Tweetdeck v0.25b Update – Facebook Functionality!

Nicely timed to coincide with an announcement from Seesmic’s founder Loic Le Meur that they’ll be launching a desktop Twitter app, Tweetdeck have updated their offering. The new v0.25b version of Tweetdeck was made available at 5pm GMT on Thursday with a whole host of new features which look to, at least until Seesmic rolls out, confirm the platform as the premier Twitter desktop app.

So What’s New?

The main issue to be resolved is that of Tweetdeck’s legendary memory leakage. It was often the case that if Tweetdeck was left running for a few hours, it would start to slow your PC as it gobbled up your RAM and other inner workings. With this now fixed, Tweetdeck is running using approximately only 25% of the memory it was before.

Already in a previous trial version and now fully integrated, you can update your Facebook status from Tweetdeck and have a dedicated real time column that updates with your friends’ statuses, as well as starting a conversation with them if they’re online. Neat.

12Seconds.tv is now also included – this means you can record a 12 second clip and post it directly to Twitter, bypassing YouTube and their new addition of Google Adsense in the process.

Other shiny features include username auto fill in the update box (you can turn this off but personally I find it wonderful), and there is now an option to automatically include hashtags in message replies (WIN).

The list of URL shorteners has been culled to a top five, plus the brand new Digg service: Bit.ly, Is.gd, Tinyurl, Tr.im and Twurl + Digg.

There are now URL previews, so you know EXACTLY what you’re clicking on – this is particularly handy now that the likes of Is.gd and Bit.ly are being used liberally within the Twittersphere and could be hiding a phishing scam within.

Along a similar vein, there are now Twitpic previews so you can see if you REALLY should click on that link purporting to a wonderfully lovely picture of a cake, which actually turns out to be something nasty, like a picture of a mushroom.

New Tweetdeck In Summary

Overall, we’re impressed, we liked Tweetdeck before, and we like it even more now. These updates clean up the running of the app and, although not groundbreaking, will make using it that little bit easier. Now, we just have to wait to see what Seesmic can come up with in competition. The battle to become the best Twitter desktop app just got turned up a notch.

Zath: This was a guest post from geetarchurchy, if you liked what he had to say, be sure to check out more of his great writing over at his blog; The Seldom Seen Kid.

Related Pages:

1. Twitter Clients & Applications
2. Your Guide to The New Facebook Redesign
3. Follow Zath on Twitter!
4. Twitter In Real Life?
5. 7 Mac Desktop Twitter Apps

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