That didn’t take long. Two days ago, well known VC (and early Twitter investor) Fred Wilson wrote a post telling Twitter startups to stop filling holes in Twitter’s products and to instead look to launch killer apps that start entirely new businesses. That led some third party developers to question if Wilson was hinting that Twitter may start filling in these holes itself, displacing third party apps with official ones (he later said that while he was on the Twitter board, he didn’t know their plans). It looks like the concerned developers may have been right: today, Twitter has announced the launch of the “Official Twitter for BlackBerry App”, which can be downloaded at blackberry.com/twitter.

Now, we’ve known that this application was coming for a long time — we gave out beta keys and reviewed it in Feburary. But looking back, all of the language around this was that it was RIM’s application — RIM was the one pitching us on the news, and there wasn’t any mention that this was endorsed by Twitter. That’s no longer the case. In its blog post, Twitter says that it has been “working closely with RIM to deliver the official Twitter app…”.

This is important, because Twitter has long thrived on its developer community. Third party applications like Tweetie, Seesmic, TweetDeck, Twitterific, and many, many others have brought the service to the desktop and mobile platforms. And myriad Twitter-oriented image and link shortening services have taken off as well. If Twitter is going to start endorsing offical versions of these applications, you can expect some signficant backlash. Other BlackBerry Twitter apps included UberTwitter and Seesmic.

We’ve reached out to Twitter to ask if they have plans to endorse applications on other platforms.

Medialets, an advertising and analytics startup, bet big on the iPhone early, rolling out its universal SDK at the launch of the App Store two years ago. And the startup just launched a universal SDK that works with the iPad. And the company’s Apple-centric strategy has paid off; Medialets is one of the most widely used ad platforms and counts NPR, CNN and Fox as clients. Today, the startup is moving in a new direction, announcing a Rich Media Ad SDK for the Android platform, allowing publishers and developers to seamlessly switch between ad networks and first-party ad servers.

With the Android SDK, Medialets allows advertisers to create and deliver the mobile specific ads across both Android devices and iPhones. Similar to the universal SDK for iPhone and iPad, the Android SDK will allows publishers to modify and change their ad tags from various networks without having to update their app. As the Android platform continues to grow, more and more mobile ad networks are launching Android specific platforms, making Medialets offering appealing. The SDK works with any first or third party ad sever, network or mediator, including AdMob tags.

As we’ve written in the past, Medialets promises rich media and display advertising on mobile phones that provides deeper engagement with users. In fact, engagement is a primary measurement that the ad platform focuses on when determining the success of its advertising campaigns. But developers and advertisers may be more beholden to click-through rates, which Medialets claim are between 1 and 8 percent. However, eight percent seems a bit high, considering that other rich media mobile ad platforms, including Greystripe and AdMob, are seeing between 1 and 2 percent, in terms of click-through rates.

But Medialets has seen considerable success with its universal SDK offering, most recently striking a deal with The New York Times to use the startup’s rich media ad units for the Times’ iPad app. With the popularity of Medialets’ universal product, I imagine that other mobile ad networks will develop their own universal SDKs in due time.

With the iPad officially in the hands of consumers, mobile ad networks and platforms are rushing to create iPad specific ad formats. Medialets, Mobclix, and Greystripe have all created ad formats for the device. And AdMob is said to be releasing its iPad-specific SDK in the next few weeks. Mobile ad network Millennial Media is releasing an iPad-specific SDK and a customized PadMedia Creative Suite that includes new creative ad formats built specifically for the iPad.

Millennial Media’s iPad SDK is code complete, and will be deployed after testing with beta publishers on-device is finalized this week. Developers will be able to download the SDK through Millennial’s developer portal. For advertisers, Millennial Media is releasing its PadMedia Creative Suite, which includes standard mobile ad units and new unique ad formats for the iPad.

These include floating canvas, where a rich media ad will expand upon click, attempting to leverage the canvas of the iPad; RTP (Return-to-Play), which is an ad unit that allows consumers to respond to an ad, pausing their application experience and resuming when they are ready; Motion Creative, which allows ad units to become interactive when the user turns or rotates the iPad in different ways; and full-page Interstitials, which are full-page ads that appear upon application launch or during transition in game play.

