The official Twitter 4.0 for iPhone has a radically overhauled user interface which, while it might potentially make tweeting more discoverable and approachable to new, mainstream users, could also annoy and alienate long time, power users. Luckily, if you’re one of he annoyed, the alienated, there are a variety of alternative Twitter apps in the App Store for you to choose from. These are some of our favorites, the ones we consider the very best, most must-have third party Twitter clients for iPhone and iPad.

Note: This has been updated and expanded from our previous, post #dickbar list of recommended Twitter app alternatives and includes several new picks.

Tweetbot

Tweetbot by Tapbots is it a beauty. A text review can hardly do this app justice because it is impossible to put into words how beautifully Tweetbot is made. Sure, I can describe how, at your touch, a tweet slides up revealing a navigation bar while simultaneous emitting the perfect sound. I can explain that swiping a tweet to right reveals the conversation and swiping to left displays related tweets. I can tell you about smart gestures, multiple timelines, and customizable navigation. I can even spew out a concrete list of every feature that Tweetbot includes. What I can’t provide you, however, is the experience.

Tweetbot is different. It’s innovative and refreshing. Tweetbot isn’t an app you use, it’s one you interact with. Everything has an animation, a sound, a beautiful interface. And true to Tapbots’ style, the sounds are subtle and pleasant – enriching the experience. For those who are suckers for design, innovation, and dare I say, personality, Tweetbot will rock your world.

Includes support for iOS 5 Twitter integration, Push Notification, and TweekMarker sync. Does not have an iPad-specific version or a PC version.

• $2.99 – App Store link

Twitterrific

Twitterrific by the Iconfactory was the very first Twitter application for the iPhone, even predating Apple’s official App Store. It is full-featured, award-winning client with a beautiful and intuitive UI. Twitterrific supports link shortening and tweet translation in addition to the ability to filter your timeline for specific tweet types and trends. It’s clean and elegant and color-codes your timeline so you can see tweets, @mentions, and DMs all in the same stream.

Twitterrific supports Tweetmarker and includes both iPhone and iPad optimized version in a single universal app, as well as a Mac app. It does not support iOS 5 Twitter integration or Push Notifications.

Available as an in-app purchase for $4.99, you can upgrade to Twitterrific Premium which will remove ads and enable multiple accounts.

• Free – App Store link

TweetDeck

TweetDeck, now owned by Twitter, is a desktop powerhouse that tries to bring the same multi-column, quick filtering functionality to the iPhone. Favored by social media marketing, analyst, and engagement types because of the ability to sort, organize, manage, and push out tons of Twitter material, the approach translates down to the much smaller screen with okay but not great results.

Still, for people who live and swear by TweetDeck on Windows or Mac, especially those with a TweetDeck account allowing for fast and easy setup, you might want to check this version out.

TweetDeck does not support iOS 5 Twitter integration, Push Notifications or Tweetmarker.

• Free – App Store link

Echofon

Echofon is a full-featured twitter client with a very clean interface and welcome features like a mute option to squelch users, clients and hashtags. Additionally, Echofon previews media directly in your stream which helps you decide if it’s something you’re interested in. If so, a quick tap of the thumbnail will open the photo or video.

Echofon supports Push Notification, had both iPad and iPhone versions in a single universal app, and will sync with Echofon on the desktop (their own service, not Tweetmarker). Echofon does not support iOS 5 Twitter integration (and actually has a slightly more complex, but secure web + pin authorization scheme in place.)

There are both regular and pro versions of Echofon in the App Store. The regular version is free, the pro version is $4.99, and you can update from regular to pro via a $4.99 in-app purchase as well.

As an in-app purchase for $4.99, you can remove the ads and upgrade to Echofon Pro.

• Free – iTunes link

Osfoora

Osfoora is a lot like the official Twitter for iPhone app was before the recent changes in version 4.0. That is to say, anyone who liked the original Tweetie will be immediately familiar with most of Osfoora. But Osfoora doesn’t just stick to conventions, it jams a lot more features in as well. There’s everything from a “home screen” with big icons for major functions to unread badges on the major sections.

If Tweetie/Twitter for iPhone pre-4.0 “just worked” for you and fit the way you used Twitter, and you don’t want to change, give Osfoora a try.

