[caption id="attachment_4985" align="alignright" width="272" caption="Google Reader in Socialite"]
[/caption]Welcome to the app that tries to save your job and your sanity at the same time. Or at least ease your guilt. Socialite is an all-in-one client for popular social networking and feed services including Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Google Reader. Combining these into a single (and downright sexy) window, it distills each down to a single feed. It's a one-stop-app for catching up on your whole digital life without ever reaching your web browser. So what's not to like?
Features
On the surface, it's as simple as it gets. Every 15 minutes (or however often you specify in Preferences), it fetches updates for all your favourite services and sucks them into its own feed lists, either letting you know via a Dock icon update, Growl notification, or both (or not at all, if you prefer to check randomly) as new goodness arrives. Notification settings can be specified for every service individually in Growl.
You can view these updates either in a single common feed (a catch-all 'Unread' timeline available in the sidebar) or go through each individually to avoid confusion (this is how I roll). When you've caught up on each feed, you can mark it as read, which can even be set to happen automatically when you scroll past each article. You can also post Facebook status updates, Tweets, comment on blog posts and upload photos for services that support it.
[caption id="attachment_4982" align="aligncenter" width="288" caption="Flexible notification settings via Growl or dock icon"]
[/caption]Socialite doesn't actually do anything new, it just combines a bunch of nice existing services into a slick UI. So why do I love this app so much? It's a combination of great execution and one perfect place to use the app, where all the benefits come to life: the workplace!
Guilt-free Social Networking? Check...
The problem with Facebook is that everyone knows what it looks like. Even if you're on a break at your desk, legitimately using the free time you've rightfully earned in the way that you see fit, people's prying eyes seem to find a thieving rapist as you surf the Internets and post lolz on paid time. Sure, you don't keep trophy seal pup furs in your top drawer or stab distracted pelicans, but you're made to feel like you do. How long must you tolerate this persecution?
Whether you're catching up on tweets, status updates, RSS or Digg articles, the beauty of Socialite is that everything looks the same, and gives the appearance of "I am reading something valid right now - so bugger off". This alone is worth the humble asking price of US$20. This is particularly true if you're one of few Mac users around your workplace. You have an extra layer of obscurity protecting you, as no-one has a clue what you're doing half the time, because your screen looks generally foreign to them.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Currently, Socialite supports the following services:
- Digg
- Google Reader
- RSS
I'm sure this list will grow in time as Socialite sees revisions. It's still a just a weee bebbeh at v1.02.
[caption id="attachment_4981" align="alignright" width="340" caption="Facebook integration: Not a full replacement, but it gets the job done!"]
[/caption]On top of my many oglings, a great advantage of using a separate client for these services is offline access. If you use your laptop on public transport like myself, all of Socialite's most recently updated feeds will be available when you flip your lid, good for a quick catch-up if you still have some unread articles. This is a small thing, but it can be very handy for those who don't have mobile internet.
Sadly, Socialite isn't without its limitations. Although it's fully functional as a Google Reader and Twitter client, for example, something as complex as Facebook can't be fully replaced by third party software. You won't be able to open Facebook applications or manage groups, or perform any advanced functions beyond checking status updates and photo feeds etc, but this is not Socialite's fault. Facebook doesn't release this functionality to third party developers - they have to keep people coming back to their website somehow.
The simple things you spend most of your time doing on Facebook, however, are covered.
The Score
In short, Socialite is just another reason to convince your boss that you can do everything Windows-related in a virtualised environment (Parallels/VMWare) and use your personal machine at work. If you can't use your Mac at work, of course it's still more than worth it as an ultimate portal for all your services. It's fast, sexy, completely Mac-like and a great time-saver. Both thumbs up from me.
Score: 4.5/5
(Reviewed version: v1.02)
Mac App Review - Socialite