A while ago we promised you that the next release of TweetDeck would be something very special. Well we have tweaked it and polished it and coated it with a sprinkling of TweetDeck magic dust, and now its ready for you enjoy.

There are so many shiny new features in this release that you may need to wear shades to use it.

For now though, here are just some of the goodies that are waiting for you in v0.32:

LinkedIn gets linked in

As we announced a few days ago, you can now add your LinkedIn account to TweetDeck. This will allow you to interact with your network of professional contacts just as easily as you can with your Twitter, Facebook and Myspace friends. You can add a LinkedIn column to view updates from your network, view profiles and comment on your contacts’ status updates. And send your own update direct from LinkedIn, cross-posting to any of your other accounts at the same time if you wish.

Lists at the heart of the application

That’s what we promised you, so that’s what you’ve got. Twitter Lists in full, glorious TweetDeck style. Export your old TweetDeck Groups to new Twitter Lists or create Lists from scratch. We’ll even give you great suggestions for who to add. Explore your friend’s lists, following and creating columns when you find Lists you like. You can even create your own List by copying someone else’s and adding your own je ne sais quoi.

Although your old TweetDeck groups are still available to you, you won’t be able to create any more. Twitter Lists offer pretty much everything that Groups did, but with the added advantage of being fully compatible with Twitter. We think that you will agree when you see how Lists work in TweetDeck, so expect to see a lot more from us about Lists in the near future. We are very excited about our Lists-based future and we can’t wait to show you what we are planning.

Retweets – Which style? Your choice!

Love them or hate them, the new-style Twitter Retweets are here to stay. And TweetDeck now fully supports them. New-style retweets will show up in your timelines, flagged with the retweet indicator and showing both the original tweeter’s picture and the retweeter’s picture.

But we know that there are many of you who would rather stick with the old tried-and-tested old-style retweets, allowing comments and editing.

So we have given you the choice. Each time you retweet you can choose to “Retweet now” using the new-style, or “Edit then Retweet” which will give you an old-style retweet. Don’t want to have to choose each time? No problem. Just tick “Remember my choice” and TweetDeck will default to whichever option you choose.

Location, location, location

Another new feature that Twitter have recently rolled out is geo-location. This allows your tweets to be tagged with your current location, a function offered by an increasing number of Twitter clients.

In this version of TweetDeck, geo-coded tweets are identified by a yellow pin at the bottom of the tweet. Clicking on this pin will reveal an inline map showing the location that the tweet was sent from. Click the pin again and the map disappears. Be aware though, TweetDeck for desktop will not currently geo-code your outgoing tweets. This function will be available in TweetDeck for mobile very soon however.

Smarter and simpler

Adding more and more great features to TweetDeck is all well and good, but we need to make sure you can use them easily. So in v0.32 we have placed a big emphasis on improving the user interface for key parts of the application.

For instance, the standard toolbar buttons for adding columns have been replaced with a slick new Add Column screen which is now a one-stop-shop for managing columns, Lists and Groups in TweetDeck. We have spruced up the Settings window and the Profile window has also had a make-over.

There are lots more improvement to the user interface to come as well, so expect your TweetDeck to become a whole lot smarter in the future.

…and all the rest

Alongside these major new features, there are also ...