There are both iPhone and iPad versions of Osfoora but they’re not universal — you need to buy both separately. While Osfoora supports a ton of features, iOS 5 integration, Push Notifications, and Tweetmarker aren’t among them.

• $2.99/$3.99 – App Store link

Tweetings

Tweetings is an excellent Twitter app with a clutter-free UI. It let’s you search who’s nearby and find out what’s trending at the moment or see who’s around you with Augmented Reality. Tweetings also allows selective or automatic updates to Facebook as well as support for TwitLonger, Twtmore, and URL shortening.

Many of the big features, like push notifications, are stripped from the free version of Tweetings, but you can individually choose which features are important to you and purchase them for $0.99 or upgrade to the full version for $2.99.

• Free – App Store link

Tweetlist

Tweetlist offers an excellent way to view lists and quickly switch between them. The Tweetlists tab is quick to access and you simply swipe left and right to view different lists. This client is very snappy and has excellent Voice Over accessibility support. Tweetlists also offers support for Twitlonger, Instapaper, and Read it Later. Another fantastic feature of Tweetlist is that conversations open automatically – if a tweet is part of a conversation, the entire conversation will be displayed upon tapping on the tweet.

• $2.99 – App Store link

Twittelator Neue – @reneritchie

Twittelator Neue is pure eye candy. There’s a new wave of apps that are trying out new layering effects and physics, new animations and interactions. Twittelator Neue is one of those leading the way. This is not Apple’s Twitter client. It’s not flat and utilitarian like Mail or overly skeumorphic like Find my Friends. It’s glossy, it’s polished, it’s fresh, and it’s refreshing.

It doesn’t have the functionality of some other clients. It picks and chooses its battles carefully. More functionality will likely follow in future updates but I hope they keep curating it, keep it simple.

iPhone only, no push notification support.

• $1.99 – App Store link

Tweetlogix

Tweetlogix offers tons of functionality, including support for themes and a bevy of additional services, all wrapped up in an elegant, easy to navigate interface. Inline images, active links, and more make it a good choice for power readers.

iPhone only, no push notification support.

$1.99 – App Store link

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another one of those Twitter — and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare — apps that seems aimed more squarely at social network and social media marketing types rather than average users, but if you have a brand to push and love you some stats, especially if you’re already all in with Hootsuite on the app, the app is a great companion.

Supports both iPad and iPhone in the same universal app. Requires a Hootsuite account.

• Free – App Store link

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best alternative Twitter apps for iPhone and iPad. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

No sooner does Tweetdeck’s new, improved iPhone app hit the App Store than Twitter announces they’ve bought it, and right out from under UberMedia to boot.

This deal is defensive for Twitter, say all the sources we’ve spoken with over the last couple of months. They simply couldn’t allow UberMedia to have so much market share in this space. The company has acquired UberTwitter, EchoFon and a number of other Twitter-related startups. Adding TweetDeck to the UberMedia stable of products would give them too much leverage over Twitter, say our sources, and so Twitter made a strong defensive bid to disrupt the deal. Which succeeded nicely, apparently.

What this means for the Tweetdeck app, the official Twitter app? Could we see a Tweetdeck/Twitter for iPhone hybrid? Both kept on as separate apps? One abandoned completely to go all in on the other?

[TechCrunch EU via TechCrunch]

Twitter recently suspended all Twitter clients supported by Ubermedia. Among the clients suspended are Twidroid and UberTwitter, which are both insanely popular on Android OS and Blackberry OS. They also operate and support the popular TweetDeck client which is available on iOS and several other platforms. They’ve also acquired Echofon, another popular Twitter client for iOS.

According to Twitter, they’ve been working with UberMedia since April of 2010 when they were operating under the name TweetUp, which also apparently violated some copyright issues. Currently Twitter is claiming that Ubermedia has changed the content of tweets in order to generate revenue for themselves. They’ve also pulled the clients due to privacy issues concerning direct messages over 140 characters.

When asked about the suspension, Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner had this to say:

We ask all developers in Twitter ecosystem to abide by a simple set of rules that are in the interests of our users, as well as the health and vitality of the platform as a whole.

