If you haven’t been using the WoW Remote apps for iOS and Android, you’ve been missing out. Not only do the apps give you full access to The Armory and the Auction House, but they now allow you to send whispers and messages to guild members, provided you and they are both signed up. You can even join officer chat while you’re using your phone, all without having to log in to the game from your computer. Talk about a way to find out who’s online in the game just by looking at your phone.

Here’s the scoop from Blizzard’s announcement:

We recently updated the World of Warcraft Remote page with new screenshots and information about the upcoming mobile guild chat feature, currently in development for iPhone®, iPod touch®, and Android™. This new feature will allow World of Warcraft Remote subscribers to participate in guild chat, send whispers to their guildmates, and more through their phone or mobile device. We’ll have more information on the availability of this fanciful feat of gnomish engineering soon, so keep your goggles glued to the official World of Warcraft website.

The bigger thing to note here, even if you’re not addicted to your guild chat channel and you don’t want a way to keep up with them and talk to them at all times, (ugh – I know some guildies who’ll be in gchat all. of. the. time. thanks to this….) is that this means Blizzard is and has been actively working on the World of Warcraft Remote app for a while now, ever since they introduced the Auction House features. That means there are likely more good things coming soon for the app.

Well folks, that’s that – it’s all over. The Cataclysm beta is finished, all said and done. Sayeth the Zarhym on the official forums:

We’re just about two weeks out from the official global launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm! And with that, the time has come to conclude the beta test. We will be shutting down our beta realms momentarily. We want to sincerely thank all of you for your dedication to testing, providing feedback, reporting bugs, and everything else you’ve done to help us make this expansion the best World of Warcraft title to date.

Stay tuned to our new community site (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/) for the latest news and updates as we get closer to release. We’ll see you in Cataclysm!

Yeah, the down-side to this is that they aren’t doing anything fun like a wide open beta or any huge world-ending event in Cataclysm, but…well…it is the Cataclysm after all. That should be world-ending enough, shouldn’t it?

If you didn’t get into the beta, no worries – you only have a week or so left before the fun comes to you!

After all, there’s not a lot going on in the World of Warcraft right now, so who could blame you if you’ve been taking time off of the game while waiting for Cataclysm to ship. Have you been playing? How have you been passing the time?

A lot of other WoW bloggers I read have suggested that now’s the time to run as many randoms as possible, as many heroics as possible, and load up on badges and gear and heirlooms because they’ll all be more valuable as the expansion approaches, and they’ll all help you level from 80-85 or start new characters after Cataclysm.

I on the other hand, saddled with a mostly inactive guild that was never raiding class (we were social more than anything) and only a few friends who still play the game, have largely been taking the time off and away from the game (at least until I’m blessed by the Blizzard angels with a beta key.) until the expansion comes out.

So what about you? Has your guild been trying to max out as many characters as possible in preparation for the upcoming expansion and changes? Or have you been leveling alts as much as possible? Maybe you’ve all but abandoned the game for the time being and plan to come back when Cataclysm launches? Let us know how you’ve been passing the time!

I know, this is completely a self-indulgent post that I’d like to share with anyone who’s reading. I apologize in advance for being so broody and emotional about it, but I’ve exhausted my resources and this is the very best I can think of to do right now.

But can someone hook a sister up with a beta code or something or other?!? OMG please!!

Do you not understand they’re destroying my Tree, I mean Resto Druid. I need to know what’s going on. I need to! Must!

*falls over in a heap of begging for a beta code goo*

So, anyone else want in on the beta enough to resort to internet begging? Please tell me I’m not the only one. I can’t be the only one, right??

Cataclysm is months away at least, the alpha is raging on but even a private beta hasn’t been announced, and the only content we have to look forward to before Cataclysm is released will be the Ruby Sanctum, the retaking of Gnomeregan, and the quest to retake the Echo Isles….not to mention all of the pre-planning and world events that will lay the foundation for the events in Cataclysm….okay fine, there’s plenty to look forward to before Cataclysm hits store shelves, but that’s not the point.

It’s clear that we’re through all of the major content for this expansion. So now that Wrath of the Lich King is about over and done with from a story and lore perspective, what are you doing while you wait for the next big event, raid, dungeon, or feature to drop?

I’ve seen a number of people taking breaks from the game so they can come back fresh when Cataclysm is ramping up, and I’ve also seen a number of people taking the time to do their “bucket lists” of achievements and events that will likely go away once the expansion is released and Azeroth is irrevocably changed. Others are just bored, running around in circles or doing battlegrounds or leveling alts – how are you passing the time? Let us know in the comments!

In a blue post today, Blizzard announced that they were opening the door to their Cataclysm opt-in program. This means that essentially if you want to participate in the beta, you’ll have to download the opt-in client, provide some feedback to Blizzard on your system configuration, and you’ll automatically be added to the pool of eligible users willing to give the beta a whirl when it leaves friends-and-family alpha and enters closed beta.

Interested? You’ll find the beta opt-in page on your Battle.net account management page under Beta Profile Settings! Sign up now, and good luck!

See that puppy up there? That’s Deathwing. Deathwing himself on the steps of Stormwind (click the image to enlarge it) and is reportedly a leak from the forementioned Alpha of Cataclysm.

I’m not entirely convinced just yet – the model definitely looks like what we would expect Deathwing to look like in-game, but his placement on the steps of Stormwind doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially without massive destruction around him. Why would he even be there? No idea. It’s just as possible that this is a snapshot from a private server with hacked models as it is an actual screenshot from the game itself. Who knows. Regardless though, it’s pretty cool to see!

This image has been circulated around WoW blogs this morning from WoW.com to MMO-Champion, so there’s every reason to believe that it’s real, even if it may not be legit. Do I see wallpaper fodder? New wallpapers, anyone?

One of the first things that Blizzard does when they launch a new expansion or product is do a “Friends and Family Alpha,” which is only open to developers, their family, and people who are “friends of the company,” meaning they know they’ll get really high-quality feedback on issues and bugs they find, and that they have a small number of individually identifiable people involved in the testing that are all under NDA (non-disclosure agreement) so they won’t speak to the press or the public about the game or share information from the game.

Now, Blizzard confirmed in a blue post that the Friends and Family Alpha for Cataclysm has officially begun. Sayeth the Zarhym:

Yes, we can confirm that the Family & Friends phase of the testing process for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has begun. The closed beta test phase has not yet started, but we will provide updated information when it does.

And there you have it – every day the Friends and Family testing goes, we march closer to a beta. I’m still betting on November 2010 – when do you think Cataclysm will be released?