Christmas came early this year—yesterday was Tweetbot 4 for Twitter Launch Day. Despite all the hate surrounding the fact that it’s a paid upgrade, it was a pleasure just watching all the excitement of the new users—some loved it, others had a few technical issues, but overall all was well with the world from where I was sitting. More importantly however, Tapbots invited me to their beta program, which gave me the chance to use Tweetbot for the past month or so. This in turn allowed me to prepare my review ahead of time. My single most beloved app and the chance to publish my review on launch? A dream come true.

I’m a Fan

There’s no denying the fact that I’m a Tweetbot fan. It is the single app which I use every single day and cannot imagine going back to another client. Just using it gives me pleasure—this is a rare feeling for me, especially considering how (and for what reason) the world’s various consumer products and software are made today. Another rare exception are Apple products, but I might actually love Tweetbot more than any iPhone, iPad, Mac, or software from the Cupertino company.

Tweetbot 4

I won’t go into detail over Tweetbot 4 itself. If you haven’t yet read my review (it’s in Polish), then do so now, and if you don’t speak my language, then make sure to take a look over on MacStories—Federico posted over 6K words on the subject. I will however quickly summarise what’s new:

• tweaked design with lots of hidden gems courtesy of Mark Jardine
• universal app—runs on iPods, iPhones and iPads
• double column view on iPhone 6+, 6S+, and iPad
• Statistics and Activity views, updated in real time
• back swipe gesture from left side of screen on iPad, from detailed tweet view to timeline
• Safari View Controller instead of custom web browser
• synced notifications between iOS and Mac
• all the iOS 9 goodies: Split View, Slide Over, Quick Replies from notifications

3D Touch is coming soon.

The Price

What I really wanted to get off my mind is the problem people seem to be having with paying for the app, or any other app for that matter. Tweetbot costs €4.99 / $4.99 (promotional price, will go up to €9.99 / $9.99), which is the equivalent of:

• a coffee
• a magnesium fire starter
• 9 packs of chewing gum
• 2 hand-held scalp massagers
• 3/4 of the Official Bullshit Button
• a small piece of cake in a cheap Paris bistro
• 1/2 bowl of onion soup
• 300 grams of butter
• 5 bottles of water

Do people go into restaurants and ask for free meals, because they already paid once? Do they expect their local store to give them free gum, because they already bought some a few months back? Do they ask book authors for free copies of a new novel, because they purchased the one before that? The answers to the above are obvious, but this whole phenomenon is curious all the same.

Tweetbot 4 for iOS took eight months to build by two guys—Mark Jardine and Paul Haddad (and Todd Thomas, who is responsible for the excellent Mac edition). They create quality software and while I don’t know them personally, it’s easy to tell they’re passionate about what they do, and make the best effort to ship a great product. I just don’t understand why people complain about the fact that this is a paid upgrade. Or at least as much of a paid upgrade as is currently possible in the App Store. Would you consider working for free for eight months? No? Why should they?

Please either buy the product (it’s really worth it) or don’t, if you don’t need it, want it, or don’t care for it. But please don’t complain about the fact that you need to pay to get something new. You’re just making life miserable for two guys who are excited to launch their new baby.

To tell the truth, the only thing that I’m disappointed in, is that I couldn’t pay more. I want to support indie developers who put out amazing software, because I want them to make more great products and support the one’s they’ve already shipped. I don’t want to wake up one day and start wondering where all the great software went.

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★ Tweetbot 4 for Twitter – iOS – Social Networking – €9.99 > €4.99 →