The darling of hardcore iPhone twitter users comes to the iPad, but how does Tweetbot measure up on the big screen compared to Twitterrific and Twitter's own app?

Twitter may not be as big a social network as Facebook, but you can't turn on a television, let alone visit a website, without seeing an endless stream of @usernames and #hashtags. While smartphones are great for Twitter on the go, the iPad is perfect for sitting back and really getting engaged. But which Twitter app for iPad is the best to engage with? Not only do you have Twitterrific, the original iOS Twitter app, but you have Twitter's official Twitter for iPad app, and now you have Tweetbot to consider as well, one of the most popular iPhone Twitter apps, just released for the iPad.

We've often said iOS and Twitter and like chocolate and peanut butter, two great tastes that taste even better together. And it's true. Time after time, platform after platform, the best developers and designers always seem to gravitate towards making Twitter clients, and nothing proves that more than Twitterrific, Twitter, and Tweetbot.

So which one is best, or more importantly, which one is best for you?

Caveats

We're going to be using a lot of Twitter-specific jargon here. If you're not already familiar with Twitter and are reading this as a way to decide which app you should start with, be sure to check out our Twitter and social networking slang dictionary so you can get up to speed on also the latest terms. (Or just skip to the conclusion to find out which one you should get.)

Also, Twitter for iPad is currently still the version that began life as Tweetie for iPad by Loren Brichter of Atebits but was bought and rebranded by Twitter before release. Twitter has since redesigned the iPhone version of Tweetie/Twitter, and we expect will be redesigning the iPad version soon as well. When that happens, the pros and cons listed here will change dramatically, and we'll do an update.

Similarities

Since Twitterrific, Twitter, and Tweetbot are all Twitter apps for iPad, there are a great many similarities. They all have timelines to see the tweets of the people you follow. They all show you mentions, lists, and direct messages. They all let you search and see favorites. They all let you compose new tweets and direct messages. But the way in which they go about doing this varies greatly.

Reading Experience

Twitterrific puts everything in one place with a unified timeline, full sidebar, and lots of popovers

Twitterrific has a combined timeline, so you see all the tweets of the people you follow listed alongside your @mentions and direct messages. You can read @mentions and direct messages as separate lists, but there's no option to separate view just the tweets of the people you follow. The sidebar contains those tabs, as well as search, recent searches, lists, and current trends.

Twitterrific makes extensive use of popovers (a combination of popup and dropdown menu that Apple introduced alongside iOS for the iPad), but it can also make you feel boxed in, unable to expand content like pictures and lists to fill the screen. All this makes Twitterrific a good reading experience, but not a highly scalable one.

"Twitter for iPad uses sliding panels like something out of a sci-fi movie. It's innovative, even inspired, but it's not for everyone.

Twitter for iPad uses an almost futuristic feeling, highly table-optimized sliding panel user interface that's also deeply divisive. Some love it, some loathe it. Everything you tap causes a new panel to slide in from the right, layer after layer, and you need to swipe them all away to get back to where you started. You can also pinch to zoom out on a tweet to bring up a user's profile, and pinch to zoom in to fold it away again. Twitter's sidebar contains a list of all your accounts (if you have more than one), and timeline, mentions, messages, lists, your profile, and search are shown for the currently active account. Overall, Twitter manages to feel scalable and spatial, but still simple to some, while annoying and needlessly fancy to others.

Tweetbot for iPad looks a lot like Tweetbot for iPhone, which lets them pack in the features while still keeping things clean, though not always immediately accessible.

Tweetbot has a charmingly distinct user interface that some adore and others feel is overly loud and heavy. Instead of popovers or sliding panels, Tweetbot simply replaces the main window content with whatever you tapped on, be it timeline, user, or picture. That makes it harder to quickly refer back to something, but also removes a lot of the visual clutter that can otherwise build up. Tweetbot's sidebar presents tabs for timeline, mentions, messages, favorites, search, your profile, lists, retweets, and mute filters (so you can temporarily suppress people, hashtags, and even certain clients and services). The web view also has a toggle to switch between standard and Readability views.

Despite the distinctive design and gesture actions for more advanced users, Tweetbot behaves a lot like a standard iOS-app, making it easily accessible to new users as well.

Writing experience

Twitterrific keeps your tweets alive until you say to kill them, but doesn't offer as many auto-complete options.

