It's been almost two months since smartphone maker Research In Motion released a beta version of its "official" Twitter client for BlackBerry.

Starting Wednesday night and continuing through Thursday, RIM will prompt existing BlackBerry Twitter users in the U.S., U.K., and Canada to update their apps.

We're happy to see the ability to edit retweets among the new features, as well as the time-saving convenience feature of auto-completing a contact's @username.

Twitter on BlackBerry now also pops up the location of geotagged tweets in the native Blackberry Maps app. Those who can't live (or live well) without keyboard shortcuts will appreciate hot keys that reply, retweet, refresh, and more.

Other new features include keyboard shortcuts to search for people or interact with lists. In addition, the Twitter app will now warn you before you share personal information with others, like a phone number or your BlackBerry PIN.

While we mentioned that RIM will ping current users about the upgrade, the newly Twitter-curious can visit the Test Center in the BlackBerry App World storefront and keep an eye out for the latest beta build, which is compatible with phones running version 4.5 of the operating system or later.

A white plastic "cube"* that is slightly bigger than a thumb tip protrudes from the top of an Android phone. A thin slit runs through it; peek inside and you can make out the interior metal nub capable of reading any credit card that swoops through it.

This is Square, an accessory to the recently released Android version of an iPhone app (hands-on) that's aiming to revolutionize personal mobile payments the way that PayPal first simplified payments online. We demoed the Android version of Square at the Google I/O developer conference on Wednesday in San Francisco. We walked away with an activation code and that lightweight peripheral burning a quadrangle in our pocket, giving us a sudden desire to sell T-shirts from our car.

Square, so named for its pivotal cube-like plug-in, accepts credit card payments from individuals and digitally tracks both cash and credit transactions. Photos you take of the merchandise serve as a reference point, and your own account mug reminds the payee with whom their money has just exchanged virtual hands. The Square app securely shields the payer's credit card details so the payee never sees the credit card number or security code, then e-mails or texts a digital receipt.

After downloading the app from the Android Market and going through the sign-up process, Square will mail you the free card-swiping accessory.

There are two points of interest regarding Square that especially itch our brain. First, Square is clearly battling PayPal for the same cut of your pocket change. And why not? There's money to be made when one deals in money, especially when those piles of cents add up.

Square charges the seller 2.75 percent of the total plus 15 cents for every card-swipe, and 3.5 percent plus 15 cents for transactions made with a manually-entered card number. PayPal makes anywhere from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent of each sale, plus 30 cents, based on PayPal's tiered pricing structure for e-commerce, and 5 percent plus 5 cents for each micropayment.

PayPal made some sizable cash by undercutting banks' transaction fees and by getting users to voluntarily swap money among bank accounts, courtesy of PayPal's service. Square is headed in roughly the same direction, but with a few start-up advantages. Square already benefits from PayPal's proven success in priming users to trust a third party with their bank account details--or at least a dummy account--and the addition of a physical card-swiper turns Square-holders into independent merchants who can now process your credit card on the spot.

This leads us to a second point of interest. The quick exchange of funds through the more casual channels of PayPal, Square, and other money-transfer services like TwitPay, make it easier to set up and scale impromptu, informal businesses. We hesitate cracking open a can of legal worms, but we can see how Square's card-swiping "cube" could quickly support its own branch of the informal economy.

Related stories:
PayPal lures in Android developers hunting for dollars
PayPal to extend 'bump' paying to Android, BlackBerryPayPal to extend 'bump' paying to Android, BlackBerry

* For the geometric sticklers among you, since not all of the Square's six sides are equal, it's technically not a cube but a hexahedron.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Apple on Wednesday denied published reports that its professional-level suite of video software applications is being refocused to suit more mainstream customers.

According to an AppleInsider report, the Final Cut Studio team has been told to refocus its efforts "to more closely match the needs of the majority of its customers." That would mean Apple would target customers moving to Final Cut Studio from the company's more basic iMovie application, instead of continuing to offer more high-end features designed for video professionals.

But Apple said that's not the case.

"Final Cut Pro is the first choice for professional video editors, and we've never been more excited about its future," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told CNET. "The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome, and our pro customers are going to love it."

