Nambu: A Better Twitter Client Than Tweetdeck?
If you are looking for a desktop client for Twitter these days, you will most likely be overwhelmed by the amount of choices, but according to TwitStat, the most popular desktop clients right now are TweetDeck and Twhirl, and TweetDeck is the clear choice of Twitter's most active users. This weekend, however, we came across Nambu, a new Mac OSX Twitter client that packs the best features of both TweetDeck and Twhirl into a native application, and which adds a number of very interesting additional features, including threaded conversations, three different views to choose from, and the ability to filter columns by keyword.
Features: Lean and Mean
The latest version of TweetDeck has become somewhat infamous for how much memory it often eats up after a few hours of continuous usage. Nambu, on the other hand, keeps a relatively low footprint. Just like TweetDeck, Nambu features the ability to create groups (which is really the only way to keep up if you follow a large number of users) and separate columns for specific searches.
Nambu also features a number of other features that set it apart from its competitors. You can, for example, translate any tweet into English with a simple keyboard shortcut, and you can easily add users to a group from a very straightforward right-click menu. Nambu can also auto-complete the names of users you follow when you write a new message. For real power-users, Nambu also supports more than one Twitter account, and for URL-shortening, it currently defaults to tr.im, which was developed by the Nambu team.
Unlike TweetDeck, however, Nambu doesn't feature integration with a lot of third-party applications like StockTwits, and it doesn't support Facebook yet. Looking forward, however, the team plans to enable support for FriendFeed, identi.ca, and Ping.fm in the near future.
Three Views
While Nambu most closely resembles TweetDeck, the application also features two other views as well. The first resembles a traditional, one-column Twitter client like Twhirl, while the second looks a lot like the interface for EventBox, which we reviewed last week, and which sports a sidebar with all your groups and persistent searches.
Twitter Threads
One of the most interesting features of Nambu is that it automatically organizes your conversations into threads. It will also do this for conversations that you don't participate in, but you have to be subscribed to both sides of the conversation.
Still in Beta
Of course, Nambu is still in its early beta phase, so you can expect things to break now and then. The development team, however, is issuing updates regularly and development is clearly moving ahead swiftly. There are obviously still some bugs in the application, and the latest update, for example, seems to take up more memory than the previous release.
Nambu also offers an iPhone application, and while it's a decent enough mobile Twitter client, we would recommend other options like Twitfone or Tweetie over Nambu on the iPhone platform.
On the Mac desktop, few applications can currently rival Nambu's feature set, so if you already like TweetDeck, and if you are on a Mac, then Nambu is definitely worth a try.
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Very interesting, I thought that DestroyTwitter was the obvious contender to TweetDeck.
I'll be giving Nambu a try now.
thanks
Phill
I tried Nambu after I was using TweetDeck, DestroyTwitter and Event Box. Nambu is definitely a great stand alone client with a much richer user experience then its Adobe Air counterparts. I love the ability to have more then one twitter account open at a time. For me Event Box remains the ultimate tool with its ability to integrate Google Reader among other services. I use twitter as an information hub that is fast replacing my rss feeds so the combination of both in one app is my killer app.
I hate the idea that there is no PC version...all the cool software out there nowadays is OS X only..very depressing.
Posted by: Ahmed
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April 6, 2009 1:41 PM
sorry Ahmed - I won't make it a habit to review Mac only apps - but this one was just too good to pass over
Posted by: Frederic
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April 6, 2009 1:43 PM
I agree :) I love it when Mac apps are reviewed but it just keeps reminding me that I'm not "cool enough" to buy a Mac...lol :)
Posted by: Ahmed
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April 6, 2009 1:46 PM
Nambu not only runs on a lower memory footprint; it uses much less processing power (on my MBP) than the 'Air' based apps.
Tr.im has also got some very strong reviews recently for url shortening, in terms of being short, and offering tracking.
I am loving both.
i have been using Nambu ever since i had twhirl totally crap out on me.I looooove nambu and the development is tremendous. i swear there seems to be a new version ever time i turn around. the first couple of versions sucked...but they have just been very active is running a tight development campaign. i use them on the iPhone as well.
yay! it's about time that nambu get a little love
If everyone would have just used Jaiku instead of Twitter, we wouldn't need apps to give us threaded conversations.
/endrant
IMHO a really killer feature for any of these clients would be to "mark user as read". This would really help in keeping things manageable for people who follow many others.
As far as clients go, though, it's notable that tweetstats lists the standard web interface as by far the primary way that people interact with Twitter. I've been using the Power Twitter greasemonkey script which really adds some unique functionality, most notably in-line expansion of pictures andvideo, and unshortening URLs. The combo runs *really* well in a standalone window in Chrome, too.
Needs OSX 10.5 to start.
Posted by: Paul W. Swansen
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April 6, 2009 2:09 PM
I love it so far :-)
Posted by: Richard A.
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April 6, 2009 2:10 PM
I have been running Nambu for a little while now, and really love the multiple accounts, live searches, threads and tr.im and pic.im features. Much more to it than Syrinx but lower resource use.
It is developing very quickly, and the developer is keen to listen. My favorite client at the moment for sure.
No love for 10.4? Oh well. Back to seeing half of conversations in TweetDeck.
Die Nervosität bei Vekselbergs Getreuen war in den letzten Tagen mit Händen zu greifen. Als ob sie geahnt hätten, dass in letzter Minute erneut ein Hindernis auftauchen würde, das die Übernahme der Kontrolle bei Sulzer gefährdet. Verunsichert hatte sie das hartnäckig kursierende Gerücht, Sulzer-Präsident Ulf Berg, den Vekselberg an der morgigen Generalversammlung abwählen lassen will, plane ein letztes Störmanöver.
