Before I begin, I just wanted to say that I have been blogging much less lately, which I understand from many people is a clear symptom of heavy Twitter use. I am not sure why this is, but for some reason, the more I tweet, the less I blog. It is one of the few negative outcomes of the Twitter revolution.

Now that I shared that little anecdote, let’s get down to business. I receive many emails from iPhone developers to review their apps, but very rarely do I comply. The reason for this is because most of the apps I encounter are “just another one like…”. I try not to blog about things for which I have no opinion, so if I hate something, I will blog about it and if I love something, I will blog about it.

I love Twitterfon Pro! I have been reviewing it for a week now and it is hands down the best iPhone Twitter app on which I have ever laid my hands. Now, let me just say that the free Twitterfon WAS my favorite Twitter app and this is the same exact app with some tweaks, so how can you go wrong? Before I get into details, let me tell you why I love Twitterfon all together.

Twitterfon offers a very clean and simple interface that enables you to tweet from your iPhone/iPod Touch in an environment equal if not superior to the PC experience. It includes all the bells and whistles you would need to tweet effectively, but that is not what I loved about it. What makes Twitterfon superior to its competition are the different categories on the bottom of the screen and how they are used. You have your full friends’ timeline, your replies, your DMs, and then a search tool. Now what is great about these categories, as opposed to let’s say Tweetie, which has the same interface on the surface, is that when you get a new reply or DM, you are notified with the standard iPhone bubble right on top of the category.

Pretty simple, right? You would think so. That is why I was so surprised that Tweetie, a paid app, did not offer this functionality. There are countless other features included in the free version like the ability to search your friends, open a page in Safari, view Twitter trends, and so much more. One thing I have yet to figure out is how to view a YouTube video and then go back to the Twitterfon interface. If you know how to do this, please let me know in the comments.

Now let’s talk about the Pro version. The enhancements include multiple accounts, which is extremely important for people like myself that have more than one Twitter account. You can have a different theme for each account and switch seamlessly between them.

Another awesome new feature is the landscape keyboard. One of those features that should have been implemented in the iPhone but were not. Twitterfon added it! You cannot compare the speed at which I tweet on a portrait keyboard to a landscape, it is in a different league. Other features include themes, shake to refresh, which is a pretty cool addition, Instapaper integration, bit.ly support, and of course the app is ad free.

However, there are two major features that are sadly missing from Twitterfon Pro, two features that would make me think twice about shelling out the money to buy it. The first one is groups. I need my groups. That is why I use Tweetdeck on both my Mac and PC. It makes Twitter so much more enjoyable and manageable. How is anyone expected to really follow 1,000 people? You can’t so you make a group of people you REALLY follow and watch that column primarily. If Twitterfon added this functionality, it would become the ultimate Twitter app, and I do not mean on the iPhone only, it could actually compete with Tweetdeck.

Another missing feature is language support. Some people tweet in other languages and although I am not a big supporter of this, it should be possible to follow those people. No reason language support should not be incorporated in such a feature-rich app.

In conclusion, Twitterfon is my favorite Twitter app, it offers a better user experience than any of its many competitors. However, the only real feature included in the Pro version that I cannot do without is the multiple accounts. With the missing features of groups and language support, I am not sure I would spend the $4.99, which might seem like a little, but compared to other apps is a relatively high cost. This is especially true for for an app that you can get for free minus a few minor features. So if you really need multiple accounts, get the Pro version, if not, use the free version, but whatever you do, make sure to use Twitterfon as your iPhone Twitter app. There is nothing out there like it.
-Hillel