Twitter API changed (again), most third-party clients are failing to authenticate.

Twitter announced on its official blog that starting from August 31st, its API is going to be changed. All third-party clients/applications are now logging on via OAuth, a new method of authentication that doesn't require them to store your username and your password anymore (this has the purpose of increasing users' security). This new change requires some changes in all third-party clients/applications, changes that the guys from Twitter say that they have been done.

They say that most clients, such as Echofon, TweetDeck, Twitterific, Seesmic, and Twitter for Android, iOS and BlackBerry are already authenticating through OAuth, which is not true. TweetDeck, Seesmic and Twitter (all on Android), are all refusing to sign in. I've last checked a few minutes ago, and there is no update into the Market (for any of the specified apps) to fix this problem. Bad, very bad, Twitter!

If it's necessary, I can make a video for Twitter (or for any other company providing third-party clients for Twitter), proving that the mentioned clients cannot connect at all.

TweetDeck announces new Beta version for Android, includes few new features.

TweetDeck announced today their new Beta version for Android, v0.9.5. This new version brings some updates and features, such as:

• Full compatibility with all Android 1.6 devices and above.
• Added option to remove Facebook, Buzz and ForeSquare accounts, but also to delete tweets sent by you.
• Added multi-Twitter account compose.
• New More button for Twitter profiles and updates, allowing users to: Reply All, Sharing, Translation, Copy update text, Copy update URL.
• Tapping on top of a column automatically updates that column. 

I really used to be a fan of TweetDeck when I was a user of iOS, but now my favorite Twitter client is HootSuite (both on my Android device and on my computers). TweetDeck seems so unfinished on Android (it's normal, however, as it is still a Beta version), and I think that just the possibility of using other social networks from the same client (such as Facebook or Buzz), isn't a good enough reason just to choose TweetDeck.

The complete changelog of this new Beta version of TweetDeck is available here.

TweetDeck v0.9.5 is available for download from here.

Seesmic. Probably the best Twitter client for Android based devices.

When I was planning to buy my Nexus One, I was quite decided what Twitter client I was going to use, because a friend of mine said that Seesmic is the best option for Android. And so it was. After I got my Nexus One and I found a free WiFi AP, the first thing I did was to download Seesmic. And I wasn't disappointed at all.

Seesmic is probably the best Twitter client for devices which are running this OS. It offers a very clear (high resolution) interface, combining light colors (where the tweets are received) with black colors (where are the options), and a red line in the upper part, which makes the application look better than any other Twitter client I have ever seen (on any other mobile OS).

The application doesn't just look excellent, it also moves excellent. Anyway, it has no reason not to do it since the device has 1GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. There are plenty of options offered by the application, so it can be easily compared to a desktop client (TweetDeck for example).

The scrolling is not as smooth as it is on the iPhone, but the main advantage here is that if you move the finger across the screen fast, it scrolls down until the bottom of the list automatically. Plus, while you scroll down, the list of older tweets is automatically fetched.

The application is always running in the background, and I discovered this because I was woken up several times during the night every time I got a reply or a DM. Actually, the application is not making any kind of pushing because new tweets aren't loaded until you open the application, but it just checks periodically for any replies or DMs.

It has also a pretty annoying bug (or it's just a communication error with Twitter), which makes all the tweets which were sent up to 1 hour ago to appear as sent 1 hour ago. I mean, if somebody sent a tweet 15 minutes ago, it appears as sent 1 hour ago. I didn't observe any other bug into the application.

To get it, simply search "Seesmic" into the Market.

Seesmic web, or another type of twitter.com .

Seesmic has its own twitter.com like site. It lets you access your twitter account, but with lots of options, like on a dedicated client (such as Tweetdeck). Except that it is just a website. The idea is that it was created especially for incompatible platforms with Seesmic applications (Linux), but it is also great for general use, and it's ideal for slower computers.

The website is really customizable, and its a pleasure to use Twitter via this way (it's much better than on twitter.com). And what I like the most is that you can choose between two skins, a light one (white) and a dark one (black). The website is also available in more languages: English, Chinese (I think), Deutsch, Romanian (this is my language, but I really wasn't expecting this), Portuguese, Spanish and again something like Chinese ( I don't know those languages at all).

Link: http://seesmic.com/app/