Research In Motion has announced a new version of Twitter for BlackBerry that includes a number of noteworthy enhancements. Twitter for BlackBerry version 1.1 is officially out of beta and offers the ability to tweet your location using the “Add location to tweet” option. The app also includes push notifications for @mentions, and will auto-complete #topics as you type them out, along with several other minor enhancements. RIM also said the UI has been tweaked with updated graphics and includes a streamlined layout of the Add Photo and Add Location options. Lastly, the app has added language support for simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Polish, Czech, and Thai. Twitter for BlackBerry is available in BlackBerry App World now. Hit the jump for more info.

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Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that its first major Windows Phone update — dubbed NoDo — is being pushed to users’ handsets. Sixteen Windows Phone devices from over a dozen countries have, or will have, the update — which finally brings copy & paste functionality — in the coming days. Users in the United States, however, still have a bit of waiting to do. According to a new status page setup by the company, T-Mobile’s pair of Windows Phones — the Dell Venue Pro and HTC HD7 — are currently in the “scheduling” phase. This procedure typically takes “10 days or less,” according to Microsoft, at which point the update will begin rolling out to handsets. AT&T’s trio of Windows Phones — the Samsung Focus, the LG Quantum, and HTC Surround — are currently in the “testing” stage. Microsoft explains that phones with this distinction are “undergoing mobile operator network and quality tests,” but does not provide an estimated time of completion for this step. Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, at one point championed the fact that updates to the Windows Phone operating system would be delivered by his company, not wireless carriers. While Microsoft may be the one delivering the bits, it looks like U.S. mobile operators are still finding ways to slow things down. The waiting continues…

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According to a report filed by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft and RIM could announce a new, free, hosted BlackBerry service as early as today. Citing anonymous sources close to the plans, the site reports that the two companies will collaborate to provide the cost-effective BlackBerry Enterprise Service to customers utilizing Microsoft’s hosted Exchange 2010 Online service. “RIM is only mobile OS that doesn’t use (Microsoft) ActiveSync-aware devices and has a separate device management platform – the BES environment,” said the site’s source. “Most large enterprise customers run a on premise [sic] BES server to get the advanced device management.” A Microsoft data sheet updated yesterday seems to confirm the free offering, but Microsoft has yet to publicly announce the program.

Read [ZDNet] Read [Data Sheet]

Think you can avoid having corporate email on your mobile device by buying a feature phone? Think again, as today Verizon Wireless announced an update to its feature phone email solution, Mobile Email 4.0. The downloadable application will allow users to connect their non-smartphone devices to Microsoft’s Exchange environment, leverage push email, and utilize an integrated contact list. The service will retail for $5 per month and is available to those with a data plan of at least $15 per month. The software is currently compatible with eight VZW phones, including the Samsung Zeal, LG Cosmos Touch, and Pantech Crux. Hit the read link for the full PR.

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Samsung took some time at a developer day event in South Korea to note that it will have sold 5 million Bada-powered Wave phones when 2010 comes to an end. It also projects sales of more than 10 million Wave devices in the first half of 2011 alone. Most of the attention at the event, however, was focused on the host of features Samsung said it will introduce in version 2 of its in-house mobile operating system. Among the more notable additions making their way to Bada 2.0 are third-party multitasking support, push notification support, an updated UI that will include a “smart home-screen,” enhanced security, an integrated ad network, carrier billing support, HTML5, NFC and speech recognition. Needless to say, Bada 2.0 is set to be a huge update that could put Bada on par with most modern smartphone operating systems when it launches in the first half of 2011. Hit the break for a slide containing all of the noted enhancements we can look forward to in Bada 2.0.

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Late yesterday, Facebook released an update for its Android mobile application, bearing the version number 1.5. The new code adds support for Facebook chat — in both the foreground and background — as well as push notifications. Push notifications will only work on devices running Android 2.2 or higher, and the new build does, as always, include “various bug fixes.” The new hotness is in the Android Market, go get em’!

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Beezz, an emerging Twitter client for the Windows Phone 7 OS, will soon become the first Twitter app to support push notifications on Microsoft’s new mobile platform. In a major update, Beezz will add two highly anticipated new features: Live Tile support — the app’s home screen icon will display information that updates automatically in the background like a widget — and support for toast notifications, which are visual and audio alerts much like push notifications on Apple’s iPhone (only they’re not intrusive or disruptive). Both features will support Mentions and Direct Messages from users’ Twitter feeds. The current version of Beezz can be downloaded immediately from the Windows Marketplace. The updated version, which has been approved by Microsoft, will become available later today or early tomorrow.

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Microsoft is making good progress in its efforts to woo developers to the new Windows Phone 7 platform, but we hope the company is equally devoted to keeping devs on board once they arrive. As the Redmond giant struggles to become a leader once again in the mobile space, developers and the apps they build are integral to Microsoft’s success. But in a blog post last week, developer Nicholas Yu made some troubling comments. Yu found that the number one feature users are requesting of his app — a Google Voice client called GoVoice — is the addition of push notification support. Yu notes in his blog post, however, that he is hesitant to add the functionality.

According to Yu, Microsoft’s analytics and reporting functions do not work so he has no idea how many copies of GoVoice have been sold. More importantly, Yu says that he has not yet been paid by Microsoft and he’s not sure when his first check is coming. Since maintaining a push server has associated costs, Yu cannot justify the expense because he has no idea if his app is making money or not. In other words, problems with Microsoft’s developer program are preventing Yu from improving his app and meeting the demands of Windows Phone 7 users.

