I have been out of hardcore geek internet scene for a while now, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that technology moved along quickly without me. Besides, in the almost 10 months that I’ve been away from Twitter, I’ve still remained the most tech-savy nerd amongst my family & co-workers.

However what I did not realize while I was away is this:
TweetDeck got Effing Brilliant.

This review is not strictly about TweetDeck for iPhone, although to be sure it is one of, if not the, best free Twitter Apps out there (Lets just see Tweetie, er, I mean Twitter for iPhone try and beat it). No, this review is also very much about the Desktop program too, because one wouldn’t be anything without the other.

I think a fitting return to the realm of blogging about iPhone Apps would be to do so about an App that needs no help from me. TweetDeck is one of the best, and most popular Apps out there. So why choose it as my first topic? Simply because it was the first one to really, really impress me. While setting up the relaunch of iPhoneAppGirl and literally dusting off my Twitter feed, I realized that I would needed a reliable Twitter iPhone App, and quickly went to download my old standbys, Tweetie and TwitterFon (which honestly, I didn’t know had changed its name to EchoFon – huh). I also stumbled upon HootSuite, after seeing quite a few ow.ly urls. I used these for about 24hrs, and then I remembered about TweetDeck.

Here is a dramatization (in 140 characters or less) of my reaction to each:

Tweetie: Oh yah it costs money… sigh, nevermind.
TwitterFon EchoFon: Ol’ Reliable, this will work out just fine.
HootSuite: Hey, this is pretty slick. Would you have a look at that – an web-based portal too!*
TweetDeck: Holy Mother of! This is awesome. And the Desktop program can sync with my Facebook and/or Facebook Pages, how does this not cost cash money?

*To be fair, HootSuite is like TweetDeck: Browser Version, sort of. I mean its an ok replacement if you’re stranded at your Aunts house for Thanksgiving, and you don’t have access to your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad/Laptop, and want to stay fully updated on all aspects of your twitter account.

The thing that perhaps impressed me the most, besides not costing me any money, was the integration with other Social Media sites, other than Twitter. It’s nice having just one Page/App open to keep track of all the people I ‘Follow’ and ‘Friend’. I created a Facebook Page for iPhoneAppGirl and wanted to import my tweets to it, while also realizing that my actual Facebook Friends were going to get pretty sick & tired of hearing about iPhone this and Apple that 10+ times a day – Enter TweetDeck. Because of it’s cross-site integration I actually don’t even need to import my actual tweets, I just happen to tweet the same thing that I’m sending to a) my Facebook Status or b) my Facebook Page Status. Or Neither. Brilliant!

Nobody is perfect, and that is certainly true of TweetDeck too. The one feature I’m most excited about on the Desktop program, the aforementioned Facebook Page Status Updates is not actually available on the iPhone App, however is listed as one of their most requested features, so lets hope that’s coming in the next version.

In the meantime though, seriously TweetDeck, you keep being you. Thanks, from the bottom of my cold nerdy heart, for getting me excited about iPhone Apps again. Which is great, because I run this website…