It was barely a month ago that we re-reviewed TwitterBerry. We originally reviewed it in early 2008, but the company behind it, Orangatame, brought it up to date, adding many features that users demanded. Unfortunately, TwitterBerry is no more. Orangatame has changed the name to OpenBeak in hopes that it “allows the app to grow beyond both the Twitter platform and BlackBerry smartphones.” With the name change comes a few new features, including two that I had complained about in the TwitterBerry review. 
Previously, TwitterBerry made it difficult to post photos. Users had to go into the camera application, snap a picture, and select “Send to Twitterberry.” Even then, there were some issues with sending pictures. It appears that Orangatame has fixed this, creating a feature which allows users to post photos to Twitter sites like TwitPic. They’ve also added a search function, which was conspicuously absent from previous releases. These are the two major updates, and they’re more than welcome. Other features in OpenBeak include:
- Post updates to Twitter, including a character countdown from 140 characters
- One-click access to view friends timelines, replies, your favorites, your own timeline, and the public timeline
- Post pictures to Zannel, TwitPic, Twitgoo, or yfrog
- Take a picture with a one-click embedded camera (BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.6+)
- Reply to tweets from each timeline view
- Send and receive direct messages
- Mark tweets as favorites
- Notification icon that indicates the number of unread messages, like new emails or missed calls (BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.6+)
- Cache all avatar images to internal memory, thus saves network access and helps faster loading
- Search Twitter with a keyword or from a list of currently trending topics
- Active text recognition of @usernames and #hashtags
- New Setup wizard
- Two modes of list views: a “fixed height” view and a “variable height” view
As with TwitterBerry, OpenBeak works with any BlackBerry device running OS 4.2.1 or above. You’ll also need a data plan, of course. To download OpenBeak 1.1, visit m.openbeak.com from your BlackBerry Browser. As a closing aside, there is at least one more Twitter client that has removed the brand name from its own. I used to use the popular TwitterFox browser plugin, but that has since changed to Echofon. I can’t be sure, but it seems like these developers want to keep their own brand front and center, rather than using Twitter’s. It’s a lot easier to do this once you have a large following, as both TwitterFox and TwitterBerry did.
This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
TwitterBerry changes name to OpenBeak
This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
TwitterBerry changes name to OpenBeak