We often take actions to enforce these rules; in fact, on an average day we turn off more than one hundred services that violate our API rules of the road. This keeps the ecosystem fair for everyone.

Some of the allegations being held against UberMedia are pretty serious. For the full letter Ubermedia received, hit the break!

Dear xxxx,

Regardless of how you access Twitter, we are dedicated to making Twitter better, faster and more reliable for you. As part of this effort, we ask applications that work with Twitter to abide by a simple set of rules that we believe are in the interests of our users, and the health and vitality of the Twitter platform as a whole. We often take actions to enforce these rules.

We are sending this email today because we suspended twidroyd for violating our policies.

Every day, we suspend more than one hundred applications that are in violation of our policies. Generally, these apps are used by a small number of users. We are taking the unusual step of sending out this letter because today’s suspension may affect a larger number of users.

We are committed to helping you continue to use Twitter during the disruption of this application. You can download Twitter for Android and other official Twitter apps here. You can also try our mobile web site or apps from other third-party developers.

We appreciate your continued support of Twitter and regret any inconvenience to you.

Updated: Jerry over at AndroidCentral reached out to UberMedia to see if they had any response to the whole thing and this is what we received back:

STATEMENT FROM UBERMEDIA REGARDING TWITTER’S SUSPENSION OF SERVICE TO UBERTWITTER, TWIDROYD AND UBERCURRENT

PASADENA, CA – February 18, 2011 – Early Friday morning, Twitter shut off access to its service by several of our Twitter client applications: UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent. Twitter then notified us that they believed we were in violation of several provisions of their terms of service.

We were immediately in touch with Twitter, and the changes they asked us to make were very small. As a result, we have completed the changes, and new apps are currently being posted to their respective stores. Twitter has assured us that as soon as those changes were complete, they would reactivate our applications.

Twitter also asked us to modify the name of UberTwitter. We began a process of changing the name three weeks ago by polling our users, and we’ve decided based on their input to change the product name to UberSocial, which we completed today.

To our millions of loyal users, we appreciate your patience during this temporary period. We look forward to continuing our innovations on the Twitter platform.

Bill Gross, CEO
UberMedia, Inc.

It appears either UberMedia is playing down the issue or it really wasn’t that big of a deal in the first place. What do you guys think?

TechCrunch

Iain Dodsworth, CEO of TweetDeck, follows Andy Rubin with Twitter comments refuting what Steve Jobs had to say during Apple’s Q4 2010 earnings call:

Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Err nope, no we didn’t. It wasn’t.

This in response to Jobs’ statement that TweetDeck (he called it TwitterDeck) recently launched their Android app, and the “daunting challenge” of having to contend with 100 different versions of software on 244 different handsets.

Dodsworth added:

We only have 2 guys developing on Android TweetDeck so that shows how small an issue fragmentation is.

The flip-side of open source and multiple handset choice is fragmentation, there’s no denying it. We’ve heard from developers that it definitely is more challenging to code and sell Android apps than iOS apps, but Dodsworth’s point is that the difference is negligible. Any developers who work with both Android and iOS care to weigh in?

[@iaindodsworth, tip of the hat to Phil Nickinson]

by Brian Tufo

How does a certified golf course superintendent use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s greensuper’s answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending him a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and share your story now!

Boy, where do I start. I have been a loyal Apple user since the Apple IIe first came out. When the iPhone first came out, I had just purchased another Blackberry with Verizon, I didn’t want to incur a cancellation fee and the purchase price of the iPhone. 8 months later, when the 1st gen was offered as a refurb, I got my first iphone. I follow Apple/iPhone news as much as I follow the Turfgrass industry. I have always told my wife, if I had the opportunity to do something else, it would be to work for Apple. Now, how do I use my iPhone. To really get the full functionality of the iPhone and some of it’s apps, you really need to subscribe to Apple’s MobileMe service. I will explain why below.

The first app I use religiously is Who is Hot?. It is a great weather app for free. No one in my opinion, beats the animated radar in this app. I haven’t found one that has beat this yet. I am a Regional Agronomist and one thing this app does is gives me the weather for all my contacts. You open the app and click on one of your contacts and you have all the weather and radar right there.

