Lately, we have seen a number of interesting attempts to combine various social networks and other social media services into one application. EventBox is a good example of this. It’s an interesting Mac-only application that combines Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Reddit, Instapaper, and Google Reader into a sleek desktop application. From within the application, you can easily check and update your Twitter and Facebook streams, read your feeds, or check up on the most recent stories on Reddit. You can also upload photos to both Flickr and Facebook.
Twitter Client
For most users, the most important part of EventBox is probably its Twitter client, and the good news is that this is also one of its strongest aspects though it does have its flaws. For example, you can easily create persistent searches and even though it is a bit cumbersome, you can also create groups within Eventbox’s Twitter client. To do so, you have to set up a folder by right-clicking on the Twitter icon, and then you can drag and drop different users or searches into this folder.
Sadly, however, EventBox doesn’t seem to feature any support for URL-shorteners, which might be a deal-breaker for a lot of users.Correction: EventBox does support URL-shorteners – the feature is just a bit hidden in the General settings. EventBox also only gives you limited control over how often it pings Twitter’s API.
Other Services
The Facebook client works like you would expect it to, with support for photo uploads and status updates, and the Google Reader integration also works well, as long as you don’t subscribe to too many feeds. Our standard Google Reader account, with far more than 1,000 feeds, crashed the application.
In many ways, EventBox is very similar to Skimmer, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, and which, since then, has been updated with a version that addressed a lot of our issues with the original release, but the two programs feature support for different services.
Get it Free from MacHeist
Overall, Eventbox is a pretty interesting social media desktop client. It would be great if it supported a few more features, such as easier group creation for Twitter, or the ability to sort stories in Reddit (and maybe support for Digg), but it is definitely worth checking out if you are a Mac user.
Normally, the application costs $15 after a free 14-day trial, but you can currently download a free version of EventBox from MacHeist. It is important to note, though, that while the MacHeist version is available for free without any limitations, any updates to the app that you initiate will start the 14-day shareware countdown.
While you are there, also have a look at the MacHeist bundle that is currently available on MacHeist for $39. It features a number of interesting Mac applications, and 25% of every sale goes to charity. Also, after MacHeist reaches $400,000 in sales, a number of new applications will become available as part of the bundle.
