One of the first and most popular BlackBerry Twitter clients that seems like it has been around forever is TwitterBerry. With the release of the latest version, Orangatame Software, the company behind TwitterBerry, has changed the name of the application. Forevermore, TwitterBerry will known as OpenBeak.
Personally, I like the name TwitterBerry since it pretty much tells you exactly what the applications is and does. My guess, however, is that the name change comes because of trademarked name infringments. Research in Motion doesn’t allow any applications with the word “Berry” in their name on BlackBerry Appworld.
OpenBeak features include:
- Post updates to Twitter, including a character countdown from 140 characters
- One-click access to view friends timelines, replies, your favorites, your own timeline, and the public timeline
- Post pictures to Zannel, TwitPic, Twitgoo, or yfrog
- Take a picture with a one-click embedded camera (BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.6+)
- Reply to tweets from each timeline view
- Send and receive direct messages
- Mark tweets as favorites
- Notification icon that indicates the number of unread messages, like new emails or missed calls (BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.6+)
- Cache all avatar images to internal memory, thus saves network access and helps faster loading
- Search Twitter with a keyword or from a list of currently trending topics
- Active text recognition of @usernames and #hashtags
- New Setup wizard
- Two modes of list views: a “fixed height” view and a “variable height” view
OpenBeak is a free BlackBerry application and you can pick it up OTA by pointing your devices BlackBerry browser to http://m.openbeak.com…
OpenBeak? Lol! WTF are they smoking over there?
Name change is stupid, TwitterBerry to OpenBeak is bad. [Edited for being egregiously off topic]
On the name change:
In July ’09 Twitter warned against using “Twitter” in the naming of 3rd party applications:
“Regarding the use of the word Twitter in projects, we are a bit more wary although there are some exceptions here as well. After all, Twitter is the name of our service and our company so the potential for confusion is much higher. When folks ask us about naming their application with “Twitter” we generally respond by suggesting more original branding for their project. This avoids potential confusion down the line.”
– As seen on Tech Crunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/01/twitter-to-developers-tweet-your-heart-out-but-dont-twitter-it/
On the update:
This product has to be the slowest moving 3rd party application for Twitter. I am constantly frustrated by the lack of improvements when compared with the tools I use on my desktop. Seriously, how hard is it to get a notice when someone @ replies to me?! I have to constantly check to see if anyone has said anything. 1) Cllick on the application, 2) Click on Menu, 3) Click on ‘get replies’, 4) Hope that I’m in an area that can receive a transmission, then finally 5) Start looking for my laptop because I can’t look up information on the person who just contacted me.
I also partly blame this on Blackberry. I’m currently using the Curve 8330 which constantly reminds me of my Treo 600 from 2004, and falls short on many user interface designs. Some of my frustration can be directed on the limitations of the device – but nonetheless, I’m not enjoying my time using TwitterBerry OR OpenBeak.
I am not going to use openbeak unless I get a new blackberry and have no choice. I’m attached to it. Maybe I’m mental, I don’t know. The name TwitterBerry rocks. It gets the job done, though I have always had a problem with uploading pics to Twitter from TwitterBerry. I never have been able to. Like I said though, it does what I need and I can email pics to Twitpic with no problem. So unless it does something super far out like…it enables you to Twitter to martian planets….I won’t change.