UPDATE: About an hour after I posted this article, an updated version of Seesmic Desktop was released. The new version contains:
- Facebook Integration
- Following and Unfollowing Twitter users
- Fonts enlarged by 1 point.
- Updated user interface for easier viewing
- Ability to “Favorite” tweets and “Like” Facebook posts
- Allowing to rename the account from the configuration window
- Clearing the timeline from a “USERLIST” with the “CLEAR” button
- Various bug fixes (for Mac and Windows). Bug fixes include:
- webcam snapshot tool when opening
- ensuring userlists and searches are saved
- correcting various actions when Seesmic Desktop window is closed and reopened
- various validation messages (url validation for short url, credential validation to share images)
Seesmic Desktop is a new application that displays your Twitter and Facebook streams. It uses Adobe Air and runs on both PC and Mac.
Seesmic Desktop has many great features. Firstly, the ability to add multiple Twitter accounts (you can only add one Facebook account at this stage). Rather than having to swap between accounts to track your Twitter streams, it logs into all your accounts at startup and displays all the Tweets in one list (the Home window). A greatly requested feature is the ability to split off each account into it’s own window pane (or column). The Tweet and Facebook streams are then displayed in this new pane for the chosen account. This functionality alone really helps to separate Seesmic Desktop from all the other Twitter apps out there. Each account pane has the options at the bottom to show incoming Tweets, replies, direct messages, your own updates, and to use the Lookup feature of Twitter.
One other great feature is the ability to sort the people you are following into groups. By choosing the Userlist option, you can create a list and then start adding users. For example, you create a list called “Celebrities”. Inside this list you add Ashton Kutcher and Oprah. When you click on the Celebrities list, a new window pane is created with all the Tweets from all the users in that list displayed. This really helps you to segregate the stuff you find important from the not so important.
There is a link between Seesmic Desktop and Twitpic. By clicking on the Share Image button, you can drag and drop an image into the Share Image dialog and then Seesmic Desktop will post it to Twitpic automatically for you. Also mentioned is that video sharing will also be implemented in the coming versions.
You can, of course, post Tweets to Twitter and update your Facebook status as well. You can select from which account the message is to come from, enter your message and even shorten URLs by using either bit.ly, digg.com, is.gd, snurl.com, tr.im or twurl.nl.
The layout of Seesmic Desktop is extremely clean and intuitive. On the left hand side you have the standard Twitter navigation options (Home, Reply, Private, Sent). Below these are the Accounts, Userlists and Search options. When a search is performed, the keyword or phrase is stored under this option for future use.
As this is only a Preview release at this stage, there are still many features not yet implemented. Some of the features to come are:
- Block a user
- Spellcheck
- View Followers/Following
- Add services other than twitter (friendfeed, seesmic video, ideni.ca, laconi.ca)
- Read/Unread indicator
This video gives you a good overview of Seesmic Desktop.
Seesmic Desktop looks like it has alot of potential to become the king of the Twitter App heap. I’m looking forward to seeing the enhancements over the next few weeks.
For more information: Seesmic Desktop
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