Aral Balkan

Update 12 June, 2011: Version 1.3 released. Fixes the missing @ sign bug on original and /via slashtag quote tweet styles. Download now.

It's a little past 5AM and I've been working on this for quite a few hours so apologies in advance if this post sounds slightly groggy. Allow me to introduce you to, Tweaky for Mac…

Tweaky lets you use the Super Secret preferences in Twitter for Mac which are otherwise only available to people who purchased the earlier version (when it was called Tweetie for Mac) through the MacHeist nanoBundle.

These Super Secret preferences actually include a number of important usability enhancements and should really have been made available in the core app. Tweaky fixes that oversight.

Download

Download Tweaky (version 1.3, for OS X 10.6+, 848KB, .dmg).

History

• Version 1.3: Fixes the missing @ sign bug on original and /via slashtag quote tweet styles. Tested with Twitter for Mac version 2.1.1.
• Version 1.2: Supports the show full names and quote tweet style preferences in Twitter for Mac version 2.0.2.
• Version 1.1.5: Updated to support the changed link color preference in Twitter for Mac version 2.0.2
• Version 1.1: no functionality changes, just fixed a few typos in the Help to make my 5AM self seem slightly more articulate.

The settings

• User timeline avatar derepeater: Only shows a user's avatar once if they have a string of tweets on your timeline. Also means that you only see a user's avatar only once when viewing just their tweets.
• Scroll over window will bring to front: If the Twitter window is partially obscured under other windows and you scroll the Twitter feed, the Twitter window will be brought to the front.
• Type anywhere: when the Twitter app has focus, typing will begin a new tweet.
• Hide app in background: When the app loses focus, it's hidden in the background (instead of potentially being partially obscured by other apps).
• Compose windows float over all windows: the little windows your write your tweets on appear in front of all other windows at all times.
• ESC closes compose windows: does what it says on the tin. :)
• Link color: sets the color that links in tweets are displayed in. Personally, I like the default color but feel free to Bubblegum Pink if that floats your boat. :)

How it works

It's really not rocket science. The "Super Secret" preferences are just app preferences. You can easily set them using the defaults app in Terminal if you're not Terminal-phobic (e.g., defaults write com.twitter.twitter-mac ESCClosesComposeWindow 1). However, since many people are, and since these preferences really do make the app more usable, I thought it would benefit a lot of non-geeky folks to have an easy-to-use graphical interface.

That, and after two years of working on iOS apps, I wanted to make a Mac app :)

(And I'm pretty sure Loren and the other Twitter folk will make the features available to everyone soon enough anyway.)

More goodies

If you liked Tweaky, check out some of the other stuff I'm working on:

I've got a cute little iPhone app called Feathers for decorating your tweets with proper punctuation, symbols, emoticons, and different text styles.

If you want to learn how to make iPhone and iPad apps, check out the workshops I'm teaching in the UK with Geek Ninja Factory.

Get in touch!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment here or to follow me on Twitter.

Hope you enjoy playing with Tweaky!

Credit

The cute little bird is from the Fluzzy Twitter Icon Set and the arrow I used in the background image of the disk image is by Sander Baumann.

Comments

• Hi Aral, If you feel like updating this, you may want to add the option to enter their Tweetie license and unlock the secret preferences pane. :) Details on the MacHeist forum: http://bit.ly/i5vfTm

  by wajiii on 2011-01-13 11:24:06

• Hi, It seems as if this program makes the settings permanent. What I mean is if I set a setting using tweaky, I am unable to reverse the change via terminal (i.e. defaults write com.twitter.twitter-mac HideInBackground -bool FALSE) or by using the preferences in the app. I've tried to delete the preference file and cache, and the settings still remain. The only way I'm able to change them is by using tweaky... Is there some kind of fix you can release that would "defaults" all settings to default? (pun intended)

  by Josh Chow on 2011-01-18 00:26:17

• I love your enthusiasm. It keeps me from dragging my mug around in the dirt.

  by jen on 2011-01-14 19:22:58

• [...] little over a month ago, I wanted to see what Apple would do if I submitted Tweaky to the Mac App Store. Not surprisingly, Apple rejected [...]

  by Aral Balkan · Tweaky: not coming to a Mac App Store near you anytime soon on 2011-02-07 22:12:26

• Thanks a lot! Have you already considered Flattr as a convenient way to let your visitors show their appreciation?

  by Martin on 2011-01-09 16:26:38

• Uhm, the avatar de-repeater doesn't work

  by Marius Ciobotaru on 2011-01-11 05:45:52

• great! thanks!

  by don on 2011-01-13 04:44:15

• Awesome little app! For some reason, I can't get the link colors to work, though. When I change the color, my Twitter window refreshes, but with the default link color.

  by Andrew Philpott on 2011-01-20 16:51:31

• Nice work Aral - love it. Just wanted to let you know that the "type anywhere" setting doesn't seem to work for me. Focus is on Twitter, but typing doesn't bring up anything (except "j" - which is scrolling down the timeline and "f" - favoring a tweet).

  by Wolf Becvar on 2011-02-07 23:49:03

• Awesome, thank you!

  by Michael on 2011-03-16 10:07:25

• Hi! The previous version (tweetie) used to have a really useful feature that allowed to filter words in the timelime. http://atebits.posterous.com/test-filtering-in-tweetie-for-mac Does the new version have something similar?

  by Chuck on 2011-03-28 18:05:16

• Nice! Are you going to update it with this new update that came out today? Thanks! :)

  by Javiero on 2011-05-12 13:05:28

• What about hashtags? I'd like to change the colour because for some reason they are grey which is hard to read.

  by Cyn on 2012-03-12 02:21:40