I also use The Weather Channel app. I use the free version, don’t see a big difference in the $4.99 version. I use this app for forecasts and current conditions. This app mirrors the “local on the 8′s” from the Weather Channel. It is a better forecasting tool than Who is hot?

The Turfgrass Management app developed out of the University of Georgia is fantastic!! I have several small travel turfgrass books that allow me to reference diseases, weeds and insects. This app puts all that in the palm of your hand with it’s extensive turfgrass database. It has been communicated that this app will continue to follow with updates as information on any pest becomes available.

We just installed a new RainBird control system at one of my properties. RainBird has recent’y released their MI control system, this program works phenomenal on the iphone. I am able to control the entire system from anywhere. This summer it has proven invaluable with all the late night storms we have had. In concert with Who is Hot, if I see weather is heading to the property late at night, i can use my MI controller on the iPhone and turn off or adjust the irrigation. All this while playing with my kids!!

Toro recently released an official iPhone App, Toro NSN. This is like the MI Controller only this is actually an iPhone App versus a website. This also gives me the ability to control my entire irrigation system from the palm of my hand. I think the neatest part of this is that Toro has developed an iPhone app. If they have done so for irrigation, imagine the possibilities, apps for equipment repair, apps for ordering at your local vendor, it’s endless.

The next program is one that is tied directly to MobileMe without it, you can’t really take full advantage of this program. This app is Quickoffice. Quickoffice allows me to create, edit and email Word and Excel documents. Since you can’t store files on your iPhone like a Blackberry, this app links to your MobileMe idisk as a work around. I have my entire work load on my idisk, everything! I am able to use this program to email anything to my company or Superintendents from the palm of my hand. This program released an update which allows you to email any document you receive directly to your MobileMe idisk, this is a perfect work around to not being able to store documents on your iPhone. When I receive an email with a document I need to edit and respond to, I simple forward the email to a specific address. This sends the attached file to my idisk. I then open my idisk on QuickOffice and there is my document to edit and resend. The whole process over 3G can take 2 minutes, over WiFi much faster.

I also have Documents To Go. Although the UI is much more friendly than Quickoffice, this program falls short in other areas. I am not able to access my work files on my idisk, although DataViz has stated you will be able to do so in the future. You can’t edit Excel files yet, again they (Dataviz) are saying this update will be released soon. If these two updates are released, I will no longer use Quickoffice.

I developed a blog for one of my properties, to communicate information to members. I was finding by the time our weekly news letter was distributed, much of the information I need to pass along would be out of date. The blog has been a huge success at my club. My members love the fact that we use technology like this! The iPhone comes into play because I am able to send an email directly to the blog to make a post. All I do is create an email, the subject line will be the subject of my blog post, create my blog post in the body of the email, hit send and I have just created a new blog post. This has been great for communicating issues like, cart rules and other daily information.

I also use Twitter to communicate with other industry professionals. I do not use this to communicate to any members, it is important to separate the two. I use two apps for Twiiter, Twitter for iPhone and Tweetdeck. They are pretty much the same, except Tweetdeck allows me to create columns for separate categories of people I communicate with. For example, I have a column for PGA Tour tweets, a column for turf professors I follow and a column for other Superintendents. This makes reading tweets easier.

Logmein Ignition was a fantastic app I used prior to Toro releasing their Toro NSN app. Logmein allowed me to login on my iPhone and control the irrigation system. I know a lot of people who use this app to access files on their computer.

Bump is a great app, but in order to be useful you need to be with someone else who has the iPhone and the app. This app allows you to simply bump iPhones together to share pretty much anything you would share on your iphone. I use this with my wife for photos of our kids. Could you imagine walking the Trade Show floor at the GIS with this app. You could arrive at a vendor booth and bump iphones to share contact information. The vendor could use it to send you product information as well. Again, the possibilities are endless.

The camera is another app that is used all the time. I used to carry a camera on my hip, if I needed to take a photo of something I could. I would find myself at times, forgetting my camera at the moment I needed “that” picture. The iphone camera takes care of this. I am also able to send that photo immediately to the GM, members and other workers.

The iPhone for me has become more of a tool than my small multitool. The possibilities are endless as to what Superintendent could use this phone for. I am glad I have a charger of my gator. During those long days, I need that extra boost to get me into the evening. I was actually thinking about starting another blog on exactly this subject. Each day would be a post on how I use my iPhone for my job as a Superintendent and Regional Agronomist.

