The Icon Factory has released its popular Twitterrific application for iPhone and iPod touch. Just like the desktop version, the mobile one (available for free on the App Store) displays all recent posts, or "tweets," including replies and direct messages for the Twitter social network, and can be optimized for either right or left-hand usage, allowing users to attach photos, locations, specify favorites and much more.

"We're very pleased to announce the immediate release of Twitterrific for the iPhone and iPod touch from Apple's newly launched App Store," says the team at The Icon Factory. "This revolutionary online store offers limitless software choices for users of Apple's mobile hardware and we're proud to be a part of the grand opening."

As you may have heard, the App Store debuted last week offering some 500 items, a quarter of which are free to download and use, while a third is just games.

While Twitterrific displays all recent posts ("tweets"), including replies and direct messages for the Twitter social network, just like the desktop version, the iPhone version can be optimized for right or left-hand use and offers the ability to attach photos, locations and specify favorites.

Other highlights include a special detail view for showing more tweet information; a built-in mini-browser for displaying links and @screen_names; built-in hints to help you learn quickly; nearby tweets are highlighted with a link to Maps, and more.

Twitterrific is available as a free download from the Apple App Store. The application is supported by advertising via The Deck, but iPhone owners can also choose a Premium version that removes all advertising and includes this special "inverse" user interface theme, all for just $9.99. It requires iPhone OS 2.0 to work.

The desktop (Mac) version of the program can be found HERE, in case you want to see what it's all about. It's free to download, just like the iPhone version. Registering the program removes all advertising and helps support future improvements.

iPhone / iPod touch owners looking to actually buy Twitterrific on their devices might want to take into account that the mobile version still has a few issues. For instance, the push notification service announced by Apple during the WWDC keynote will not be available until later this year, the team behind Twitterrific says. "We don't know if Twitterrific will be able to support it or not: it requires additions/changes at the source of the data (Twitter) and the volume of information may be too great for Apple to handle. We are definitely keeping an eye on things and talking to the right people," says The Icon Factory.

Twitterrific won an Apple Design Award at the 2008 World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco for Best iPhone Application in the Social Networking category.