Twitterrific's compose window is unique in that the content persists, even after you close it. If you start typing a tweet, then close it to go do something else, when you tap compose or hit reply again, your text will still be there. (You have to tap the counter and then hit Reset Text to clear it.) There are no auto-complete buttons, but if you type an @ (at) symbol it will start offering username suggestions. If you type a # (hashtag), however, it won't start offering trend suggestions, and you can't change which account you're replying from once you've begun to reply. Also, if you add a picture or video, no thumbnails are shown so if you come back later, you'll need to go to the link if you want to remind yourself what it was.

Twitter for iPad keeps an enormous amount of information immediately at your fingertips, though it approaches visual overload

Twitter's compose window can quickly start looking like an unruly stack of papers, one piled atop the other. However, it means you have instant, same-screen access to the contents of your timeline and of any conversations you're joining, which makes checking references while you type a breeze. Twitter supports drafts, and offers auto-complete for both @mentions (which, ironically, brings up a popover in one of the few places Twitterrific does not) and #hashtags. If you add a photo or video with the camera button, you can preview it by tapping the camera button again, and there's a location button to toggle your coordinates on and off as well.

Tweetbot is crisp and clean with great auto-complete options, but you have to exit out if you want to refer back to something.

Tweetbot has a clean, clear composition screen but, aside from the tweet you're replying to, you lose out on the ability to reference any other content unless you cancel, save as draft, and come back later which is more cumbersome. There are buttons for auto-completing @mentions and #hashtags, and toggling location, and any photos you add are placed in the menu bar as thumbnails you can tap to view or remove.

Bells and whistles

Twitterrific's settings aren't found in Twitterrific but in the built-in Settings app. The dark theme is one of the standouts here.

Twitterrific doesn't yet support native iOS Twitter integration, which means you have to authenticate through the web the first time you set it up. (I'm guessing this will be updated in the not-to-distant future). Twitterrific also doesn't support push notifications, which means unless you have email or SMS alerts set up, you won't know if you get any mentions or direct messages until you open the app.

Twitterrific's settings are found in the built-in iOS Settings app, and there you can enable the Dark Theme for night-time use, set up Tweet Marker to sync your timeline position between different clients, like iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and toggle and customize services, including read later (called bookmark) and advanced features like custom media uploads as well.

Twitter for iPhone doesn't have a ton of options, but it does have push notification.

Twitter for iPhone supports native iOS Twitter integration and push notification, but not Tweet Marker. Despite having been on the market for a significant amount of time, it never got all the power features Twitter for iPhone enjoyed, and likely won't given the almost certain redesign in its near future. You do have control over which image, video, and read later services you use. However, there's still no pull-to-refrsh direct messages and while it marks messages as unread, frustratingly, there's still no way to quickly mark them all as unread.

Tweetbot has an almost dizzying array of powerful options, and will even pause push notifications while you sleep.

Tweetbot supports a ton of features, including native iOS Twitter integration, push notifications, and Tweet Marker. For notifications, it not only has options for mentions and direct messages, but retweets, favorites, follows, adds to lists, and subscribes to lists. It's almost too many, but they can be mitigated by sleep options that suppress them at night (just pick your start and end times).

You can also customize services, including read later and mobilizer (like Safari's built in Reader feature, but with your choice of provider). Literally, the options threaten to burst out of their popover.

Cost

Twitterrific is free but requires a $4.99 in-app purchase to turn off ads and turn on tweet translation and multiple account support. A universal binary, it supports both iPad and iPhone.

Twitter for iPad is free and also universal for iPad and iPhone.

Tweetbot is $2.99. It's not universal so the iPhone version will cost you another $2.99.

Conclusion

That part about there being an embarrassment of riches when it comes to iPad Twitter apps wasn't fluff or filler -- it was truth. Twitterrific, Twitter, and Tweetbot each come from brilliant designers and developers with sometimes very different visions for what the ideal Twitter app entails.

Twitterrific is great for new users who want a simple, stable experience, where everything is easy to find, and often all in one place. It doesn't have as many features, and lack of push notifications might be a show-stopper for some, but those who have been using it since the beginning and like the way it works and syncs consistently across iOS and OS X will also do well to stick with it.

Twitter for iPad, in its current form, is great for those who want fast access to literally layer upon layer of information. It's an audacious, inspired interface that's likely going to be replaced with something much more like the Twitter.com website, which also makes it very difficult to recommend to anyone who isn't already using it.

Tweetbot might feel over-designed to some, but it's well-designed. It has a ton of features for power users, including the best push-notification implementation in the business. As far as general purpose Twitter apps go, Tweetbot hits the best balance for the widest range of our readers.

