Ellis Hamburger and Dieter Bohn have published an in-depth feature story on the newly launched Hangouts over at The Verge. Make sure to watch the video.

A detail that struck as a great feature was, surprisingly, related to Google+ and photos:

The service’s Google+ integration is one of the best features in the entire product: every photo that you or a friend posts is automatically saved in a private, shared album on Google+. For example, after a year of using Hangouts, it will be easy not just to trace the text conversations your budding relationship has produced, but to track the photos you’ve shared over time.

I have been using iMessage with the MacStories team since the service first launched; it used to be the only communication tool we relied upon to stay in touch. We have shared thousands of screenshots and photos in a group thread, but Messages makes it nearly impossible to browse old attachments. You can retrieve attachments through the OS X Finder, but the process is cumbersome at best. Having Google automatically archive Hangouts photos and organize them in a private album shared with my coworkers sounds obvious and, for someone who relies on a group chat on a daily basis, incredibly useful. This would be a great addition to iCloud and Photo Stream with iOS 7.

After logging into your Google account, you can upload your own personal collection of EPUBs and PDFs under My Books in the Google Play Store, or choose files to include in your uploads from Google Drive. Through the newly updated Google Play Books app on iOS, you can then download the added files to your mobile device.

Drew Olanoff, writing about Google’s Breakout easter egg:

The game’s introduction was 37 years ago today, in 1976. Google decided to commemorate the occasion with a little easter egg in image search that will suck all of your free time from you. It’s good to see Google doing these kinds of things away from their normal doodle, especially since a lot of their users might not remember Breakout.

You can also play it on the iPad. I tried with Google Chrome, but Safari had much faster, smoother scrolling (I guess because of Nitro). Alas, I couldn’t find a way to get an iPhone-optimized version.

Talking about Google, A Google representative has confirmed to TechCrunch that iPhone owners will in fact be able to use text messaging and navigation features with Glass. The representative noted that Glass will work independently of the device it’s connected to, and it’s an affirmation of a statement made by Google earlier in the year. Currently, Glass wearers can only use the full set of features with an Android smartphone with the MyGlass companion app.

Frederic Lardinois makes clear that Glass doesn’t have its own connection to the Internet to use such features, but will rather tether off of your smartphone to access data and pull in relevant information.

In this context, it’s worth noting that one of the myths surrounding Glass is that it is independently connected to the Internet. That’s not true, however. Instead, Glass users need to have a tethering plan for their phones to connect Glass to the Internet. In the eyes of your wireless provider, Glass is just another device that uses your phone’s personal hotspot feature.

Also keep in mind that at least on iOS, text messaging won’t work with Apple’s iMessage service. Instead, Glass will likely integrate with Google’s rumored messaging service, Babel.