Why does Josh keep lying about the Twitter app & fast resume?

Posted by Roku on April 7, 2012 03:43 pm 70

The official Twitter app was updated for Mango (twice after Mango actually) and when you resume the app from the task switcher it resumes instantly with no loading whatsoever. Also you never get a logo or restart of an app when you resume from the task switcher in WP7 (only happens in memory intensive games that haven't been updated, not apps). Launching an app from the start screen always restarts an app. This is by design because there is no direct app closing mechanism in Windows Phone. If you want fast resume you use the task switcher.

OFFICIAL TWITTER APP UPDATE HISTORY - Josh lied twice

Josh has now lied about the Twitter app 2 weeks in a row on the Vergecast claiming that it hasn't been updated since launch. WP7applist keeps track of how often an app has been updated. The official Twitter app received it's last update November 19th, 2011. Yet Josh keeps lying to his audience that there have not been any updates since launch. For 2 weeks now this has been Josh's sole example of how Windows Phone ecosystem has stagnated. If Josh had been using Windows Phone as his "daily driver" he'd be seeing the regular updates that most of the apps are getting and he wouldn't make foolish mistakes like this. Instead he just read the "originally released" date and assumed that was for the current software version.

The irony is that the official Twitter app is extremely fast at loading content. There are definitely some problems with the app, but loading speed is not one of them.

There are so many good Twitter clients for Windows Phone: Rowi, BirdSong, Carbon. I don't understand why he harps on Twitter each week. Also I use the Twitter integration in the People Hub most of the time because it does what I need 90% of the time (read my timeline, retweet, and post updates). If I want to search for a topic or add a person to my feed then I use a dedicated client.

Bonus tip: if you want to see Tweets from sites like the Verge in a cool live tile on you Start screen, first go to settings in the People Hub and filter the contacts to show Twitter contacts then long press and add the live tile for The Verge.

With YouTube Pro I pinned the Verge's youtube channel (live tile) to the start screen next to their Twitter live tile. It looks great and I recommend people try this.