Twitterrific could update any time now, and Twitter for iPad will be going through a substantial change soon, but as of right now, if the $2.99 price tag -- less than the cost of a fancy coffee, mind you -- doesn't give you pause, Tweetbot should be your go-to Twitter app for iPad.

- Twitterrific - Download now

- Twitter - Download now

- Tweetbot - Download now

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!

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything -- so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb's new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, @Bitterblade asks:

I want a twitter app that syncs unread tweets between my iPhone and iPad.

We're going to switch things up a little this time, and instead of recommending a specific app, we're going to take a look at a service that can be used between multiple apps. To find out what it is, follow along after the break!

Tweet Marker is a web service that marks your last read tweet. As long as you have the service set up on at least two different Twitter clients, you can freely jump between the two apps without losing place of which Tweet you read last. Just enable the feature in the apps' settings, and you're good to go!

Here is a list of Twitter apps that support Tweet Marker:

• Tweetbot (iPhone) [$2.99 - App Store link]
• Twitterrific (iPhone, iPad) [Free - App Store link]
• Tweetings
  • (iPhone) [$2.99 - App Store link]
  • (iPad) [$3.99 - App Store link]
• Tweet Speaker (iPhone) [$0.99 - App Store link]
• Twittelator Neue (iPhone) [$1.99 - App Store link]
• Tweet Library (iPad) [$9.99 - App Store link]
• Tweetlogix (iPhone) [$1.99 - App Store link]

Bonus: Twitterrific also has a Mac version [$4.99 - Mac App Store link] that supports Tweet Marker. The Chrome extension WebMarker does as well.

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for @Bitterblade? Let him -- and all of us -- know.

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Head on over to our App for That Forum and let us know what you're looking for. The TiPb community will do our best to find you just the right App for That!

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Cortado Workplace: Have access to your documents and files anytime, anywhere and thanks to integrated desktop features, you can work just like at your desk. E.g. documents can be displayed, managed, opened in other applications, or even printed with your iOS device. [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• Kept: Part photo-sharing app, part game. You want to upload and collect the most interesting and/or awesome photos you can. Easy as that. Your score is based on two things - how well your photos are judged and collected by the other players - and how awesome your personal collection of photos is, again, as judged by the other players. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

• Twitterrific for Twitter: Now you can increase the number of tweets fetched on refresh. [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• AquaPilot: If you’ve just gotten a pet fish, or are thinking of getting an aquarium, or ever thought about getting one but you were unsure of how to do it, AquaPilot is the app you’ve got to have- it takes the guesswork out and guides you every step of the way. [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• iGibbets: An easy, entertaining and exciting game. You’ll have to make a small effort to save a lot of people’s lives. All you need for that is already at your fingertips: accuracy, attention and logic. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Twitterrific for iPhone and iPad has been updated with Tweet Marker, a new feature that syncs timeline positions across all versions.

This new feature makes me really excited! To me, it's a no-brainer for developers to include this ability with their Twitter apps and I look forward to it becoming the norm. Now if Twitterrific would just add native push notifications, it'd be pretty darn close to perfect.

Details and screenshots after the break.

[App Store link]

Now a universal app for both iPad & iPhone, Twitterrific is the friendly, award-winning Twitter client that’s beautiful to look at easy to use and full of elegant features. Effortlessly read and compose tweets, search Twitter.com, filter message types and much more.

• Twitterrific now syncs timeline positions across all versions via Tweet Marker
• Universal app for iPhone and iPad
• Simple to use, easy to understand
• Unified display for replies, re-tweets, direct messages, mentions & more
• Timeline syncing of reading position across all versions via Tweet Marker
• Create Twitter-based searches & view lists
• Browse conversation threads between users
• Follow, un-follow and block Twitter users easily
• Filter timeline for specific tweet types & trends
• Helpful actions including: re-tweet, link shortening, email & tweet translation

Twitterrific for Twitter is available on the iPhone and iPad for free with an optional $4.99 in-app purchase to upgrade to premium.

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Twitterrific just received a huge update and brings many new features, improvements and bug fixes.

