This is a list of my favourite free social networking applications and recommendations for those who have a Mac and a Blackberry, and primarily use Facebook and Twitter (and possibly Tumblr) for social networking.
For Blackberry:
1. Facebook for Blackberry
For now you can update status, see your friends’ latest status updates and comment on them right from the app, view latest highlights, receive real time notifications, upload photos directly from your Blackberry, sync your Facebook friends list, their profile pictures and contact info with your Blackberry address book, add friends, post on friends’ walls, send messages to friends, view friends’ profiles and their photo albums right in the app…!!! New features expected soon – can’t wait!
2. UberTwitter
Having tried Twitter Berry and reviewed several other similar apps, I settled for UberTwitter which totally rocks! Most other Twitter Beta apps for Blackberry take up a lot of space and slow your mobile down. They also take forever to load updates. UberTwitter does none of that. It is clean, easily installed, does not hang, does not slow down your system, has lots of preference settings that make it more user friendly, and you get notified every time you get a reply, direct message or are retweeted. You can also use multiple accounts using the same application.
3. Viigo
Viigo is part of the Blackberry World application, but can also be installed separately. I must say that Viigo is rather slow and can take ages to load stuff. However, what I like about it is that you can receive all kinds of News & RSS feeds straight to your Blackberry and tweet them straight out of the Viigo app. Some of the standard services you can receive are News & RSS, Weather, Audio & Podcasts, Social Networks, Flights & Travel. Depending on your needs you can add services like WES 2009, CFL, Sports, Business & Finance, Local Interest, Shopping, Deals, Entertainment, Politics… and a whole lot of individual channels within each of these. For Social Networking, the sites that are supported are Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Laconi.ca.
For Mac:
1. Seesmic Desktop
This is my personal reccommedation for anyone who needs a desktop app that allows simultaneous posts to both Facebook and Twitter. Any review will suggest TweeDeck and Seesmic to you. Both of these use Adobe Air. I’ve tried TweetDeck and still have it installed, but prefer Seesmic for its simplicity. Besides, TweetDeck can only receive a certain number of updates per hour, while Seesmic doesn’t seem to have any such issues. I also like the single column capability of Seesmic, which receives feed from both Facebook and Twitter. The menu can also be adjusted to a slimmer width using just icons, and that works perfectly for me. Connectivity to both Facebook and Twitter is good, and the adding of accounts simple. It has all the regular features of adding URL and short URL, adding image and shrinking text. The only features Seesmic does not have compared to TweetDeck are probably TweetDeck Recommends, TwitScoop, 12Seconds and StockTwits – none of which I personally require. Seesmic Desktop’s brighter gray colour is also somewhat more appealing to me than TweetDeck’s harsh black.
2. Facebook Notifications
This new desktop application was rolled out only last week, and is still in its experimental stages, but is still a cool one. The application sits in your Mac toolbar and notifies you of updates using Growl. As of now, you can update your status directly from the application, and all other features open the respective window in your browser for you to proceed. These features include news feed, your profile, compose message, notifications and inbox. Used in tandem with Seesmic, I think it’s the perfect way to keep track of updates on Facebook without actually being online in Facebook.
3. Posty
If you use both Twitter (or Jaiku or FriendFeed) and Tumblr, Posty is a desktop app that allows you to post to both. I haven’t used it much, having discontinued my use of Tumblr, but from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty cool.
4. Tumblenote Dashboard Widget
This dashboard widget works way better than Posty or any other desktop app for Tumblr and does not take up space. With it, you can post Text, Quote, Link, Chat, Video and Photo directly to your Tumblelog without having to open a browser window.
Twitterrific and Tweetie are probably the other two desktop applications for Twitter alone that I would recommend. I am aware that there are many, many more applications for different kinds of phones and computers. The best advice I can offer is to read reviews online, try what seems most suitable to you and then choose for yourself. One man’s food could very well be another man’s poison, so these are just my favourites. All the best finding what works for you. I just hope my suggestions have been somewhat helpful in that process.
