Saturday, November 3, 2007

Twitterific 3.0

Twitterific version 3.0 has been released and sports a lot of changes. From Iconfactory's website:
  • Twitterrific now handles multiple sources of tweets in the list. Normal timeline updates are gray while replies to you (@yourusername) are colored orange. Your direct messages are displayed in blue with a letter icon.
  • An AppleScript scripting dictionary was added thanks to a contribution from Grayson Hansard at From Concentrate Software. Please refer to the TwitterrificScriptDemo.scpt file for more information on how to access Twitterrific from your AppleScript.
  • The dialogs for connection errors have been replaced with a message in the tweet list that explains the last error (only one error is displayed.) To turn this feature off, uncheck "Show errors in tweet list" in the System panel of the configuration window.
  • If you are using the Dock instead of the menubar, the Dock icon now contains an unread message count. The count will be displayed in orange if any new tweets have arrived since the window was last opened. The menubar icon will also be removed if you are using the Dock to control Twitterrific.
  • The volume of the bird sounds used to alert you to new tweets is now adjustable using the Sound > Sound Effects panel in System Preferences.
  • Improved configuration interface for updating status with chat clients. There was some confusion about how this feature worked in the last release, so we tuned up the user interface. Also, some users were getting "Where is application?" errors, so you must now choose the chat application you want to use.
  • You can now select any tweet in the list and use ⌘C to copy its URL to the clipboard.
  • If you post something by accident, you can now delete the tweet: just select it in the list and press ⌘⌫. You cannot delete someone else's tweet.
  • The arrow keys can now be used to open URLs from the tweet list: the right arrow opens all links in the tweet and the left arrow opens the user's "with others" page.
  • Added a warning dialog when there are no tweets to download from Twitter. This will help new users who are just getting started.
  • Two new power user preferences were added: tweetScreenNameFilter and tweetTextFilter. These preferences allow you to filter out tweets based on either a tweet's screen name or the text in the message. See the Read Me file for more information on how to configure and use them.
  • Screen names in tweets (@name) are now linked to the user's page at Twitter.
  • A power user preference for Sonic Twoosh Technology™ was added to let you know when your tweet is "extra special."
  • Development of Twitterrific is now being funded in part by advertisements from The DECK. You can still use Twitterrific free of charge, but for every hour you run you'll be shown a single ad. Registering the software for $14.95 eliminates all advertising and helps support future development and improvements.
Admittedly these are big improvements to a fantastic program. However, I am annoyed by the fact that Iconfactory changed the way users toggle the window off. Whenever a Tweet comes in, the Twitterific window pops in. Previous version would require only one key press to toggle the window off. On version 3.0, for some inexplicable reason, they are forcing users to press the toggle keys TWICE! I find it inane and stupid. Why fix something that wasn't broken?

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