Opinion Of Sony Ericsson developer boss: 'in favor' of rooting option if done right

Is the tide about to turn in the Android hackability debate? Not long after Motorola indicated its willingness to start helping out folks that want unlockable bootloaders, Simon Walker, head of Sony Ericsson's developer program, has noted on Twitter that he's "actually in favor" of allowing some sort of rooting option as long as it's "done right." Clearly, manufacturers across the board are interested in getting tight and cozy with the developer community -- apps are the key to any platform's success, after all, and many Android devices have unique features that can take advantage additional custom coding -- so they're appearing a little conflicted about how to proceed on the dev-friendliness front without coming across as outright hacker-friendly (commercial developers and hackers are often at odds, after all). Walker says that he needs to "take the discussion" inside the company before any sort of decision is made, but at least we know there's a proponent up in the ranks.

HTC Thunderbolt delayed until March 4th, saying a Best Buy store with a Twitter account

Wondering why the Thunderbolt isn't in stores yet? Hard to say -- apart from the reeling HTC and Verizon employees might be doing in light of the Apple / Intel news -- but a Best Buy in California spilled the bad news on Twitter last night that it's now expecting Big Red's first LTE phone on March 4th. AsAndroid Police points out, the store appears to have confused the day March 4th falls on (it's a Friday, not a Thursday), but we're figuring it's far more likely the date is right, not the day of the week. And if Best Buy has a launch exclusive on this thing, that means it could be another week or two beyond that before the phone shows up in Verizon retail locations and elsewhere. Bummer, eh?

Update: We just got an image (you can see it for yourself after the break) that seems to set the ThunderBolt's Best Buy arrival date even later than March 4th. According to the Best Buy Mobile document, it looks like it will be on sale on March 10th. Either way, we think it's pretty safe to say that this one continues to be pushed back.

Sprint taking to Twitter to tease next phone, tells us to check back on the 24th

If you somehow managed to make it through the Kyocera Echo event without firmly deciding what your next Sprint phone would be, you're going to want to set your alarms for this coming Thursday, February 24th. Sprint's just dropped a quick teaser on Twitter that asks its followers what they "think the next new Sprint phone will be," ending with a hashtag suggesting they check back in three days -- no hint whatsoever as to what kind of handset it could be. Clearly, Sprint's nearing the point when an upgradedEVO 4G would be nice, but with the lack of carrier exclusivity, the CDMA iPhone would make a nice fit, too. Any other guesses out there?

Twitter for BlackBerry 1.1 hits beta, adding new notifications and geotagging

The official Twitter app for BlackBerry has gotten a nice little bump today -- though you'll need to be a member of RIM's BlackBerry Beta Zone to get it at this point, since it's not quite gold yet. The new version adds a bunch of "features users have been asking for" including support for geotagging tweets, new push notifications for mentions, threaded direct messages, integration with BlackBerry OS' Social Feeds functionality, support for gestures on touchscreen devices, and new languages (Polish and Czech, it seems). As long as you've got a data plan and a device with BlackBerry OS 4.5 or higher, you should be good to go.

Twitter for BlackBerry 1.1 hits beta, adding new notifications and geotagging

The official Twitter app for BlackBerry has gotten a nice little bump today -- though you'll need to be a member of RIM's BlackBerry Beta Zone to get it at this point, since it's not quite gold yet. The new version adds a bunch of "features users have been asking for" including support for geotagging tweets, new push notifications for mentions, threaded direct messages, integration with BlackBerry OS' Social Feeds functionality, support for gestures on touchscreen devices, and new languages (Polish and Czech, it seems). As long as you've got a data plan and a device with BlackBerry OS 4.5 or higher, you should be good to go.

Twitter CEO shooting down talk of a Twitter-branded smartphone before it starts

Think Twitter's going to follow Facebook and lend its brand to a smartphone? Think again. Twitter CEO Dick Costello said during his Mobile World Congress keynote yesterday that while he does see a need to better integrate Twitter into existing platforms for phones, he sees no need for a Twitter-branded smartphone. Costello cited the ability to take a picture on an Android phone and automatically tweet it as an example of that integration he'd like to see, and further added that he would like to see "more single sign-on experiences," and "more apps that can tweet without having to go to another app." Interestingly, Costello also revealed that 40 percent of all tweets come from mobile devices, and that fully half of all active Twitter users are active on more than one platform.

P.S. We should note that Costello seems to have overlooked the trailblazing TwitterPeek, along with everyone else.

Square has billboard in Times Square, still slowly delivering card reader

If you've been reading TUAW for any length of time, you've probably seen our posts aboutSquare. This startup had the idea to develop a free credit card reader that could be used with an iPhone (later expanded to many phone models) or iPad, and provide a card authorization service with low enough rates that basically anyone in the U.S. could accept credit cards.

The service works very well; I've moved from a traditional credit card authorization service to Square, and I'm saving money in the process. However, an informal Twitter poll showed that there are still a number of people (including our very own Dave Caolo) who are still patiently waiting for their readers over a year after signing up. Not good.

That's apparently not keeping the company from shouting from the rooftops about how great their product is. The company received funding from a supporter to install a huge multi-panel billboard in New York's Times Square showing how anyone can accept credit cards with the Square reader and iPhone app. They've also teamed up with fashion designer Vivienne Tam to come out with a limited-edition high fashion card reader.

We're happy to see that you're going places, Square -- just be sure to keep sending out those card readers to all those people who are still waiting.