photo credit: carrotcreative 

As Twitter continues to explode at a rate faster than any other web2.0 app that we’ve ever seen. The reason why Twitter has done so well because of the simple API that Twitter has and the number of apps that have been built on it. I thought with the growing popularity of Twitter it would be a nice idea to showcase some of the best clients for Twitter that have actually outdone Twitter itself.

Here they are in what I feel is the best order. From the worst of the best to the best of the best Twitter apps that rule the world. Read on….

Yes Twitteroo was the first Twitter client I used on my Windows Box. Its got a beautiful interface and is fun to use. The buttons and other options are easily accessible and replying to tweets is pretty easy. Overall I’d give Twitteroo a 3.5/5. Wondering why? Read the pros and cons

Pros

• A User friendly interface.
• Good features.

Cons

• A Memory Hog, eats up RAM like all the RAM is for itself.
• Windows Only.

Snitter was one of the first Twitter clients to run on Adobe AIR platform. Developed by designer genius Jonathan Snook, Snitter has one of the best UI’s I’ve come across in a Twitter client. As usual nothing out of the ordinary in terms of features, but Snitter definitely beats Twitteroo in UI and accessibility.

Pros

• Awesome Adobe AIR interface.
• Fun to use, variety of skins and skinnable via CSS as well.
• Keyboard shortcuts.

Cons

• Keyboard Shortcuts not so obvious.
• Switching streams from drop down menu is not so Web2ish..

Twitterrific is the original Twitter client for MacOSX. Its stood the test of time with all the competing clients that run on Adobe AIR. Has a super sexy UI that will instantly make you fall in love with it. Runs super fast and is the least buggy of all the clients mentioned as yet.

Pros

• Super Sexy Interface.
• Keyboard Shortcuts.

Cons

• Mac OSX Only.

While the picture I’ve uploaded here for Twhirl is the smallest yet, let me assure its no small client. A lot of people I know swear by Twhirl. With nifty features like Friendfeed integration and a sexy UI, Twhirl is your best bet if you are looking for a Twitter client. But we’re still on Number 4, so there is one more to go.

Pros

• Friendfeed Integration.
• A Clean and well laid out UI.

Cons

• Absence of Direct replies within the client
• Quite a memory hog.

And now is the time for the best of the best …

Spaz is a great-looking Twitter client, and to my eyes its the best of this bunch. I think it has the best interface, with tabs for your timeline, direct messages and replies, as well as access to your list of followers and profile information.

Pros

• Lovely gorgeous interface.
• Highly Skinnable via CSS.

Cons

• A Little Buggy.
• No Keyboard Shortcuts.

Well that completes it. All these Twitter clients make the Twitter experience completely enjoyable and addictive. Other notable mentions would be Hahlo, twitbin, Twitterfox, Digsby.

What do you think of these Twitter clients? Let us know in the comments.

For those of you who are big fans of Google Reader, here’s an app that you must check out. You’ll love this new Adobe AIR app called ReadAIR that completely syncs with Google Reader and has the same basic layout as Google Reader, so you should have no problems starting out.

You could be easily be fooled into thinking that this app was developed by Google because it is that well polished. It features full synchronization with your Google Reader account and requires you to log in with your credentials the first time you use it.  The viewing panes can be resized but the columns in the list view can’t. It also has a search feature for going through all of those feeds and you can use tags as well as add or delete subscriptions. Sounds cool eh!

The interface of ReadAIR has been designed keeping OSX in mind, but it surely does look good on Windows machines as well. The UI is simple and effective and is a joy to use. There are some important features missing at the moment, but the developer plans to add it as soon as possible. Here’s what the developer has in the pipeline :

• Offline mode
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Windows XP/Vista and custom themes
• Unread count in Mac doc icon

I can’t wait for keyboard shortcuts to be a part of ReadAIR. I found myself using J for next item and S for starring it while playing around with ReadAIR, such is the striking resemblances between Google Reader and ReadAIR.. For the first release ReadAIR looks promising indeed. I suggest you all to give it a try.

Download ReadAIR from here

If you have been a long time reader of DailyApps you must have read my previous review of Adobe Media Player here. It has finally come out of beta and Adobe has shipped the 1.0 release of Adobe Media Player.

In a nutshell Adobe Media Player is a slick desktop app built on Adobe AIR, that allows you to watch streaming and download videos from site like Revision3, BlipTV, MTV etc.. Pretty similar to what Miro already does in my opinion.

Adobe Media Player has the slickest interface I’ve probably seen in any media player to date. Adobe has put a lot of work and its clearly evident. The Video playback is no longer choppy and unlike the last time around the content library is full of high quality content. Check out my earlier review for some screenshots.

Here are some features of Adobe Media Player that are worth mentioning :

• Support for high-quality audio and video.
• Manage your videos
• View shows online or offline
• Simple, content-centric user interface
• Subscriptions to your favorite shows

Coinciding with the launch of Adobe Media Player Adobe has also launched Adobe TV, which is basically a web site filled with tutorials and other information about Adobe related products. You can either watch Adobe TV videos from the web or using Adobe Media Player.

I suggest you give Adobe Media Player a try and let me know what you feel about it.. Adobe Media Player is available for both Windows and OSX, but you need to have Adobe AIR installed before.

