A quick look at Twitter for BlackBerry

Look, we know it’s an early beta and we’re extremely greatful to RIM for letting us try out this app before the masses load it onto their devices, but we’re not exactly impressed with Twitter for BlackBerry. We were intially planning to go all out and review the hell out of this app because a lot of people have been begging us for information on this app, but having tinkered with it this morning we’re ultimately concluded that we’re going to do this point-form style:

• To our eye, the app is cluttered in that so much stuff is packed into a small amount of space. We have to be honest and say it’s actually a bit overwhelming to look at after a while. Less is more. Less is more.
• There are no keyboard shortcuts we can find except for “R” for reply, “C” for direct message (umm…) and “L” for all. Okay, fine. There’s also “T” for top and “B” for bottom.
• Tweets are not cached, meaning each time you open up the app you have to sit tight while your timeline is populated.
• Since installing the app, our device has been randomly locked up no fewer than 5 times. Each instance lasts  up for 5 to 10 seconds at a go.
• Loading tweets is slow in terms of the app itself lagging and the pulling of data. Running the app with Wi-Fi honestly offers no advantage over 3G.
• You can search for people, keywords (and narrow them down by location), view trending topics
• Have we mentioned this app is laggy?
• You can compose tweets and DMs from the standard Messages app, but it’s actually a bit of a pain in the ass because you have to hit Menu, scroll down and select Twitter and then pick either Direct Message or Tweet.
• Lag.

Okay, that’s enough talk because for the life of us we can’t think of anything else worth noting. We’re going to duck out for a few and grab some coffee, but make sure that all of you make like good BlackBerry addicts and hit the jump for some screenies.

Disclosure: BGR makes a BlackBerry application called TweetGenius.