Whilst in my $2 Staples stand dock thing, my iPad virtually does nothing as it recharges for the morning. Cup of coffee and keyboard in hand, I often pondered the ways it could make me more productive or more informed before its later afternoon usage. Enter Tweet Flow (tweet Flow? tweetFlow?), a pretty great iPad Twitter client that’s excellent for displaying recent tweets in big text.
Tweet Flow, while I would say it has an inconsistent UI, features some pretty nifty visual effects. For one, the background changes based on whether it’s night or day in your timezone. If you’re viewing someone’s profile, their custom Twitter background comes into view. The black tweets which you can scroll through become more opaque as it nears the bottom of the screen (as they fade out of view). Tweets should refresh every three minutes, though that doesn’t always happen. When it does, it’s fantastic.
When you tap on a tweet to reply or add it as a favorite, the UI takes a really harsh deviation from the norm. While the pop-up is beautiful on its own, the rest of the app is very squared (very flat, vibrant, and 2D). But this visual style feels really out of place, and I think it should be changed to fit the overall feel of the app.
Refreshing feeds isn’t instant, but feels like it takes forever (is there a way to manually refresh without removing the tweets onscreen?). The app also doesn’t feature any integration with services like bit.ly or yFrog, so don’t be prepared to do any serious tweeting. As a reader it’s great! As a composer, no so much.
I like this application as a desktop Twitter notifier, but not as a daily tool I’d use to share information. If the developer can iron out some UI inconsistencies in his application and refine the user experience, I think we have a real winner. Tweet Flow is currently free on the iTunes Store, so get it while you can!
