Since the release of iOS 6, I’ve been looking for apps and services to get Google Maps functionality back on my iPhone and iPad. While not as integrated as the previous Maps app of iOS 5, I’ve settled on a combination of various tools to access Google Maps for those times when Apple Maps fail me (unfortunately, most of the time in my area). Read more
Posts tagged with "google"
Getting Google Maps Back On iOS 6
The Reality Check Of Google’s New YouTube App
In an unsurprising move considering Apple’s upcoming iOS 6 update, Google released an official YouTube app for iPhone last night. Announced on the YouTube blog, the app is available for free on the App Store, and it runs natively on the iPhone; according to The New York Times, an iPad version is also in the works.
I have taken the YouTube app for a spin, and I was quite impressed with what Google accomplished in this first version. While not excellent in terms of performances, the key to this first release of YouTube for iOS is access.
One of the most controversial aspects of the former, pre-installed YouTube client for iOS was that, as Google started monetizing the YouTube platform with “official” videos from channels like VEVO, the pre-installed iOS client couldn’t display such videos due to a lack of agreement between Apple and Google in regards to ads shown to the users. On the standard desktop YouTube website, users could watch, say, music videos from official channels because the company embedded banners or pre-roll ads to monetize; on iOS devices, official videos were omitted from search results, and links to these videos would return the infamous “this video is not available on mobile” error message. As Google goes free from Apple’s restrictions with standalone apps, this is about to change. Read more
The Rise Of Third Party Services And Fall Of Google In iOS
When Apple introduced iOS 6 to the world at this year’s WWDC, one of the most talked about moves was Apple’s decision to step away from their partnership with Google Maps and create their own maps app. In many respects, it wasn’t too surprising given the increasingly strenuous relationship between Apple and Google in the years since the iPhone launched and Google became a competitor with Android, but in recent weeks it was also revealed that YouTube will also no longer be included as a pre-installed app from iOS 6. That leaves Google Search as the only remaining Google service to be integrated into iOS. Yet whilst Apple has been severing its relationship with Google, it has been courting numerous other service providers and integrating them into iOS over the past few years.
Curious to visualise this information, I made a list of every notable service that has been integrated with iOS (and when) and then created the above graphic (click on it to view a larger version). When I had compiled the list, it was pretty compelling (and longer than I had realised), but I think the graphic takes it to the next level and really tells a story about iOS and Apple’s relationship with other services.
Safari 6.0 and Google Search URLs→
Safari 6.0 and Google Search URLs
Brent Simmons writes about the lack of URLs for Google searches in Safari 6.0:
I asked on Twitter. One way is to drag the magnifying glass into whatever text I’m editing. Another way would be a bookmarklet that gets the current page location. A third way would be an AppleScript script.
I ended up writing a Python script.
From my Mountain Lion review:
That said, there is one aspect to the new smart search field I don’t care for: it no longer displays Google Search URLs after you’ve used it to search for something. So if you want to share a direct link to a Google Search, you’ll need to copy it from the share sheet in either Messages or Mail.
In fiddling with Keyboard Maestro, I built a super-quick macro that grabs the URL of the frontmost Safari window through AppleScript. You can download the macro here, or check out the AppleScript itself if you want to create a system Service with Automator.
As pointed out by user @jaydisc on Twitter, some Apple apps on Mountain Lion can receive the copied search terms as clickable URLs in rich text format. In my tests, only Mail was able to receive search terms in RTF and, apparently, this is a known bug.
Google Acquires Sparrow
Sparrow, the email client for OS X, just announced they have been acquired by Google. The Sparrow team will join the Gmail team to “accomplish a bigger vision”. Since its release, Sparrow has quickly become one of the most popular mail clients on OS X and, more recently, on the iPhone as well.
From the Sparrow website:
We’re excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!
We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience.
Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.
According to the developers, while the product has been acquired by Google, it will continue to be available, and the team will still provide support for its users, at least for the time being.
After the release of the iPhone client, the Sparrow team publicly asked Apple to figure out a solution to let them implement push notifications, which Sparrow wanted to use through a different method than the one enforced by Apple. The Sparrow team stated push was coming with or without Apple, but then suggested push would be coming with a yearly subscription after Apple’s decision not to allow their implementation of push notifications.
Recently, Sparrow also announced they were working on an iPad application. However, in an email the team just sent to existing customers, they wrote:
as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps.
On the other hand, Google’s own Gmail app has always been heavily criticized (in spite of its improvements) for its performances and reliance on web views instead of “native” code in several interactions with navigation, message search, and more. In theory, the acquisition of Sparrow should hint at a major update to the official Gmail offerings for iOS coming in the future, although, obviously, the details are not clear at this point.
Interestingly enough, while Sparrow does have clients for both iPhone and OS X, Google has never offered an official Gmail application for the Mac. Similarly, one of the most prominent features of Sparrow is its ability to pull contacts’ profile pictures from Facebook, a kind of integration we assume would be going away in an hypothetical Google-owned version of Sparrow, replaced by Google+ support for avatars. Again, the same would apply for Dropbox and CloudApp, both of which are file sharing services supported by Sparrow; theoretically, Google would want to replace those features with Google Drive, their service for sharing and collaborating on documents online.
