In December 2009 we had a leaked version of Beta 6. It was somewhat unstable and I didn’t like the new bubble-style time-line, so I didn’t use it. But like the title says, the official version was released yesterday and I had to try it out, even if I rely entirely on SocialScope, in my opinion the best Twitter client for Blackberry, today still in a state of in closed Beta.

Because @Cr0bar cast some doubt over SocialScope’s ability to function, I decided to test UT Beta 6 extensively and shut down SocialScope (more details in the next few days). If it turns out that SocialScope is leaking memory, I’ll switch to UT or Seesmic – I had to test that one anyway, I didn’t have the time to do it because when I do, I wanna do it properly.

Ok, back to UT: as the developer says, the Beta 6 brings a lot of improvements as follows:

  • Lists, Lists, Lists!!! – You can create, delete, subscribe, add members, view members, all the functionality you would expect of an Über mobile client!
  • Find People – You can search for people, just like the ‘Find People’ link on Twitter’s home page.
  • New Icon – We love it!
  • Über Bar – We couldn’t resist the name! This is a tab bar at the top of the screen, the neat thing is that you can add your own tabs! A list can be a tab, users timelines, and soon saved searches
  • Retweets – We support the old method and new method, you decide!
  • Update Twitter Profile – Yes, you can update your Twitter profile directly from your phone.
  • Profile Picture – We have heard you, upload a picture for your Twitter avatar right from your phone!
  • Report Spam – One menu selection to report a tweet as a spam.
  • Twitter Geo-Tagging – We provide support Twitter’s new geo-tagging capability. You can decide whether to use myloc.me URLs, Twitter Geo-Tagging, or both!
  • Friend Picker – Type ‘@’ and a list of your friends automatically pops up allowing selection
  • Larger Avatars – Click the profile picture, and view a larger version! You can even email that larger version!
  • TwitLonger – Yes, you can tweet MUCH longer tweets now, thanks to the folks over at TwitLonger.com, we have fully integrated this capability into both sending long tweets, and automatically retrieving long tweets. We love it!
  • What The Trend? – Ever wonder why certain topics were trending or what they meant? No more! We have integrated with the folks over at WhatTheTrend.com to allow you to see the explanations for trending topics, and also for you to provide your own explanations!
  • Choice of timeline layout – Choose the new ‘bubble’ layout or the original ‘bar’ layout.
  • Verified Users – We show a small blue check-mark icon in the timeline to denote verified users
  • Network Connection Logic – We re-worked the network connection logic, things should be alot smoother.

It’s available for download here and I also post some screen-shots.

Some comments:

  • I love the new tab system (OK, it looks a lot like SocialScope) but in the end, if SS is leaking memory it’ll make the transition easier (back) to UT.
  • The new logo is nice but I can’t decide which one is more beautiful; I also liked the old one, especially its color.
  • When I tried to set up the Geotagging feature I received an error, as seen in one of the screenshots;  I had to move on.
  • I appreciate the possibility of choosing which kind of time-line I see, I don’t like the bubble-style, as I mentioned earlier.
  • Why not allow as to upload on Twitpic? I use it for a long time ago and I like the service.
  • I appreciate the possibility of choosing what kind of RT I can use; I don’t really care but the option is there!
  • Having the ads always (or most of the times) on top is a pain. It didn’t bother me on the last version but I hate it on this one; it ruins the whole experience.