Thanks to a RT by @Morgan1zer I was clued into a new Twitter app for BlackBerry called Twixtreme made by Xtreme Labs. With new Twitter apps being hyped out to wazoo these days, it's surprising to find one that has been released with nary a word. Twixtreme proclaims it is "The Sweetest Twitter™ Client for BlackBerry™." It. has the now standard suite of features such as retweet, pic uploading, DMs, replies, search, trends, etc. Twixtreme is free without any ads.
I ended up having one minor issue when installing Twixtreme. After it successfully installed I was greet with the typical dialog asking if I wanted to run the app. After clicking OK I got an error message that said "Uncaught exception: module with handle [4005] and index [0] has no application entry point." Fortunately it wasn't anything major. Clicked OK and didn't have any other application errors.
When you open the app for the first time, it will ask you for your Twitter name and password. One of my favorite things about Twixtreme is that it remembers your info, so even if you exit out and open it back up you are still logged in. I really dislike other apps where you if you exit, and open up the app it asks you to provide your login info again. You can log out by selecting the log out option in the menu.
The "Home" screen for Twixtreme is your friends timeline. I personally think the design of the graphics and feel of the layout is really nice. Blue is my favorite color though. I also like how the logo only takes up a small portion of the top. This way I can see much more of my tweets. This is especially important to me as I have an 8320, sporting a 320x240 screen.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...twixtreme1.jpg
Twixtreme auto refreshes, and quite offer. It almost feels like tweets are pushed to you. When you get new tweets it will say you have 2 new tweets. Click on it and the new tweets will load. The downside is that there is no way to adjust when or how often the app refreshes.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...wixtreme12.jpg
The menu navigation could use a little reworking. I was not impressed with it. I felt it lacked more control from the menu. Such as being able to have a tweet highlight and select RT from the menu. Not possible. In order to RT you have to open the tweet, then you can select whether you want to reply or RT. This is one thing other apps do well. Also, I'm a little confused as to why replies are called mentions. Doesn't make much sense to me.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...twixtreme8.jpg
Sending a tweet is straight forward. However I have a couple of issues with this too. The icons when viewing a tweet, or sending a tweet can easily be passed over when scrolling. Making it a little tough to select what action you want to talk. Sending a pic didn't work for me at all. Click the camera icon opened the camera, I took a picture, but then nothing. It didn't take me back to Twixtreme, and I could find no other way of attaching a pic. After you send a tweet you get a typical success message. My problem with it is that you have to click OK, then it will take you back to your friends timeline. The success dialog should just timeout after a few seconds.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...wixtreme13.jpg
Viewing trends is also very straight forward and presented in an eye pleasing manner. Clicking on a trend will be up tweets for that trend.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...twixtreme2.jpg
Again, I don't understand why replies are called mentions. But I do love the layout of tweets.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...twixtreme7.jpg
Retrieving DM's completely failed for me. I couldn't get any of them to show up. Even had people send me new DM's.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...twixtreme9.jpg
Tweets nearby simply looks at what location you have set in your profile and brings up tweets from other users who have the same location. Worked fine for me.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...wixtreme14.jpg
Overall I think Twixtreme shows promise. I absolutely love the look and think tweets are laid out very well. Another big thing I liked about the app is how fast it is. Retrieving new tweets and what not seemed faster than other Twitter apps that I've tried.
I'm surprised there was no hype for this app while it was being developed, or after being released. It's not terrible, but it's not something you could replace UberTwitter or SocialScope with. Though it does have some features that are better than those two. Certainly the look and appeal is better than SocialScope at this point in time (the revamped design hasn't been released).
My biggest complaints are DM's not working, tweeting a pic not working, no keyboard shortcuts, and menu organization. Simply put, the menu needs to have actions for such things as retweeting or replying to a tweet. Attaching a photo needs a lot of work. You should be able to attach a photo that has already been taken, plus a choice as to where to host it.
I would also like to see three features be added. First of which I already mentioned is that there has to be away to set the refresh rate to the user's preference, including turning off refresh. To be a serious contender these days, you must also offer multiple Twitter account management. It's a highly sought after feature for any Twitter app, both on the desktop, and BlackBerry. The last feature I would like to see added is an option to let the user decide what the Home screen is. The reason I say this is that I much rather have the first screen when opening the app be the send a tweet page.
All of these issues can be fixed or addressed. If they are, I could see myself moving from TwitterBerry to Twixtreme.
To download Twixtreme visit http://www.twixtreme.com from your BlackBerry browser.
