I’m set in my Twitter ways, but app Trickle, available for iPhone, iPod Touch and in iPad-native format, might be the app to help me mix things up. Trickle is described as a “passive Twitter client,” meaning you can let the app do the work for you. Trickle takes your Twitter friend feed, and, well, trickles it in for you to sit back and watch. The app pulls in incoming tweets from the right side of the screen as they’re posted. Swiping left and right will move you forward and backward through your stream.
Trickle’s developer says the app is best used when your iDevice is in a dock or propped upright. My iPhone 4 case has sides that allow me to easily stand the phone horizontally. The tweets are displayed in large white text on a black background, which is easy to see, even when out of reach. Users can set the refresh time down to the minute through the info panel, and I found that Trickle kept up with my Twitter feed even in peak-use periods.
Because the app is constantly in use, Trickle will drain your battery. In less than an hour of use, my charge dropped 20 percent, so plugging in your device is definitely recommended. The app also doesn’t allow you to open links, which means you’re going to favorite a lot of things to reference later. There’s also no pause option, which means if you step or look away, you’ll probably miss tweets.
Trickle’s goal is to display tweets, and it does so beautifully. Snag Trickle for Twitter while it’s still a bargain 99 cents.
