Monday saw the public release of Atebits.com Tweetie for Mac, the big brother to the already successful  Tweetie iPhone App which for many is considered the best Twitter client on the market.

As a desktop client it has some stiff competition to the already very successful TweetDeck but we’ve been playing around with Tweetie the past few days and let’s just say we are very impressed with the new app and it looks like it’ll be our new favorite here. The interface is sleek and oozes transitions and design ques all over the shop. It’s perfect for the Mac and Atebits seem to have hit the nail on the head as it really does look as if Apple would have created it themselves. But, and yes there is a but, it’s not perfect, yet.

So What’s It Lacking?

Well to start with if your a big fan of TweetDeck’s custom grouping feature then Tweetie might not be “the one” for you. Tweetie goes the extra mile with functionality over most Twitter clients but it’s not going to be the dashboard that TweetDeck can be. It is possible to break search queries into their own windows, which seems better than a huge window taking up the whole screen but most users may not like the idea of multiple windows open. However being such a new app there is no doubt there will be continual updates and they do encourage feedback so that they can improve the product. Hopefully it’s something that will come sooner than later.

Another feature that may have been forgotten is the option for sound notifications. Twhirl seems to do this well with the option to use different sounds for certain functions. Great for monitoring new Tweets, DM’s and Replys. Tweetie just uses a blue highlight in the tool bar to alert you. I guess though it’s not a constant distraction, especially if you find Twitter is.

But We Can Ignore All That… Cos’ It’s Pretty

At first glance, Tweetie looks so simple. Single column displaying your incoming Tweets, four icons on the left and that’s pretty much it. Each icon is clear as to what it does: speach bubble for tweets; ‘@’ symbol for replies; an envelope for DM’s and a magnifying glass for search. Double clicking on a user name takes you to their most recent tweets, clicking on a hashtag runs a search for it, and so on.

But this is what we really like about it:

1. The app has a very nice interface design, that really does have that whole Apple feel about it.

2. Click to open an image from say TwitPic, and the app displays the picture in a popup rather than opening a full web browser. To post an image, you simply need to drag and drop it from the desktop into the Tweetie window.

3. The app handles multiple accounts very well which most ‘power’ apps fail to do. To switch from one to another simply click the account avatar in the sidebar.

4. Visually it’s great to use. Navigating between sections activates a smooth transition, you can ‘endlessly scroll’ through tweets as the app continuously downloads new ones, and the interface is very clean.

5.  The search feature works great. Type a search term and it pulls in a related feed of tweets. You can then choose to open a new window specifically for that term.  You’ll then have two windows to monitor, one for all your tweets and the other for that term. Keep them both open all day and you’ll get to see the tweets that matter to you.

6. Simple but a nice to have are Replies and DMs displaying using a second colour.

Tweetie for Mac: First Look from Mike McCarron on Vimeo.

So to summarise Tweetie does have its flaws but if your not a big fan of TweetDecks huge expanse of Twitterness then this is one for you. It’s elegant and the features are only going to get better.

Tweetie is available for free with advertising, or for $14.95 for an ad-free version (it will jump up to $20 in two weeks).