If you are an opera user, you can use this cool Twitter opera widget, for your twitter use.

Features

1. Passwords are stored base 64 encoded.

2. You can view recent tweets, mentions (@username), Direct messages, Archive, Location, also search on twitter

From opera 10, you need not to run an opera to run a widget, so you can use opera widget as an independent application (BTW, you need to install opera, to use)

It do not have a url shortner with it, that is the only drawback i have seen so far.

Try it