Even those of us that bill ourselves as relatively "tech savvy" are new to certain technological things.  That's how I am with Twitter (and GPS navigation devices, but that's for another day).  I signed up about a month ago, and am learning more and more about how it works with each passing day.  Due to the fact that I carry a BlackBerry, I decided to look into a Twitter client for my phone.  The two free applications that I came across were TwitterBerry and Yatca.  My take on both clients can be found below:

TwitterBerry

Out of the two, I found this one to be much more pleasant to use, and I'll tell you why.  Personally, I prefer a separate client as opposed to one integrated into the BlackBerry's messaging system (read: Yatca).  I like the ability to actually open up the program and browse at my leisure.

When you first open TwitterBerry, it brings you to a "What are you doing?" page, where you can enter your tweet.  Upon clicking the BlackBerry key, the following options come up:

• Update: Essentially another way to press in the trackball and submit your tweet.
• Friends Timeline: Your homepage, which shows you what your friends are tweeting
• Get Replies: This will bring up your '@' replies that people have sent you
• Direct Messages: This pulls up your 'private inbox' of sorts where you can hold conversations with people outside of the public eye
  
• Public Timeline: Brings up the public Twitter feed
• My Timeline: Self explanatory, shows you your individual updates.
• Get Friend List: Again, self explanatory.  Your list of those that you follow (note: speaking of, I need more friends, so follow me here - thanks!).
• Sent Direct Messages: Private messages that you have sent to others.
• Configure: Where you enter your Twitter username/password.
• About: Details of the program.
  

Yatca

Yatca is a Twitter client that integrates with your messaging folder on your BlackBerry, and delivers updates in an SMS-like manner.  To me, this type of delivery is going to be love/hate, and for me, I absolutely hated it.  Even with the relatively few people I follow, I was getting 30+ messages every 10-15 minutes.  Think of it like getting 30+ e-mails or text messages every 10-15 minutes - it's very similar.  Each time, I would have to physically highlight all of the messages and mark them as read.  Five minutes later, five more would pop up.  You get the idea; my BlackBerry light was constantly red.  Additionally, the client only gives the option of updating every five minutes or more, so no instant abilities to receive tweets.

All in all, I found TwitterBerry very clean and easy to use.  Between the two, I would HIGHLY recommend TwitterBerry over Yatca.  If you're following more than three individuals, you'll probably be annoyed with Yatca's style as well.


Download link: TwitterBerry
Download link: Yatca