New Features

• Username auto-completion when composing a tweet
• “Report Spammer” option on user profiles (must not be following)
• Tap and hold on a user’s avatar for quick access to report action
• Support for Cloud.app media uploads & URL shortening
• Camera support for iPad 2
• Settings option to toggle Global Trends on/off
• New Advanced settings
• Keep scrolled to top (if already at the top)
• Mentions by Strangers to limit mentions to only people you follow
• Quick View to open links in Safari instead of in-app browser

Improvements

• Timeline views in pop-overs now color coded properly
• Single tap and tap & hold actions re-organized for easier access
• Single tweet view eliminated for faster access to tweet actions
• iPad tap shortcuts: Double tap for conversation, triple tap to fave
• Switching accounts now returns directly to the timeline for faster loading (iPhone & iPod)
• Improved loading of multiple tweets in a conversation when selected
• Automatic updating of the timeline while the app is left running
• User profiles and lists appearances updated to “card style” to match the Mac
• User profiles now include total number of tweets from a user
• Text size settings now also affect text in the compose area and sidebar
• Large font size setting is slightly larger
• Improved error handling via new status bar notifications
• Timestamps now update in real time

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Twitter for iPhone recently updated to include a rather annoying and intrusive Quick Bar that has outraged most of its users. So much so, that it has been coined as #dickbar. One solution is to jailbreak and install Twizzler, a tweek that'll remove the trending bar from the Twitter app. However, for those of us who are devout members of #TeamPure, we must look towards other Twitter apps.

Follow along for TiPb's top 5 Twitter apps (not including Twitter's official app)!

Twitterrific

Twitterrific is the very first Twitter application to ever hit the 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 & trends. As an extra bonus, Twitterrific is a universal app for iPhone and iPad.

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

Twitterrific does not support push notifications.

[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Twittelator

If you're looking for an overload of features, look no further than Twittelator. In addition to posting to Twitter, you can post to your Facebook wall. One of the unique features of Twittelator is the ability to create and share themes.

For an in-app purchase of $4.99, you can upgrade to Twittelator Pro and unlock over 45 additional features including support for multiple accounts, more customization, Geocoding, and the ability to upload to WordPress and Posterous.

Unfortunately, one of the hundreds of features that Twittelator has to offer is not push notifications.

[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Echofon

Echofon is a full-featured twitter client with a very clean interface and support for push notifications. One of the unique features of Echofon is 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 is also a universal application for iPhone and iPad.

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

[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes 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, with in-app purchases - iTunes 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 - iTunes link]

Bonus: Boxcar

Unfortunately, not all Twitter applications offer push notification support. That's where Boxcar comes to the rescue. Boxcar can send you push notifications for mentions, DMs, RTs, new followers, favorites, and whenever you're added to a list and you can choose from over 35 different clients to open automatically for Twitter, including the ones mentioned above.

The goodness doesn't stop there though. Boxcar also offers push notifications for Facebook, Email, RSS, Growl, Github, Google Voice, Google Buzz, App Recommendation, and more.

[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Your top apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone Twitter apps to get you going. 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!

We've been covering some of the new and notable iOS 4 updates as we find them going live in the App Store, but Apple's new Awesome iOS 4 Apps section in the iTunes App Store has just made that task a little easier.

Check them out to see Apple's favorites, and hit the jump to see some more of ours...

[iTunes via TechCrunch]

Bejeweled 2

I think Bejeweled 2 was one of the first games I downloaded (ok that's probably an exaggeration), but it's one of the ones that sticks in my head as an all time favorite. It's extremely addicting and links up with Bejeweled Blitz so if you have Facebook, you can show off your scores on Facebook as well. Bejeweled 2 has added fast app switching support as of now.

[iTunes Link]

Instapaper

An incredibly useful app just got even more useful. Instapaper has added multitasking support as of now and say they'll have more updates to come. For those of you not familiar with Instapaper, it allows you to save web pages for offline reading at your convenience. So if you're bored in class or at work and you happen to be somewhere with sucky service, Instapaper is awesome.

[iTunes Link]

iTeleport

iTeleport is an amazing app that allows you to access your desktop computer from anywhere. It is compatible with Mac and PC. Have a file you forgot to send before you left home? Use iTeleport to log in to your home computer and send it to yourself. Easy as that!

[iTunes Link]

Articles

Articles is definitely one of the better Wikipedia sources out there. If you're looking for a good reference app that's got an awesome layout and pleasing to the eye, you won't get any better. Especially since it's now completely compatible with iOS4 and adds not only multitasking support but optimization for the retina display for iPhone 4.