What about you? Are you a superintendent who uses his iPhone for work? If so, let us know what apps get you through a typical work day!

So you have an iPhone and you use Twitter, but with the plethora of Twitter applications available in the App Store (including one that just went official), which do you chose? TiPb is here to help with a Twitter app roundup! Now this is not your typical top 5 or top 10 must-have, best Twitter app list. This is about options and alternatives, and Ally, Leanna, and guest writer Alli Flowers have chosen the following 12 to review and help narrow your search:

• Twitter for iPhone
• Twitbit
• Tweeterena
• Osfoora
• HootSuite
• SimplyTweet 3
• Tweetdeck
• Twitterrific
• Twitbird Pro
• Twittelator Pro
• Echofon
• Fluttr

To see what we had to say, follow us after the break!

Twitter for iPhone

Previously known as Tweetie, Twitter for iPhone [Free - iTunes link] is the official Twitter application from Twitter. It is full featured and easy to use. Swiping a tweet will get you reply options, and tapping the tweet will allow you to view attached photos or url’s. The swipe to reply seems so natural, and it’s uncluttered. Likewise with Tweetie’s settings – you know exactly what you’re looking at and what will happen if you turn something OFF or ON.

— Alli

Twitbit

If you’re looking for a Twitter client with fast and reliable push, Twitbit [$2.99 - iTunes link] is the app for you. However, an excellent push notification system isn’t the only thing appealing about Twitbit. The UI is very clean and clutter free. On the bottom toolbar, you will find tabs for your timeline, mentions, messages, lists, and more. Twitbit comes with 4 themes: Gradients, Dark, Plain, and Chat.

The two main complaints about Twitbit is the lack of “quick reply” from the timeline and no option to “reply all”. The most impressive feature is how quickly notifications are pushed to your iPhone. Notifications are received within seconds of them being sent.

The developers of Twitbit regularly release updates and do an excellent job of replying to users and adding requested features.

— Leanna

Tweeterena Series

Tweeterena currently comes in 3 flavors; Tweeterena Lite [Free - iTunes link], Tweeterena [$0.99 - iTunes link], and Tweeterena Pro [$3.99 - iTunes link]. The free version is ad-supported while the $0.99 version is sans ads. Tweeterena Pro will get you the following features, which the cheaper versions leave out:

• Multiple Account Support
• Facebook integration
• Custom Backgrounds
• Quick watch user functionality
• Friend grouping

I spent most of my time with the Pro version. As far as I’m concerned, Tweeterena (Pro version or not) has little improvement since I last evaluated it. In terms of functionality, it doesn’t offer anything some other clients offer for a lower price or even free. My biggest issue with Tweeterena was honestly the general layout and color schemes. They just don’t work well. You get funky shading that just doesn’t look right over the backgrounds. Also, custom backgrounds are somewhat very misleading. You don’t get to customize your background throughout the entire layout, only in the compose screen. So to me, that just doesn’t cut it when several other clients that offer that allow it through the entire thing. And lastly, the settings are split up. Part are found in-app and part are in settings, which to me makes no sense. My honest opinion is that there are much better clients out there for cheaper that are a much better value.

— Ally

Osfoora for Twitter

Osfoora [$2.99 - iTunes link] offeres a clean UI with all the features anyone could want. “Borrowing” from Tweetie, Osfoora allows you to pull down to refresh in any view. While Osfoora has been my primary Twitter client for about a month, my main complaint is that you must tap on a tweet in order to Reply All. Otherwise, tap/hold will get you the typical reply options. I have two favorite things about Osfoora. One: it does a super job of showing conversation threads. Two: the Osfoora developer is extremely active on Twitter, and very responsive to user requests.

— Alli

HootSuite

HootSuite [$2.99 - iTunes link] is a cute little twitter app that also supports Facebook integration. If you use ow.ly to shrink your links, HootSuite will display your stats of shared links.

Unlike most Twitter clients, HootSuite uses columns instead of tabs as method of switching between your timeline, mentions, DM’s, etc. To switch between columns, just swipe left or right from your current column. The advantage to columns is that you can add and remove and organize custom columns so you can taylor your experience Twitter to you.

