Push from any client to TwitBird 

TwitBird was the first twitter client to support push notification, we are proud of that.  There were reasons why we did the push service within the closed community.  We can feel the strong demand for push from any client to TwitBird, we have been thinking for this feature for a long time,  here is what's in our mind. 

Firstly the current twitter api is very limited for push notification.  For example say we have 35K users (that's what we have right now), given the fact everyone wants to get DM/Mentions in the delay no more than 2 minutes,  we have to build a super powerful server to send request to twitter.com to ask :  Please check this user @someone , does he/she have new DMs or Mentions?    That's why new twitter client can do the job because they don't have too many users, well for big names like tweetie or twitterrific ,  it is extremely difficult to build a server system to meet the need to push any DM/Mentions in a satisfying speed, it is simply too expensive to do that. 

Secondly, we have a very high piracy rate.  Yesterday we had 277 new users registered to our server for push notification service.  However our sales at the same day was 38.    Pretty big gap isn't it?   Only the second day of the new release I can easily find cracks of TwitBird Pro. 

So those are the major concerns for us. How do we do with that?  We are going to build the push from any client anyway, if users need it users will get it.  It is just how do we do it? 

Well , it seems to me in-app-purchase for push-from-anyone is a good solution.  Only people who really need it will pay for it.  and best of all, it is 100% anti-piracy.  Our system knows who paid for the service so it is very safe to say piracy will have no room at this situation. 

Now there is just one question left for us, how much would our users want to pay for push-from -anyone?    Here is some thoughts: 

• 3 months service:  $1.99
• half year service:  $2.99
• one year service:  $4.99

what do you think?  leave a comment  , or talk to us via twitter @twitbird 

What's new in TwitBird 1.1:

● Twitter API Proxy

● Settings

● Improve direct message interface

● Faster speed

● Trending topics

● View and edit my profile

● Find people

● Improved direct message composer 

● Tap to view pushed tweets

● Email tweets

● Delete tweets from server

● Picture preview inside message

● Shorten URL

● Upload photo to Twitpic, yFrog, MobyPciture 

● Set nearby distance 

● Unread/All message filter 

● Improved group member management 

● Block/Unblock 

● Improved graphics

● New app logo

● Many bug fixes 

● Shake to lock screen rotation

Some of the screen shots for V1.1:

The user home screen has a new look.

One of the big things in this version is the new message page .  It has a few cool features here:
- Photo Preview
- Translate any message to English
- Email tweets
- favorite it
- Reply it publicly or privately

The message list also has a new look.

New feature in the place :  Unread Filter

You can use the Unread filter to just read the unread messages.

When there is a new push notification, you will get a alert like this. 
Just one tap on "View", you will read the content, much easier to use,
isn't it ?  This works both the app is running or not.

We also improved the message composer. Now you can choose to create a
new public message , or a direct message.  You can change which account
do you want to use. You can also change the direct message receiver at
anytime.

We also add the URL shortening feature here .

You can shake your iPhone/iPod touch anywhere in the app, you will get
a button like this.  Tap on it , it will lock your current screen
rotation.  It is a particularly useful feature if you use iPhone on bed
a lot.

As some of our users requested in V1.0, here in V1.1 we have a full user profile. You can Block/Unblock any users. And in this screen you can also add/remove this person to/from a group .

When you want to read a link, there is two modes : archive it and read later, or read it now. We found read later is particularly useful because it is a time saver.  It works for offline reading too.

In the new version, we improved the image viewer , it is faster, and more stable .