[iTunes Link]

Twitterrific

The grand daddy of iPhone Twitter apps has once again gone back to the drawing board for version 3.0, this time drawing inspiration from the simplicity and focus forced by their iPad re-design. That's right -- it's a universal binary so you only need to buy it once. It's free but you can co ad-free and multi-account with an in-app purchase (which applies to both iPad and iPhone version).

[iTunes link]

Like always, if you see any that are your favorites, send us a tip or a comment!

Twitterrific is the grandaddy of iOS Twitter clients -- it existed on the iPhone before there was an SDK and was in the App Store on launch day, and again for iPad launch. Twitterrific has evolved from a reader-centric experience to a feature-full client and back to a highly focused app.

Craig Hockenberry, a principle at Iconfactory, the driving force behind Twitterrific, spoke to me at WWDC 2010 about getting Twitterrific ready for the iPad and how that process re-informed what will be going into (and perhaps coming out of) Twitterrific 3.0 for iPhone.

And no, Tweetie becoming the free Twitter for iPhone isn't slowing them down. (You can read more on that from Craig and Iconfactory collaborators David Lanham and Ged Maheux)

Hockenberry has also taken a turn as author, with his iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual now available from O'Reilly. It takes you through the process, from SDK signup to Xcode and Objective-C, to deploying an app. It's a treasure-trove of experience and insight for developers -- aspiring and veteran alike.

Videos after the break. (Huge apologies to everyone, especially Craig, for the annoying wind noise -- I greatly underestimated it during filming)

[Twitterrific homepage]

YouTube link

YouTube link

More sneak peaks at upcoming iPad apps, this time Bento, Twitterrific, Yahoo!, the Pinball (Tap or click the images above to see the full versions).

MacRumors showed off Bento for iPad, big brother to the iPhone version and little brother to the Mac's. Made by Apple's FileMaker subsidiary it will be available at launch and feature the great look and feel and ready made templates we've come to expect. $4.99.

App Advice got their hands on Twitterrific for iPad and it's gorgeous. I'd go out on a limb and say it looks better than both the iPhone and Mac versions. One of the original Jailbreak and App Store apps (in general, never mind simply Twitter apps), we kind of hoped they'd be on the iPad day one and as usual the Icon Factory doesn't disappoint. There looks to be both Free (with ads) and $4.99 in-app upgrade (no ads, multiple accounts) options, just like the iPhone.

9to5Mac has several screens up for Yahoo!'s iPad app. Why would a website need an iPad app? Other than to tie-into the launch-day hype, a dedicated native app is likely giving them more power and control to present their data than the platform-agnostic web. They're also using style elements like wood and shelves, along with the iPad-like combination of top-screen graphics and bottom-screen lists. We're guessing it will be free.

TUAW shows off some screens from The Pinball for iPad from Gameprom, which they say is a "vast improvement" over similar iPhone games. It combines Jungle Style, Deep, and Wild West into one game with camera modes, realistic physics, camera tilt, 3D sound, and shaking! No word on price yet.

Looking forward to them?

Tapped into the App Store and what did I see? Twitterrific 2.1, the latest version of the grand-daddy of all iPhone (and iPod touch) Twitter clients, locked and loaded, just waiting for me!

Updates include:

• Load more button to get older tweets
• Followers and following lists in author view
• Recording, posting, and viewing videos (presumably iPhone 3GS-dependent)
• Built-in WebView now goes landscape if you want it
• Saves battery via improved location update handling
• Tap and hold menus for tweet, links, photos
• Reply and re-tweet now have tap shortcuts
• In-app email support
• Optimized for iPhone 3GS

If you're a Twitterrific user -- or you want to be -- and give it a whirl, let us know how the update works for you. I'll be testing it out for the next couple days via @reneritchie, so feel free to drop me a tweet there and help out!

Boxcar [$1.99 - iTunes link] is almost more enabler than app. It only does one thing, but thus far it does it very, very well -- it sends Push Notifications for Twitter @mentions and Direct Messages (DMs) that then open in either Tweetie or Twitterrific.

Setup is straight forward; you log into your account through an in-app view of Twitter's website, and authorize Boxcar. You can select whether you want Push Notification for either @mentions, DMs, or both, and which of the aforementioned apps you want to open them in (hopefully support for more options will be forthcoming, such as Tweetdeck, Birdfeed, Twittelator Pro, etc.). You can also choose to automatically tweet them a shout out.

Like all Push-enabled apps, you can exit to the iPhone Settings to turn on or off Sounds, Alert (text boxes), and/or Badges.

