Today at the 2009 Blackberry Developer Conference, Loopt announced a major update for its free application for BlackBerry smartphones, designed to connect users to the most relevant places and people nearby using background location updating. Now BlackBerry users can take online, offline to discover who’s around, what to do and where to go – representing the convergence of mobile, geo-location, status, connections, and hyper-local – all in one app.

On BlackBerry smartphones, Loopt runs in the background so, even when the Loopt application is not running in the foreground, users are still updating their location in real-time while they are on the move.

Loopt now offers dynamically-generated, relevant local content about places and events from some of the best sources on the Web to help users meet up with nearby friends, explore new places to grab food, and find local events happening now.

Feature highlights include:

• Discover the best places and events, including those rated highly by your friends on Pulse
• See where your friends are on maps – view their latest updates listed in real-time and comment on them
• Check-in to instantly share your updates with friends – easily update Facebook and Twitter with your photos and places in one Loopt check-in
• Browse and rate local places and events – peruse detailed information from Zagat, Citysearch, and the Loopt community
• Save money through special offers from nearby retailers with local coupons

Tyler Lessard, Vice President, Global Alliances and Developer Relations at Research In Motion says that, “Loopt has done a tremendous job of bringing location-based services and social communications together to enable BlackBerry smartphone users to discover, share and connect.”

Loopt is available for free for the BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Bold 9000, and the BlackBerry Tour smartphones on BlackBerry App World.