Millennial is now one of the largest mobile ad networks in and U.S. According to Nielsen, Millennial Media reaches 83 percent of 72 million mobile web users, across every mobile platform. And the Baltimore-based startup is growing; in February Millennial Media acquired mobile metrics and analytics firm TapMetrics. Additionally, the ad network raised $16 million in Series C funding last November.

Of course, like many of its fellow ad networks, Millennial finds itself in a perplexing situation in the space. It’s unclear how Google’s acquisition of AdMob (although this may be derailed) and Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless will effect the other ad networks in the space. And Apple is announcing its mobile ad plans tomorrow. If anything, these networks will now have to compete with two of the largest companies in the world.

But Millennial Media is wise to being offering innovative ad formats for the iPad and should be able to stand on its own if these formats ends of producing high click through rates.

MySpace is preparing to add Facebook Connect features to its main service, we’ve confirmed from a source within MySpace. This will be the first time MySpace will publicly conceded defeat to Facebook over ownership of the social graph, and it’s more than a touchy subject internally.

So touchy, in fact, that my source tells me that by simply breaking the news early the whole rollout might be ditched or delayed. A key part of the launch is apparently a serious amount of message massaging by MySpace PR on what this means for MySpace.

Earlier this year the MySpace UK team added Facebook Connect features to a fan video without, apparently, the knowledge of upper management at MySpace. MySpace also quietly (silently actually) rolled out sharing on Facebook for MySpace videos recently. This new Facebook Connect rollout is being done very quietly as well, we’ve heard. Some very senior MySpace execs seem to have no idea it’s happening.

So what does all this mean? In the next week or two we’ll see at least a limited rollout of Facebook Connect on MySpace. Or, we won’t. Ah, the joys of having co-presidents to take your company to the next level.

As we’ve reported over the past few days, a number of online video sites are jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon so that their content can be viewed on the iPad (which doesn’t support Adobe’s Flash). However, some online video sites have not adjusted their video content to be iPad friendly (a.k.a these sites are still using Flash). Clicker, a comprehensive search engine for TV content on the web, is launching a special version of its site for the iPad that will only surface videos from the web that will be able to stream on the device.

Clicker, which made its debut at TechCrunch50 last fall, makes it easy to search through the vast amounts of video content available online. Clicker’s index includes over 600,000 full length TV episodes spanning 10,000 shows. The service also allows users to search through premium content including Netflix’s Instant Streaming movies and Amazon Video on Demand (though you have to pay to watch them). Additionally, the site indexes music videos, and has started teaming up with schools to index their lectures and other original content. Clicker doesn’t actually host any of this content — instead, it provides deep links that point you directly to whichever episode you want to watch.

So when iPad users access Clicker’s site on their device, they will be redirected to a specially formatted version of Clicker that has indexed all of the sites and videos on the web that are able to be viewed on the iPad. Clicker’s iPad-friendly site will index HTML5, Quicktime, and H.264 formatted videos. For now, programs available for download via the iTunes store aren’t in the Clicker catalog but should be added within the next few weeks. And as more content becomes available on the iPad, Clicker’s universal search technology will index it and make it available for the iPad-specific site. At launch, the site will only be able to be accessed by iPad devices.

In the blog post announcing the new site, Clicker says they will be launching a fill-fledged iPad app fairly soon. The site will surely be useful for iPad users to find the TV content on the web that works for the device. Of course, iPad users can also access TV content from a host of iPad apps from TV networks and others that are available for download. Clicker, which officially launched to the public in November, just raised an $11 million Series B funding round led by JAFCO Ventures, with existing investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures also participating.

With all the talk about Google and Amazon versus Apple, both Internet companies have been quick to release custom applications for the latter’s freshly launched iPad device.

Amazon.com had already introduced its Kindle app for iPad, and over the weekend added a second one to the stable: an IMDb (Internet Movie Database) app (iTunes link).

The Amazon.com subsidiary, which offers a ton of information on movies, TV and celebrities, has actually not released an entirely new app but simply altered its iPhone app to optimize the experience for the bigger screen. According to the company, the IMDb Movies & TV App for iPad lets customers access more than 1.5 million movie and TV titles with information on 3.2 million celebrities, actors, actresses, directors and crew members.

Users can also use the app to watch movie trailers in HD, find localized movie showtimes in the United States, browse photo galleries and shop for DVD and Blu-ray releases. The app is free of charge – it hasn’t garnered any reviews on iTunes so far.