Apple's video products go from the consumer-focused iMovie to the prosumer-oriented Final Cut Express to Final Cut Pro, which is geared toward professional video editors. It seems with that range of products, the Final Cut team should be free to concentrate on more high-end features.

That doesn't mean Apple won't continue to work on integrating features of its lower-end products with Final Cut Studio. In fact, deeper integration makes sense. Not only does it give Final Cut Studio users access to projects in the other applications, it also gives users an easier time upgrading.

Final Cut Studio was last updated July 23, when Apple released new versions of the suite's main apps, including Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Color 1.5, Compressor 3.5, and DVD Studio Pro 4.

Originally posted at News - Apple

Even as opposition mounts against Adobe Systems' Flash technology, the company is showing Wednesday it's working hard to ensure it's not the only arrow in its Web programming quiver.

At the Google I/O conference, Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch is expected to announce the release of an HTML5 update to Adobe's Dreamweaver tool for creating Web sites. HTML5, a still-developing revision to the Web page standard, is a key part of the threat to Flash, but Adobe is indicating it's willing to embrace the alternative.

Adobe has been telegraphing its interest in HTML5 and CSS3, a related new version of the Cascading Style Sheets standard for Web page formatting. But evidently the priority on such work is rising. After Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs trashed Flash, Lynch said , "We're going to try and make the best tools in the world for HTML5."

Earlier evidence emerged in March with Adobe demonstrations of CSS3 to handle screen size variation and of an HTML5 feature called Canvas for 2D graphics. At the time, Adobe said, "It won't be in the next version of CS," but now, just three weeks after the release of Dreamweaver CS5, the team is showing a faster response.

Adobe heard such an "overwhelming response" to the HTML5 and CSS3 demos from March "that we decided to roll it out after CS5," said Lea Hickman, senior director of product management in Adobe's Creative Solutions business, in an interview. "The excitement around HTML5 and all it brings is really exciting. Dreamweaver has a huge opportunity to help that move forward even faster. One thing missing now around HTML5 is great tooling."

As is apparent from Adobe's Flash-defending ad campaign, it's not an either-or situation where Adobe will support only one of the two technologies.

The HTML5 update will be available on the Adobe Labs site. The update itself will let Web developers see and manage HTML5 coding without the software being baffled by the new syntax and options, Hickman said. In addition, the update includes a new version of the WebKit browser for live previewing of Web projects under development.

But it's also clear that Adobe would like to be more of a leader and less of a follower when it comes to HTML5.

"We do participate in W3C [the World Wide Web Consortium that helps oversee HTML5 development] and sit on the HTML5 committee. I think that one of the things we should do is be more of a driver," Hickman said. "There's been a lot of drama around it. We have a team of folks who participate today, and I imagine they'll participate even more in the future."

With so much activity with Web standards, Adobe will have to work hard to keep up with the new specifications. But Hickman prefers that to stagnancy.

"Not much has happened with HTML for a number of years, and HTML5 does provide a lot of excitement about how we can move the Web forward," she said. "HTML5 is a chance to focus on HTML again."

Originally posted at Deep Tech

With three updates now out of the way since its debut in February, Apple's Aperture 3 is ready for prime time, and I recommend the software.

The $199 software is geared for photography enthusiasts and professionals, especially those who shoot raw images rather than just JPEG, and I put the software through its paces for several weeks for a review. My overall opinion: It's solid software that produces very nice images.

If you're an iPhoto user who wants more, it's a good upgrade, though it costs $199 new. If you're an Aperture 2 user, it's a no-brainer to move to the new version. For details, here's CNET's full review of Aperture 3.

Aperture 3's geotagging tools are second to none for those who want to put location data into their photos, and the adjustment brushes work very well, reducing the likelihood you'll have to drag your image into Photoshop for fine-tuning.

If you're on the fence between Aperture and Lightroom, choose carefully, because you won't have an easy time moving your photo archive from one to the other. Lightroom 3 is on its way, so you might want to wait to see what besides automatic lens flaw corrections Adobe has in store before you commit.

Originally posted at Deep Tech