Google last night issued a minor but welcomed update to its free Google Maps for iOS app. In addition to some bug fixes, version 3.1 now offers "smoother, faster transitions when you move through Street View."
The latest update arrives two weeks after the Internet giant issued a major 3.0 update, bringing the much-needed offline mode to Google Maps in addition to lane guidance, Uber integration, Voice Search, pins and more...
It seems like every couple of weeks, a new study comes out telling us who the most valuable brand in the world is based on various metrics. The winner changes from time to time, but I'd guess more times than not in recent years, it's been Apple.
That's not that case, however in the latest study. Marketing research firm Millward Brown is out with its annual BrandZ study this morning, and after sitting at the top for 3 years in a row, the iPad-maker has been usurped by Google for the #1 spot...
Google today announced new photography and video features for its Google+ social thing.
Available later this week on Android and the web and coming soon to iOS, Google+ Stories and Google+ Movies offer digital travelogues and movies created automatically from your Google+ photos and videos and location data.
The feature is basically on auto-pilot.
Google is constantly analyzing the photos and videos you upload to Google+, along with the places you’ve visited. It then automatically uses your best and most popular media to create full-screen presentations...
After years of being embroiled in a number of lawsuits, on multiple continents, Apple and Google have announced that they have reached a settlement regarding patent litigation.
The two companies have agreed to dismiss all current lawsuits between Apple and Google's former Motorola Mobility unit, and have even said they'll work together on patent reform...
Google has just purchased Quest Visual for an undisclosed price. The startup is behind the innovative Word Lens application which Apple recently highlighted in its 'Powerful' Phone 5s ad. The deal was confirmed in the startup's blog post.
The team has decided to make both the Word Lens app and the additional language packs free to download for a limited time, "while we transition to Google". If you haven't tried out Word Lens yet, you should do so right now, while it's still available.
The remarkable software taps Quest Visual's technology to detect text in a live video feed coming from your iPhone's camera. It then replaces foreign language words and sentences with an appropriate translation - matching fonts and graphics, in real time!
Google today released an update for its popular Google Search app. The update brings the iOS client to version 4.0, and includes a number of improvements to the Google Now feature such as support for smarter conversations and faster load times.
With smarter conversations, users can now ask follow-up questions to their originally search queries. So for example, if you ask Google Now what the weather is like, you can follow that up with: 'what about tomorrow?' or 'how about this weekend?'
Google's official Play Music app for iOS, in case you didn't know, is an iPhone and iPod touch only affair as the software does not support iPads natively. That could change soon because hidden inside the code of the iPhone app, a free download in the App Store, is a native iPad interface. This indicates Google may be putting finishing touches on the universal binary which will take advantage of the iPad's bigger canvas...
Fans of Google Chrome who run the browser's Canary edition can now associate local files with Chrome apps, right in their Mac's Finder. What this does is it lets you open local documents using Chrome apps that run in the browser. This is quite handy if you've long gone Google and depend on various web apps. Chrome's Canary build is aimed at early adopters who are willing to experiment with upcoming new features. But don't worry, Canary won't mess up your existing Chrome settings...
The Internet giant Google today refreshed its native Maps iOS app with a handful of stuff, including lane guidance in turn-by-turn navigation, Uber integration, Voice Search and more.
A major update, Google Maps 3.0 - available free of charge in the App Store - now allows you to save maps so you can access them without an Internet connection, a major advantage over Apple's built-in Maps.
While you could previously save maps by typing 'ok maps' into the search field, version 3.0 takes this further by providing a proper menu item for the feature and syncing your saved maps across devices. There's lots more to get excited about this Google Maps release so jump past the fold and have a look yourself...
According to a new report from The Washington Post tonight, Apple will join Google and other high-profile companies in updating their privacy policy to routinely notify users when a government or law enforcement agency requests information on them.
The move should appease user privacy rights activists, who believe it's unlawful for a government agency to have the power to access user data so discretely. The Justice Department, however, is concerned that the new routine could threaten investigations...
Google's frontend iPhone and iPad app for its Drive cloud-storage service has received a much-needed passcode lock feature in an update this morning.
If your productivity depends on the Google cloud and you store your documents, presentations and spreadsheets in Google Drive, a thief was able to access all your files simply by launching the Drive app on a stolen device.
Fortunately enough, this won't be possible going forward as Google Drive 3.0 is now live in the App Store with a handy new passcode feature...
Google has launched a pair of new productivity apps for iOS this morning: Google Docs and Google Sheets. For those unfamiliar with the two apps, they're front-end clients for the company's web-based word processor and spreadsheet editor.
The move follows the release of Microsoft Office for iPad last month, and Apple's move to make its iWork apps free late last year. Can Google's business software suite compete in this space? Keep reading for an overview and more screenshots...