Tweetbot, our favorite iPhone and iPad Twitter app for power users, has just hit the Mac. But here's the thing -- it's not for sale yet, it's a free alpha version. Alpha is what comes before beta, and way before Mac App Store release. It means there'll be bugs -- and they'd welcome you to report them -- and there won't be Mac App Store specific features like iCloud sync or Mountain Lion Notification Center. But there will be a lot of what makes Tweetbot the iOS app many of you know and love. Tweetbot's developers have explained all the details on the Tapbots blog. Here's the intro:
Tweetbot for Mac is finally available! However it may not be quite as you had hoped. Developing for the Mac is no easy task, especially a full-featured Twitter client. However, we’ve gotten to a point where while not complete, it is useable. We’ve decided to release it as a public alpha to a) motivate us to finish faster, and b) get feedback to help us build the best Mac incarnation of Tweetbot we can make. You can love it or hate it, but rest assured it will only get much much better from here.
The final release version will be a paid app, though no price has been decided yet. It'll almost certainly be less than you spend for a drive-through meal, so no doubt it'll be more than worth it.
I've been testing out Tweetbot alpha builds for a while now and though there are definitely the type of issues you should expect from alpha builds, it's also working better for me than the slowly rotting Twitter for Mac app (which no longer does autocomplete, has massive gaps in the tweet timeline, and needs to be force-quit to get around weird non-existent drafts issues).
With the Twitter.com website as backup, I'm not worried, but if you're adverse to betas, you should be even more wary of relying on alphas. On the other hands, if you like Tweetbot and want to get in on the Mac version early, hit the link below and get your download on.
(Note: Tapbots' servers will no doubt be slammed at first, so if you can't get to them right away, just wait a while and try again.)
Free - Download Tweetbot for Mac alpha now