HootSuite is missing one important feature: conversation view. Reading conversations is a huge part of my Twitter experience, so I find the lack of support very disappointing. HootSuite also does not support push notifications. Other than those two missing things, HootSuite is an excellent Twitter client.

— Leanna

SimplyTweet 3

SimplyTweet 3 [$4.99 - iTunes link] was honestly one of my favorite clients I reviewed. It’s drop dead simple to navigate around and very similar in style to Tweetie 2. Along the bottom you have all of your essential functions.

One thing I really enjoyed about using SimplyTweet 3 was how fast it was. SimplyTweet also supports all your essential functions. A major plus of SimplyTweet is built-in push. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was extremely quick. And the conversations view is something I really wish other clients would start implementing.

Final thoughts on SimplyTweet 3? It’s an extremely decent twitter client. At $4.99, it’s a bit steep compared to some other respectable options. Either way – if you’d like built-in push bundled with a twitter client with a great UI and easy to navigate interface, SimplyTweet may just be for you.

— Ally

TweetDeck

If you like TweetDeck on your desktop, you might very well be happy with TweetDeck [Free -iTunes link] on your iPhone – especially since it’s free. I love being able to view my tweets in columns (similar to Twitter lists). It can save you time when you don’t really want to look through your entire follow timeline – especially if you follow a large number of people. All the basic features of any Twitter client are included in TweetDeck, and I really can find no fault in it. Columns begin zoomed out so that you can scroll left and right between them, and when a column is chosen, it zooms in so that you can scroll up and down through the tweets. TweetDeck’s columns work the same way as the views on every other client, but with a little more flexibility in that you decide exactly who you want in each column. Not much variety in design – you can choose from “dark” or “light.”

— Alli

Twitterrific

Twitterrific was the first Twitter application released with the launch of iPhone OS 2.0. So it has been around for a long time and has seen many improvements and won many design awards. Twitterrific is available in two versions: a free, ad supported version [iTunes link], and a premium ad-free version [$4.99 - iTunes link]. Neither versions include push.

Those design awards were well earned as style is what Twitterrific does best. The UI is beautiful and you can easily change font size with a tap of a button on the timeline. Twitterrific includes 3 themes: Raven, Snowy, and Basic. It also offers the unique option of left-handed controls. Twitterrific is an excellent full-featured Twitter client with a wonderful design.

— Leanna

Twitbird Pro

Another client that showed up on the Twitter scene not too long ago that pleasantly surprised me is Twitbird Pro [$2.99 - iTunes link] Not only is Twitbird Pro rich with features, there are tons of customization options, including changing your wallpaper throughout the entire app, which I enjoyed. Twitbird Pro has a very unique conversations view which was implemented extremely well. Twitbird Pro also has built-in push services. There’s a slight catch though. The push that comes with Twitbird Pro only supports push between Twitbird Pro users. If you’d like global push from all Twitter users, that’ll cost you $2.99 for the upgrade in-app. I did not buy the push service, so if anyone has any hands-on, sound off in the comments about the reliability/speed. Boxcar supports Twitbird Pro, so I just set Boxcar to open Twitbird Pro and had no issues. My verdict is that TwitBird Pro has tons of potential. The implementation and layout is almost there, but not quite.

— Ally

Twittelator Pro

Twittelator Pro [$4.99 - iTunes link] was the first truly great Twitter app for iPhone. There are so many options it can sometimes be confusing. Perhaps when iPhone 4 is released, there will be a real purpose to having sounds on new tweets, but for now it’s a feature that you can’t take much advantage of, and due to the lame nature of the sounds… you probably wouldn’t want to. Nonetheless, Twittelator Pro does everything: sounds, themes, conversations, photos, geotagging, you name it. For some reason, scrolling quickly to the top in Twittelator Pro is disconcerting. One tap goes up a page, two taps goes straight to the top. It just seems like one option too many. Replying to a tweet in Twittelator Pro can be a trial. Double tap the time shown on the right to quick reply, tap the avatar for the full set of options beneath the user’s profile.

