SimplyTweet 2.0 for iPhone

31.07.2009
When I , it fared poorly in comparison to other Twitter app behemoths like ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice )and ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ). Now that $5 app and its have reached a 2.0 milestone, I gave it a second chance.

And it's definitely better. One of my chief complaints had been about speech-bubble style, which looks a bit amateurish. It's still the default theme, but several new themes have been added that make things look much cleaner. (I like "Silver" and "Daylight.") Unfortunately, because SimplyTweet follows Apple's guidelines and , you're forced to dance back and forth between the two apps to find your preferred theme, which is a frustrating but one-time annoyance.

The app now supports push notifications, so you can get notifications on your iPhone when you receive new direct messages and mentions. The feature works great, and it's decidedly awesome. In my testing, I'm receiving notifications within just a minute or two of the tweet directed to me. It's a killer feature, since you needn't rely on a separate, second app (like ) for those alerts.

Unfortunately, some SimplyTweet features I'd complained about last time remain problematic in the 2.0 release. Switching between accounts takes way too many taps to be useful. And the "Saved Views" grouping feature continues to be far more trouble than it's worth.

SimplyTweet also has a bug that causes a crash on launch if your mentions or direct messages queues are empty. Send yourself the appropriate message(s) to workaround this bug, which the developer claims will be fixed with an upcoming release.

SimplyTweet's latest update is certainly an improvement, but the app still hasn't cracked the top tier of a crowded iPhone Twitter app marketplace.