NatsuLion is a nifty little native Twitter application that I just discovered this weekend. Unlike most of the Adobe AIR-based Twitter apps out there, NatsuLion has a fresh, slick feel that’s sure to make you feel at home. It has all the functions you would want from a Twitter client, including checking your friend timeline, and recognizing @-calls. But NatsuLion does better than that! You can select a user you’re following, and see your conversations between you and them, manage read/unread tweets, create favorites, and even enable Growl notification support. Also, it has a spiffy translucent background in the main window. For those of you guys that are using Twitter, definitely give NatsuLion a try.

Rating: 4.5/5. Feels nice, but it’d be excellent to make it menubar-based (like Twitterrific).

Developer site:
NatsuLion.org

X-Chat Aqua is a renowned IRC chat client (not for AIM or MSN or anything like that) that’s used by tons of people. If you don’t already know what IRC is, this app is of no use to you. Usually X-Chat Aqua users look down upon uses of the also-popular Colloquy, and vice versa. While Colloquy definitely has a better interface, X-Chat Aqua is loaded with advanced features that appeal to power users. It also supports some great plugins. If you’re an IRC nerd (as I know some of you are), and haven’t tried X-Chat Aqua, it’s a must-try. Let me know what you think in the comments. I might add that the project leader is looking for someone else to take over, so there may not be any updates for a while.

Rating: 4/5. Packed with features, but it has a strange, separated interface.

Developer site:
XChatAqua.SourceForge.net

So, I just finished making my list of Windows apps (and Mac equivalents). It includes about 50 apps for Mac and Windows, which essentially offer the same features. The new, fancy HTML table is below! Note that these aren’t necessarily the best Mac apps, but they’re free equivalents to Windows apps.

Thanks to PolishOX for all of his help on this.

Gizmo Project is a free internet-based phone app for your Mac. You can call other Gizmo users for free, or buy credits (which are cheap) to call mobile or landline phones. Great for staying in touch with distant family members. It’s also cross-platform, so you can talk with Windows and Linux users, too. They even have a mobile version available for download on their site.

Rating: 4.5/5. Quick and easy to use, but a little bit too much like a commercialware app. Still a great app though.

Developer site: GizmoProject.com

Colloquy is the best free IRC client available. It has a nice GUI with Adium-style Add-ons (but not as many). It’s exactly what you would want out of an IRC client. It also lets you chat on multiple servers at the same time. Well done, developer! Another cool thing is that it’s also available on the iPod touch and the iPhone (from a separate developer)!

Rating: 5/5. Does its job well, looks great.

Developer Site: Colloquy.info

Chax adds some cool features to iChat that can help you out, or just do weird things. One option lets you continue video chats during file transfers. Great app, good developer.

Rating: 5/5. Kudos to the developer for all the great features.

Developer Site: KSuther.com/Chax

Adium is an iChat alternative that is very well developed, and supports almost every chat service (AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and many others). It has a customizable interface and icon, as well as many other personalization features.

Rating: 5/5. Easily replaces iChat, and is much more customizable.

Developer Site:
AdiumX.com