In line with its announcement last week, Google has updated its Chrome browser for iOS this afternoon, bringing the app to version 31.0.1650.18. The update includes several bug fixes, and a couple of handy new features.
The headlining new feature is called synced autofill, and it will auto-complete forms on the web that you’ve previously filled out while logged in under the same Google account. And there's also a new long-press function...
The Internet giant Google today moved closer to consolidating its digital magazine offerings by merging magazines and newspapers along with the Currents app into a new software, known as Google Play Newsstand (seriously?). Google Currents functionality has now been folded into Newsstand, now available for download on Android devices via the Play store.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed that an iOS version is coming in 2014. In addition to subscriptions to digital magazines like Hearst, Conde Nast and Time Warner’s Time Inc. sold through Google Play Magazine, the company has now started selling newspaper subscriptions, with The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times and Los Angeles Times acting as premium launch partners, among other publications.
Apple of course has its own digital store for magazines and newspapers in the stock Newsstand app on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices so it'll be interesting seeing how Google's latest endeavor plays out in the greater scheme of things...
Google's nefarious overriding of both desktop and iOS Safari users' privacy settings in order to better track their web browsing activity backfired after the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April 2012 took a long, hard look at the practice and decided to fine the search giant.
Google has previously agreed to pay $22.5 million fine to the government, with a judge approving the record-setting penalty. And now, the Internet giant will pay 37 U.S. states a cool $17 million to settle the Safari probe case...
Nearly 6 months after announcing that it would be coming in 'a few weeks,' Google has finally launched an official Google Play Music app for iPhone. The software allows you to use both Google's All Access and standard music services.
All Access is similar to Spotify and other like-services, allowing users to listen to unlimited songs and create custom radio stations. And the standard service lets you upload 20,000 of your own songs to the cloud for playback anywhere...
Chrome users will be happy to hear that Google has announced that it's adding the autofill feature from its desktop and Android app to the iOS client today, making it much easier to fill out online forms.
And the feature will of course sync information with your Google account. So as long as you're logged in on your iOS device, you will be able to auto-complete forms that you've already filled out elsewhere...
Boom, Google has just updated its Gmail app for the iPhone and iPad with additional iOS 7-specific user interface tweaks and a brand new iPad full-screen view for the message compose sheet and message list in portrait. You're also going to dig a slimmed down navigation bar in landscape which you can use to quickly switch between inboxes and accounts. Finally, Google says the updated software now includes "better scrolling" experience...
Google Music launched back in November 2011 with a music store, Google+ integration, artist hubs, carrier billing and initial support from Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony Music Entertainment, along with other smaller labels. Fast-forward two years and we still don't have a native iOS app.
Google in its typical fashion has tried to appease its disgruntled Apple audience with a Google Music iOS web app.
Alas, nobody cared!
The search Goliath later promised to bring a native app and a report recently claimed it would launch later this month. Today, a prominent leaker has corroborated that the native Google Music iOS app is indeed due by the end of the month...
YouTube Capture, Google's dedicated iPhone and iPad app for recording and sharing video on YouTube, appears to have been on the back burner for a while because the last major update dates back to early-summer 2013, when the program gained support for YouTube accounts with multiple channels.
Meanwhile, Google posted a new version of the Hangouts app and added multi-account support to the Drive app.
With that off its back, the Internet giant's attention now turns to YouTube Capture. Apart from the flattened icon, version 2.0 finally allows users to pause and resume their recordings. That's just scratching the surface though as the app now lets you combine and rearrange clips and even add a soundtrack.
Jump past the fold for the full reveal...
I clearly remember September 2008 when the HTC G1 debuted in partnership with Google and T-Mobile. Google's first usable Android-driven handset arrived some fifteen months after the iPhone had gone on sale in June 2007 and tech die-hards were startled that it didn't incorporate the pinch-zoom gesture.
Android would be deployed across lots more handsets before eventually implementing not only pinch-zooming, but other familiar iPhone features as well. There was an unconfirmed rumor at the time that Google removed multitouch gestures from initial Android builds at Apple's request.
In all honesty, the notion seemed a bit crazy. Why would Google take the iPhone head on and yet cave in to Apple's demands? According to a new 272-page book titled Dogfight: How Apple And Google Went To War And Started a Revolution by Fred Vogelstein, Apple's then CEO Steve Jobs imposed that choice on Google's Android head Andy Rubin by sheer willpower...
Despite all of the user complaints and negative PR Apple encountered when it replaced Google Maps with its own in-house software in iOS 6 last year, the app has turned out to be quite a hit with US iPhone and iPad users.
According to research data from comScore, more than 35 million US iPhone owners used Apple's Maps app in September 2013. That's significantly more than the 6 million or so that used Google's standalone iOS Maps app...
Google posted a significant update for its Hangouts app yesterday, bringing the Android client to version 2.0. The update included several new features like SMS and MMS support, animated GIFs, and one-tap location sharing.
The good news is that the tech giant didn't forget about iPhone and iPad users, and posted a new version of its iOS client as well. The bad news is that it's not half the update that Android users got, with just a handful of changes...
In terms of feature additions, it's been a quiet period for the Google Drive iOS app after a major visual makeover two months ago brought the software in line with its Android counterpart. But the team hasn't been standing still. In a small but sweet update Thursday, the app has finally gained a much requested new feature - support for multiple Google Accounts - as well as the ability to print your documents wirelessly via either Apple's AirPrint or Google's Cloud Print protocol.
Jump past the fold for additional tidbits...