How clients are adapting to Twitter expansion: new HootSuite app

Since Twitter acquired Tweetie to become the official Twitter iPhone application, worked with RIM to release an app for BlackBerry, and now released an official app for Android, the developers of existing applications are being forced to raise their game even more quickly than before.

One example is HootSuite, who just released their new iPhone application.

Probably the biggest addition is Facebook (Like Tweetdeck and Seesmic) – you can update your status, shedule updates and track your friends and pages. Going multiplatform seems to be one obvious step to go beyond an official single platform application.

You also get translation from, and into, over 50 languages. And there’s geo-location, HootSuite Labs (including ‘Bump to Follow’), a new landscape view, a new drag and refresh option, and a handy ‘reply to all’ feature to save time and typing.

Here’s a handy video guide:

How you could be testing the official BlackBerry Twitter app

A new BlackBerry Beta Zone has been launched for beta testers to volunteer to trial official apps from BlackBerry maker RIM – in addition to the existing App World Test Center which is for both RIM and third-party applications.

If you’re in the UK, U.S. or Canada you can sign up, and ReadWriteWeb spotted a phone running the upcoming official Twitter application for BlackBerry in the banner image on the new site. There’s no official mention of the Twitter app in the blog post announcing the launch of Beta Zone, but it has to be pretty much guaranteed as the first place to play with it in the wild.

Previously listed features match other third-party apps with url-shortening, photo-sharing, push messages, message list integration, filtered search by geo-location, and rumours of profile editing, Twitter lists, and on OS6.0 Twitter/BlackBerry contact sync.

The integration between Twitter and BlackBerry services makes sense – it’s one of the major selling points of a BlackBerry, highlighted in the concept of a “Super App” which RIM co-CEO and founder Mike Lazaridis talked about in his keynote at Mobile World Congress. One of the key characteristics, as outlined in a BlackBerry blog post outlining the talk?

‘Apps can add custom menu items and data to the Inbox, Address Book and Calendar and can be called into action immediately from those, and other, apps on the device – always one-click away.’

Now there’s a potential edge for BlackBerry. Inbox, Address Book, Calendar and maybe BlackBerry Messenger integration?

Business users with complete Twitter integration at a time when companies are embracing social media more thoroughly than ever before?

Twitter Android client Twidroid updated…

Twidroid is a popular Twitter application for Android phones, and they’ve just released an update, including native Youtube posting, a sample pluging for your own url shortener, Chinese, Czech, Russian and Arabic languages, plus the Pro version now has offline sending, which is a useful addition.

Catch up with the full release notes.

Microblogging client Posty wins award

Congratulations to Cesare Rocchi, the developer behind the Posty client for microblogging (I interviewed Cesare about Posty back in September last year). Posty is an Adobe Air application which offers a simple interface.
It seems I’m not the only one to have appreciated Posty, as Cesare is an Adobe student rep for Rich Internet Applications, and he submitted Posty to the RIA application content – and won!