Home Star That Tweet! Favit Launches in iTunes App Store

Star That Tweet! Favit Launches in iTunes App Store

There’s a new iPhone application from Favstar.fm which launched late last night in the iTunes App Store. Like the Favstar website, the new Favit app (iTunes link) aggregates the “best” Twitter posts based on the number of stars they receive from other Twitter users. However, while starred tweets should in theory point to interesting and useful content that people want to save for later viewing, the Favstar service tends to favor humorous tweets instead. The new iPhone app does the same, which makes it the perfect addition to your collection of time-wasting apps for curing boredom.

Nearly all iPhone users have at least one if not more applications whose sole purpose is to help kill time. Whether you’re sitting in a waiting room or standing in a long line, these apps are lifesavers for those of us who are so digitally connected that a few minutes of boredom feels like a death sentence. For many people, these apps include casual games. But outside of that genre, there are plenty of other apps for quick-fire entertainment that is meant to be consumed in small doses. For example, FML (iTunes link) is a personal favorite. This app lets you read through people’s posts of their unfortunate, embarrassing and downright hilarious personal stories. Trivia-based Cool Facts (iTunes link) is another. (And yes, both were discovered thanks to a high-school aged family member. Don’t judge!) The new Favit application fits right into this category of casual entertainment apps.

Using Favit

With a very simple interface, Favit displays one Twitter post at a time on the screen. After reading the tweet, you can flip to see the next one using a finger swipe. If you see a tweet you want to star yourself, just tap the giant star button beneath the tweet.

You can also swipe down on the tweet for more interactions. Doing so reveals the author and then lets you re-tweet their post or email it to someone. In addition, clicking on the “+” (plus) sign lets you add the author to a special Favstar.fm list, which is synchronized with your saved lists on Twitter. This allows you to build your own personalized list of favorite twitterers, accessible from Twitter.com or any other Twitter client that supports lists.

What’s Missing

Although the iTunes app description notes that Favit has a celebrity and tech filter built in, we couldn’t find these settings in the application itself. However, you can follow these pre-filtered lists via the Favstar.fm website’s Leaderboard section. We hope this feature is coming to the application in an update, because it would be great to switch from the funny and entertaining tweets, over to the tweets from the tech- and social-media set, and then over to celebrities, depending on what interests you at the time.

Another missing feature from the application is one of our favorite features from the Favstar.fm website – the ability to see who has been favoriting your tweets. The Favit app could offer a quick and easy way to track those people and then add them to a list or follow them, but sadly it does not. Still, that’s hardly a deal-breaker since Favstar offers RSS feeds for this purpose via their website. Besides, it’s clear the app is meant to be more of a fun toy for casual users rather than a handy utility meant for data-obsessed folks like us.

If you want to check out the new Favit application (iTunes link), you’ll have to fork out a little cash. Favit, unlike similar time-wasters including the above-mentioned FML and Cool Facts, doesn’t come in free and pro versions. Instead, it’s one price only: $2.99. That may seem like a lot for an app just meant to amuse you, but the next time you’re terribly bored, you’ll be glad you downloaded it.

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