Everyone seems to have their own personal preferences when it comes to choosing an Android Twitter client. Twidroid and Seesmic are my current faves, but Twitter has now launched its own official app in the Android Market to shake things up.

However, HTC Hero owners shouldn’t get too excited, the app is currently only available on handsets running Android 2.1. Whilst that rules us out for now, at least we know an upgrade is coming at some point that means we won’t miss out altogether.

The app comes with a home screen widget to read your tweet timeline quickly, you’ll also be able to view a tweet location on a map. Like other clients, you’ll also be able to share photos too. Another cool feature is the ability to sync tweets with your phonebook contacts so that you can view your friends latest tweets straight from your phonebook.

Currently there isn’t multiple account support, but hopefully this will be included by the time we get Android 2.1. Google plans to open source the code for the new app so hopefully devs will create some exciting experiences using Twitter APIs in future apps. To see what you are missing, check out some hands on videos of the official Twitter app in action below.

Skyfire has launched v2.0 of its Android browser that brings with it a new “SkyBar” that gives you automatic Flash video streaming. The browser doesn’t actually play Flash natively, it goes through Skyfire’s servers which are then converted to formats that the mobile is happier to stream, such as HTML5.

So if you come across a video with a broken link, all you need to do is open the SkyBar, hit the video button and choose Skyfire’s version. The browser also includes tabbed browsing, multitouch gestures along with integration of social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook amongst others. Skyfire 2.0 is available on the market right now. You can check out a video of this in action after the cut.

Great news xda-developer fans, a dedicated Android app has been released that lets you view its forums, respond to posts, start new topics, check your PMs and subscribe to your favourite threads. This will be good to keep an eye on all of the good modding/root work going on with the HTC Hero.

The app is basically a skinned version of TapaTalk who have their own app that allows you to easily browse vbulletin/phpbb forums. You can find the xda-dev app by searching for ‘XDA’ in the Android Market. Check out a video of it in action after the break.

Okay, I know that this is the HTC Hero Blog, but I couldn’t help but share my excitement in unboxing the company’s latest and greatest Desire smartphone. This little beauty comes with a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset, 3.7-inch AMOLED display and Android 2.1.

In the video I also compare the Desire to the HTC Hero to give you an idea of size along with the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD that also sports a 3.7-inch OLED display. Initial impressions are that the handset feels lighter than expected and just as ergonomic as the HTC Hero. I haven’t had much time to play with the phone, but I can already appreciate its zippy processor.

Please let me know if you’d like me to cover more on the Desire in this blog in the comments below. Even if you have any other questions about the Desire I’ll try my best to answer them. Check out the video after the break.

The latest beta for Opera Mini 5 is now available to download via the Android Market on your HTC Hero handset. There are a number of big improvements including tabbed browsing, speed dial (straight from the desktop version), password manager and Opera Link that syncs bookmarks between mobile and handset.

I’m a big fan of Opera, it is my default browser of choice on the desktop and it is normally once of the first things I install on a new phone. The HTC Hero was different as frankly the last version Opera on Android was pretty rubbish. It crashed often and didn’t do what I wanted. However, the new version is better, although it doesn’t support multitouch which is a shame. It’s still worth giving a try, go find it in the Market now.

Update: Engadget has a video comparing Opera Mini 5 against the stock Android browser. To cut a long story short, Opera crushes the stock browser in terms of speed. Check out the video after the jump.

Whilst we twiddle our fingers waiting for the Android 2.1 firmware , HTC are (hopefully) hard at work behind the scenes in making this a fully featured update. Part of the delay is caused by HTC customising the Sense user interface and integrating it with the new Android 2.1 firmware.

There may be the possibility that this new Sense interface will include multi-touch functionality within the HTC Hero’s homescreens. A video has emerged that shows that pinching the various homescreen panes allows you to zoom out to see all of the panes at a glance. It’s unclear if this will be in the official update or whether it’s some handiwork from a talented hacker. Hopefully, we’ll have more details at next weeks MWC show in Barcelona. Click through for the video.

Via Engadget.

There’s not much that the HTC Hero can’t do and now you can strike ‘controlling robots’ off that list too! The guys over at ENEA in Sweden use a customized Android application on the HTC Hero that controls a Mindstorms robot using Bluetooth and the tilt sensor in the phone.

For those wondering if this was tricky given the Hero’s limited Bluetooth support (as we’re still on Android 1.5 – hurry up HTC!), the answer would be yes. They instead had to use the Wi-Fi abilities of the phone to send the information to a laptop with Ubuntu Linux with a TCP/IP to Bluetooth tunnel. Once we (eventually) get Android 2.1 then this convoluted step can be skipped as we’ll get full Bluetooth support. Until that hallowed day comes, you can check out the video after the break.

Via Gizmodo.

Those of you paranoid about security may be interested to know that WaveSecure, the mobile security application, is available to download free of charge on all Android handsets (as long as you register before the end of January). Once registered you get free lifetime membership. It supports other phones (Symbian and Windows Mobile) too where they charge €15 for the app.

WaveSecure helps you to secure and track down a lost or stolen phone. It tracks down your phone’s location and who is using it and even allows you to lock it down remotely! As well as this, you can backup or wipe all of your data remotely. The app can be downloaded from the Android Market, just search for WaveSecure. Check out a video demo of it in action after the break.

There’s been a lot of buzz today surrounding the official launch of the Google Nexus One smartphone. As most of you know the Nexus One will be arriving with Android 2.1 in tow, this brings with it a host of new features. This includes some nice new additions to the Gmail application,

As we know that HTC Hero owners will be getting Android 2.1, we can all look forward to this upgrade at some point down the line. The list of new Gmail additions in Android 2.0 and 2.1 are as follows:

• Quick contact badge: Press the contact status icon within Gmail, and a handy box shows all of the ways you can reply to a contact — including email, chat, SMS, and Facebook.
• Voice input: Swipe the keyboard, then just speak to select contacts or write an email, complete with punctuation.
• Multiple Gmail accounts: Sync multiple accounts to the same device and switch between them without leaving the app.
• Undo: A handy ‘undo’ link makes it easier to retrieve messages when you hit archive or delete by mistake.

Check out a video demonstrating these new features after the break.

Following on from our last post regarding a possible new Sense UI from HTC, we now have some video evidence. The latest ROM build of HTC’s rumoured Espresso handset is caught running on a HTC Hero handset.

The translucent app icons didn’t seem to go down well, judging by your comments on the last post, and the sceptical amongst you won’t find anything in this video to change your minds. Other differences include a Call & Contacts button that is added to the app launcher bar at the bottom. We also noticed that that notification pane now has a ‘Recent’ section that details recently used apps.

Hopefully we’ll hear something official during CES on the new UI and exactly which handsets it’ll be hitting. Until then, check out the video after the break.

Thanks Peter!