From this gathering, two more gods were asked to join the circle. Iphoneus and BlackusBerryus. They brought with them a new power and new opportunities to the circle. They brought with them addicted followers. Users that would follow them more faithfullly than a dog does his master.  They negotiated with the internet gods, “we bring to you our loyal followers and users; and all we ask is that you give us the TWITTER.” The internet Gods laughed and asked “How will you support the TWITTER? Your memory is not great like that of the gods, PCeus, and his brother, Laptopeus. And what of this tiny battery that you carry? The TWITTER is all too powerful and will drain your life force in one day.” Iphoneus and BlackusBerryus looked at each other, laughed and said, “we have our own apostle, programmer, coder people, what ever you call them. They shall slave until they find an application that will be Alpha and Omega of twitter applications and that will be able to handle the power of the TWITTER (said with an ECHO)”

The story of the followers of Iphoneus is still unknown. I can only bring to you the stories of the followers of BlackusBerryus as I am loyal to the power of BlackusBerryus. I bring to you the story of two apostles, programmers, coder type people of BlackusBerryus.

Many applications were brought forth to BlackusBerryus. Some were not able to handle the power of the TWITTER and the demands of the users, and there were some that momentarily quenched the thirst of the loyal users, but the thirst soon returned. Finally a boy named Genius and a giant named UBER stepped forward. They brought forth applications of their own making. Impressive they were. Many followers quickly swallowed them up and the battle began. Which one is a better thirst quencher? Which Tweet worthy warrior shall win the hearts and favor of the followers of BlackusBerryus? The boy named genius or the self proclaimed, UBER LORD?

(DING, DING) LET’S GET IT ON!!!

Ok, that was the grandiose story I had started a month ago as my first article and to shed a little comedy on the race to make the best twitter application for the BlackBerry phone and how we’re swallowing them up as fast as they’re made, and that’s speaking from experience.  I’m still on the waiting list for Social Scope, AND I paid $5 for an app that still in BETA???? I can’t speak on the first, but I have a lot to say on the last. 

I’m on my twitter desktop last month and I come across TweetGenius.  I go on the internet (when I should be getting my updated spreadsheets and reports out) and look for a way to download it.  Then I find out that even though it’s still in BETA, they’re still charging money?? Like an addict, I buy it anyway.  In all honesty, it was the screenshots of the app that got me. They looked very impressive on the screen, and I have to say, aesthetically, I was not disappointed.  It’s an impressive LOOKING application. Upon opening the app, you will see 3 icons, your time line, direct messages and messages that are “@” you.  I didn’t know much about twitter at the time, so I didn’t really know what to look for in terms of pro’s and con’s. 

I’ve had some time with it, so now I’m versed on the ins and outs.  When I first started using it, I was immediately disappointed and I really wanted this to work. With version 1.0.3, there were issues with the app.   I ran into problems uploading a picture.  It was the slowest thing I’ve ever experienced.  Then it got stuck. It took approximately 10 minutes for the app to get to 100%, and then it froze my phone. That was the first instance.  I went to the website to look for support… not happening.  After losing the excitement for my purchase, I took the time to read the website a little closer.  NO SUPPORT for the BB Curve??? WTF!! Why would you make an app that looked that good, and not make it for ALL BlackBerries’?? When I got a response from support, they just told me to try it anyway??? In other words, good luck! Then they released the next version 1.0.5. This was supposed to have fixed the issues with the app freezing during a picture upload.  That still didn’t do the job.  This version was also supposed to offer more support for the 83xx series BlackBerry.   Nothing really changed there either.

They’ve since updated to version 1.0.8, and I have to say, it’s starting to work pretty well.  I’ve recently just tried to post a picture and it actually worked!!  Now it’s back on track for me, but after all of the issues that I paid for, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I’m not too excited to even use it anymore.  Sorry guys, there should have been a lot more testing before release, and it should have been a FREE BETA just like all the other twitter apps and then started charging for the current version.  I can understand, you had something good and you knew it and you wanted to hurry up and get it to the public, but make a little change at the same time. But let me ask you this, If you had a chance at Halle Berry or some other famous beautiful Woman, would you want to shoot your wad too early, or would you want to take your sweet time and keep them coming back?  That’s kind of what you did with TweetGenius; you got excited and blew your load WAY too early.  I will not be shouting your praises on my roof top anytime soon.

While I was dealing with my issue’s with TG, I was venting this to one of my tweeples and they suggested UBER TWITTER.  I was like as long as it’s working better than TG, I’ll check it out.  Major plus! #1, it’s free!!  Upon opening it, it looked just like Twitterberry, so I figured it would work the same.  NOPE!! It only LOOKED like Twitterberry, but it worked MUCH better.  I have to say I was so impressed by how good it worked that I actually starting to hate on it. I wanted it to look as good as TweetGenius and I wanted TG to work as well as Uber Twitter.  After getting over the lack of looks, I got into the functionality of it. It blows TG out of the water and it works so good, that I got over the look thing. 

The first thing I checked was the ability to send a pic.  YUP!! And then some! Not only was I able to send a pic, but I was able to upload the pic while inside my update. I did not have to exit all the way out and go to my media folder, choose my pic, then send my tweet.  I can start my update, and then add my pic from inside the app.  That just did it right there.  At the time, I was not able to add my geo tag to my tweets from TG.  I was able to do that with Uber Twitter.  I was able to do so many more things with Uber Twitter than with TG, like see who’s following me.  This comes in handy for #Follow Friday.  Updates were coming quicker than TG.  I just had to give in to the Uber Lord. 

               Even with the recent updates, it’s only gotten better. They didn’t change the looks too much, but they changed the color so that it doesn’t look like Twitterberry anymore and it looks much cleaner. They’ve reduced the battery drain.  We now have the ability to delete tweets?? No more “oops” or “Ahh crap, why did I say that?” There is also the ability to save that tweet you thought was sooo funny or that had a link to a great article on www.berrytastic.com, by “Favoritizing” it.  (Let’s see you do that TweeGenius?) There were so my updates to this app, there are too many too list. I will point you to the website, www.ubertwitter.com to check out the new BETA 3 Version (0.75).  This one definitely gets a shout from the roof top. Right now, it’s the best Twitter App available.. AND IT’S STILL FREE PEOPLE!!!

The next evolution of the ultimate BlackBerry Twitter would be the ability to view multiple user names from one app.  I know I can do that now by logging off one, and signing on with the other. But wouldn’t it be great to be able to avoid all of that and be able to just switch timelines within the app? Since I’m not able to do that now, and with TG being updated and working better, I’ve opted to keeping both on my phone.  It’s taxing on a standard battery but it’s worth it. I get all of my updates at that same time. If one is acting up, I still have the other working. 

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me rant, rave and be judgmental.  More to come.

Wayne Cleveland

http://twitter.com/3pAppMan

http://twitter.com/MrC05

http://www.facebook.com/Mr.C05