I recently got an invite to come try out App.net as part of their freemium model. My buddy Bojan who is a paid member of App.net sent me an invite to try it out. While my account is limited it is open enough for me to enjoy what App.net has to offer. Enter Netbot.

Netbot is an iOS application that allows you view and manage your App.net account from an iPad or iPhone. Netbot is from the brilliant creators of Tweetbot my favorite way to browse Twitter on my iPad. Oddly I have never demo’d or reviewed Tweetbot for iPad. So I wanted to make sure I did a brief review of Netbot, well more like a demo.

Netbot is free to download in the iOS App Store. Netbot works on all iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch that are at least running iOS 5.0 or later. Netbot is almost identical to Tweetbot in every way and there is nothing wrong with that because if you use Tweetbot or have tried it then you will feel right at home with Netbot. There are a few differences like the color of the icon and the fact that App.net is a different services so things like list are not in Netbot. That is not Netbot though, that is just the way App.net was built, with no list to manage or create.

Some of the key features of Netbot:

Composing

• 
  
• Drafts
  
• Auto URL Shortening
  
• Photo & Video Uploads
  
• Post from Another Account
  
• Cross-post to Twitter
  

Services

• 
  
• URL Shortening via bit.ly Pro, CloudApp, Droplr
  
• Upload Images via CloudApp, Mobypicture, and Droplr
  
• Upload Videos via CloudApp, Mobypicture, and Droplr
  
• Read Later via Instapaper, Pinboard, Readability, Pocket
  
• Translate Posts
  
• Web Mobilizer via Google, Instapaper, and Readability
  

I have not upgraded my App.net account as I plan on using it for a month or two to get a better feel for the service and to decide if this is something that I want to invest in. App.net is a paid service and I don’t mind paying for a great service I just want to make sure I am going to use it and make it money well spent. If you know someone with a paid account try talking to them and asking them to send you an invite. I have enjoyed using App.net these last few days and Netbot was a huge reason why. I mostly do my social network stuff from my iPad and a great app like Netbot always makes that experience better!

You can download Netbot for free:

Feel fee to follow me on App.net @crizzo