Google now gives you 15GB of shared Gmail, Google+ Photos and Drive storage

By Christian Zibreg on May 13, 2013

Hands up who lives in the Google cloud. If you keep your images on Google+ Photos (formerly Picasa Web Albums), manage documents in Google Drive or file messages with large attachments in Gmail, you are tapping the power of Google’s cloud storage. But up until today, each of these relied on their private cloud locker in the sky, which was inconvenient.

This morning, Google has tweaked the offering to include fifteen gigabytes of unified, free storage shared across Gmail, Drive and Google+ Photos. Previously, Google gave you ten gigabytes for Gmail and an additional five gigabytes of combined storage limited to Drive and Google+ Photos.

The change strengthens the Drive brand while simplifying things for consumers, akin to Apple’s iCloud that comes with five free gigabytes of shared cloud storage… Read More

 

SoundCloud now has Google+ Sign-In and sharing

By Christian Zibreg on May 13, 2013

Nearly a year ago, the Internet giant rolled out Google+ Sign-In as a way to counter Facebook Connect, a feature web site owners predominantly tap to simplify the sign in and account creation process for their users.

The Google+ SDK for iOS was released shortly after, giving Apple’s registered iOS developers a set of tools and social plugins to write programs that are deeply integrated with the Google+ thing.

Although apps that support Google+ Sign-In are few and far between, at least relative to Facebook Connect-enabled mobile software, more and more developers are integrating Google+ features into their warez. The latest example: SoundCloud, an online audio distribution platform that today updated its iOS app with support for Google+ Sign-In and sharing… Read More

 

Google+ updated with photo filters, new profile design and more

By Cody Lee on Mar 25, 2013

Google has rolled out a significant update for its iOS Google+ client today. The app, which is now in version 4.3, received a number of improvements, including new photo editing features and redesigned profiles.

The new photo editing features are probably the most welcomed addition, and come courtesy of Google’s recently acquired Snapseed application. You can now add filters to, crop and rotate, your photos on the fly…

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Former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki accepts an advisory role at Google-owned Motorola

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 27, 2013

Guy Kawasaki, now a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and book author, was instrumental in marketing the Macintosh in 1984. A well-known blogger, Kawasaki just tweeted he has gone Android by accepting an advisory role at Google-owned Motorola which is said to be working on a mysterious iPhone contender tentatively code-named X Phone.

Kawasaki’s new advisory role with Motorola will see him focus on product design, user interface, marketing and social media. One of the first orders of business was to create a Google+ community about mobile devices, he confirmed… Read More

 

Google+ iOS apps land in 48 new countries and territories

By Cody Lee on Jan 18, 2013

Google’s social network may have gotten off to a rocky start, but through perseverance and a string of handsome mobile app updates, it’s managed to turn the service into a hit. As of last month, it had more than 500 million users, with 235 million being active.

And that number could see a small bump this weekend, as the search giant just announced that it has launched its two iOS Google+ apps in 48 new countries and territories this week, including Barbados and the Ukraine. We’ve got the full list after the fold… Read More

 

Google+ holiday treats: better photo experience, conversation cards, more fluid UI

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 14, 2012

With over a hundred million active users, Google+ is, as Eric Schmidt put it“a viable competitor to Facebook” and its nearly one billion users. This morning, the search firm is issuing new iOS and Android builds that enable a bunch of holiday treats. On the iOS side, you can now swipe through photo albums inline or tap once to see the photos full screen. New conversation cards are also available for highlighting specific content, from longer snippets to bigger photos to comments that slide in beneath each post… Read More

 

Google+ app now opens links in Chrome if you have it

By Cody Lee on Aug 16, 2012

Google updated its Google+ iOS client yesterday with just a handful of changes. There were some bug fixes, performance enhancements, and the age limit for creating hangouts was lowered to 13.

But perhaps the most interesting change in the client is the new Safari workaround. For those of you who have it installed on your device, Google+ can now open web links in Google’s Chrome browser… Read More

 

Google re-brands Places app as Google+ Local, adds features

By Christian Zibreg on Jul 2, 2012

Google’s been streamlining their confusing set of web services and mobile apps since Larry Page took over the reigns as CEO from Eric Schmidt last year. As part of this simplification of Google, the company just updated its Places app for iOS. It’s now re-christened as Google+ Local and comes with a few new interesting features, including voice search and Zagat reviews… Read More

 

Google+ SDK for iOS now available, Google confirms

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 29, 2012

Google’s social thing, Google+, may be lagging behind Facebook (250 million users versus Facebook’s nearly one billion globally), but the search Goliath has no intention of sitting on the sidelines.

Earlier this week, it announced that the official Google+ client would hit the iPad very soon and today the company took to the blogs to announce the official software development kit for iOS and Android.

Francis Ma, product manager with Google+, wrote in a blog post that Google+ platform for mobile is available beginning today in early developer preview… Read More

 

Native Google+ app coming soon to iPad

By Christian Zibreg on Jun 27, 2012

It looks just gorgeous on that Retina display, Google’s Vic Gundotra said, just announcing a brand new native Google+ client for iPad. It’s coming “very, very soon” to Apple’s tablet and it’s available now for Android devices…
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