Review: Yak, a Twitter client for webOS
The App Catalog is awash in a flood of terrific Twitter apps, from the excellent Tweed (this blogger's current favorite) to the innovative and visually stunning TweetMe for webOS. Not only does a Twitter app have to look good these days to compete in the 'Catalog, it has to perform blazingly fast with a cutting edge feature set, and Yak ($2.99 in the App Catalog) has what it takes to be a serious contender. How does it stack up against some of the newer and established names? There's only one way to find out: by reading on after the break.
Setup, Features and Use
Setup is as straight forward here as it is in most of the other Twitter applications on the platform - enter a user name, a password, and you're off. After your first account is set up, you're able to head into the preference menu to configure the program to you're liking, as well a switch to different accounts. Notification options are sparse as you cant' choose which timelines you want to alert you. Other configuration options include font size, default location, and shake to refresh.
A good Twitter app, in my view, has to be solid in 3 areas. It has to be styled in a visually appealing and effective manner (many get one of the two right), it has to be dead-simple to navigate (another failing of many a Twitter app) and it has to be lightning fast. Yak fares middle of the road of all of the above.
The fonts are configurable from small to extra large and they're easy enough to read, but unlike TweetMe or even Tweed, they're never pleasant. I wasn't especially fond of the navigation scheme in Yak during my weeks of testing. Few get it better in this area than Tweed in my view, which to me strikes a nearly perfect balance between learnability and discoverability.
The button to create a new Tweet is always at the very top of whatever list you're in, which means you have to utilize the forward swipe gesture to activate a modal menu to go to the very top of that list (I'd like to see them take a page from the Facebook app here) or scroll up. Thankfully, in the most recent update to version 1.1.7, a forward swipe yields a modal pop-up menu that allows you to quickly jump to the top or the bottom of a list, but it would still be nice to have the ability to create a tweet from that menu.
There are always-persistent buttons that give access to the home, mentions, DM and favorites and favorites scenes and a fifth that yields access to a few more options. This feels like a mashup between the modal drop-down menu approach found in Tweed, and Twee's side scroll approach to navigation. I'd prefer an either/or approach. Tapping on a tweet opens a drawer similar to what Bad Kitty employs, giving you access to options such as retweeting, favoriting and replying to that tweet.
Summary
Yak is an offering in the Twitter app space that is middle of the road in many aspects. Most webOS users will find their money better spent elsewhere with the likes of Tweed or TweetMe, which I feel are currently the best offerings in the App Catalog.