IMDb’s website welcomes over 57 million unique visitors per month, although it looks and feels incredibly old school to me. No doubt, iPad owners with even the slightest interest in movies, TV or celebrities are going to want this app.

Be sure to check out our complete list of the best iPad apps at launch.

As a general-purpose tablet, the iPad can be many things to many people: an ebook reader, a wireless TV, a touchscreen videogame console. But to store owners and business people it can also be a cash register, with the right app, of course. Jack Dorsey’s Square, which was initially developed for the iPhone, now has an iPad app as well (iTunes link).

Square comes with a peripheral credit card swiper that lets any store or business person take credit card (or cash) payments on iPhones, and now, iPads. It takes finger signatures on the touchscreen, generates email or SMS receipts, calculates sales tax, and comes with an online accounting dashboard to keep track of sales. (You can watch our video of how the iPhone app works).

The iPad version is going to be appealing to many merchants because of the bigger screen and because it just looks more professional—more like some of the custom point-of-sale tablets you already see at some retailers today. But an iPad is probably much cheaper than some of those custom hardware systems, and Square’s payments software on the backend will keep getting better. Square can add new features without swapping the hardware.

So while the iPad will mostly be a consumer device, it opens up some interesting new opportunities for businesses as well.

Read our full list of the best iPad apps at launch here.

Earlier today, news broke that The New York Times was raising the price on its E-Edition from $14.99 to $19.99 a month. Now, Amazon has just told customers with Kindle subscriptions to the Times that they’re getting a price hike too: they’re jumping from $13.99 to $19.99 — an increase of 43 percent. Current Kindle subscribers will continue to pay $13.99/month for the next six months.

This is almost certainly in anticipation of the iPad launch tomorrow — Amazon just announced the release of its own Kindle for iPad app, which will be competing with Apple’s iBooks. And we’ll probably see the NYT’s iPad subscription at the same $19.99 rate. For comparison’s sake, earlier today the Wall Street Journal announced that their iPad subscription fee would be $17.29 per month.

Here’s the email Amazon is sending out:

Hello from Amazon.com,

As a Kindle subscriber to New York Times, you might like to know that effective April 2, 2010, the New York Times has raised its price to $19.99/month for new subscribers.

As an existing subscriber to New York Times, you will continue to be billed at the previous rate of $13.99/month for six more months (until October 2nd, 2010) after which you will be billed at the monthly rate then in effect.  We believe that the Kindle edition of New York Times continues to provide excellent value for customers with a free 14 day trial period, wireless delivery via Whispernet, no long-term commitments, and substantial savings vs. regular print subscription rates.

As always you are free to cancel your subscription at any time.  If you are still in the 14 day free trial period of your subscription you will not be charged, otherwise you will receive a prorated refund for the unused portion of your subscription.  To change or cancel a subscription, please visit www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle.

Sincerely, The Amazon Kindle team

We had some fun yesterday for April Fools day, fake-covering the launch of the New York Times iPad app by replacing some words of an article in the paper published back in 1996 upon the launch of its first Website.

Now, the company has introduced its iPad app for real. It’s free and both advertiser-sponsored and advertising-supported, but there’s also a “full, paid app” in the works.

Screenshots of the app had already surfaced yesterday, first on MacStories.

The iPad application is dubbed The New York Times Editors’ Choice app (iTunes link) and offers a selection of news, opinion and feature articles chosen by Times editors that can be downloaded automatically to the tablet device. It delivers two pages of content with the top eight to ten articles in latest news, business, technology, opinion and feature sections with accompanying videos and photo slideshows.

The app is free of charge, but the launch was sponsored exclusively by Chase Sapphire and Medialets took care of the advertising part of the equation: a full-page vertical and horizontal interstitial ad.

Features of the application include (straight from the press release):

Simple navigation – read articles and view videos and slideshows with ease using the iPad’s sophisticated navigation capabilities and cutting-edge multi-touch screen.

Offline reading – download and sync articles and images to iPad device for viewing offline or in airplane mode.

Share options – e-mail articles to friends from the app.

Interestingly, The Times said there’s also a paid app forthcoming, but wouldn’t detail the price or what people would be paying for exactly.

Presumably, the paid iPad app will let people access the full array of digital content the NYT has to offer rather than only articles hand-picked by its editors. A lot will depend on the price, but I assume the paid app won’t come with advertising.

Would you pay for a NYT app if you had an iPad? How much would you say is too much?