qStatus

For those regular readers out there, it will come as no surprise that we here at RazorianFly are huge fans of Twitter. Therefore, we always like to jump and shout when a new App comes around that helps improve the way we tweet, be it fully fledged clients or something a little simpler.

Recently, I haven’t been able to help but notice the ever increasing number of “update only” Apps that are emerging onto the AppStore, Chirpie, is one such App which we reviewed here. However, I’d like to take a moment to look at one such App that may be being overlooked in the present climate, and given it’s recent update, that would be a big mistake. I am of course, referring to qStatus.

For those of you not familiar with the name, perhaps the name qTweeter is more familiar. If this still means nothing, then let me enlighten you. qTweeter is the ever popular jailbreak only Twitter App that allows you to update you status on the go by simply sliding down from the iPhone’s status bar. Obviously this “official” version does not contain that uniqueness, but don’t write it off just yet.

Apart from the fact that you open qStatus like any other app it is identical to qTweeter, in fact, it has just been updated to reflect the updated version of qTweeter that emerged around a month or so ago. So, despite the fact that on paper, these two clients are developed by different companies, I think it’s safe to say that either they’re the same people using two names to bypass potential issues getting qStatus into the AppStore, or somebody is being ripped off big time (personally, I go with the former idea).

I have to confess that, whilst I like Chirpie as an app (the scroll bar of most recent tweeters being my favourite part) I adore qStatus. The design of the App in my mind is beautiful. Even before the update I thought it was one of the nicer looking Apps on the Appstore, and the new GUI implemented in the update confirmed that for me.

Now, it’s all very well that the App manages to look the part, but thankfully, it also acts it. With the old version of qStatus you could link one Twitter profile and one Facebook account and update either one, or both at the same time. The update also brings multiple account handling, you can set which accounts your current update will be posted to by taping your avatar and simply selecting the required accounts. This is perfect for me, I only have one Twitter and one Facebook account, but it’s rare that I would post the same update to both, but it’s so easy to switch between them, or select them both for when the mood takes me.

In addition to the above, the App also supports GeoTagging, image uploading and you can share your current “now playing” song at the touch of the button. Probably the only downside here is that there is no support for Img.ly, only TwitPic, yFrog or Postereous. It also supports media attachments posting video to TwitVid, and custom backgrounds (guess where I got mine from). Another nice visual feature is the image upload, once you’ve picked the image you want, it temporarily replaces your background so you can always be sure you’re uploading the right one.

So, apart from the lack of support for Img.ly (oh, and lack of RFly.Me support) this still remains my favourite “update only” Twitter App. Whilst it may not do anything more than the others out there, it certainly doesn’t do less, and to my eyes, has to be the nicest looking of all these types of App. Incidentally, if you are jailbroken, you can take this review and swap the names qStatus and qTweeter around and it’ll still tell you everything you need to know.

For the time being though, qStatus is definitely here to stay on my homescreen.