High Order Blog

Twitbit 2.8 was released on the app store earlier today. You can get the full list of features and bug fixes on the Twitbit release notes page, but there’s one feature in particular we want to highlight: xAuth! xAuth allowed us to drop our former web-based login workflow and replace it with a much simpler one. Here’s a screenshot of the old workflow:

And here’s the new one:

And because we now collect your username and password when you add an account, we don’t need to ask for that information again when you setup a photo or video sharing service. Bonus!

We also fixed a few bugs and made some small UI enhancements. Enjoy the update!

Twitbit 2.7 has been approved by Apple and is available on the App Store. We’ve seen approval times get significantly better since our 2.3 release in December 2009. Twitbit 2.7 was approved on the same day it was submitted, the second time that’s happened this year. Kudos to Apple for responding to developer complaints about excessive wait times.

Now to the details of what’s new in 2.7:

• Added customizable font sizes.
• Load links to tweets directly in Twitbit, rather than opening the embedded browser.
• Display an icon on the timeline next to tweets that link to photos.
• Fixed a bug where the user’s avatar would not update after it was changed on twitter.com.
• Fixed a bug where the PIN number no longer populates automatically when adding an account.
• Other minor bug fixes and UI enhancements.

Download it now!

Today Apple approved Twitbit 2.6. It includes these changes:

• When adding users to contacts, the Twitter field now opens the user directly in Twitbit when tapped.
• A brief sound is now played when posting a tweet.
• Fixed a crash when either the user’s timeline, mentions, or search results are empty.
• Fixed a bug where the “highlight new” setting was not working correctly.

You can read more about it on our release notes page.

Get it from the App Store now!

Twitbit 2.5 was submitted to Apple yesterday! Our previous two or three submissions were accepted much faster than they had been historically, so we expect that you’ll have it in your hands soon (maybe early next week?).  We’ve deviated from our tendency to introduce BIG changes in this release, but we are nonetheless excited, as 2.5 addresses two of our most common requests: configurable push notification sounds and saved timeline scroll position.

There are now 5 push notification sounds available in addition to the default. This feature is great for distinguishing Twitter messages from text messages and other notifications. Sounds are set per account so you can identify which account received a message before you even look at your phone.

As for the timeline, one design goal we’ve had is make the timeline in Twitbit simple and deterministic. For that reason, we’ve been reluctant to tackle things like read and unread tweets, syncing and tracking your timeline position. We also appreciate the value of being able to close the app without losing your place in a batch of tweets. Twitbit 2.5 doesn’t make the timeline complicated but it should make you a little less gun-shy with the home button. Specifically, we made two changes to timeline behavior. One, and this is independent of scroll position persistence, when new tweets are fetched and the tweet you’re currently viewing is still displayed, there’s no jarring change in the scroll position. Second, provided you’re scrolled somewhere within the first page of tweets, we will persist your exact scroll position. We think the new behavior strikes a good balance between simplicity, avoiding sudden display changes, and coping with interrupted timeline browsing.

Twitbit 2.5 also has a number small enhancements, UI refinements and bug fixes. Another more notable feature is an index on the person selection view. We’ll have release notes up soon! Stay tuned for the release notice and information about Twitbit 2.6!

Twitbit 2.4 is a bug fix release. To borrow from the release notes, it contains the following fixes:

• Fixed a crash when Twitbit receives an error message from Twitter. This could be caused by sending a DM to a user that does not follow you, exceeding your API rate limit, trying to view a user whose tweets are protected, etc.
• Fixed various issues with sending and receiving geotags and user locations.
• Fixed a “request timed out” error that would sometimes occur when uploading photos or videos.
• Twitbit Lite only: fixed a bug where a tweet posted from the app would occasionally not display correctly in the timeline.

In addition to these bug fixes, Twitbit 2.4 adds the following feature:

• Added support for the “shake to refresh” gesture for updating the timeline.

A modest release for us by historical standards, but we wanted to get some of those bug fixes out ASAP. Enjoy!

All we blog about these days are Twitbit releases, and I know, that’s lame. The good news for you is that we take all that time we would have spent blogging and we use it to make Twitbit a better Twitter client. Here’s a glimpse of what you get with 2.2:

• Updated compose view, including a person selector and link shortening
• A dark theme option
• New mention badge on the home tab
• Mentions and DMs update when you start the app
• Smoother timeline scrolling

Screenshots:

For more info, check out the 2.2 release notes.

Twitbit Lite is lagging a little and hasn’t yet been approved, but should be on the App Store any day now. All of these features are included in Twitbit Lite, so you’ll be able to try before you buy. Or you can just buy it now for only $2.99 and get push notifications!

Okay, time for me to get back to work on the finishing touches of Twitbit 2.3.  We hope you enjoy the update.

Twitbit Lite 2.1 is now available on the App Store! While Twitbit 2.1 was approved back on October 18, Apple took a bit longer to approve the free version. The new features in this version are the same as in Twitbit, and include:

• Complete support for landscape mode throughout the app.
• Support for viewing the next or previous tweet right from the tweet view, just like in Mail.
• Support for displaying maps for tweets that include geo data using Twitter’s new geolocation API.
• Bug fixes, including a fix for a bug that would occasionally cause the timeline to display tweets older than the most recent.

You can read more on our release notes page, or just download it for free now!

