Twhirl Catches a Much-Needed Performance Update

Twhirl, one of the more popular Twitter clients available to both Windows and Mac OS X users, just received a crucial tune-up. It would almost seem that the Twhirl team released this latest update to lend a hand to the struggling Twitter group; many Twitter users have been frustrated by recent cut-backs at Twitter to keep the service up and running, which came in the form of reduced API limit restrictions.

Though Twhirl users have been able to modify API settings for some time, but when the Twitter team has scaled back services, many Twhirlers have been exceeding API limits and are left with those annoying "limit exceeded" messages. The newly-updated Twhirl automatically detects reductions in API restrictions so users don't have to suffer at the hands of a twitchy Twitter team.

Twhirl has also received significant bug fixes, UI upgrades, and a few large additions like Summize searching, room support for Friendfeed , system status notifcations, and session message clearing. Immediately upon firing up my updated Twhirl app, I could tell the UI is much more responsive and user-friendly. Filing through the day's tweets are also easier, as the ancient tweets have been cleared from the message box; that undoubtedly helps a lot in increasing application performance.

I can't say as I'm a fan of the FriendFeed functionality of Twhirl, mainly because having both FriendFeed and Twitter open simultaneously requires two windows. Word has it that the next Twhirl update will include support for Seesmic and will bring all all social support to one Twhirl window. For now, though, the Twhirl update includes updates to see FriendFeed "Room" updates as well as user avatars.

Maybe most significant about the update is that Twhirl will now display system updates from Twitter whenever they are released. A logical step along with automatic throttling is alerting users to drops in API at Twitter or complete outages. The system updates and the UI and performance updates are what's really worth getting excited about.

If you haven't tried out Twhirl, its a nice way of managing your tweeting habit. I'm looking forward to seeing a comprehensive GUI overhauling at some point, along with the improved integration of multiple social platforms like Seesmic and Friendfeed, but the latest release is a step in the right direction.