Initial reactions of the Macbook Air, were all ooh’s and aah’s when Uncle Steve unveiled it to a packed Audience in MacWorld 2008. While half the blogosphere was singing in praises of the Thinnovation that Apple came up with, the other half naturally took up to bashing the Macbook Air, for everything that it was missing.

You might ask me, to which half I belong? Well my answer is somewhere in between, because I believe this is what the Macbook Air deserves. And this is the reason why I held myself from hitting the publish button on this post, so that I could update my thoughts continuously.

Well my verdict is pretty clear, Apple clearly has a winner at its hands, but its not quite complete right now. There is more that can be added to the Macbook Air, that would make it a hot selling cake just like the iPhone.

Apple has once again showed its tremendous design and engineering skills with the Air. Macbook Air feels great, and has the sex appeal to turn heads, where ever you take it. Apart from that Macbook Air is a clever piece of engineering, packing so many features in such a small factor.

But as I said, I believe that Steve Jobs hurried through with the launch of Macbook Air. I believe that it still is an unfinished product.  Surely if Apple had enough time, we would have Macbook Air with much better specs.

Well here are a few places where the Macbook Air falls behind…

• 80GB hard disk isn’t enough these days. A 120GB or a 160GB would be more ideal.
• One USB port, seriously guys is Apple kidding us. Atleast 2 USB ports like the Macbook would be great.
• A FireWire port is missing. I’d love to see one on the Macbook Air. Maybe Apple wanted everyone to use the Wireless Time Capsule.
• The Audio Output currently is Mono, it would be nice if it was Stereo.

Having Said that Macbook Air, is going to improve lots down the lane, say about 9-12 months from now. I’d expect, the prices to significantly drop, and SSD drives become a lot more cheaper than they are now.

The Macbook Air, was built with portability, sleekness and style in mind, to solve most people’s mobile needs, with much better wireless capabilities than other laptop in the market. Enough said, I believe everyone was expecting little too much from Apple on this one.

Will I Buy it? Well not now atleast simply because I don’t have that kind of money to throw on the Macbook Air.. But maybe in the future, when the Macbook Air becomes more stronger and better.

Until then I’d love to see Apple to work on more thinner and lighter versions of the Macbook and Macbook Pro. That would surely give a big boost to Mac Sales.. Who doesn’t like Style? But the price and features should satisfy it, and right now the Macbook Air doesn’t do its price justice.

If you are wondering what I’m talking about, have a look at this Macbook vs Macbook Air

What do you think about Macbook Air? Sound off your views in comments.

Installing Adobe Media Player is a breeze. You Need to install the latest beta of Adobe AIR and click a few buttons here and there to install Adobe Media Player and you are set. But here comes the sad part. For most part, Adobe Media Player is slow and unresponsive. It has a choppy playback, so for the time being I would stick to Miro.

What left me impressed was the amazing user Interface that the Media Player has. The UI of Adobe Media Player is one of the best and is fun and easy to use. There are not many shows pre programmed into the Media Player, so you have to manually add all your Favorite shows. Let me stop my rant here and show some screenshots of Adobe Media Player in Action.

For a Beta product, Adobe Media Player is not bad. I would like to see a lot more speedier and responsive Adobe Media Player in the future, to convince myself to dump Miro in favor of Adobe Media Player.

If you are willing to try out Adobe Media Player then visit Adobe Labs. Remember you also need Adobe AIR Beta 2 Installed Before you can use Adobe Media Player.

Through its Interface you will be able to post :

• Text
• Pictures
• Sound (mp3)
• Video (flv)
• Webcam streaming (directly from AirPress!!)
• Webcam snapshot
• Flash animation (alpha version)

Here are some screenshots of AirPress in action :

So if you are impressed by AirPress and are a blogging freak, then I suggest you try out AirPress. On a sidenote I posted this post straight from AirPress. Though it took me more time, than Live Writer would normally take, but all in all I was awed by this wonderful App.

Try Out AirPress today. Note : You Need the Adobe Runtime Environment to be installed before you can use AirPress. 

AirTalkr has a very slick interface and is pretty fast and responsive from my basic testing. The chats seem to be fine, but there are some missing features like File Transfers, Smilies etc.. Apart from the IM capabilities AirTalkr also has support for popular Social networks like Myspace, Facebook, Flickr etc with functionality that is dubbed as AirCard.

All in all AirTalkr looks like a cool app to have. Though not feature rich like Pidgin or Trillian it definitely is the easiest to use, that should help not so technically advanced users. While it won’t replace Pidgin for me but I would definitely use when I get bored.

Thanks to Sindhu, Shankar Ganesh

• Download and install the application from the AIR file.
• Once you have installed and launched the application, enter the flickr account ID of the account that you want to download the images from.
• Note that this is the Flickr account ID and not the account user name.
• You can find a user id for a specific account here.

Once you have specified the flickr user id, then you can optionally specify the folder that the images will be downloaded into. By default, images will be downloaded into a directory named flump on the desktop.

Here is a screenshot of flump :

So go ahead and download flump today. Before installing make sure you have Adobe Runtime (AIR) Installled.