In case you didn’t notice, we just changed our name on Twitter! We’re the same folks you know and love, but now we’ve got a different name. @Handmark is now @OneLouderApps. No need to do anything, you’re still following us, same as before!

Q: So what happened?
A: We have launched a brand new company, purely focused on socially powered apps—OneLouder Apps. The new Twitter name reflects this change.

Q: Why?
A: Thanks to you, TweetCaster has become one of the most popular Twitter apps in the world! And our Facebook app FriendCaster is enjoying the same kind of rapid growth. So we’re creating OneLouder to give more resources and focus on these apps and make them even better!

Q: Why do I care?
A: Well, what it means for you as a TweetCaster user is more focus on you! Beyond TweetCaster and FriendCaster, we will launch a suite of socially-powered apps across a variety of mobile platforms. Stay tuned, you’re going to love what you see.

Q: OK, so maybe I do care. How do I learn more?
A: Check us out at onelouder.com!

Q: What if I still want to follow @Handmark?
A: Simply find @Handmark on Twitter and re-follow.

It is CRITICAL that you upgrade to the latest version of TweetCaster.

Twitter recently asked that all 3rd Party Twitter apps like TweetCaster obtain more detailed permissions from users. (Here is the announcement from Twitter.) We added this new permission process to the latest version of TweetCaster. So, if you have upgraded, you have already gone through this new authorization process for each of your Twitter accounts.

However, if you do not have the latest version of TweetCaster by June 30, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEND AND RECEIVE DIRECT MESSAGES. To upgrade now, go to tweetcaster.com, and you will be redirected to the appropriate app store to get your update.

Check “About” within the TweetCaster app to see which version you have. Here are the latest versions:

• Android: 3.1 (Android Market), 3.1.2 (Amazon), 3.1._ in other stores
• iPhone: 1.4
• Windows Phone 7: 1.3
• Android Tablet (Beta): 0.9

The new versions (v3.1.2) of TweetCaster and TweetCaster Pro are live in the Amazon App Store.

However, some of you weren’t seeing the update. So we asked our friends at Amazon. Here’s their response:

“It generally takes some time once the update first goes Live.  Often times it is determined by when they run a client Refresh of their apps.  It will get pushed to them however, if they don’t refresh. “

Thanks again for your patience!

The bird is the word….

Others may be abandoning BlackBerry, but we’re just getting started!

We’re excited to launch TweetCaster for BlackBerry today as a public beta. While it’s still got a few kinks to work out, we felt it was brimming with so much awesomeness that we wanted to release it to the world and get some feedback.

We’re a bit biased of course, but we think the beta is already the best looking and most usable Twitter app available for BlackBerry. Plus it’s got loads of features already, with a few more yet to come.

If you have a BlackBerry OS 5.0 or higher, go get it FREE for a tweet at tweetcaster.com. Then give us your feedback.

Feature Summary:

Multiple Twitter account support ♦  Simultaneous posting to Twitter and Facebook ♦ Retweet with or without comment ♦ Manage Twitter lists ♦ Advanced profile editing ♦ Nearby/Geolocation functionality ♦ Save and manage drafts ♦ Advanced search ♦ Full trending topics ♦ Share tweets to email, SMS or Facebook ♦ All standard Twitter functions—reading timeline, viewing profiles, sending tweets, clicking links

Some of you are asking why you can’t RT tweets from friends with protected accounts. Here’s the deal:

We deeply respect the privacy of TweetCaster users. Those who have set their Twitter accounts to private expect that their content will not be shared publicly.

Although we previously allowed followers to retweet this content, our friends at Twitter have asked us to stop. And we agreed. We think this is the right thing to do. We hope you do too!

And by the way, TweetCaster is not the only one making this change—it is our understanding that other Twitter apps will too. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of TweetCaster’s awesomeness, as usual!

We love everything about Twitter, including the 140-character limit. But sometimes, a few extra words are required. For those times, we’ll use this Tumblr account.