That's it. Sit back and enjoy Push Notifications so you can immediately know when anyone talks to or about you on Twitter. Even when you're watching a movie on your iPhone. Or playing a game. Or writing an SMS. Or even taking a phone call -- if anyone still does that...

In other words, it works so well, you may have to learn to better manage your Twitter interruptions.

Now the crux: is a couple of bucks a lot to pay for an app that arguably only extends the usefulness of other apps that you already paid a few bucks (or more) for? Depends on how badly you want Push Notification for Twitter, whether you're willing to wait for full-on Twitter clients to add it themselves (however long that takes), and if you realize a couple of bucks is very little, and partly going to support the developers servers that are handling the Twitter calls and passing them on to Apple's notification servers.

I bought it without a second thought. You'll have to weigh the value (which is more important than cost) yourselves, and let me know what you think in the comments -- or @reneritchie and I'll get it right away via push

More pics after the break!

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Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat, or sent in questions!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You -- iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
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Twitterrific is looking to be the Alpha and Omega of iPhone Twitter clients. As it was first (before there was even an official SDK!), so it is also now the most recent -- in snazzily updated 2.0 form.

So what's changed? Nothing. And everything. Cliched, maybe, but Twitterrific was originally born from the Iconfactory's passion for a graceful, gorgeous Twitter reading experience. But then came a host of other Twitter clients that banged the uber-functionality drums and while it seemed like every celebrity with an iPhone clung to the grandaddy goodness of Twitterrific, the unwashed tech-masses wandered elsewhere.

Well, with Twitterrific 2.0, many will wander back. It somehow manages to keep that quick, clean experience but -- through UI wizardry -- neatly tucks away most every power-user feature imaginable beneath the covers.

Old awesomeness remains -- I've always loved the ability to quickly, and at any time, change from new tweet to @reply to direct message (dm) at the touch of a tab. New awesomeness is introduced -- now I can also tap the "eye" icon to see the tweet I'm replying to for reference, to add another @username to the reply, etc.

Yes, in Battlestar Galactica terms, if Twitterrific 1.0 was the Cylon Centurian, Twitterrific 2.0 is the red-dressed Caprica 6. It has evolved. (And definitely has a plan).

Speaking of which: there's inarguably the feature-equivalent of an arms race going on among iPhone Twitter clients, and it's one that greatly benefits users. If the first Twitterrific was a board with a nail in it, and subsequent Twitter clients went from sword to gun, this is our first plasma cannon. And I can't wait to see what happens next.

Note: Twitterrific 2.0 comes, as it always has, in two versions. There's Twitterrific (Free with ad support - iTunes link) and Twitterrific Premium ($3.99 - iTunes link). I bought the original Twitterrific Premium and was startled to see Twitterrific 2.0 come to me as a free upgrade. I would easily have paid another $10 for this, much less $3.99. Donation button please?

Full gallery after the break!

Nowhereelse.fr (French language) got their eyes on the Iconfactory's Gedeon Maheux at the Triangle Tweetup as he walked through a demonstration of the upcoming Twitterrific 2.0 Twitter client for the iPhone. Mashable sums up what we see:

So what’s new in Twitterrific 2.0? Multiple account support, filters for mentions, DMs, favorites, and marks (which are like personal favorites), trends, search by keyword, person, or location, saved searches, notes on users, retweet, conversations, custom shortcuts, the ability to follow/unfollow/block, expanded and condensed views, shrinkable text, and complete Twitter bios. Whoa, we’re out of breath just listing all that’s new, but we likey!

Twitterrific 2 should be available as soon as the App Store approval process runs its course. Let's just hope Apple's improved things since the last time a Twitter app tried to update...

File this under frivolous Friday fun -- or just shake your head, think less of us, and move along. Either way, if celebrities on Twitter (like Ashton and Demi) is the new black, this must be the new... flashing neon hidden away beneath a plain brown wrapper?

In any (every?) event, COED Magazine has compiled a list of 10 Ten Porn Stars Who Twitter, and a surprising number of them seem be doing so using the iPhone and Twitterrific. (No little blue bird jokes, we swear!)

Is it the trendiness? The ease of use? The multimedia (or multitouch!) functionality? Adult industry adoption is often seen as a technology bell-weather...

(Via @LeoLaporte)

Craig Hockenberry and the Icon Factory are among the earliest and most well respected iPhone developers in the community. In addition to their amazing design work and Mac and Windows software, they created the highly popular Twitterrific and Frenzic for the iPhone.