Twitbit 2.1 is now available on the App Store! Features include:

• Complete support for landscape mode throughout the app.
• Support for viewing the next or previous tweet right from the tweet view, just like in Mail.
• Support for displaying maps for tweets that include geo data using Twitter’s new geolocation API.
• Bug fixes, including a fix for a bug that would occasionally cause the timeline to display tweets older than the most recent.

You can read more on our release notes page.

Twitbit is on sale for $2.99 for a limited time. Get it now!

The newest version of Twitbit that is, which is why we’re calling it Twitbit 2. I’ll get to some feature highlights in a moment, but first the basics. Twitbit is now available as a free download, called Twitbit Lite, and it has almost all of the features included in the paid version. The most notable difference between the lite and paid versions are the paid version supports push notifications. It also has a short list of other features we deemed “premium”.  Actually, I think the only feature that currently includes is Flickr integration.  So, if you’d rather skip the rest of this overview and just see it for yourself, I won’t blame you.

Twitbit is on sale! The paid version of Twitbit will be temporarily available for $2.99!  Again, that gets you push notifications, Flickr integration, and future premium features (and more are coming). We also plan to add ads to the free version at some point, and the paid version won’t include those. We’re not sure how long the sale will last, but we’ll give you at least a week from the time this is posted to grab it. But why wait? Get it now!

Why the free version? In short, we think you should be able to try software before you buy it. Even if an app is only a few bucks, we want our customers to be satisfied with their purchase. There’s a lot of crap out there, and how are you to know what’s what?

Okay, You Really Want to Read About Features, Huh?

New Look

Where Twitbit 1 got the job done, Twitbit 2 does it with style. Every view was re-evaluated. Thoroughly. And most were overhauled. There’s more color, everything scrolls (like it should), unused space is minimized, control elements are more standard, and subtle white lines are everywhere. Just look at the new tweet view:

I’m embarrassed for our previous tweet view. There’s a new user view, too:

If you’re already a Twitbit user, you might have noticed some missing tabs. Don’t worry, I assure you we haven’t removed any features. I talk about that decision in a previous blog post. Want to view your profile, for example? It’s a built-in bookmark:

Oh yeah. You can bookmark people.

And as you can see above, we have a new, compliant icon, designed by Kevin from icondesign (he did our button glyphs, too). Feature.

When you view a reply in Twitbit 2, you get the full conversation. Very high-order:

Integration

We love us some integration. The complete list of photo and video (new) services is now Flickr (!)(paid version only), Twitpic, Twitvid and Yfrog. You can shorten links with Bit.ly and mark links for later reading with Instapaper. All of these services can be configured simultaneously and switching between them is a snap. They’re also configured per account, not globally, which is nice.

We realized uploading a video over the power of the edge network kind of sucks, so we added a progress bar and the ability to cancel:

Maps

Twitbit 2 is geo-enabled. Location fields include map thumbnails and you can view a location on a map without leaving the app. View a location relative to your own, get the street address from a coordinate, and search for nearby tweets or mentions of the location. Don’t worry, you can still quickly jump to Maps if you need directions.

Performance

We like to improve the performance with each release and as you’d expect Twitbit 2 makes a big jump in that respect. Scrolling is smooth and the app loads fast. Performance is one of those things we’re never satisfied with, however, and something we value immensely. Look for future versions to continue the positive trend.

Configuration

We’ve read your emails, tweets and letters. Okay, there were no letters — but we would have read them and probably mailed a response. We get it. Everyone uses Twitter a little differently. Some of you only follow celebrity gossip. Some of you only tweet what you also write on your blog. Some people get 1 new tweet an hour in their timeline and some people get 1,000. And some of you only use Twitter to promote your adult website.

We also try really hard to avoid too much configuration. If possible, we ponder how something should work, so you don’t have to. Well, we’ve reached a compromise. You can now configure:

• Whether to display full names or usernames

• How many tweets to fetch in your timeline

• Whether new tweets should be highlighted

• Where to scroll when new tweets are fetched

• Retweet format

• Image compression

• Whether to shorten links

• The nearby search radius

• Push notification behavior

Okay, we didn’t really add any configuration to help promote your adult website.

More?

There’s more.

We added tons of little stuff. You can block and unblock users, delete tweets, search hash links, quickly search for user mentions and search nearby tweets. Persistence is a little more thorough. Search terms are remembered. Bookmark people and content searches (recent searches are automatically tracked). Seriously: just download the app! It’s FREE!

Twitbit 1.1 stuff is still there

Twitbit 1.1 had a healthy set of features to begin with. Of course it has push notifications. It also supports everything you’d expect like viewing your timeline, mentions and direct messages, multiple accounts, and search.

We’re not done yet

Twitibt 2.1 is already waiting on the wings. But it’s following 2.0, so relatively minor, right? Not so minor. A couple solid features are coming: full landscape support and the ability to iterate through your timeline from the tweet view.

Those Twitter API updates for native retweet and geotag support? Yeah, we know about them and support is coming.

We have a few other significant, imminent features on our road map, so stay tuned. In the mean time, we’re still listening and still working. If you contact us with a suggestion, we might disagree with you, but we will read it. Every suggestion is considered.

Happy tweeting!

Download Twitbit Lite

Buy Twitbit “Pro”

Twitbit website: http://twitbitapp.com

Twitbit 1.1.1 is now available on the App Store! It’s primarily a bug fix release. More details about what’s new can be found in the release notes.

Meanwhile, we’re hard at work on getting Twitbit 2.0 out the door. We’re getting close to the end of our feature list, and we’ll be sharing more details soon.