In today’s mobile and social news roundup: More leaks ahead of Galaxy SIV launch; Twitter to launch music app; WhatsApp arrives to BlackBerry; Facebook now more appcentric; and Apple-Samsung patent brawl reviewed by ITC.

More leaks ahead of Galaxy SIV launch

Samsung’s Unpacked event is scheduled today at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.  The event will start at 7PM ET.

A day before the event, more leaks about the Galaxy SIV surfaced the web.  One video showed a device with a removable back cover and battery, and the device shown in the leaked video supports dual-SIM, probably a version directed at emerging markets found in Asia.

The photos also showed that speculated features such as the Air View will be present in the new Galaxy device.

Tune in for the live coverage here.

Twitter to launch music app

Twitter acquired We Are Hunted, a music discovery service, last year.  And it looks like Twitter is ready to put it to good use, as rumors surfaced that the company will be launching a music app later this month.

The app will be called Twitter Music and will first launch on iOS devices later this month.  Twitter Music will rely on what the users follow on Twitter to suggest music and artists.  The songs on Twitter Music will be streamed from SoundCloud, the cloud music service.
@TwitterMusic, a Twitter account for anything music related, currently has over two million followers.  This suggests that if Twitter does launch its music app, it will be a sure fire hit.

In other Twitter news, the service now supports line breaks.  Now you can tweet in an even weirder fashion.

WhatsApp arrives on BlackBerry

WhatsApp Messenger is now available for download in BlackBerry World.

WhatsApp lets users send messages, group messages, photos, videos and even share locations to other WhatsApp users for free.  WhatsApp uses a user’s sata plan, and is a great way to stay connected with friends.

“BlackBerry has always been about bringing people together in a way that is fast, reliable and impactful. WhatsApp is a highly anticipated mobile messaging app that connects users to their contacts on several platforms, and we are pleased to work with WhatsApp to bring their service to our customers,” Martyn Mallick, VP Global Alliances and Business Development at BlackBerry said.

BlackBerry already has a dedicated messaging service, the BlackBerry Messenger.  This service is one of things that drew consumers to using BlackBerries, but its for BlackBerry users only.  By making WhatsApp available for BlackBerry users, they can now stay connected to friends using non-BlackBerry devices.

Facebook now more app-centric

Facebook recently unveiled a new face for its service that features bigger photos and new feeds organization.  The social giant has now revealed plans of making the service more appcentric.

Users will have a more organized Timeline, a new app section, and new Open Graph tools, and documentations will be added.

To simplify how apps are displayed on timeline, we’re replacing aggregations with app sections. Previously, only top-ranked Open Graph stories and aggregations would appear on timeline. Now, when someone adds an app section, it will appear in the same place until they edit the order or visibility.

“As part of this update, we’re giving people more control over which apps they want to show on their timeline. To add your app as a section, people will need to install your app and click the “Add to Profile” button on their app section page. You should encourage your users to add your app by linking to it on web or invoking it on mobile,” Jeff Huang posted on Facebook’s Developer Blog.

The update will gradually be rolled out to developers and users.

Apple-Samsung patent brawl reviewed by ITC

The US International Trade Commission was set to issue its final decision regarding the Apple-Samsung patent infringement case, which involved the patent for transmitting data held by Samsung.

If Apple is found guilty of infringing the said Samsung patent, its product may be banned from being sold in the US.  If that happens, it could greatly affect the US economy.  The delay in handing down its decision may be ITC’s way of giving Apple ample time to come up with a work around for the patent or enter a licensing deal with Samsung for the patent.