TiPb: We've been spending a lot of time lately discussing the App Store and what business model(s) it will evolve From launch, you took the route of having both a premium paid version of Twitterrific and a free, add-supported version. What made you settle on that idea, and how effective has it been for you?

Craig Hockenberry: The desire to have both a free and paid version of Twitterrific came from our experience on the Mac. It's the best of both worlds for everyone: we get some funds to pay for the development of the product, and users get to choose how they want to support us.

We decided on having ads before the final details of the App Store were revealed. Since there are no demos in iTunes, the ability to have a free version for people to evaluate has been a big benefit. A lot of my fellow developers are now looking at this model.

With stories about apps being rejected or removed from the App Store, how (if at all) does this effect your planning or strategy as a developer? Is it something a developer should have to consider?

Rejections and other App Store issues are certainly a factor in planning. But it's just one aspect of a successful product: it's more important to focus on how an app will make customers happy or solve a problem.

That being said, I know of an app that was cancelled before it even left the drawing board. It included both podcasting and fart noises, and was actually a great app concept. I'm sad that it will never get made.

There's still a demand for multitasking on the iPhone, which would obviously benefit apps like Twitterrific. How far will Apple's still- pending Push-Notification service go towards satisfying this demand for you as a developer and as a user?

Asking me about a unreleased Apple technology isn't going to get you a very interesting answer. (This stuff is still under NDA.)

I will make the observation that Apple is still getting its own push service (MobileMe) in order, so we're all waiting to see how this will pan out. It's not a simple problem from a developer's point-of-view.

Now that Twitter seems to have solved their up-time issues, what could they surface or add to their platform to make apps like Twitterrific even more useful or powerful?

There are a lot of things that could make Twitter more useful: http://bit.ly/9L0A

One thing I see a need for is the ability to "jump into" existing threads of conversation amongst a group of users. This has been hard to do until recently because replies didn't contain accurate links to original tweet. That has improved recently (thanks to Twitter implementing one of my suggestions.) But there could still be a lot done in that area to make the user experiences better.

You've now developed for the iPhone during three distinct phases: pre-SDK, post-SDK under NDA, and now SDK post-NDA. Any particular insights you gained from that range of experience, and what steps would you like to see Apple take next?

Everything led up to the "SDK post-NDA" phase. It's what I wanted all along: developers can now freely exchange information about what we're working on. When something doesn't work right, others can help.

I think Apple is fully aware of this need: the recent launch of devforums.apple.com is an excellent example of how they're actively working to help developers come up to speed with this new platform.

The only thing that I'd like to see from Apple at this point is a detailed list of what is and is not allowed in the App Store. This lack of information regarding acceptance limits innovation from developers: it's too risky.

If there were absolutely no limitations on the SDK, what app would you never consider developing yourself, but still love to see on the iPhone?

I'd love to see a native version of Lotus Notes with excellent calendar support.

Seems like a strange request, I know.

But my wife uses a BlackBerry because she needs this functionality. If it was available on the iPhone she could buy her own and stop borrowing mine all the time

Profound thanks to Craig Hockenberry for taking the time to share his insights on the iPhone.

Furbo.org is his personal blog, iconfactory.com is his company's website, and both Twitterriffic (read our review) Free and Premium and Frenzic (read our Forum review) are available via the iPhone iTunes App Store.

Back before my iPhone was torn from me (sniffle) for the Round Robin, Twitteriffic was (and will be again) my mobile Twitter client of choice. Since TiPb has also been looking into App development and iPhone UI lately, this all added up to make Craig Hockenberry's post today on furbo.org especially interesting. Hockenberry talks about the importance of making choices in development, about what features to add and what to leave out, and perhaps most importantly to us, in variety of different approaches:

There will always be more than one way to solve a problem: a developer’s personal preferences will inevitably seep into the implementation. Having many choices for a Twitter client means that developers don’t need to create a “one size fits all” solution. In essence, users get to choose a developer whose preferences match their own.

If you're at all interested in a behind-the-curtains peak into what makes a good app great, be sure to read the whole article.

Also, let us know if you're currently using Twitterrific, if what he mentions was already obvious to you, or if you're using another Twitter client, what you're using and why you prefer it?

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, oh how I love thee. Now I can really love thee with Twitterrific for the iPhone! If you are a fan of the very popular microblogging service Twitter, you are in for a rare treat with Twitterrific for iPhone from The Icon Factory! This application comes in two flavors: a free version with a very unobtrusive banner at the top or a paid version for $10 with no banner advertising and an extra theme.

