I tested Beak some weeks ago and to me, it seemed just another simple Twitter client for Mac. I didn’t like the interface, it didn’t have interesting features..It was an average app. Now, I remember someone told me things were very likely to change, but I didn’t believe him. The good news is Beak is going under a complete rewrite, and it seems absolutely awesome.
Mike Rundle, the designer and developer of Beak, has announced yesterday with this blog post that Beak for Mac will be completely rewritten and that there will be an iPhone version too. Here’s a screenshot of a working build of Beak for Mac and iPhone.
Well, it’s gorgeous guys. But the most interesting thing is that both versions will share the same UI principle, a top toolbar instead of the “normal” bottom toolbar. Isn’t this “cross-platform” consistency?
By the way, here’s an excerpt of Mike Rundle’s post:
“First and foremost, I’m building Beak for me. I’m a designer and developer who has worked on the web for a very long time and I’m desperate to build something more tangible and real. Beak fills this need. Beak also lets me be creative and have fun without worrying if it will pay the bills since I have a fantastic full-time job that does that for me. I’m not building Beak to supplant my full-time income, I’m building it because it’s interesting and lets me learn new things.
Second, Beak is not competing for your Twitter application-purchasing funds. I want you to go out, right now, and buy Tweetie, Twitterrific, Birdfeed, Reportage, Birdbrain and every other beautifully-designed Twitter-related application for Mac & iPhone. Go support quality developers, it’s extremely important. When Beak 1.0 ships the new website will have links to my favorite Twitter apps at the bottom. Why? Because they deserve to be purchased and supported.
Third, Beak is a side project and will not have every feature you love. I have some strong opinions about which Twitter API features should be included in Beak and not all of them will be there, because, again, I’m building Beak for me. Lists & Retweets are in Beak 1.0 but they’ve got a twist. Things I don’t like about Twitter or that I think are pointless probably won’t be included, but that’s just because I’m going to work on what I want to work on, and lame features just aren’t fun to implement. I’d rather sweat the details on the things I choose to include instead of half-assed features that have been suggested that I hate.”
