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Ever since Apple released iPhone OS 3.0, Twitter addicts have been waiting for their favorite iPhone application to implement the OS's new "push" technology which could deliver messages as pop-ups on the homescreen. Today, the first app to implement this feature has arrived, but it's not one of the popular apps as you may have expected. Instead, the brand-new app iTwitter (iTunes link) has beaten out all the other major clients to become the first push-enabled Twitter application for the iPhone.

Earlier this year, we reviewed reQall, a very smart task manager, organizer, and 'memory tool' for the iPhone and BlackBerry. It combines a calendar, integration with Outlook and Google Calendar (in the paid version for $2.99 a month), and to-do list functions with a surprisingly useful 'Memory Jogger' feature that brings up reminders depending on the time of the day, date, and a user's location. When we reviewed the app, we noted that it was already a very interesting product, but that it would surely benefit from the iPhone 3.0 release with push notifications, and today this new release for the iPhone 3.0 operating system has finally arrived.

When Apple launched the iPhone 3.0 update, we were pretty excited about a number of the new features in the OS, but push notifications, which Apple billed as an alternative to battery-draining background processes, were on the top of our list. After a few weeks with the iPhone 3.0 OS, however, only a very small number of push apps have made it into the store, and even some of the best ones, like BeeJive IM (iTunes link) and the AP Mobile app (iTunes link) suffer from major drawbacks.

Just this morning, our own Sarah Perez wondered if Apple wasn't ready for push notifications yet, as only a few push enabled apps had made it into the App Store so far, but as is so often the case in our business, only a few hours later Apple first allows the AIM instant messenger (iTunes link) into the store, and now BeejiveIM (iTunes link), a multi-network IM app that was extensively demoed at Apple's developer conference two weeks ago, has also arrived in the App Store as well. We are still waiting for a number of other apps with support for push to be allowed into the store, but it clearly looks like Apple has now opened the floodgates and more apps will probably follow soon.

If you're wondering where all the Push Notification-enabled iPhone apps are, you're not alone. Many of the most highly anticipated applications designed to work in iPhone's OS 3.0 have not yet had their updated versions approved. On the list of overdue apps are AIM, IM+, Beejive IM, and ESPN ScoreCenter to name a few. And who knows how many lesser-known and brand-new applications are still sitting in limbo!

So what's the reason for the delay? One iPhone application developer has his suspicions. He's discovered what appears to be an issue with Apple's Feedback service and is now questioning if this, and not the backlog of new app approvals, is what's causing the holdup.

Even though the iPhone 3.0 OS update went out successfully yesterday, the #1 feature many users were still waiting for was the ability to receive push notifications. While a couple of apps had already been updated with this functionality over the last few days (Zillow, AP Mobile, Weather Alert, etc.), no push notifications went out yesterday. Only this morning, around 10am, did Apple enable push notifications and the first alert went out to the AP Mobile app.

After thinking about how Apple has implemented notifications, however, we think that while this is a great feature, there are a couple of areas where we would like to see some changes.