began life as an excellent Twitter client for the iPhone, and the iPad version is even better. The $3 app's unique interface and brilliantly implemented gesture support make it not just a powerful app for reading and posting tweets, but a fun one, too.

(Image Caption: Everything you could want out of twitter is available at your fingertips with Tweetbot.)

Swipe to the right on a tweet to see the full conversation surrounding it; swipe to the left to see replies sent to it. Tap and hold--on a tweet, a hashtag, a username, or a link--to expose contextual options related to that element. With support for services like Tweet Marker (for keeping you in sync with your device or desktop Twitter client), Instapaper (see above), and more, it's a full-featured Twitter app that's a delight to use.

It feels almost like science fiction when you first use the app to stream movies and television shows to your iPad.