For a background on Sparrow, check out our latest coverage of the Mac client, our review of Sparrow for iPhone, and initial impressions with the Google Gmail app.
Update: A Google spokesperson has provided MacStories with a statement on Sparrow’s acquisition.
The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their email client. We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.
Google Drive for iOS Now Available
Following a series of announcements at its I/O 2012 event, Google formally introduced the official Drive app for iOS today. Available for free as a universal download for iPhone and iPad, the Google Drive app gives you access to all your documents and folders stored in your Google account, as well as the ones shared with you. Documents can be marked as starred to be easier to find, and made available offline through the details panel of an item view.
Complying with Apple’s terms for in-app purchases, the Google Drive app allows you to purchase additional storage using your iTunes account.
The Google Drive app for iOS doesn’t come with full editing capabilities – instead, Google is pushing the client as a way to “quickly and easily” find and view your files, pictures, and videos stored on Google’s servers. Files can be shared with collaborators from the app and, obviously, synced to desktop devices, but as far as editing capabilities go, it appears Google is only allowing users to forward documents to other installed iOS apps using the standard “Open In…” menu.
The app’s design is largely similar across the iPhone and iPad, relying on the tablet’s larger screen to display more panels at once and bigger media.
Google Drive for iOS is now available on the App Store.
Google+ Coming to iPad Soon→
Google+ Coming to iPad Soon
Drew Olanoff writing for The Next Web:
The app is absolutely gorgeous, and it definitely takes some cues from Flipboard’s approach to content display and digesting. I found that after using the app for a few minutes, navigating your way through all of Google+’s features was simple, and more importantly, natural. It’s a hybrid of Flipboard and Apple’s coverflow.
I’m not a Google+ user, but the new social features found in the Android and iPad versions look to imaginative, and in some cases, quite clever. Google+ Hangouts is built in, so you can chat with groups of family and friends — similar to FaceTime. Commenting looks easy, pictures are laid out like magazine images, and Google has seems to have managed to retain a modern and friendly interface that doesn’t feel abstract or robotic. You’ll want to check out The Next Web for more images and hands-on with the tablet app.
Google Launches Complete Redesign of Search iPhone App
Today, Google launched a major redesign of its official Search app for iPhone, which reaches version 2.0 and is now available on the App Store.
Inspired by the iPad update that was released last year, the new Google Search app for iPhone brings a completely redesigned start screen with options to sign in, search, and access Google apps. A shortcut for settings is available at the top alongside an icon to switch between search results and the search field at any time.
Searches can be performed by typing, or through two new shortcuts for voice and Goggles. These functionalities were already in place, but Google says they are now faster and more accessible thanks to the new interface. Similarly, the standard search results have gone through a major overhaul as well: as you scroll, controls are hidden and results are displayed in full-screen; like on the iPad, results open in a separate panel that you can dismiss at any time with a a single swipe. You can share results via email, open a webpage in Safari, and even search for specific text inside a page. Along the bottom, new tabs for Images, Places, News, and more allow you to easily switch between different types of Google results.
Furthermore, Google has redesigned image results to be displayed in full-screen, and a new Apps tab in the main screen allows you to load Google apps “on the web” or “from your iPhone”. As a side note, the app has also received a slightly redesigned icon, and both the iPhone and iPad version of Search can now save images to the Camera Roll.
Google Search 2.0 is now available on the App Store.
Google Officially Launches Google Drive
Rumored for years, Google has today officially taken the wraps off Google Drive, the company’s new solution to store, share, and collaborate on documents and files in the cloud. Available at drive.google.com, Google Drive allows users to open more than 30 file types (including video, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop) directly in the browser even without desktop apps installed; Drive is connected to Google Docs for document editing and collaborative features, albeit Docs storage doesn’t count against Drive’s storage limits.
Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.
With a promised 99.9% uptime guarantee from Google, Drive starts for free at 5 GB of storage:
You can get started with 5GB of storage for free—that’s enough to store the high-res photos of your trip to the Mt. Everest, scanned copies of your grandparents’ love letters or a career’s worth of business proposals, and still have space for the novel you’re working on. You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.
Among the Drive features touted by Google, the company announced the service will support OCR (optical character recognition) for scanned documents, image recognition for uploaded pictures (for instance, you’ll be able to search for “Eiffel Tower” and have Drive find a picture of it in your files), and search. As with most Google products, great focus has been put on the search functionality, which will allow users to look for file names, content, activity, and owner information in the Drive accounts. Furthermore, Google says they have worked with a number of third-party developers to enable Drive integration with various online service starting today; similarly, Google Drive will work with other Google apps and services such as Google+ and Gmail to easily share files or attach documents to email messages.
The official Google Drive app for Android has gone live on Google Play, and the company says they are also “working hard” on a Drive app for iOS devices. ReadWriteWeb was provided with screenshots of the Drive iOS app directly from Google.
Check our more links, details, videos, and our first impressions with Google Drive after the break. Read more