Filed under: Internet, Windows, Blogging, Freeware, Windows x64
Chirp is a stunning Windows Twitter client, if you have tons of ram
by Lee Mathews Feb 5th 2009 at 2:00PM
Normally I wouldn't write about an application that uses somewhere between five and ten times the memory it likely should, but Chirp is just so damn pretty.
Right now I'm using Pidgin-Twitter, which doesn't look this good until you have three or four pints. While Pidgin might not be much to look at, at least it doesn't use anywhere close to 100Mb of memory.
No, I'm not kidding.
Fire up Chirp, and you'll see memory usage in task manager rocket past that mark. On my system, it peaked at 204Mb for a few seconds, and then fell back to a more reasonable 114Mb - still a bit much for a Twitter client.
I'm really hoping that the developers can sort this out, though, because Chirp's visuals are fantastic, and it's one of the nicest desktop Twitter apps I've used. No functionality has been missed, with support for updates, direct messages, replies, retweets, profile viewing, and favorites.
In all honesty, I've got more than enough memory to spare for running Chirp. It's just offputting because other applications - like Photoshop, Firefox, or Chrome - can do an awful lot more than interface with Twitter using the same amount.
Still, Chirp is worth a look based on the interface alone. It's the kind of eye candy not normally seen in Windows applications. If you'd like to see some more screens before you take the plunge, check the gallery after the break.
Chirp is a free download, and you'll also need .net installed to try it out.
Right now I'm using Pidgin-Twitter, which doesn't look this good until you have three or four pints. While Pidgin might not be much to look at, at least it doesn't use anywhere close to 100Mb of memory.
No, I'm not kidding.
Fire up Chirp, and you'll see memory usage in task manager rocket past that mark. On my system, it peaked at 204Mb for a few seconds, and then fell back to a more reasonable 114Mb - still a bit much for a Twitter client.
I'm really hoping that the developers can sort this out, though, because Chirp's visuals are fantastic, and it's one of the nicest desktop Twitter apps I've used. No functionality has been missed, with support for updates, direct messages, replies, retweets, profile viewing, and favorites.
In all honesty, I've got more than enough memory to spare for running Chirp. It's just offputting because other applications - like Photoshop, Firefox, or Chrome - can do an awful lot more than interface with Twitter using the same amount.
Still, Chirp is worth a look based on the interface alone. It's the kind of eye candy not normally seen in Windows applications. If you'd like to see some more screens before you take the plunge, check the gallery after the break.
Chirp is a free download, and you'll also need .net installed to try it out.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
PT said 2:19PM on 2-05-2009
Its called Blu now I believe
Anyways it's a great client, but the ram issue is true, it uses up too much ram memory...
Reply
LinkArchive.info said 2:40PM on 2-05-2009
Yep, it's called Blu now..
About the ram issue, I would go buy a gig or two for it (damn, it's pretty) xD
Webbug
LinkArchive.info
Reply
ryaninc said 3:12PM on 2-05-2009
Wow, that is one beautiful app. It's hanging at 114MB at the moment, which is way too much to keep it on all the time, but when I'm just web browsing, it shouldn't be a problem. It's way too pretty to just never use. :-)
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Cameron said 3:17PM on 2-05-2009
Knew there was a reason to get that 8GB of RAM. Its not this though.
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xxdesmusxx said 3:32PM on 2-05-2009
Is there no way to actually resize the window? ...that can't really be correct, right?
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Tomi B. said 3:50PM on 2-05-2009
Since this is a .NET application, you'll see higher memory usage in Task Manager than with a native application, but doesn't necessarily mean it's using all of that. There's a pretty good explanation here:
http://www.itwriting.com/dotnetmem.php
Reply
Bernardo Farah said 4:41PM on 2-05-2009
Oh my god, they make such sexy products. I'll give up a bit of RAM for such beautiful design.
Can anyone email me at ber@techscription.com if there are more producers of software like this?
Reply
josearoldan said 5:47PM on 2-05-2009
get ready to receive lots and lots of spam, posting your email on a public website is NEVER something smart....
Bernardo Farah said 6:06PM on 2-05-2009
Funny thing is that since I've used Gmail, I've never had spam, despite all the places where my email address is posted. So it doesn't really concern me that much.
Worst case scenario, I change my address, as it's my own domain ^^
samuel said 7:41PM on 2-05-2009
Christ, you sound like the kind of person who would buy a Ferrari only to compain about the fuel consumption/costs
Reply
Jon said 4:12PM on 2-09-2009
I have blu running right now, it has never gone over 30MB. Does the amount of followers/following count towards the RAM usage?
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SteelCougar307 said 4:35PM on 2-16-2009
Witty is a similar Twitter client, though it lacks a couple features like favorites. It is under active development, though. It also requires .NET. http://code.google.com/p/wittytwitter/
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hewaswrong said 1:16AM on 2-18-2009
You may want to try Twittle as well. http://twittle.net Right now it's using about 30mb of memory and you can actually change the size of the window (unlike blu).
Reply