Developers of MetroTwit and Rowi team up to bring cloud based sync soon!

Well, this is surprising to say the least. Developers of popular Windows twitter client MetroTwit and developers of popular Windows Phone 7 twitter client Rowi are teaming up to create  something they called ' The Nest ' . The Nest is basically a cloud based backend which enabled syncing of  configuration and state data across clients. Initially the syncing will be limited to column configuration and unread tweet state.

Now this is fairly interesting, two different apps on two different platform in perfect sync harmony - what more could you want ?

Here is more from the official MetroTwit blog :

Since we launched MetroTwit those months ago, one of the most common feedback we’ve heard is “MetroTwit is great on Windows, do you have a Windows Phone 7 app?”. Of course, we share the same need with our users to access Twitter on a range of platforms which is why we’re proud to announce “The Nest” partnership with Rowi.
Not long ago, many of us fell in love with Rowi for Windows Phone 7. In many ways, it reminded us of MetroTwit and our own design goals. Soon after opening a dialog with Rowi’s developers, we knew it would be far more beneficial for us and our users to enjoy full-featured applications on each platform, with the synergy often found in cross-platform applications.
Over the past few days, we’ve been designing “The Nest“, a cloud-based backend that will support the syncing of configuration and state data across clients (the first of its kind we believe). In the first version we’ll be focusing on column configurations and the unread tweet state.
An additional feature of the system is that it can also work as a backup service for individual clients, saving the state if the user should use multiple installations or reinstall the software.
We hope to deliver “The Nest” support very soon with the next updates of both MetroTwit and Rowi making it easier to keep up with Twitter at the PC and on the go.

You can follow @nestapps for more updates on this. Can't wait to see the sync in action. Tell us what you think of this.

By Rahul Mathur

Exclusive preview of upcoming Rowi app update with Live tiles and Toast notifications!

We enlisted three best Twitter clients for Windows Phone 7. Rowi was one of them. Today I'll be telling more about it and what's in the next update of the app. The update will be live in day or two (already submitted and is being tested by Microsoft), but we have got some exclusive hands on the app and one thing that came into my mind was "Awesome !".

The lite versions remains pretty same, you have pivot (instead of panorama) for timeline, mentions and DMs and can configure them or add / remove few tabs or pivots. But the Direct Messages will have a look similar to the the text messaging we have on Windows Phone 7. Yes it has the Metro look which is nice and easy to use. Screenshot of the DMs conversation style:

There are few bug fixes too in the lite version.


Now the big one: The full-featured version has got Toast and Tile notifications. Yes, you have toast notifications for Direct Messages and Mentions and if you miss them, you have live tile to notify you. Glance and Go! Here are few screenshots of the toast and tile notification:

The toasts are similar to new text message toast notification and there are two counters for DMs & Mentions on the pinned live tile. You can even configure if you want these notifications (none or all).

Now you can see a small green mark in the screenshot which shows that all the systems involved in notifications Twitter, Microsoft's Push and Rowi are working fine and you will get the toast and tile notifications. But if it's Red, you can check the service status and find out where the problem is. After the MIX '11 announcements, notification system will be improved in Windows Phone 7 with live agents and we will hope that it will never go red.

The premium version will have all the goodies of the lite version plus the notifications minus ads. You can check other feature set in our previous post about the twitter clients. The updated app is intuitive because of its metro inspired interface. I expected these feature set from the official Twitter app for Windows Phone 7, but now we will have the Rowi. Comparing the new version of Rowi with the Twitter client Beezz which is already available in the marketplace, both have toast notifications, but the live tile is much more detailed in Rowi which is ambiguous in case of Beezz.

Thank you Hidden Pineapple (Erik Porter) for the exclusive preview of the app. Rowi will be a must have (and must pin) app for Windows Phone 7 and we will update whenever its up in the marketplace.

Now, we want to hear from you, what do you think about the app. Drop in your views!

By Nirmit Kavaiya

Three Best Twitter Applications for Windows Phone 7

Life without Twitter is hard to imagine these days. If you are new to Windows Phone 7, you'd be surprised to see a half baked application from Twitter since they have fantastic applications on competing platforms likes iOS and Android. Fear not, we have compiled a list of best 5 twitter applications for your Windows Phone 7 device.