The Basics 

You have to create a Twitter account before using Twitterrific. Once you have an account, you login with your Twitter username and password. After that, it’s off to the races!

You have a list of “tweets” from people you follow listed on the main screen. You can scroll though this list with a flick of your finger. The bottom of the screen has four simple icons:

• Refresh
• Post
• Info
• Settings

Refresh simply refreshes the screen to see any new tweets. The post icon opens up a box with the standard keyboard for you to enter a tweet with 140 characters or less. The screen has a counter to let you know how many you have left. Twitter also gives you the ability to “direct message” one of your friends on Twitter. To do this in Twitterific, simply tap the post icon in the box again and the post will change to a direct message post. Tap the icon one more time and you get a reply post (it changes to reflect the last post you have selected for a reply. Want to reply to someone else, select another post).

Pictures, Locations and Browsing, Oh-My!

When you are creating a post, Twitterific also gives you some additional options. For example, you can tell Twitterrific your location and it will update the Location field in your Twitter profile with where you are right now. The will use the GPS functionality in the iPhone 3G or My Location with the iPhone 2G.

You can also take a picture and attach it to your Twitter post. How? With TwitPic of course! TwitPic is a free service that lets you post pictures via Twitter. It works on the same premise as TinyURL. The “tiny URL” is added to your post. You can then view the picture buy clicking on the link in the Twitter post.

But wait, what if you are on your iPhone and you tap on a link? The thought in your mind right now is that the link will open in Safari, right? OH NO! Instead, Twitterific has built in a mini-browser using WebKit you so never leave the application! You can zoom and everything just like mobile Safari. Truly awesome.

Settings

The settings in Twitterrific are the basics. You can turn sounds on/off use screen names, show hints and even enable left-handed controls. What I think is another truly innovative feature is that Icon Factory have added a JavaScript bookmark for you to post links directly from Safari to Twitterrific! That is really going the extra mile for a 1.0 product. The only downside to this is that it requires some manual editing once installed, but hey, anything for Twitter…

Conclusion

I can’t say enough about this app. If you use Twitter, this is an absolute no-brainer. Icon Factory has some followers from their popular desktop version of Twitterific and I am sure they will be picking up more fans with the iPhone/iPod Touch iterations. The simplicity of the layout, options and ingenuity with pictures and locations really makes me want to shout from the rooftops use this application. What? You have not downloaded it already?

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 5
• Navigation: 5
• Features: 5
• Reliability: 4
• Overall: 4.75

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Every Twitter feature you could want!
• Looks good
• Intuitive
• Mini browser saves time

Cons:

• Performance can be a little sluggish. I am sure this will improve with time.
• Crashed once while using it. Again, will be addressed in a future release.

The iPhone SDK will not allow 3rd party apps to multitask or run background services. We've previously covered both initial developer Twitter-rage at this, and pundit counter-points. We've also covered Craig Hockenberry before -- the man who (perhaps poetically) develops Twitterrific for the Mac and jailbroken iPhones, and is now bringing it to the SDK.

Hockenberry, via his furbo.org blog, shares his experience on iPhone development and his views on the multitasking (non-?) issue.

To be blunt, I’ve never seen so many experts without a fricken’ clue. If you haven’t written code using the jailbreak tool chain, your opinions on the iPhone SDK, based entirely on what you see in a simulator, just aren’t relevant. You might as well be explaining the nuances of brain surgery.

Wha-wha-wha-what? Please, allow Mr. Hockenberry to continue:

Twitterrific on the iPhone could definitely make use of a background process to gather new tweets. In fact, a prototype version of the software did just that. And it was a huge design failure: after doing XML queries every 5 minutes, the phone’s battery was almost dead after 4 hours. In fact, the first thing I said after giving Gruber this test version was “don’t use auto-refresh.”

Hockenberry goes on to discuss the power demand problem of the radios, both EDGE and Wi-Fi, and the danger of even well-intentioned developers getting individually reasonable but collectively overwhelming access to background services. He does, however, expect that in a future release Apple may include some method of notifying network apps that the radios are being used (for example, by MobileMail Touch), and allowing brief TCP/IP connections during that period. Bottom-line, at the OS's discretion, not the individual apps'.

Sound reasonable? Sound crazy? Should Apple give unfettered access to everyone immediately an trust users to sort through it themselves? Or should Apple be as strict as possible from the get-go? What do you think?