Und zwar wolle Berg Vekselbergs Aktienpaket – der Oligarch hält 31 Prozent an Sulzer – das Stimmrecht aberkennen, und zwar mit der Begründung, Renova habe das im Mai auslaufende Stillhalteabkommen verletzt, weil sie aktiv einen neuen Sulzer-Präsidenten gesucht und in Jürgen Dormann dafür auch einen Kandidaten gefunden habe.
Die Schreckensvision ist inzwischen realistischer geworden, als Vekselberg lieb sein kann. Denn kurz nach Börsenschluss liess das Eidgenössische Finanzdepartement eine Bombe platzen: Es hat ein Verwaltungsstrafverfahren gegen Vekselberg, Ronny Pecik und Georg Stumpf eröffnet. Das Departement verdächtigt das Trio, beim Aufbau einer grossen Beteiligung an Sulzer vor zwei Jahren die Meldepflichten der Börse verletzt zu haben.
WOW... I'm a cool kid now since my MacBook arrived on Friday. I am definitely going to check this one out! Thanks for the review
How did you get the thread view to show up? Can't find it anywhere :( (Just downloaded v1.1.7)
OK - maybe i'm confused... to me a 'thread' means you see what the tweet is replying to. The only thing close I'm seeing is a reply to the tweet i'm looking at. Hmm... or is it perhaps an API rate limit and it's really trying to load things in the background? (like the various missing profile images?)
J1G
Just tried out Nambu. Not very happy, first off You need 10.5
Second all those pop out windows, scrolling is slow and still cant figure out how to attach a picture. Rolling back to TweetDeck
Definitely now my favourite desktop app for Twitter.
Posted by: Robert Mattar
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April 6, 2009 4:11 PM
So far, I am loving it. Been using it about 48-hours and my Tweet feed seems more manageable. I follow about 600 people and have created groups more effectively in Nambu PLUS I can take those groups with me to another computer (which I can't do with Tweetdeck). Other huge plus is the multiple account feature. What's missing? Easy posting to Facebook. Sound notification. Windows support (if that matters). If Nambu remains stable and develops where needed, then I'm switched.
Posted by: Kenley Neufeld
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April 6, 2009 4:20 PM
Forgot to mention that it also has thread count by groups.
Posted by: Kenley Neufeld
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April 6, 2009 4:24 PM
Hmm. It seems Windows users don't use Twitter, or at least have no need for great desktop clients. Who knew?
I know the guys from www.orsiso.com offers an app for mac/pc/linux that does decent tweeting(but other things too), I know they are working on better Twitter integration, at the moment it's already pretty cool, for those stuck with PC's it might bring some relief.
whoops URL is orsiso.com as mentioned in previous post.
If you use Internet Explorer you may want to try TweetIE, the twitter add-on for IE that helps you post quotes from the websites you visit to your twitter account http://tweetie.cloudberrylab.com/ FireFox plug-in is also available.
What about as - PC-is? :)
Two more fantastic advantages of Nambu to note:
1. hovering over a shortened link (e.g. tinyurl) floats a window with the expanded link - I find this an absolute must for any twitter client
2. growl integration (a nice luxury)
I'm never going back to TweetDeck.
I like Nambu because it's the only Twitter client that has a native Mac Look and Feel. However, I turned back to Tweedeck because since the last two updates it totally crapped out on me. When I view in one column mode I get to see everybody I don't follow. Only in the view with the sidebar I get to see my friends and not complete strangers.
It seems to me that the people who make the software should be able to not destroy what was working in the first place every time a new version comes out. I think I'll wait till version 1.0.
I look forward to trying Nambu! TweetDeck is killing my machine.
I prefere http://identi.ca
And today it will be upgraded.
And next days identi.ca 0.8 will come with file share, themes, irc, aol and many other features.
Twitter is just a poor site popular.
Nice review. Thank you.
Nice concept but usability can be improved much more.. Too many popups also, I was just testing it out on a mac testing machine but I am a windows user and I wont switch to mac anytime soon.. So I am just waiting someone to pick the idea and make it on windows ;) Eventually it will happen.
Who uses 10.4 anymore? It's 2009. Gah.
I use tweetdeck a lot and I think Nambu does a good job replicating but quite surpassing it greatly. It says beta, so if they add a few more features and polish, it would seem to be a great top class app.
I feel so out of the loop. I just found out about Nambu today, and I love it. It's nice to look at, it handles multiple accounts, and it doesn't take up a ton of mem. Goodbye Twhirl, TweetDeck and Seesmic. Hello beautiful.
I've been using Nambu for a week or so now and have actually found it much more intuitive than TweetDeck or Seesmic. It's a little unstable at times but I love the whole feel of the application. It's a bit like MacMail for Twitter.
FB and Friend feed do not currently work. For that reason i am tempted to use tweetdeck instead. When will FB and FF be enabled? or is there currently a version that have FF and FB enabled?
I am absolutely loving Nambu. I just ran across this post after spending 3 days trying to figure out what on earth happened to TweetDeck.It just died on me. I LOVE how it functions like most Mac applications. Superior search and display - plus none of that Twitter API junk I was paranoid about with TweetDeck. At least I think so:-)
Thanks for the heads up about Nambu. As a result of reading this review, I'm going to download it to my Mac and give it a whirl...
Posted a msg about the review on:
http://www.evancarmichael.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3674&p=22706#p22706
Cheers,
DH
We are trying to contact the Nambu guys regarding their Tr.im API -no answer from support@tr.im - Have you a better email?
Jodee Rich PeopleBrowsr Lead
I love nambu, but it's been failing badly the past couple of days (july 26), and won't stay loaded at all now w/out crashing. Any news on this? Nothing at nambu, and no way to contact them...