— Alli

Echofon

Echofon for Twitter is one of the few Twitter clients that offer push notifications. The free, ad-supported version [iTunes link] only pushes mentions and DMs from other Echofon users. The “pro” ad-free version [$4.99 - iTunes link] sends notifications from all Twitter users.

If you are looking for reliable push notifications, Echofon is not for you. I highly recommend test-driving the free version before purchasing the ad-free version to see if push meets your standards. If you’re a FireFox or Mac (or both) user, one great feature of Echofon is that it syncs unread tweets across all platforms.

One thing that some people may love and others may hate is that conversations are viewed with oldest on top. This is obviously the most natural way to read a conversation, but I find it a bit awkward because it goes against the Twitter style.

Other than my disappointment with push notifications, I view Echofon to be a great Twitter client.

— Leanna

Fluttr

My last client was Fluttr [$2.99 – iTunes link]. I somewhat decided to review Fluttr last minute. I was browsing the app store and the layout looked pretty slick.

Unfortunately, I don’t have too much to say at this time. Every time I tried to test it out, I got tons of API errors and it never wanted to load my mentions (see screenshots).

From what I could get out of it, it had the same problem TwitBird Pro has with mentions. You have to click back to the home screen in order to access anything. To me, it’s a bit redundant, as you shouldn’t have to do that for main functions. They should be easily accessible all along the bottom. The UI is put together very nicely and I think it’s a client to definitely keep an eye on. A few good quality updates and it could be a good contender. It does have several features including lists. If I could have used them without getting errors, I may have been more willing to give it more time on my main iPhone home screen. The bugs are what keep me from recommending it as of now. Either way – jump down for screens!

— Ally

Conclusion

Given the packed field of competition amongst Twitter clients, the winner will have to have something very special. Something way beyond push notification or themes. I know several people who continue using the first Twitter client they tried when they got their iPhones. Some of us (like the three of us bringing you this roundup), keep trying new Twitter apps in search of that je ne sais quoi. We’ll know it when we see it, I’m sure. But we have to keep trying them all, and discovering which tiny things we love and which we dislike, waiting for that one perfect app that puts all our favorites together in one beautiful package. Which one is right for you? Heck if we know – we can’t even decide which is right for ourselves. But this is truly a case of it being the trip and not the destination that makes it all worth the ride.

TweetDeck on the iPad is a mixed bag – most of the contents of that bag are utterly awesome for the power-twitter user. If you need to follow a lot of Twitter streams then there’s simply no better way to track them all than TweetDeck. If you use TweetDeck on the desktop, you can set up a TweetDeck account and have your chosen columns synchronized between your desktop and iPad. If you have multiple Twitter accounts, you can send from multiple accounts too.

The not-so-awesome part of the bag comes when you want to view a link from a tweet. In landscape mode you simply can’t. In portrait mode what happens is the tweet appears in a at the top of the screen. You can also view profiles, recent tweets, and more. For displaying a single tweet, that area is simply giant. For displaying a web page linked from a tweet, it’s maddeningly small.

I said in the video that TweetDeck might my favorite iPad Twitter client, but I’m finding more and more that the portrait mode isn’t quite working out for me.

Video and gallery after the break!

UPDATE: And… it’s back with version 1.1.1 [Free - iTunes link]

ORIGINAL: Most of our readers love their Twitter, and to some of you who happened to be searching for the TweetDeck app within the App Store, you may have been a bit surprised and disappointed to see that it seemed to simply disappear without a trace.

So what exactly happened to TweetDeck? This past Friday TweetDeck version 1.1 was released and it seems as if some of the kinks were never worked out of it before it was submitted to Apple. Namely constant crashing – Oops… So the decision was then made to pull the app before the problem became widespread.

We are happy to spread the word that the app has since been fixed and resubmitted to Apple with version 1.1.1.

[Via TechCrunch]

Chad’s excited. Why? TweekDeck for iPhone has just hit the App Store (iTunes link). Doesn’t look to be iPhone 3.0 Push Notification enabled just yet, but the hallmark feature of Twitter Groups and multiple, columnar dashboards (looks similar to tabs in Mobile Safari) are all in place. And you can “shake to refresh”.

Best of all? It’s free!

If you try it out, let us know how it works for you, and how it compares to your current favorite Twitter client.