Just when you think there can’t possibly be anything left to create when it comes to Twitter apps for iPhone and iPod Touch, a new timeline reader rolls out. This time, the app is TweetPear, developed by Japanese company Susiea. Although TweetPear does everything you’d expect from a Twitter client, the interface feels extremely different from every other tweeting app I’ve used, and I’m not sure if that would be a comfortable switch for users.
TweetPear packs a lot into a tiny space. Once you’ve authorized your Twitter account (it does support multiple ones), you’ll see your timeline. This looks pretty similar to any other tweeting app, but locked tweets display in a different color — sort of distracting when they aren’t your own. TweetPear utilizes horizontal swiping between spaces, which you can customize (six spaces are supported on iPhone 4; four spaces work on 3G) with mentions, DMs, favorites, etc. Although I liked the feature, I found myself constantly tapping the back arrow, which actually takes you to your accounts page.
In the bottom right corner, you’ll see some arrows, which pop out to a vertical scroll bar of sorts. The top and bottom arrows will jump to the top or bottom of your tweet stream, the squiggle line marks your unread tweets, and the circles will put you before or after the unread line. Tapping an avatar brings up a host of information about a particular user, and tapping a tweet launches your reply, retweet and favorite options. When you open a link or someone else’s timeline, TweetPear loads the information in the background. You can see the progress through a pop-up bottom tool bar, and once loading is complete, a check mark appears. This is probably my favorite feature of the app, because you can open multiple links simultaneously without leaving your timeline.
Through tapping the center bar, you can access things such as Twitter search, saved searches, user history and lists, but I didn’t see an option for trending topics. Tweeting is what you’d expect, but I liked the design aspect of the character countdown overlay in the text window.
At $3.99, TweetPear is a pricey purchase for something you might dislike. I found that the app made for a viable alternative to my current Twitter platform, though. Ultimately, I wish TweetPear had a free version available so Tweeters could see if the interface works for them before buying.
