Seesmic

Popular social networking app Seesmic got an update today in the form of new features and a brand-new paid Pro version. While at first glance this may seem like all good news, I must warn you that there is a bit of a downside.

First, the good stuff. All Seesmic users now have the ability to view Instagram and Twitter thumbnails right from within the timeline, which is a lot more convenient than before. Along with that, they can now upload images directly to Twitter natively. And of course, there are the requisite minor bug fixes and performance improvements that come with pretty much every other app update.

Then, there's the brand-new offering, Seesmic Pro. For $2.99, this premium version of the app comes with the ability to view updates from multiple accounts, all within a single timeline. This includes Facebook as well as Twitter. While I don't personally like to mix feeds from my different accounts, there are certainly a ton of users out there who do, which is why this little addition is important.

Now here's where the story gets a little fishy: Seesmic Pro also comes ad-free, which is awesome news for paying users. Unfortunately this means that users of the free app, who have always enjoyed an ad-free experience previously, now get to see ads popping into their timelines every so often. For dedicated Seesmic users, this probably won't be a deal breaker. Nevertheless, it still feels a bit unfair.

Seesmic Free (download) and Seesmic Pro (download) are both available now from the Google Play store.