1. BirdSong:  Birdsong is one of the first premium attention worthy twitter application on the marketplace and arguably the most visually pleasing twitter application across all platforms.

List of features :

• Configurable timelines
• Multiple accounts
• Threaded conversations
• Geo-tag tweets
• High performance, infinite scrolling
• Integrated picture viewing
• Offline viewing
• Map previews/thumbnails
• Bing Maps integration
• Share photos with TwitPic integration
• Integrated web browser
• Status Bar: unread message counts
• Integrated with theme/accent color
• Configurable timeline font size
• Favorite tweets
• Share tweets/DM via email or SMS
• Delete tweets/DM

That is an impressive set of features. Besides the awesome UI - it's pretty stable too. But there are some annoyances like

• Lack of live tile and toast notification ( coming in the next update! )
• No Auto complete
• No long press to bring a pop up menu 
• No Reply All option

Good to see that these things are already covered in the Feature request forum on Red Badger's website. The application costs 0.99 $ and with the constant updates and awesome twitter support - there is no reason to not buy this app. Birdsong is a complete value for money.
Prepare to be overwhelmed, hit the Zune Link.

Zune Download Link.

update : new version of BirdSong has Toast notifications and Live Tiles.

( note -  you can expect a detailed review of the next version of Birdsong, so stay tuned! )

2. moTweets:  moTweets comes in two flavors -  free ( add supported ) and premium ( which I believe is the right approach in the current situation ). Now moTweets, which has evolved from the  Windows Mobile generation,  is probably the most popular twitter client in the marketplace. It is an extremely feature rich client with few options to customize the UI.

Here are the list of features :

Use up to six (6) Twitter/Facebook accounts simultaneously.
• Upload pictures using your device’s camera or from the photo album.
• Add your location to your Twitter post using your phone's GPS.
• tinyurl.com, bit.ly, twitpic.com, yfrog.com and Plixi/TweetPhoto support.
• View Trends, Lists and Conversations.
• View user’s background in the user details screen.
• Live Tile displays your account image(s).
• Streams allow you to add and view multiple timelines including Search results and RSS feeds.
• View tweets near your location and view them on a Bing map.
• Three (3) skin themes to choose from.
• Image Wall displays all images from your timeline as well as ones you've uploaded.
• Translate Tweets, Search Twitter topics, locations and users with ease.
• ReTweet, Follow, Unfollow, Direct messages, RSS Feeds, Facebook Wall, Favorites and much more!

moTweets lets you add RSS feeds and a Facebook account, so that makes it a complete ' social ' client. But it primarily is a twitter client and it does it's job well. It's stable and a bit faster than Birdsong. One big advantage ( besides FB support ) is the live tile feature which notifies you of the number of unread incoming tweets.

It isn't perfect though,  the UI isn't really up to the mark but that's ' my ' personal taste. It doesn't have auto complete for username and ' Near Me ' stream doesn't work well. But when it comes to features, it overshadows BirdSong at this moment. It's been a  tough battle between these two since a long time now.

moTweets is definitely worth the 0.99 $ or you can get the add supported version for free.

Zune Download Link.

3. rowi [ lite]: rowi [ lite] is the new kid on the block and it's blazing fast. rowi [ lite] is what twitter's native client should have been . rowi [ lite] blends perfectly with the OS. It's a a perfect example of a Metro UI  application.

The application isn't really heavy on features but does the job for most of the users. It has something special which nobody else does ( but will have soon! ) is the auto complete feature. The application is very stable and   scrolling is super smooth. Interface is clean which is an advantage over cluttered moTweets UI. It keeps location of your last read tweet when you reload the app which is a simple feature but non existent on most of the clients, strangely. Overall it is a pretty well made application. Sadly, stuff like live tiles and toast notification still isn't available. But will soon be available in the premium app.

rowi [ lite]  is free and we recommend you do check it out :

Zune download link.

update : Rowi has a premium application now with Toast notifications and Live Tile ( read review here )

Honorable mention :  Beez (  live tile and toast notification, no updates anymore so basically stale ) and Twitter ( native client, underwhelming but lot of potential ).

Do tell us if you agree or disagree with the list in the comments below. 

By Rahul Mathur