the words.

Each tweet can also be geo-tagged and include a picture. A small preview of the image also appears on the right, though by just that alone it would be hard to judge the picture’s quality. The loading is a bit slow if taking a picture from within the app and then attaching to a tweet. Twittelator Pro also allows attaching a picture stored on your iPhone.

Much of the feature set is very useful once you play around with it for a bit. For example, when scrolling messages tap an arrow to automatically scroll. Also, tweets from the same user are linked together for easier viewing. A tap of a star icon will mark a tweet as a favorite. And you have the option of viewing messages based on a variety of categories. The entire twitterverse is available, including any subgroups or friends that you want to create or categorize. 

While it worked fine for me, the icons may be a bit of a pain to tap if you have larger fingers or don’t like straining to make out which icon is which. And despite the customization, the interface was not as smooth as some of the other free apps. If you are a casual twiterrer, a free app like the free version of Twittelator, Twitterific, or Twitterfon will probably be fine. But if it is features galore you are looking for, then Twittelator Pro is the one.

• app_name: Twittelator Pro
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Twittelator Pro Nearly Perfect For Serious Messaging | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

TwitterFon, by Japanese developer Kazuho Okui is, in the author’s own words “a simple and fast Twitter client for your iPhone”. Unlike other apps such as Twinkle, it has a plain, simple background, and really tries to stick to the basics – no geo social networking, no ability to “broadcast your location” – just a clean, simple Twitter interface.

More apps should try to copy the TwitterFon formula and emphasize design and functionality over features. TwitterFon is truly a pleasure to use: it’s clear that the developers have spent considerable time and energy trying to build the perfect, minimalist twitter client – without getting tempted by extraneous features such as the ability to see “nearby” users.

One feature that the app has which I find incredibly usefull is the search tab which allows you to query the “TwitterVerse” for tweets on any particular subject. This is something even the twitter web site doesn’t do and is certainly not available in apps like Twinkle, and will cost you $3.99 from Tapulous’s other twitter app, Tweetsville.

• app_name: TwitterFon
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2008. | TwitterFon is a Free, Clean Twitter Cient with Search | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!