And it’s not just Yu. Justin James is another developer who recently voiced similar complaints. James wrote a lengthy post about his negative experience with the Windows Phone 7 developer program. He even claims Microsoft told him there will be no developer payouts until February, 2011.

As we’ve stated before, Microsoft needs to do everything in its power to attract new Windows Phone 7 developers and encourage them to bring the best possible experiences to their apps. By allegedly not providing reporting tools and not paying its developer partners in a timely fashion, Microsoft appears to be doing just the opposite.

Read [Nicholas Yu] Read [Justin James]

It has been a pretty good day for a couple marque iOS applications. This evening, Twitter released an update to its iOS client that adds push notifications for mentions and direct messages along with several other fixes. The press release reads:

Whenever an account that you follow mentions you, you’ll immediately receive a notification. You’ll know who is talking to or about you on Twitter, and you’ll be able to continue the conversation in real-time. Notifications for @mentions will initially be available on SMS and on the latest version of Twitter for iPhone, which you can download today from the App Store.

The post also notes that the company is “working hard to introduce this feature to Twitter for Android and Twitter for Windows Phone.” The official list of changes includes:

Hit the App Store for the new bits.

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Today, Google announced that their Google Mobile App for Apple’s iPhone will be push notification compliant. Google Mobile will be able to push Google Calendar and Gmail notifications to your device and offers a handy quiet-time feature; for when you would prefer not to see or hear notifications. Google also boasts that the new code allows you to “go get you information faster — when looking for flight info, weather, stock quotes or currency conversions.” The new application is in the App Store now. Check it out and let us know what you think.

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One of the killer features demoed at Google I/O, on Android 2.2, was the OS’ ability to install pushed applications right from Google’s Market website. Unfortunately, Google has yet to update the Android Market (or its website) with this functionality, however the underlying code that makes this possible is ready to go in Froyo. AppBrain, “a website which makes sense out of the high number of apps available in the Android market,” has developed its own application titled Fast Web Installer that will provide this functionality for your Android 2.2 device right now. Install and authorize the app, visit appbrain.com, click install, and you’re done. The client will fully install requested applications without user interaction; applications still have to be uninstalled directly from the handset. Now, AppBrain’s utility may be short lived — since Google will definitely be rolling out the exact same service — but if you have a 2.2 device with Android, give AppBrain Fast Web Installer a shot.

[Via Mobiputing]

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Today, RIM announced that its new BlackBerry Push Service is available to developers for their coding pleasure. The new service: “enables developers to easily develop Java applications or BlackBerry Widgets that leverage RIM’s push technology either through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (for enterprises) or BlackBerry Internet Service infrastructure (for consumers), so that content providers can reliably push images, text, or audio content to millions of BlackBerry devices at once… with the BlackBerry Push Service, full content (up to an industry-leading 8KB in size) is pushed to the device and made immediately available for use.” The article goes onto explain some of the differences between RIM’s new push service and those of competitors — *cough* Apple *cough* — as well as the different tiers of service that will be offered to developers (yes, there is a free option). All you Java wizards can head over to www.blackberry.com/developers/pushservice to get more in-depth technical information, otherwise we have the press release all linked up for you.

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As Apple fans around the world eagerly await WWDC, a new iPhone model and perhaps most importantly iPhone OS 3.0, developers just got the call they’ve been waiting for. During the course of the next seven days, various devs will be testing iPhone OS push notifications in the upcoming version of the AP News app. As you can see in the screen capture above, each app can have Sounds, Alerts and Badge notifications toggled individually. Want an audio alert for new IM messages but only a badge for new @replies in your favorite Twitter app? No problem. We can’t say we’re overly fond of the notifications menu placement within the settings app as opposed to within each individual app, but at least it’s something. Hit the jump for two more screenshots.

Thanks, Clifton!

Oh hello, WES week! This is already shaping up to be one hell of a nice week for BlackBerry users. Not only did RIM launch BES 5.0 this morning, but it also announced that BlackBerry developers who are members of the BlackBerry Alliance Program now have access to a new API intended to serve even more push content to end-users. In a nut shell, devs who utilize the new API will be able to create or update existing apps so that they push new content to users as soon as it becomes available. This basically negates the need for manual or timed polling. Imagine, for example, sitting in a boring meeting when your BlackBerry’s status indicator lights up. Your favorite sports app informs you Roy Halladay has just struck out David Ortiz with the bases loaded to clinch the AL East mere moments after it happens. With the new push API, your BlackBerry will be able to do this in the near future — and that’s a good thing.

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You remember Peek, don’t you? Well the company is back and confident yet again that it’s going to take the world by storm with the new Peek Pronto. Retailing for $79.95, the Pronto ups the ante from its past offering by allowing users to manage up to five email accounts with push and support for PDFs, DOCs and pictures on a device with a full-QWERTY keypad, 8MB of internal memory and a 2.5″ QVGA 65,000-color display. As with the original Peek, the Pronto runs contract-free on T-Mobile’s GPRS network for $19.95 per month, which not only includes unlimited email but also unlimited text messages via an email gateway. So will the Pronto take off like its predecessor never did? Who knows, but one thing is for sure — if the new Peek Pronto is named Time Gadget of the Year, we might have to close up shop.

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