Twitter for Mac: Initial Thoughts

The day has come, January 6th 2011. Apple has released their Mac App Store, not yet full to the brim, launching with only 1,000 apps. Pretty impressive for a start though. However, there has been one application some Mac users have been boasting about. What is it? The top free app available, Twitter for Mac.

With a elegant user interface, Twitter for Mac is almost like a dream come true. A total redesign of Tweetie, which was owned by Atebits that Twitter bought out in April last year. Although it is free, Twitter for Mac looks so good with sleek transitions between the timeline, @replies, direct messages, lists, your profile and search. The black sidebar complements not only the Twitter for iPhone and iPad apps, but the texture used on the timeline itself. All in all, Twitter for Mac looks like a paid app, still in the wrapper.

Real time updates in the timeline is another new addition that Tweetie didn't have and competes with Echofon and TweetDeck, which both released the feature out in November. 

Although Twitter for Mac has its good side, there is just one negative that strikes me. By default, Twitter for Mac automatically shortens links via t.co, which cannot be turned off, making my personal url shortener useless. Hopefully, Twitter sees this as a problem to some users can changes it in a later update. 

What are your thoughts about the new Twitter for Mac? Are you going to be using it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Follow me on Twitter: @JonnyRowntree