Best Adobe AIR Twitter Desktop Clients

Twitter is become the most popular micro-blogging platform now a days and yes many of us preferred different kind of twitter clients. Some prefers desktop based twitter applications specific to Windows, Linux or MAC and some of us prefers web based twitter applications. Those are mostly platform specific twitter desktop clients, so they depends on target operating systems. Then came Adobe AIR platform, provides a common ground for most popular operating systems to build rich desktop clients, they act similar on multiple operating systems with common interface. Now there are a variety of Adobe AIR platform based Twitter Desktop Clients, lets take a look at the most useful ones. Bare in mind these Twitter Desktop clients requires Adobe AIR framework to be installed in your system before they can start working. Lets take a look at them..

TweetDeck

Designed for : Windows XP/Vista/MAC OS/Linux

What is TweetDeck?

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.

How does it do that?

TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. To do this All Tweets are saved to a local database. The far left column will always contain All Tweets. The GROUP, SEARCH and REPLIES buttons then allow the user to make up additional columns populated from the database. Once created these additional columns will automatically update allowing the user to keep track of a twitter threads far easier. Being database driven TweetDeck allows the user to continue twittering even when offline. Tweets and direct messages are queued and then sent automatically when back online. This offline functionality also applies if Twitter is down. [UPDATE 07/07/2008 - this functionality has been temporarily suspended due to a small period when duplicate queued tweets were sent out. This functionality will be reinstated when a more robust solution has been put in place. I do not anticipate this being very long]

Additional Features

• - Catch up with overnight global twitterings as TweetDeck stores all updates whilst running
• - Continual status updates of TweetDeck and Twitter
• - Resize TweetDeck as either an unobtrusive column, full screen or anything in between
• - Especially useful running full screen on a separate monitor
• - Filter tweets up to 48 hours using the Timeframe bar
• - Auto updates from the Twitter API

Website and Download

Seesmic Desktop

Designed for : Windows XP/Vista/MAC OS

What is Seesmic Desktop?

TweetDeck alike features include the capability to monitor multiple feeds side-by-side in a similar fashion, create custom user lists, and post from multiple accounts while the application keeps track of which ones are which to keep duplicates at bay. You can also drag and drop photos from your computer to post straight to Twitter. Currently Seesmic Desktop is the only Rival for the most popular TweetDeck application. The preview release has its perks. A lot of feature should be included such as hashtag dropdown and translation services etc. But so far it’s a promising application

Seesmic Tutorial:

Key Features

• - Derived from Twhirl
• - Multiple twitter accounts integration
• - Facebook integration
• - Retweet format customization
• - User lists similar to TweetDeck
• - Saved searches
• - TwitPic integration
• - Shorturl services

Website and Download

Twhirl

Designed for : Windows XP/Vista/MAC OS

twhirl is a social software desktop client, based on the Adobe AIR platform.

Some of twhirl’s features:

• runs on both Windows (2000/XP/Vista) and Mac OSX
• connects to multiple Twitter, identi.ca, Friendfeed and seesmic accounts
• notifications on new messages
• shorten long URLs (using snurl, twurl or is.gd)
• cross-post twitter updates to Pownce and Jaiku
• post images to TwitPic
• search tweets using Twitter Search and TweetScan
• timeline filtering
• localized to English, German, Italian and Spanish
• color schemes
• automatically check for new versions

Website and Download

TweetR

Designed for : Windows XP/Vista/MAC OS

Send files to your friends, but just dragging any file on to Tweetr. Tweetr will automatically upload your file and when it is done will provide a short url to send to your friends (please do not upload copyrighted material). Use the webcam feature to show off you latest toys, bruise, haircut. To use the webcam click on the camera icon (if you have a web camera installed and you only see a white box, click the “select camera” link and choose a different camera from the drop down that appears).

Website and Download

Spaz

Designed for : Windows XP/Vista/MAC OS/Linux

Spaz is a Twitter client for users who value free, open-source software, attractive design, and customizability.

Features:

• Cross-platform: available on all AIR-compatible platforms: Windows, OS X, and Linux
• Open source software using a New BSD-style license (source available at Spaz Google Code project site)
• Written in pure Javascript, XHTML and CSS. Utilizes the powerful jQuery Javascript framework
• Built-in global search powered by Summize
• Short URL creation tool with support for multiple services (is.gd, bit.ly, snurl.com, and more)
• In-line short URL decoding
• No ads
• Markdown syntax support
• Multiple themes and support for user-created themes
• User-defined CSS overrides
• Event sounds using the Tokyo Train Station soundset by Dominik Dimaano
• Directory listings of users you’re following, and your followers.
• Debugging and development tools and debug logging

Website and Download

** Update **

DestroyTweeter – It’s a nifty handy tool (Never Mind the name cause its just the opposite)

DestroyTwitter is a robust but compact Twitter application built to run on Mac, Windows, and Linux using Adobe AIR. It consists of a series of canvases that constantly update to keep tweets current and up-to-date using notifications that appear immediately after a new tweet arrives. DestroyTwitter also features complete direct messaging functionality. Messages and tweets can be replied to with the original visible for quick and easy reference. A search function is also available to track anything that’s being talked about.

Where to get it?
Download the latest release from here.

Well these are the some of best Twitter Clients based on Adobe AIR platform. Feel free to install and test out according to your taste. And yes don’t hesitate to share your opinion about them too. If you prefer to have a look at all the Twitter based applications and tools, have a look at the wiki listing of twitter apps and services. If you are interested you can have a look at Digsby which combines all your popular Instant Messenagers, Facebook, Myspace, Multiple Email Ticker and Twitter.

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About Ruhani Rabin

Ruhani Rabin is the original owner and author of this blog. He also reviews web 2.0 startups at Tech2all.com. Largely interested in web 2.0 apps & Social Media. Currently the Vice President of MOL Access Portal (MOL is owner of Friendster.com). Also he is Web 2.0 & Social Media Researcher and a Total fun Geek!.. There you have it ;)

Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/ruhanirabin