MetroTwit: Twitter Client to Replace TweetDeck

I personally haven't been pleased with TweetDeck since Twitter took over its development. Initially, it repeatedly crashed. Then, recently, it was taken down due to a rather large security hole. Finally, I have had serious issues with it not updating my tweets. It basically would sit idle on my desktop and not update for long periods of time.

I've tried several alternatives. Those include Hootsuite, Seesmic, and even Yoono. Between crashes, lack of real-time Tweet updates, and quirky features, none of these seem to be an effective replacement.

MetroTwit Interface

Then I stumbled upon the Australian Twitter client called MetroTwit. I have been using it for some time, and it hasn't crashed, and it has provided some of the same features that I once admired in TweetDeck.

MetroTwit is available in a free version that includes advertisements (You can decide which stream displays these) and support for only one account. It is also available with a paid version that includes multi-account support and no advertisements for less than 20 dollars. So far, MetroTwit has been able to deliver for me what the new TweetDeck fails to do. Download and try MetroTwit here. It might be a reliable alternative to TweetDeck.

Twitter Releases More Stable TweetDeck Update: No More Crashes!

TweetDeck crashes seem to be fixed with Twitter’s update to version 1.1. Earlier this week I posted that TweetDeck fans might want to wait before downloading and installing the new TweetDeck native Windows app. It constantly crashed when I used it on my Windows 7 64-Bit laptop, and it crashed on the Windows XP computer I used at work as well. As of today, I have installed the updated version that came out today and have not had any crashes. Still, there are some features from the old Air version I miss. Hopefully, Twitter will find a way to include them in their new desktop app. Here’s just a few that I and others have stated they would like to see included.

• The input Windows at the top of the screen is gone and is replaced with a button, that when clicked, a pop-up window appears. I personally liked the input window at the top and would like to see it placed there again. There are times when I need to look back at a Tweet as I am posting one. I can’t do that now because the pop-up input screen is in the way.
• There is no right-click menu. I miss this one, especially when I want to paste a link in a post. I have to resort to using Ctrl-V for pasting, but I suppose I can get used to that.
• The size of the columns and window are fixed and can’t be adjusted. I often adjusted the column sizes to fit the screen when I had multiple windows open for multiple apps. That’s not possible with the new fixed TweetDeck window and columns.
• Some have complained about not being able to customize the colors of the new TweetDeck interface. Honestly, I rarely used this feature, but we all like to personalize things, so I could understand some missing this feature.

New TweetDeck Screen

Ultimately, I am happy I can now run TweetDeck without it crashing every five minutes or so, but Twitter, needs to realize that besides stability, there were other features that made TweetDeck a fan of so many.